OK, I just want to make sure I do this correctly.

Lets say I have vacation starting the 25th of July, and I don't want to slide it, just expand it, because the vacation goes into the following month and I want to keep it on those days.

If I bid a line that has no trips from the 25rd to the end of the month, can I expand backwards for up to 42+6 hours, even if the trips in the previous week are multiple hub turns? In other words, a series of small trips instead of one big trip?

I just want to make sure I am correct about how this works before I bid my line.

Thanks.

Expand is an hours limit, not a days limit so you should be good up to your number of days x 6 plus 6.

From another post within this FedEx forum

This is for vacation with a Regular line using EXPANSION.....

Synopsis:
1.Vacation assigned:7 days or 42hrs starting 19Mar
2. I slid my vacation right +5 days to 24 Mar which wiped out 26:03 vacation hours. (Note: Technically I didn't have to slide it I could have just expanded left and right to cover the trips I wanted to knock out)
3. I then expanded left to 14 Mar which wiped out 2 6ch trips, 12 total.
4. Total vacation hours used: 38:03 leaving 3:57 unused for my next vacation. (42-38:03)
5. August assigned vacation is 8 days or 48 hours. Add 3:57 and my total hours are 51:57 available to use before I go into vacation makeup.
6. per the CBA you can only wipe out your assigned vacation hours + 6. (Note: in my case in march I could go to 48, but that would effect my August options) In August I could go to 54 hours. Therefore if I go over 51:57 in August. I'm in a deficit and can either fly a vacation Makeup trip or just be less than 90vacation hours in 2019.


Hypothetical......
7. Back to step 3 above. If I did NOT expand to the additional 12 hours I would only use 26:03 leaving 15:57 unused. If I add my August 48 + these 15:57 I now have 63:57 remains in August. But can ONLY go to 54 with an EXPANSION. Thus the remaining hours would be paid in December since they pay up to 40% of unused hours which in my case is 36 hrs.


I hope this helps. It's not real clear in the CBA until you play with the VIPs expansion. Also, you have to slide first and then expand. You can see the results of your conflict input selections by selecting "Bid Period Summary" just below the expansion selection.

With expansion you can only wipe out assigned vacation hours + 6CH. If you have 42 hrs (7day vacation) and you are awarded a 73 hr trip which you conflict either because it already conflicts or you SLIDE it then you use 73hours of vacation. This could adversely effect your next vacation award later that same calendar year, put you in the hole, make you need to fly vacation makeup, or drastically reduce the next year's vacation bank. Bid appropriately when trying to figure out what your willing to suck up.

Here’s a question. If you only have 30 hours left for vacation bank for the year but have a 7 day vacation block for the month, can you still expand 42+6 and go 18 hours into the hole for the year? I perpetually have a negative balance for the year

Yes, you can still expand to the 42+6. As long as you still have at least 1 minute in your vacation bank, you can take the whole 42+6 hours. I have always had a negative balance at the end of the year as well.

If one has vacation the last few days of September and the rest in October bid period.

I can expand left into September and right into October.

The question is when do I expand into October...

So I need wait until the after October schedules are awarded and do it during October Bid conflict/input window (which is in September)to expand into October?

Can’t expand until you actually have that schedule.

Safety tip, if you have 8 days, total expansion/conflict could knock out 54 hours.

That total is combined, so if you expand left to knock out 54 hours...no expansion to the right would be permitted

Thank you.

I have the time off prior to my trip that I wanted so I’m saving it all to knock out trips in October.

Slide as far into October as you can.

Makes it a bit more likely to touch a big trip, should you so desire.

No limit to the CH you can take out with a conflict