Good point, but to get everyone to agree to make improved vacation a priority, doesn't there need to be some "more-money only" option for the "make as much as you can" crowd that seems to be very prevalent. I always thought more credit for vacation days, and more days as a high priority was an easy kill, but apparently a lot of folks disagree with that.

Pay seems to follow the industry (excluding cargo) pretty closely. How about we just remove it from the surveys altogether, accept industry-standard compensation, and negotiate for important items that are not so industry-normalized?

We're told that pay was at the top of our list, and yet we aren't industry-leading in all categories DESPITE the company saying that's even what THEY wanted too!

I used to be against selling vacation. Now, because of our vacation weeks available I wouldn't mind selling my FEB vacation. I can't hold JUN JUL or AUG anymore because so few weeks are available. Every year I get JAN or FEB at least 1 week. Either being allowed to WS GS over that week or just liquidating it would be fine with me.

Or better yet, increase the number of weeks available when people normally take vacations.

Sweet Christ.

No selling vacation. Every week I'm reading an email about somebody dying before getting a chance to retire.

The harder you work, the sooner you die.

Dude! Use those feb/jan weeks to fuel your new IVD and force the co to give you your vacation in the summer! Four days vacation drops up to 2 trips- I'll be dropping my biggest POS 4 & 5 days in July & Aug & letting the co choke on the greenslips they'll have to cover them with. That new perk will be very costly to the co if the Jan-Mar vaca holders use it correctly.

How does that work? What are the coverage requirements in order to be approved?

Let's eliminate all pickup caps for the crowd that wants money also. If we work this right we can eliminate several years of hiring!

They need APD coverage, which is 25% of reserve's required.

From a Negotiator's Notepad:

Individual Vacation Days
With the tight staffing that has existed at Delta in the recent past, it has become increasingly difficult for pilots to get certain days off if they are unable to successfully bid for them. Many times, staffing is such that a personal drop is not permitted, and under our current PWA, a pilot is only permitted to use an authorized personal drop (APD) once per year.

In this TA, we introduce a new concept created to provide added schedule flexibility, individual vacation days (IVDs). IVDs are a total of four vacation days from a future vacation period (i.e., a vacation period that has not had the PBS bid package for that bid period published in DBMS) that can be used all together or split into two separate IVD periods (3/1 or 2/2) each vacation year. The rules related to awarding of IVDs are identical to those for APDs but will be awarded prior to APDs. If a pilot were to choose to use his IVDs to drop a trip, he will receive vacation pay for each IVD just like he would have had he taken those vacation days with his regular vacation period.

Aeromexico is launching mex-dtw in April. We are not losing our dtw-mex flight, this is an addition to the route. Hey, if we don't lose ours and it brings more passengers to connect on our planes I'm cool with it, but I want to see it both ways. With the auto industry we need dtw-gdl on delta metal

We can already do that with PDs and APDs . The problem is you "spend" your vacation hours covering a drop and still have to take the vacation with no pay in FEB. I don't want to work more, just at different times. Work a 85 hour month in FEB and a 75 hour month in JUL.

Both ways result in increased staffing. The vacation available needs to increase in the summer. That would also help the company with predictability. My summer family vacation has been via APD on a long international trip the last few years. freeing up 2 weeks minimum. Had there been the same number of weeks available as FEB (or even half) and I could hold that week there would be no need. The way it is now 5 week per Sunday start date in the summer and 25 in the winter.

Vacation time can be used to cover the lost time from PDs and APDs. Ref. 23.I.15.a.