So, you're comparing only 76-seat jobs (not net DCI jobs) to net mainline (not 717) jobs? That seems fair -- NOT!!

C2012 gave us more 717s than DCI got 76-seaters, and DCI had to park waaaay more 50-seaters than they got 76-seaters.

Bottom line is that we netted an increase in Captains while DCI netted a decrease.

2. 219 I'll go with that number.... plus how many new captains due to retirements, that will come out of the 700 (Sailing meant to say "first time captains" not "new captains"... There is a distinct difference.

3. LSU sucks. WDE.

The Sep 9 AE has conversions through Mar 15. One more AE after the current could still have pilots in position for summer 15 flying :cool:

There is no limit as to where you can slide your vacation, as long as you are senior enough to 'hold' the slide you are asking for. Every year since the Slide was enacted, I have been able to slide my vacations over both Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Years.

As the bids are run, a stack of unwanted trips will develop over those holidays. If you are about half way up regular lines in your category, you should be able to slide over the holidays. I. e. if you could hold the holiday off in a regular bid, you should also be able to slide your vacation over it. Or if you really want some more time off and you are senior enough, you could slide your vacation to a few days before/after the holiday, then bid (and hold) the holiday off too. (and then green slip over the holiday:eek::rolleyes:)

But if you are JUNIOR in your category, and you cannot hold it off, or you would have been 'unstacked' into a trip over the holiday, it won't let you slide your vacation over that holiday, as the stack is getting too high at that point and everyone remaining is going to get 'unstacked' into a trip over the holiday.

Bottom line; "It Depends". Mostly on how senior you are in category, and how your category is staffed. Call the Bid Assist guys and they can give you more gouge on vacation slide and trying to avoid working on T-Day or X-Mas.

Pardon my laziness ...

What is the window for bidding vacation slides?

Pardon my laziness as well...

Can you slide a vacation that starts in one month and carries to another?

You bid your slide in the same month you have vacation, as part of your normal line bid. Look up at the top of the PBS bidding page, there is a drop box called "Condition". Click on that and there are several selections, one of which is 'slide vacation' then you put in the number of days (+ means later in month, - means earlier in month) that you want to slide it, you can even put in a range of days, like "10 to 5" days, so if it can't do all 10, it will try to slide it 9, then 8.

I'm not sure about that, call the bid assist guys and ask, or call the DL MEC and ask for a scheduling guy.

I do know that if 100% of your vacation is in one month, you cannot slide it partially into a later month.

Yes, that number is in the 770 range if you count those who left and the new Captains added. But if you do that then eventually, two decades or so but hopefully less, we can say C2012 caused 12,000 new Captains.

Our O-line needs to get it's act together or we might be mad Saturday night. WCE.

Sort of. Several months ago more improvements were added to PBS. For vacations that start in one month and carry over, you can slide the portion of the vacation that is in the current month only.

Then, a month later when bidding again, if you so wished, you could then slide the remaining days in the second month to wherever you wished.

I hate to give out this advice, because the word will spread...but oh well.

Use one week of vacation bidding to bid a June/July spillover vacation, or Nov/Dec--or both. Then buy days from your vacation bank in March (you can buy up to 10 days). Append these days on either side of your vacations, slide as necessary, and voila, you have a June and July vacation for the price of one bid, and you have a Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation for the price of one bid week.

Pretty slick eh? Your (DALPA) PBS committee has spent years tweaking and improving the system. Some of this takes contractual language to boot, but the bottom line is that our bidding options keep getting better and better.