Number of days off in a row...
 

Hey guys,

Just wondering if there is any regional anywhere that I'd get 4 or 5 days off in a row at least once every four or five weeks, or am I living in a total dream land? I have a sick family member and I share a duty of care with my sister. I want to still be able to lend a helping hand every so often but she is overseas in the UK.

Thanks in advance.

At SkyWest I could usually expect at least one good stretch of days off per month bidding mid-seniority in base...sounds like you ought to look into an airline that provides for easy scheduling manipulations (i.e. not Eagle). SkyWest is okay in that department, I'll let others tell ya what they've got...good luck :-)

Speak for yourself. I fly for Eagle and I had 8 days off for the New Year and I did no manipulating whatsoever. If you know what you are doing, it's easy to get a 5 to 8 day stretch every month.

An airline with any sort of PBS system would be most conducive to that sort of thing. With hard lines you are at the mercy of the line builders...there may or may not be plenty of lines with that many days off in a row. Four days should be doable anywhere, with some seniority.

It is very unlikely you will get what you're asking for as a new hire at any airline. Have you looked into intermittent FMLA?

I usually get 18 days off, so I see lots of 3 on 4 off. or 2 on 5 off.

PSA we get 5 on 2 off. 5 on 2 off, 5 on 3 off, 5 on 3 off.

Total of 10 days off.
Start day 1 at 5am and finish day 5 at 8pm or later. Good Luck going anywhere while on reserve at PSA. Your lucky if you can spend 10 nights a month at home if you commute.

I expected that it might be quite hard to get that sort of time off initially as a new hire, but it sounds like it might be possible after I've built a little seniority. In all honesty Eagle is looking like my most viable option at the moment, so if successful with my application I'd be very interested in finding out how to bid to maximise my opportunities to get back to the UK. My Mom has chronic COPD which I think might be recognised for intermittent FMLA, it's something I need to look into a bit more.

Like others have said, it will not happen as a new hire, you will need to be a line holder with at least a little better seniority than rock-bottom. Depending on the airline, that might take a 1-3 years.

This is pretty doable at Skywest as a lineholder. Either with PBS or Skedplus (online schedule adjustment tool). As a senior FO I get about 15 days off/ month, usually 1 block of 4-5 days in there and 8-10 off consecutive once/quarter.
However, this kind of schedule is impossible to get on reserve. Expect 10 off on rsrv without flexibility.