The average ALV system-wide last July and August was 81:23. Assuming that you are staffing to the high flying months, unless you use the highest ALV you can in those months, you are forced to carry additional pilots (Regular Pilots Required = Total block, credit, and planned absence / ALV), and there goes a good amount of your productivity gain.

In the meantime, if you decrease the ALV with a given amount of flying, that means you get more (not fewer) regular line holders and fewer (not more) reserves. A reserve pilot can theoretically be assigned to ALV + 15, but only if he has not exceeded his reserve guarantee.

The bottom line is that low ALVs are an indicator of position staffing relative to the amount of flying in that position -- nothing more. To the extent that a position is "correctly" staffed (from the Company's point of view), you will see the highest ALVs in the heaviest months, and vice versa.

 

Bohol, Cebu, or my favorite, Borocay. Planning a trip to Bohol now. Cheap, nice people, beautiful beaches, good snorkling.

NRT to MNL, spend the night, get up in the morning and take PIA-Express or Cebu-Pac to the closest island airport. Coming back you can go through NGO if NRT not looking so good. Inter-Island, pack light. The local airlies have gone all "Ryan Air" and charge nearly nothing for your ticket (think my last ticket was $8 with a $95 bag fee, it's nonsensical, but that's the PI's, the land of not quite right, but fun)

Some of our customers have VISA issues because we hub in NRT. It usually knocks few passengers off the airplane, making for better Non Rev opportunities than what it looks like.

 

Humbolt,
Took the family of 5 to Palau last spring break and we had a blast. We stayed at the crew hotel PPR (actually the only "resort" that I saw on the islands) and I thought they charged fair, around $250 a night with taxes and fees etc plus food. We did three dive days and my wife and son did two snorkel/kayak tour days and they had a blast on their trips, saw lots of stuff with snorkel that we saw diving.
Don't know if you have kids or not, but they also had a dolphin interactive area that was fun as you could swim with the dolphin etc and it was very inexpensive for airline id'd people. (kids loved it).
Now if you wanted to save more money, the hotel up the hill from the PPR had access to all of PPR's beach and amenities but was much more hotelish and less resortish, and I believe their rooms were about 1/2 price compared to PPR. We actually ate dinner up there one night as they had a Korean BBQ dinner buffet that was awesome for $20 a head with everything included.
It depends on what you want to see with snorkeling, as Guam will have clear water usually, but much less life to see. On that trip we ZED'd back from Palau to Guam and stayed on the Navy base for 3 days and did some diving there too.
I've snorkled/dove all over Hawaii, parts of Guam, and Palau and for seeing very interesting and unique things in the ocean, Palau wins hands down.
BTW all the locals speak english and currency is US$, no visa needed.
LUV

 

Lastly,
I found Palau to be just the right amount of "exotic" but if your looking for lots of beaches, it's only has a few and the PPR has one of the best ones. You could snorkel right off the beach and there are some of those giant clams you only see on TV in about 12ft of water out off the shore, even the snorkeling from the beach at PPR was interesting. On one of the dive trips (sam's dive was awesome and flexible by the way) we had lunch where they filmed one of the original survivors shows, now a picnic lean-to.

 

For all you NYC commuters, the Airtrain is down for at least another week at the airport. You have to take a shuttle bus to Federal Circle. Just took my youngest daughter to see Motown last night great show! Berry Gordy wrote and produced it.

 

Saipan (Japans cheap man's Hawaii) is a good cheap vacation but far away. Our crew hotel gives us good discounts on food and board. The golf is relatively cheap and you have a plethora of massage options to relax you.

The hotel is a Hyatt Regency on the beach, the food is very good and affordable (Seafood Buffett, Sushi, steaks etc). There are historical tours you can take and rent scooters for cheap with your Delta ID.

With that it mind, an all inclusive resort in Mexico or Caribbean is also very good. It is easier to get to and easier to get out.

TEN

 

I was given a room at the JFK Hampton and took the hour-long bus-to-Federal Circle-to-hotel shuttle this week during the snowstorm. It was a cross between "Slumdog Millionaire," and "Frozen."

And then when I checked in I was told, "Oh, you didn't have to do all that. We pick up crewmembers at the terminal"

 

My wife and I did 2 weeks in Borocay and took Cebu out of Manilla. Had the same circumstance as you did. Paid way more for 2 rollerboards than the actual ticket. Supposedly if you pay the online bag fee when booking the ticket, it is a lot cheaper than paying for the bag at the airport. We also got ripped off when we landed since we didn't know about taking the tuk tuk to the docks and paying separately for the ferry over to Borocay. We paid some guy a fixed cost to take us from the airport to the hotel. Was about 5 times the cost of buying all the transfers separately. We did it the right way on the way back. Also for those of you who want to go through Manilla, give yourselves plenty of time. Takes forever to get to the gate. The loads when we went were 30 up front and -55 in coach. Don't be discouraged. Lots of no shows there. All non revs got on.

 

Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia

 

My wife and i went to Palau on DAL's second flight in there and it is still the best snorkeling / diving I have seen. Very large amount of sea life and sunken world war 2 relics and such. Also don't miss jellyfish lake. Millions of jellyfish that can't sting anymore caught in saltwater lake and you swim through them. Google it. One of the craziest places.

As far as accommodations, we rented a 1 bedroom apartment their on the island complete with kitchen and all for about $60 a night (even included a hot cooked to order breakfast every morning). Also rented a car as there are some great out of the way hikes and swims on the less populated areas of the island. Went with Sam's tours as well, good outfit! I will definitely go back again.