You seem to be dismissing IVDs a bit too easily. They are one of the greatest improvements to the contract I've seen. Without going into details that only matter to me, I've used IVD's a couple of times to take days from a "throwaway" week of QVAC in January, and instead use them in far more important times of the year.

IVDs are yet one more optional tool available to us to make our lives just a bit better. I love them.

I can’t tell you how many pilots I have flown with who don’t even know what a IVD is. They have been very good to me when I needed time off. I also find many are unaware they can cover any PD from their vacation bank often losing GS pay as a result.

July ALVs were 83ish. That means some people were awarded up to 90ish hours. With 5 day trips especially, PDs would not be granted unless it’s M-F. The M-F trip is probably not one many would try to drop. The real problem is the lengthening of domestic trips to eliminate 1-2 days and diminish the quality of 3 days. That combined with tight staffing means you are stuck with your initial award. The one time fixes (APD or IVD) give you very limited usefulness in rearranging a schedule but are great for just unpaid time off. They are not vacation and don’t come with hours of pay.

Our system is making us fly more with less ability to adjust particularly during the summer. These are facts. I think the readers understand the vector we are on with regard to scheduling. I hope to change that. If you don’t, fine. More money doesn’t solve my problem of being overworked during the months I prefer to be off more.

I agree wholeheartedly. We need more IVD’s and/or more than 2 times to use them.

Denny

They are great for time off but light on credit for the trip dropped and not good for credit average when trying to rework a schedule. As you stated, when the undesirable vacation week is left as a partial week it is low for line construction also. Not a huge deal but not great either.

Gonna put this out there as a public service announcement. This usage of an IVD is only effective when bidding reserve.

By strategically using a 1 day IVD from a vacation, you can increase your total days off by one day. Here is how. Take this August for example. I have a week of primary vacation. If I bid reserve with 7 days of vacation, I get 9 X days. If I used a one day IVD from that vacation in a different month I now have 6 days of vacation in August but, wait for it.......I now get 10 X days. Either way same total days off in August but an extra day off overall.... This doesn’t work every month but y’all get the idea......

Maybe you use that IVD and drop it right in the middle of a group of on call days and Voila! you now have a bunch of on call days that make it harder for CS to use you.

Denny

I disagree. It depends on your seniority. I am jr in category and I can’t get summer vacation nor do I get the best schedules. So I use my APD and IVDs to create summer vacations where they did not exist. I will create the time off I need then WS on my other off days. So far this summer through the creative use of these and the open board I have gone from being awarded schedules working almost every weekend to having most my weekends of and creating some vacation windows.
It does take effort to make it happen but knowing the rules as a jr guy is a definite must for QOL.

So why are you telling all the senior guys?! :D

I am shocked at how many pilots I fly with are completely unaware of IVDs. If you’re a line holder, it allows you to drop two additional trips with the same coverage rules as an APD. I think it’s great. I buy 4 extra days of vacation every year to solely use as IVDs.

How do you buy vacation days? Don't you have to earn a payback day first and then use that? That seems difficult to do.