Secondary Lines and Vacation
 

Anybody out there have experience with using vacation in the secondary system? I have 14 days in June and would like to take the month off. Thanks

14x6=84 CH for the month

Bid secondary. Do nothing else and you’ll get the month off with 84 hours of pay (if you have that in vacation bank).

If you really want to get crazy, keep the pay ( i.e. do nothing) and during the SWW shrink your vaca footprint to zero.
You'll still have the 84 CH for the month, have the month off and now have the option to get drafted, volunteer or M/U trips at your convenience at any point in the month if it suits you.

Can you shrink your vacation to zero, but expand your credit hours?

Yes - two separate transactions. You request to increase vacation hours in 6 CH increments (technically by adding days) during the View/Add. Then, during the SWW you can ask to shrink your vacation footprint in 1 day increments including all the way to zero.

Thanks for the info! If I get a VTO, I'd like to use a lot of vacation hours...but it would be nice to have an open month in case that magical, non-existent double dh from my home gets built.

Has any one used more vacation on a secondary? I’d like to slide First week of August into July and go from 5 days to 12. Is this a request or adjustment? Also since I’m sliding into a month I’m not awarded vacation into is it allowed? 25.e.4.b seems to be the reference.
I’ve always done vacation with reserve lines to maximize time off but this seems like a pretty good option.

VTO Vacation adjustments, higher or lower, are subject to CRS approval. Increasing the Vacation bank draw seems to be dependent upon someone else reducing it. (IOW-you have 7 days and request to use 60 hours....someone else with 10 days would need to request to use 42 hours)

The best way to control your Vacation destiny is still through a Regular line. If you're in a seat that has Single Departure lines for the entire month, touching a single day knocks out the entire month. (IOW-your 7 Day\42 CH vacation is now a whole month 72CH vacation draw)

Alternatively, Reserve is a good way to get an extended period free from CRS events for Minimal bank use. For your 7 days of Vacation, you get an 11 day Red bar of death you can slide left or right for about 32 hours of Vacation bank use. Downside is that you'll still owe 8 days of Reserve Somewhen during the month. Or less should you choose to Extend your Reserve vacation.

Regardless of whether you use additional hours in the VTO system, or knock out a SDP. You have to have a Positive Vacation balance to take any remaining Scheduled Vacations this year. Going and Staying negative doesn't have any impact on how many Days of Vacation you can take next year, but you start with a reduced bank.

IF you want to Max out your $$, and you're in a month where you don't have any Vacation plans and don't mind working. Than Minimizing your Vacation bank use, either by avoidance on a Regular line, Requested reduction in VTO, or Reserve will wind up with you "selling back" some of your Vacation hours Dec 31st...at the pay rate you're earning then.

Which this year will be an extra 4%

Yes, some people have commented on how nice it was to adjust their Vacation draw. Personally, I think the success rate at reducing/increasing should be 100% but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Slides are NOT a request (note: can't slide into November or December). For you, the slide would have to be done during July's CIC period.

Then it's just a matter of how many days in the month for VTO\RSV vacations issues.

For a Regular Line, you can Expand to knock out the number of days in the whole Vacation block + 6. Or, in your case, knock out up to 90CHs worth of trips.
(note: Major holidays can't be knocked out by Expansion. Trips that touch Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve\Day, and NY's Eve\Day have to be physically touched by the Vacation Block)

Thanks for all the inputs, great info. My seat also has a bunch of penalty lines for R24. Considering going that direction and saving some of the vacation bank for later. Anyway, thanks again for the words.