The fact is over 50 people in ord have less than 12 days off. 5 day off blocks are just not as easy as you claim. 2 years ago, sure. On a fat west coast base sure. But out east, no way.

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Unless you're a FO on the 175 which is pretty fat on FOs for last year or so

The CRJ schedules in ORD are horrible now, most of the 175 lines have at least 16 days off.

You never know. I fully expected to be worked to death around my vacation but ended up with this beauty for March, bidding about 69% in SLC:

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/a...1&d=1494712024

The kicker was that I was able to get a couple of high-credit trips, including a 29-hour four-day (which I think was the highest-paying trip available that month; how I managed to get it, I have no idea).

My golden days are taken from my user time bank? Unless I misunderstood that. I understand what you mean about bid to have days off during my vacation but am I going to get the vacation time (or user time) back? I assumed since you need your vacation time in before you bid that if your line had a day off you requested off with vacation time it was more or less like tough luck, not getting vacation day back.

So that assumption is wrong?

Generally yes. But it may be impossible in certain bases and aircraft with low seniority.

This is expected because PBS globalizes. Someone senior to you either had a different pairing from that bid layer magically awarded or blatantly was CN'd.

You are a resource that needed to be utilized, they globalize and 68 hours of block+ vacation happened.

Other times PBS (depending properties) will work junior guys almost nonstop (30 hour overnights) before and after vacation with low paying trips.

You have to waive something to do more than six days at work using 30 hours overnights to reset 117. Policy is you get two days off after six on, unless waived by you.

I am in a similar spot with 8 days of vacation end of June, looking for tips to not get raped the rest of the month?

If you use the minimum 2.5 daily vacation credit that means the scheduled vacation will burn less from your user/vacation banks, but it also means PBS will have to give you more flying to meet your credit target. You can always try to bid a lower monthly credit, but that only works if it's a light month and other pilots try to bid higher credit.

If you use a higher vacation burn, that will make the rest of the month easier but of course deplete your bank faster.

I always use 2.5, to maximize the time off which I can schedule far in advance vs hoping for some days off in the bid, which may or may not be where I want them.

Also...you guys know you can also use user time for vacation, right? You just have to not blow it all on sick calls, missed commutes, etc.