RT1Spitfire

Thanks for the advice... this is exactly what I needed. To be specific, I want the biggest paycheck possible for the March bid month and I only want to protect 5 of my 7 days of vacation (25-29 Mar). I’m okay with using vacation bank to add to my paycheck - I don’t need to save CH for later.

Since the company will pay 42 CH (in my situation) on a secondary line, would it then make sense for me to reduce my vacation footprint to 1 day (27 Mar) and leave the vacation buffers in place (do not waive them) to protect my 5 day week off, and then fly as much as realistically possible the rest of the month?

All assuming I can add OT trips to whatever the planners build for the rest of my month. Thanks again!

Check6Viper

Your max buyback this year is probably 36 hours, correct? If so, you probably want to draw at least 6 hours.

Are you on first year pay? If you are getting a big raise between now and the end of the year it might be better to sell back the hours at the end of the year rather than get paid for them now.

Adlerdriver

All of what you propose is possible. It really just depends on your goals. If you want max $$ now, that means getting paid for those vacation hours at a lower rate than cashing out at year end.
Squeezing as much money out of March would mean requesting max vacation hours to be applied to your secondary (so, 72 CH). You have 42 guaranteed, but why not ask for the max? All they can do is say "no". Put max BLG on your secondary request and get another 6-10 CH in trips on top of the 72 vacation hours. Shrink your footprint as you mentioned and leave max days available to do make-up or volunteer during the month. There's no restriction to what you add to your month on top of your initially published secondary (vacation+trips). You just need to have make-up hours or get lucky with volunteer requests.

Finally, when open time opens, trade your 6-10 hour trip you got as part of your secondary (assuming they honor your max BLG input) for 3 hub turns and grab the 12CH increase you're allowed to gain via trip trading. Just remember, that 12 CH difference is only available if you're trading trips that were part of your original line. If you pick up a M/U trip and end up trading that for a bigger trip(s), the extra hours come out of your M/U bank.

RT1Spitfire

I’m on year 2 pay, but I forgot about the pay raise later in the year (for purposes of selling back at EOY). I’ll likely try to max out the vacation hours now, as suggested, and try to trade up / pick up as many vol hours as possible - thanks for all the insight. Much appreciated!!

kronan

1st- if you are on FB and a member of Jetflyers, search out a post by Capt J’son B...several months ago he posted an awesome rundown on various vacation issues/misconceptions.

2nd A regular line will give you the most control. You can Expand up to be paid for up to 48 hours of trips with your 7 days of Vacation while retaining the same vacation footprint (red bar of death that will block any notional extra trips)

For what you’ve said you’d like to do, especially if you’re say 85’sh in your seat, is bid VTO (look at February VTO awardees similar to your Seniority to see what they wound up with)
Then you can request to use 30 CHs, meaning 12 CHs would be sold back at Dec 31 payrate of an extra 4% (and maybe yr 3 for you)

Even if that’s not approved, you can still reduce your VTO vacation footprint to free up days to hopefully get the extra flying you hope for.
2 step process, hours use comes directly after the bid closes...footprint during the SWW window.

If you’re at the bottom of the Seniority pool, Vacation is your best bet (as if often is, especially if you live in Domicile)
You can choose to Extend, reducing the number of R days you owe for the month. Or keep your Vacation days at 7, using 32’sh Vacation hours/selling back 10....and you start the month with 32’sh hours of leveling

Reserve Line doesn’t have to touch a single R day. Reserve line is reconstructed to whatever level of R days you ‘owe’ da Man

kronan

Whichever way you guys go, play with sliding left/right, Expanding/extending once the bid closes.

Bid Period Processing Summary will provide you with a graphical representation to see if you’ve done what you actually think you have with the various options (to include waiving buffers in the Rsv/Vto process)

pinseeker

What I find amazing is how many pilots sell back vacation. Our vacation flexibility is one of the best pieces of our contract, yet pilots use that flexibility to sell it back. Yes, that is one of the options in our contract, just like many other items that allow us to work more.

Ironically, I hear many pilots talk about how much vacation they sold back, then complain about pilots working until 65.

Adlerdriver

Question 1 - Am I reading this correctly? If you request to use extra vacation in March of 2019, you get it paid at the same pay rate that will be available on 31 Dec 2019? So, no penalty for using those vaca hours early?


Is this a typo? Did you mean "Reserve is your best bet"?

pinseeker

You are reading this wrong. What he is saying is if you only use 30 of the 42 vacation hours in March, you will have 12 hours left over that can be sold back at the end of the year. Since that buy back occurs on Dec 31, you will be paid for that unused vacation at your pay rate on Dec 31, 2019.

Sike

On the subject of vacation, what is the annual accrual for a new hire? Is it 6 hours per day? What's the accrual schedule and when do you get your first bump?