Makes sense, thanks guys.

 

Another question. Says NK gets paid between 12-44 hours for a vacation week. How does this work???

JB pilot gets paid 35 hours for a week of vacation. What do you gain/lose if you choose 12 hours? What do you gain/loose if you pick 44 hours?

 

If you select 12 hours, you wind up with less time off. NavBlue preloads the vacation hours you've selected into the bid and subtracts that from the credit window you've chosen. Let's say I select min credit window (~72ish hours) and 44 hours vacation. NavBlue would only have to build 28 hours of trip credit to satisfy the credit window, giving you a lot of time off. I hope that description makes sense lol.

 

So when you have 3 weeks, you have 105 hours of credit. NK has different steps:
yr 5: 3 weeks, 84 hours,
year 10: 3 weeks 98 hours,
year 15 4 weeks, 112 hours
year 20 4 weeks, 126 hours
Not saying our accrual is better., but I do like the way our vacation bidding works.
I get the weeks I can hold according to seniority. Two months before my vacation month, I can put my vacation "request" (called request, but can not be denied) in.
I can move the week up to 3 days in either direction. I can add up to two days off, on either end. This basically gives me the option to slide almost an entire week.
As far as pay.
I can take anywhere between 12-36 hours of credit for my vacay, and the 2 additional days, I can elect to pay from my vacation fund, bringing the max to 44 hours for a week of vacation. So say you are a year 2 guy, with 2 weeks and 56 hours, and you are lucky enough to get spring break and a week starting July 10th.
For the spring break, you really only need the week so you allocate 12 hours, and work a bit harder the rest of the month.
For the second vacation, you slide and add paid days, elect 36 hours, for 44 total, guaranteeing you off from July 5th till the 13th. And you will only need +/-30 more hours of credit to make it a legal line, so 6 days at the end of the month, so possibly off till the 24th.
In June you pick up a trip that ends on the 30th before July bids close, and don't waive the 4 days off between trips, so they cannot give you any trips between the 30th and the 5th. you now have vacation from July1st till July 24th with 1 week of vacation.

 

Ok, so among other benefits/strategies, the range of 12-44 is simply coming from your allotment, and distributing your own allotment how you prefer for each week?

Very flexible.

 

yes, you can only use what you have in your bank. And you can get 8 hours of your bank paid out each month if you want the money, but don’t need the days off. Honestly a great system.

 

yup. And you can sell1 week of next years vacation week in the current year, payable in November. So if you don’t “need” 4 weeks vacation, sell a week (28 hours) and use that money in November for Christmas shopping or whatever.

 

Yr 2 guy here, that was almost exactly what I did kind of. I'm sitting here on my 4th of July vacation that I couldn't hold typing this. I've basically been on vacation since 26 April. I did have a couple trips in June but training bought them. So basically I've worked 2 trips since April whole still crediting a full paycheck. Though you can't really count on training buying your trips that was kind of lucky though some say luck is the on the side of the prepared😎

Flexibility is what I like about Spirit.

I just edit to add that I dropped a trip for military leave

 

Same.

I'm new, but the reason I came to Spirit was the unmatched ability to shape our schedule. I'm curious why the red/green rules and drop to zero were left out of the contract comparison document ALPA sent out. Those two things are the best part about our contract and worth everything to me.

I got the relief line from redeye h*ll after OE and was able to drop/swap into a completely new schedule. This is amazing given I was the most junior guy in the company. I'm a little worried the MEC is undervaluing those rules, and the JetBlue guys don't understand it and the implications from both an earnings potential and QOL perspective.

 

Our MEC does not undervalue those provisions. Those provisions were fought and won for, in binding arbitration. They actually value those provisions highly, unlike some pilots who always ask “so what’s so good about the work rules, I don’t get it”