The PBS software will not add flying to vacation days, but you will be able to during DOT like we can now.

Bear in mind if you attach 40 hours of credit to a week of vacation, it drops your total vacation credit down by 40 hours too so you won’t be able to do it for all your weeks.

yup. Obviously you can’t do 40 every time. I was told we took every sort option available. That’s why I’m thinking we’ll be able to waive a vac block. This could help getting some holidays off if you have the vac period the week before or after the holiday. Put flying on my vac and not the holiday. Depending on seniority of course.

This is not correct. The value of a week is variable based on the pilot's preferences. The pilot will assign a value to their vacation of 15-40 hours. These will be pay credits (deducted from your bank) that count towards your monthly award, i.e. if the ALV is 80 and you assign a value of 15 hours for the week, you will be on the hook for at least 65 more hours (and you will receive 15 hours of pay credit for your week of vacation), if you assign 40 hours for the week, you will be on the hook for at least 40 more hours (and you will receive 40 hours of pay credit for your week of vacation). INV days can be taken paid or unpaid at the pilot's discretion. If they are taken paid, the pay credits will also count towards your monthly award. INV days can net you more pay during a week of vacation, but it will be at the expense of a future week (the value will be deducted from your bank). The real benefit is that it allows a junior pilot that doesnt have the seniority to stretch his vacation by a couple of days.

Well I guess I was wrong and now I'm confused.

Why would you choose to adjust your vacation to a lower value?

This sounds like people might be confusing virtual credit and actual credit.

If you reduce virtual credit then PBS will assign you more flying so you make more money. You would still get the same actual credit of 5 per day.

Honestly, I think most pilots will just take 35 hours for the week and call it good, however, a pilot might assign a value of 20 to his first week of vacation to free up credit for a subsequent month, (e.g. a pilot has 4 weeks worth 140 hours, week one he assigns 20 hours and no IVN days, on his second week he wants to credit a bunch so he assigns 40 hours plus 2 paid INV days, he now has 50 hours of pay in the second week. For his last 2 weeks, he has 70 hours and could assign credit as he sees fit.)

Virtual credit is for unpaid leaves Vacation does not use virtual credit. Mil leave would be an example of a leave that uses virtual credit. If a pilot is out for a week of mil leave a virtual credit of X will be assigned to each of those days, otherwise the pilot could wind up on reserve because the solver might be unable to get the pilot into the window with the remaining available days. By assigning a virtual credit, the solver sees X hours already on the pilot's schedule so it only has to add an additional Y hours to get him in the window.

Monkeybrains, thank you for clearing that up.

I was definitely wrong in my understanding of the variable vacation credit. In your example of reducing one vacation period down to only 20 hours, are you still guaranteed the 7 days off but just for less pay? And if that's the case, can you extend a vacation later in the year? Or just use the remaining vacation credits to be paid for INV days?

I guess I'm still not 100% clear on the relationship between credits and days. Thanks

The number of days labeled as VAC won't change. You'll just have some flexibility on how much to credit. I also heard if you don't use all your credit (even if all the days are used up), the remaining credit will be paid out at years end. Or, as you suggest, you would be able to use that credit to get paid for the INV days.

Well said. Just to add a slight nuance to the ALV/Threshold, although the software does try to build you a line to reach the Threshold, it will not go into denial mode provided your credit is above the minimum value for the Line Construction Window. I'm not sure what LCW has been negotiated, but let's assume it is +/- 7 hours. In a month where the ALV/Threshold has been set to 80, the bottom of the LCW would be 73 hours and the top 87 hours. Although the software will try to get you to 80 hours, it won't deny any preferences to get you there provided you've made it to 73. For example, if it's built you a line worth 74 hours, it will look to add more flying to get you to 80, but if it would have to deny a preference to get there, it will give up and move on to the next bidder. If you're still below 73 hours and and it doesn't have anything more to give you that meets your preferences, then it will start denying stuff to get you into the Window. Once you're in the Window, it will stop.

On the flip side, since we're talking about it, the software won't build a line above the LCW either, so if the max is 87, it won't award over that. If you want more credit, you'll have to ADD/SWAP during DOT.

Thanks for the explanation...on the flip side, how would a pilot go about maxing his days off during vacation months under PBS?