LOL

Hard to argue with that on the day to day.

But the ONLY thing about my gig that my Legacy airline friends express surprise and jealousy over is our vacation scheduling.

Not sure why they would be jealous of vacation at NJA when you can do the exact same thing at any major.

We get the same amount of vacation time, and most of the airline industry can work fewer days a month than the NJA guys. If you have even a little bit of seniority, you can stack your vacation just like you can at NJA to get the amount of time off.

It feels cool being on the 7/7 and bidding vacation, but you can easily do that on PBS at the airlines. Mileage varies, but it is doable. Hell, it is very doable (and I have done it) to stack two months in such a way that I have a month off without using a single day of vacation. NJA cannot do that.

You can get 2 weeks off every 30 days by bidding the 'end of month' time off. Ten days is almost guaranteed. Two weeks is common, senior guys can get 3 weeks.

Six times a year...with zero vacation days used.

Getting 3 weeks off with a week's vacation stretches 3 of those 6 2 week vacations into 3 weeks vacation. So with 3 weeks vacation you can get 3 x 3 weeks off and 3 x 2 weeks off.

Fractionals don't offer that flexibility.

At the Fractional that I work at we are 7 on 7 off so a one week vacation turns into 3 weeks off. Also twice a year (more with the approval of the Chief Pilot) we can move a rotation up to 7 days which will give you 2 more consecutive weeks off. At the 121 I previously worked at the best we could do was to turn one week of vacation into two. But then you had to work every weekend the remainder of the month.

What 121 was that, and when?

Southwest 1994-2017

interesting. Not sure how it is now there but I've been able to get huge blocks off at AS for years.

so, never?

I have seen it, I can promise you, nobody was jealous.

Well, I've had more than one look at me funny when I tell them I take 35 straight off pretty much every year without having to spend hours on a computer bidding, dropping, adding, or sick calling trips. 🤷🏼‍♂️. One bid in July, back to back vacays, it's awesome.

Next year I plan to bid back to back in September and then back to back in October. 70 days off. Different vacation bidding years and totally compliant with the contract. I'm calling it "retirement practice."