I believe the current restirction is a maximum of 5 combined days off on either side of your vacation. So it is possible to have a 7 day block of vacation become 12 days off in a row.

Talking about dropped trips just complicates things. Vacation is in the system before you bid for the month. Your flying is will be on either side of the vacation. One thing that can happen is you get a compressed roster on the days that you are not on vacation. Vacation is only counted at 2:50/day for purposes of the monthly target hours.

If, in the above example you have 7 days of vacation and manage to get 5 days off on either side of it ( two before, three after ) then you have a block of 12 days where you are not working ( but credited for 19.6 hours ). You then get to work 70 more credit hours in the 18 days that you are available for work that month.


Typhoonpilot

and to further complicate things lets say your first trip back to the line after vacation and days off is a ULR. Our company regs require us to be acclimitized in a narrow time zone window for three days before the start of our trip! so now your three days off after vacation is suddenly spent readjusting to dubai time, ironically so you can then operate your trip back to the states where you probably just left! it happens all the time....and they are masters at placing that ulr after, before, or on both sides of a run of days off.

but many guys sneak in say a day before....if you get caught, not good!

Where I am at now I get 3:45 for each vacation day. It sounds like you are getting less. Unless there is some other factors involved. It also sounds like the most days off you can get with 1 week of Vacation is 12 days. That is about the same as it is here.
As for the days off per month counting URL standby days is 14 an accurate number of days off.?
thx

I am hearing that the 350's that are coming are replacement aircraft for the 330 and 340. This would reduce the forecasted growth substantially. Is this true.

Typhoon, it sounds like you used to be based in either CLT or PHL and went DEC to Ek. When was that?

CJ,
Two things to remember. Our hourly pay is very very small. That is, we basically are paid a "salary" to some extent. What the bidding system is like is a preferential bidding system like many US airlines have now. No more dropping trips to extend a vacation and training. If you have a week or so of "leave", the rest of the month will be highly maximized and very very "productive".

I'll answer that on a PM.



TP

OK

what about the 350's. are they replacement aircraft for the 330's and 340's.
Thx

A bulk of the 350 order are the 900's which they like and these are to replace 332/343/345 and @ 12 older 777. EIS for the 350 for EK was 2014 but they are planning on early 2015.By the the last 380 and 359 arr there will be something to replace the 777, be it a 777ng or just new 777. All of north america will be 380 , waiting on a 30T increase .

Last I heard was the 380 is being taken off of ULR and being replaced by, wait for it..................
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The B777

The exception to that is YYZ because of the slot issues.

The reasoning fo the change is cost. A380 costs too much to operate ( fuel burn ) versus the B777. At roughly 60% more fuel for the same flight and the inability to carry freight it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which airplane is going to be more profitable on most routes. The A380 will do okay with slot restricted and high yield ( premium yield ) sectors because that extra revenue pays for the gas.


Typhoonpilot