They offered 3 weeks to start at my last 2 employers. I countered at 4 and got it approved almost immediately. Not sure where your company's staffing levels are at however......

What BPWI said, also, if vacation is approved, they should have access to a contract fill-in.

GF

Do those vacation days count as RONs? I've heard of many that don't so if you take 3 weeks off you'll make up for those days taken off by working more in the following time. Ex.. Take 3 weeks off, now work 21 days when you'd normally work 10.

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We start w 21 days vacation, at 5 years on board it bumps to 28 days. There’s no “punishment” for taking vacation, you’re off the hook those days and no payback required. We try to work it out amongst the other pilots to avoid everyone being gone at once. Approval is up to the CP but it’s usually not an issue.

We did 3 weeks up to 10 years, then 4 weeks. Every month each pilot had 7 “hard days off” which were additional to vacation scheduled. One was flown home to meet vacation days scheduled. Each trip had additional post trip off days, up to 7 days, but usually 3-5 days and dependent on trip length.

GF

Two-hour call between 7-5 weekdays and varies with the weekend schedule. Basically the company tracks total days worked and weekend days worked and tries to keep everyone even by month and year. Goal is 13 days worked (not RONs). They try their best to give you ONE weekend off a month. Sometimes that doesn’t always happen. Coming in days prior to trip plan for international trip not counted towards days worked.

Zero hard days off. No more than two pilots off at any time (which sucks when we staggered thru recurrent).

First five years... 14 days vacation plus 5 flex days to make up for the holidays you miss. First come-first serve. Vacations don’t go against your days worked unlike the 121 world. But like the 121, dropping a vacation day with a trip on schedule will be honored and the trip will be reassigned. This will happen too if you’re trip touches BOTH weekend days (only one and you’re still flying).

In August, I was not used the first week, then took a week vacation then stuck with two six-day trips back to back so everyone’s days were even. Nearly always you will be scheduled you to fly the day before your vacation starts. Good chance you’ll be assigned a 0600L departure the morning after your vacation. So you often can’t drink the evening of your last day of vacation.

Isn't the point of vacation to get away from work? This sounds like the only thing you vac does is protect your days from being called in. You still have to make up for those days taken off by working more after?! An office worker who takes 3 weeks off doesn't have to make up for those 3 weeks by working weekends and overtime, why should pilots? If that's how I'm interpreting it...

Exactly. Our dispatcher gets 8 hard days off a month, 14 days vacay and 12 paid holidays. Hence why some of us are looking elsewhere.


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Internally, we are only expected to use our "vacation" days for Monday-Friday. If any of us need more than 7 consecutive days, we take a look at our days worked & do our best to balance the schedule accordingly. Currently we have 5 guys to a frame.

Knowing people that have worked for both those flight departments you mentioned makes me laugh. Walmart I here has recently adjusted some stuff but there is a reason Coke is constantly hiring.

There are great flight departments and bad ones. Being run by a big corporation doesn't guarantee squat.