I was awarded a reserve line for Sept and can conflict it with 3 vacation days that would leave me with about 40 buy-back hours. Here's my question - I can't find the option to communicate that intent in VIPS, and my notification indicates that they will just expand my days off to use up all my hours. Any help from you guys on where i need to go to fix this? Thanks!

I'd call your futures scheduler (maybe after I called the union?) ...

When you have vacation and are awarded a reserve line, what your awarded vacation conflicts with is mostly irrelevant. You will have the awarded number of days (7, 8, or whatever) times R-day value (4:33hr per day for my jet) as a minimum. You can take more days if you want, using the formula in the CBA, but you can't take less. Then they reconstruct your reserve line, minus the days of vacation you used, and not on those awarded days. Take 7 days, and for a five week month, you will still have 12 days of reserve (8 days for a 4 week month.)

VTO is worse as they take your vacation at 6 hr per day, and then build a line around it, even if it's all R days. The only way you can take less days than your award is to get awarded a flying line and conflict with less flying, if possible.

Thanks guys - probably another reserve item that we need to be looking at for next negotiations...

Or not.

If everyone took their vacation we'd have more CA's and would need to hire more pilots.

It appears to me that you might have some luck in this area by not extending your vacation. That way they only charge you for 4.5 hrs/vacation day. The other 1.5 hours/day are then available for vacation buy back.

It amazed me when I found out how many of our pilots sell back the max vacation buy back every year. I have gone negative every year since I arrived in '01. Have the guys actually seen how much taxes ares taken out from the govt. when that check comes in from selling it. I try to tell people time is money and you cannot make more time so enjoy your time off, unless your one of those loooooosers(me,me,me,me) who have no life except the cockpit and *****s around the world. And unfortunately this company is filled with many of them.

But I guess when they do sell back I get called less on reserve.

Sorry - my point was there is an inequity in how reserve and secondary lines are used vs. regular lines. I'd love to take all my time off, but I'd also love to replace the air conditioning system in my house that just croaked. Guess I'll just have to bid HK Capt.

So what youre saying is that if someone sells back some of his vacation he is a loser and if you go negative in your vacation bank you're a real cool guy. Hank, I like your avatar but you're a real dumba$$. You do realize that if you take an Rday off for every vacation day you can get about 1 and a half hours of vacation buy back. And you still get plenty of time off. And, no. I dont have *****'s around the world and, yes I do have a life.

It's all about choices that you decide to make in this job.

That's a little rough, bottom line is that people selling back vacation means less need for crews on property. No way around that.

It's all about choices as you say but it's a slippery slope, I mean how many guys try to justify flying every day of the month or flying DPs with BS logic. Food for thought.