V169

It is very rare for pilots to fly on vacation at SWA--you are at the bottom of the bidding priority and would get used only if the only other option was to jetway JA someone. You are prohibited from picking up from other pilots while on vacation. You could still get a good vacation drop and pick up on the other 3 1/2 weeks of the month to get a very healthy paycheck.

1Seat 1Engine

I never work on vacation. I always make more during vacation months than non-vacation months.

good point.

WHACKMASTER

Thanks to both of you. Interesting. Would it make the most sense then to spread my four weeks of vacation out over four different months?

1Seat 1Engine

Maybe. Really depends on you.

You don't want them right up against each other though.

A lot of dudes try to get them one week apart and then with a little bit of work or luck they can get about 3.5 weeks off on 2 weeks of vaca.

WHACKMASTER

Good to know. Thank you. What's the rule on trips that touch your vacation week(s)? Dropped and get paid for them, dropped with no pay, can request to have them left on your schedule, etc?

WHACKMASTER

Oh btw, how many TFP is a vacation week worth anyway?

V169

Min pay for a vacation week is 26.25TFP so if you managed to bid a line that had no trips touching the Sun to Sat of your vacation week it would simply get added to your awarded line. You get paid vacation overlap for any part of a trip pulled to get you back to your domicile before your vacation starts as well as anything not flown until you can be "caught up" to a trip after your vacation ends. A great drop can net you 8-9 days off and 45+TFP. You have the option to drop everything effected by the vacation. There's a SWA pilot who charges $20 for a series of Excel spreadsheets that sorts through the entire bid packet by max vacation pay/max line pay/max days off/max vacation length--check it out at SWAPtimizer: Optimizing Vacation Bidding for SWA Pilots.

CRJAV8OR

Banking 130 TFP on a vacation month is relatively easy to do and still net yourself 18+ days off including 8-9 in a row in order to actually use your vacation week for travel. The SWAPtimizer program can be a great help for a small amount of money. The rules governing how trips are broken up in order to return you to your base the night before your vacation begins are complicated and include a lot of variables. The spreadsheets help you pick trips that will pay you the maximum "soft" credit and pay the maximum amount possible. You can do this all yourself but even if you pay yourself as little as $10 an hour for the work, SWAPtimizer pays off. On the other side of the coin, one can choose to drop all trips that touch the vacation week and easily net 20-22 days off for the month while of course sacrificing pay for the month.

WHACKMASTER

Just checked out the SWAPtimizer. I'm getting the impression that you definitely do NOT want to bid vacation weeks together unless you absolutely have. It seems really advantageous to spread your vacation weeks out.

Rolf

It is. Swaptimizer is not always correct in the trip drops, but is such a time saver. Works great.