I agree desiring more time off, although a little different conclusion. If vacation value was 5:15, that would be 14 additional hours toward your monthly schedule which would allow 2-3 more days off in a vacation month and still be in the LCW.

 

Why does anybody bid a regular line in a vacation month?

 

I do because I commute. Long call would be difficult from home.

Back to the topic, even reserves would work less days if a vacation week was worth 14 more hours.

 

How do ya figure that? The value of a vacation day has nothing to do with the number of work days in a vacation month, hence my original question. If you guys do not understand the vacation payout and why bidding reserve in a vacation month is a better deal, you really need to read the contract. Not aimed at you Schwanker, but I hear this question a lot. Here's an example: I had only 5 days vacation in a month that the ALV was 80.45. Care to guess what my reserve payout would be and how many X days I had?

 

Some of us live so far away from our 'base' that sitting short call, or even reporting for a next day trip, is about impossible without a jumpseat already booked 7 days in advance. Never mind the hassles of flying the crappiest trips that get sicked out of the most.

If I lived in base, I would probably alternate reserve/regular months, and stack up all my regular line trips in the second half of the month, then bid my on call days in the first half of the next month, so they couldn't use me much, then put in a GS for the X days at the end of the month. I've seen many guys using this alternating mo. strategy getting lots of G/S's.

What we NEED is, up the pay for both Vacation Days and Training Days, to the same as the daily minimum, which I think should be increased from 5:15 to 6:00. That way, flying four 3 day trips would get you at least 72hrs./mo.

 

I took the numbers exactly from DALPA comparison. Exactly.

 

Then you also saw the part that says JB has a Paid Time Off Bank PTO. PTO is used for vacation, sick or injury and personal days. Whole different ball of wax. OFG

 

Our vacation time is woefully inadequate. The per day credit needs to increase significantly. Neither of those things means we have to do away with knowing when we will have time off. The value of a vacation day needs to go up. A lot.

 

Typically a reserve with a week vacation gets a net 4 extra days off. That's way too low.

 

I live farther from my base than you do, and my category has a lot more diverse flying than yours. You have alternatives to get to ATL out the wazoo. Reserve is no big deal. Bidding a regular line in a vacation month is throwing easy money and time off out the window. Work smarter, not harder.