So I heard from a jblue friend that you can get the first half of the month all reserve and then be the second half off, is this something that goes senior? Or how doable is that being junior/new hire??

 

Sort of.
You can PBS bid for all your days off to be consecutive and to waive the max reserve days on from 6 to however many you want. Practically speaking, on short call you get 13/14 days off (30/31 day month), you could bid the first 13 days off and be on short call reserve the last 17 in a row.
You would generally not have much problem achieving that in a non-holidays month.
In January I bid the front and end of the month off, and have three off in the middle. So I have two stretches of rsv of nine and eight days.

 

Only problem with that strategy is you do have to be senior enough to hold 2 weekends off.

I’ve seen it done all in 1 block and I’ve personally had success moving my days around to achieve 13 straight going from the end of one month to the beginning of another.


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The new 17 day on thing is golden. Guaranteed 2+ week vacation whenever you want basically. The fact that you don’t get used for a lot of those 17 days, you can have almost the whole month off.

 

Flew one red eye in December. Made $10K over guarantee for the month. Not complaining one bit. How was YOUR December?

 

Depending on base (and month), one might would need to be on property 1-2 years to enjoy that schedule. But once you achieve it, it is truly a schedule to love!!

 

Easily and by far the best December of my life. And I would NOT trade it for what you have described for anything.

Just curious, but were you home with your kids on Christmas Eve and Christmas day?

 

That is great to hear, glad you had a good month! Sorry it took so long for it to happen, but here’s hoping the future ones will be just as good for you.

I opted out of the ankle-biter option for sanity’s sake. Christmas is just one more day on a calendar to me. No, I worked that day, as you well know. Seniority, and all that.

 

Every time I interact with you I come to the distinct understanding that we exist on two very different levels.

I would say the overwhelming majority of the months of my life are fantastic. I am generally living an extraordinary life in virtually every way that can be measured, and I am thankful for it.

As for Christmas with the "ankle-biters", there is nothing that an airline could offer me that is more important to me than being home with my children over Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Nothing. I could never tolerate the devastated look on their faces when I told them I would be gone, and I would never want to. I've never missed a Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, Easter, 4th of July or birthday party with ANY of my kids.

But you do you, and make sure you flash that pay-stub to anyone who will pay attention to you, they will definitely understand that you have your priorities in life aligned just right.

 

I am truly happy for you that you have been able to enjoy so many holidays with your family. Your posts seem to indicate that you are not as blessed as this single post does.

While you stayed home and enjoyed all those holidays with YOUR family, I spent most away from mine, and not by choice. Not for three to give days at a time, but for weeks and years. So yeah, I see much of what you say as whining like a spoiled child who actually has had life pretty freaking good for the past many years. You say you never missed a holiday, and yet you whine like a little girl about how badly your life here sucks. Pitiful.

You’re right, we do not connect and probably never will because we came from different places, and lived completely different lives. I appreciate what I have today, and think that my time now at JB is pretty effing awesome, because I am NOT forced to spend time away from my family. My wife flies with me on the majority of my trips, which thankfully aren’t really all that frequent. My ankle biters are grown, gone, and successful in their own lives, in spite of the fact that we didn’t get to share all their Christmases, birthdays, and other holidays together. They are very well-adjusted, respectful members of society who are making their own way in the world. In spite of my former career choices? Because of? I honestly do not know. But I am proud of the adults they have become.

And yes, I am happy with my life at JB. You SAY your months are fantastic and you are thankful for it; if that is true, then stop whining like a little baby and man up and be honest. You come across to me (and several who have taken the time to PM me about our discourses) as a spoiled brat. If that is inaccurate, then I apologize. But it sure seems that way. Try spending weeks at a time away from your loved ones, or a year, and suddenly the two or three times a year your schedule actually sucks melts away into nothingness.

JB is far from perfect, but it is also far from a sh!tty job. If it were, I would not recommend my good friends to come here and be miserable like you appear to be. Or maybe you’re not, as you stated above. I really don’t know, but I will always call you out when your whining exceeds my belief of what is just and fair. So ignore my posts if you want, or put me on ignore, I really don’t care. I am happy working here, and some SJW on an anonymous forum will never change that.

Now, if you want to work together on CBA2 to make ALL our lives better, I am with you. If you plan to continue on APC like you have for the past 5 years that I have read your posts, then expect the pushback from me to continue.