Regionals and Vacation time
 

I have heard a few different scenarios on how vacation time works. I am looking into Eagle, Colgan, ASA...does a 1st year FO get any vacation/sick time. If so, how many days, and how long do you wait to get it? Any help would be appreciated...

I seem to remember at Colgan that we didn't get vacation the first year. Sick time did accrue at some point and I did take a sick day.

At SkyWest you being accruing sick time after 90 days and vacation after 6 months, however you cannot take vacation until after your one year anniversery. 1-4 years at the company works out to about 2 weeks vacation, 5-9 year is about 3 weeks vacation, and 10+ is 4 weeks. It all depends on what value credit you give to each vacation day.

At eagle you get 10 work days (2 weeks) vacation per year starting from date of hire. So if you are hired July 1 (halfway through a year) you'd get 1 calandar week, etc. I believe after 5 years it becomes 15 work days, and 15 years is 20 work days. Vacation is available January 1 of the year after the date of hire- i.e., If you are hired July 1, 2008, you can take vacation Jan 1 2009.

Sick time accrues from day 1 also at a rate of 6 days after the first 6 months and then 6 days per year after that. You can take sick time immediately if needed. A day is defined as 8 hours.

what if..
 

What if for instance, prior to getting hired, I had accepted being the best man at a friends wedding. How would one handle this type of situation with the type of hectic schedule the regionals offer?

Bid around the days you need off. If that doesn't work, see if another FO will trade days with you. Attempt to drop your work days, provided there's enough coverage. At my company, we can do a bad day/worse day type thing - call Crew Scheduling and offer to trade days for other days they may need you more than the ones you're scheduled for. If none of that works, explain your situation to your Chief Pilot - sometimes they can approve a personal drop... If all else fails - buy a really expensive gift and hope your buddy is the forgiving sort. :D

since my training started back in october, i've had 8 weeks paid off... with 2-3 to go before I'm released onto reserve.

I dont know where all the b*tching about first year being so rough is coming from.. i locked in my seniority # and i'm loving it :-D

one has to question the financial viability and future stability of a company that pays for months of labor from which they are receiving zero utility. what a waste of so much money...

Yes. However every time I need a day off I seem to get a soar throat.

What the hell is a vacation? Can someone please explain to me this foreign concept?!!

[quote=Skyteam18;314284]since my training started back in october, i've had 8 weeks paid off... with 2-3 to go before I'm released onto reserve.

You must be at Mesa ???