17 on / 14 off
 

I have heard the story that if you are working the second half of one month, your bid award may have you working the first half of the next month keeping you away from home over 30 days. Does this happen?

Also, are your commute days part of your trip or do you commute the day before and day after?

We don’t work 17 day schedules. Max the company can ask of you is 16 days. The last few months they’ve been using a scheduling program that spits out lines from 9 to 16 days. But honestly the majority are in the 13-14-15 day range. If you are awarded a back to back schedule and you did not bid for it they will give you 5 days off in between. If you did bid for it then you’ve done it to yourself. However, you’ll quickly time out. I’m sure someone will be by shortly to correct any mistakes I may have made but that’s life at K4 as I know it.

Also...the work footprint that you bid (call it 16 days for example) is exactly 16 days on the Z calendar. That means you leave late afternoon prior to your first operating leg....but it also means you’re home by then on your last day. People will tell you that you travel a day early.....but then I’d say that you’re home a day early? However you like to look at it I guess.

Even if you didn’t bid for it there is absolutely no requirement for the company to give you 5 days off inbetween. Doesn’t mean they won’t, but they are not required to.

also, plenty of instances where you might be required to travel on the z day prior to your awarded trip. It’s based on flights that can get you into position by 0500z on day 1. In some case you build up bank time towards a day off when you have to travel the day before but in most cases if it’s the last flight that would get you there by 0500z they do not have give you bank time even if the travel starts prior to 0000z

How many off days do you get after a 15 day trip?

?...... Depends on when you work next. So anywhere from 0 to 30.

Depends on what you bid, what you are awarded, and what you are after. For most folks I imagine it is around 2 weeks or so. Sometimes it's more and sometimes it's less. If you have enough vacation to take three weeks in a year, you can easily have nearly 6 weeks off then if that's what you want, and have the right vacation award.

if the trips are in the same bid month.. they are to be built with no less than 5 days between.

if two different bid months, then no contractual time between trips but could be limited by double-out rule (time off must be twice the number of hours flown)