Airline Wife

My Husand and I will be visiting Dubai July 22nd.
We read the contract. It states that Pilots only have 8 days off per month. Do they hold you to this. In reality are the pilots flying for emirates only home for 8 days a month and having their days off in different countries?

Also, I am finding airfares from Miami, FL in July for $1600 a piece! Any suggestions on better deals out there. The best seems to be American airlines for that price....

Typhoonpilot

Actually, the rule is a MINIMUM of 7 days off in any consecutive 28 days, and

have an average of at least 8 days off in each consecutive 28 day period, averaged over three such periods.

If we took all the pilots on the property and averaged their days off per month it would probably be in the area of 12 right now. Sometimes you have 8, sometimes you have 18. It depends on what aircraft you are flying and what bid group you are in.

Try going on JetBlue or Song up to JFK and then Emirates non-stop to DXB. If you have any pass priveleges then you can get ID90 or ZED tickets from MIA to Europe and then from Europe down to DXB.


Typhoonpilot

Airline Wife

THANKS TP

He would fly the Boeing 777. Do you have an average of time off and on here?

Airline Wife

THANKS TP

He would fly the Boeing 777. Do you have an average of time off and on here?

Typhoonpilot

As a line pilot on the 777 I averaged about 14-15 days off per month. As a TRI on the 777 I am home an average of 25-26 nights per month.

There is a bit of a shortage right now on the 777 so a new hire can expect about 12 days off per month on average.

Since my friend Gillegan is always suspect of my numbers, here it is in factual form, Line Captain:

January 2005 - 11 Days Off
February 2005 - 12 Days Off
March 2005 - 4 Days off, 25 Days Vacation ( Son born )
April 2005 - 14 Days Off
May 2005 - 7 Days Off, 10 Days Vacation
June 2005 - 12 Days Off
July 2005 - 16 Days Off
August 2005 - 3 Days Off, 21 Days Vacation
September 2005 - 13 Days Off
October 2005 - 12 Days Off, 4 Days Vacation
November 2005 - 8 Days Off, 10 Days Vacation
December 2005 - 15 Days Off

I did not include Rest days here either. Rest days are days that are not included as days off, but occur prior to very early departures. Typically you would have two or three rest days per month.

For me 2005 was fairly loaded with vacation. Our leave year is on a April 1 to March 31 cycle. Those 25 Days of Vacation in March were from the April 2004 to March 2005 cycle. I didn't have much vacation in Calendar year 2004.


Typhoonpilot