How do I maximize time off?
12-26-2021 | 06:40 AM
#11
Line Holder
Joined: Feb 2014
Posts: 1,541
Likes: 52
From: Head pillow fluffer, Assistant bed maker
there are ways to make extra on reserve, but it’s not as easy as when one is a lineholder. When you get hired and go thru class you learn about the details
12-26-2021 | 09:43 AM
#12
Line Holder
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 650
Likes: 5
From: 787 Capt.
I’m new guy with United at a junior base on the 73.
What I want to know is: outside of Covid, what is considered normal for days off and nights home per month? How can I maximize my time off and my nights at home, especially as a junior guy? My SWA buddies on average work 20% fewer days (13 days per month) and are only gone 8-10 nights per month. I think my wife would be happy with a schedule like that. Is this realistic at all and can I control my line to get right around MPG? The bid packets I’ve seen have mostly 14 off days, with very few getting 17 or more days off. The average nights away seems to be 12, which is the biggest issue for my wife. I told my wife that January would be better, and then I got another 89 hour line with only 13 days off. (For now, let’s take WB off the table. I sleep like crap and can’t take a nap to save my life.). I was always led to believe that it was normal to fly 12-14 days per month and have 16-18 days off per month, but my experience is that those numbers have been flipped. I’m not sure if that is COVID, United, or something else.
What I want to know is: outside of Covid, what is considered normal for days off and nights home per month? How can I maximize my time off and my nights at home, especially as a junior guy? My SWA buddies on average work 20% fewer days (13 days per month) and are only gone 8-10 nights per month. I think my wife would be happy with a schedule like that. Is this realistic at all and can I control my line to get right around MPG? The bid packets I’ve seen have mostly 14 off days, with very few getting 17 or more days off. The average nights away seems to be 12, which is the biggest issue for my wife. I told my wife that January would be better, and then I got another 89 hour line with only 13 days off. (For now, let’s take WB off the table. I sleep like crap and can’t take a nap to save my life.). I was always led to believe that it was normal to fly 12-14 days per month and have 16-18 days off per month, but my experience is that those numbers have been flipped. I’m not sure if that is COVID, United, or something else.
don’t listen to anyone on the line giving you PBS advise. Bite the bullet and pay for Bidnav. They are very helpful and they can help you at least truly understand how to build your bid groups to benefit you. I’ve been using them for 4 years. I’m number 4 in my catagory and I still use their service and call them for help to fine tune my bid groups. It’s the best quality of life and financial advice I have.
12-26-2021 | 01:19 PM
#13
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 963
Likes: 0
Why bidnav? A bid group isn't your preferences. It's your weighted pool which you can review yourself plus sets and limits. If you look at your pool and it's sorted, and you reviewed all your sets and limits, what's left to do? Change my mind.
12-26-2021 | 03:10 PM
#14
Thread Starter
Line Holder
Joined: Mar 2021
Posts: 41
Likes: 0
I guess I don’t see it as entitled. I’m not trying to get sweet layovers, or commutable lines, or deadheads with lots of soft time, or trips with LCAs that get bought. I literally want to fly my MPG as quickly as possible, and go home to my family. 5 hours per day is a terrible batting average, especially when you’ve got a 89 hour month. Put me in coach. I’ll get 8 hours of block time a day if I can manage it. I’ve got 4 young kids and all I want is time with them. I’ve tried dropping and trading trips that CCS says are legal and I have yet to get a trip traded (I’m trading into open time trips or trips that other guys want to drop). I’ve used BidNav without any success (asked for low credit line, got 89 hours). Maybe this is part of the learning curve? Perhaps this is just the way it is, and my expectations of time away from work are unrealistic? I’m still trying to figure it out, but if I’m away from home 18 days a month, my wife is going to make me find a different job.
12-26-2021 | 03:40 PM
#16
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 203
Likes: 0
The problem isn't PBS. It's in the pairings. Lousy low time pairings with lots of sit time, multiple aircraft and crew swaps will lead to a lousy schedule.
Find a way to take out at least one of the variables. The pilots or FA's should stay on the inbound plane. Dump the idea of having stray extra FAs coming from different inbound flights.
Crews sitting in places like Cancun with 3 hour sit having to clear customs and no where to sit, is a disgrace.
The contract should not say 5 hours AVERAGE pay over the trip. If we got 5 hours minimum pay per day, then the schedules would reflect that.
This is not meant to be a legacy fight. Legacy UAL was happy with 20 hour 4 day trips. Legacy CAL had 28 hour 4 days and 23 hour 3 days.
Productive pairings can still have 20 hour layovers in Cancun, Cabo and the Caribbean, if we don't sit around all day in airports not getting paid.
Sure, the bottom of the lists will still fly the crappier trips, but at least they will have something to look forward to.
Find a way to take out at least one of the variables. The pilots or FA's should stay on the inbound plane. Dump the idea of having stray extra FAs coming from different inbound flights.
Crews sitting in places like Cancun with 3 hour sit having to clear customs and no where to sit, is a disgrace.
The contract should not say 5 hours AVERAGE pay over the trip. If we got 5 hours minimum pay per day, then the schedules would reflect that.
This is not meant to be a legacy fight. Legacy UAL was happy with 20 hour 4 day trips. Legacy CAL had 28 hour 4 days and 23 hour 3 days.
Productive pairings can still have 20 hour layovers in Cancun, Cabo and the Caribbean, if we don't sit around all day in airports not getting paid.
Sure, the bottom of the lists will still fly the crappier trips, but at least they will have something to look forward to.
12-26-2021 | 03:50 PM
#17
On Reserve
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 90
Likes: 30
I’m new guy with United at a junior base on the 73.
What I want to know is: outside of Covid, what is considered normal for days off and nights home per month? How can I maximize my time off and my nights at home, especially as a junior guy? My SWA buddies on average work 20% fewer days (13 days per month) and are only gone 8-10 nights per month. I think my wife would be happy with a schedule like that. Is this realistic at all and can I control my line to get right around MPG? The bid packets I’ve seen have mostly 14 off days, with very few getting 17 or more days off. The average nights away seems to be 12, which is the biggest issue for my wife. I told my wife that January would be better, and then I got another 89 hour line with only 13 days off. (For now, let’s take WB off the table. I sleep like crap and can’t take a nap to save my life.). I was always led to believe that it was normal to fly 12-14 days per month and have 16-18 days off per month, but my experience is that those numbers have been flipped. I’m not sure if that is COVID, United, or something else.
What I want to know is: outside of Covid, what is considered normal for days off and nights home per month? How can I maximize my time off and my nights at home, especially as a junior guy? My SWA buddies on average work 20% fewer days (13 days per month) and are only gone 8-10 nights per month. I think my wife would be happy with a schedule like that. Is this realistic at all and can I control my line to get right around MPG? The bid packets I’ve seen have mostly 14 off days, with very few getting 17 or more days off. The average nights away seems to be 12, which is the biggest issue for my wife. I told my wife that January would be better, and then I got another 89 hour line with only 13 days off. (For now, let’s take WB off the table. I sleep like crap and can’t take a nap to save my life.). I was always led to believe that it was normal to fly 12-14 days per month and have 16-18 days off per month, but my experience is that those numbers have been flipped. I’m not sure if that is COVID, United, or something else.
12-26-2021 | 04:11 PM
#18
Line Holder
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 558
Likes: 6
I guess I don’t see it as entitled. I’m not trying to get sweet layovers, or commutable lines, or deadheads with lots of soft time, or trips with LCAs that get bought. I literally want to fly my MPG as quickly as possible, and go home to my family. 5 hours per day is a terrible batting average, especially when you’ve got a 89 hour month. Put me in coach. I’ll get 8 hours of block time a day if I can manage it. I’ve got 4 young kids and all I want is time with them. I’ve tried dropping and trading trips that CCS says are legal and I have yet to get a trip traded (I’m trading into open time trips or trips that other guys want to drop). I’ve used BidNav without any success (asked for low credit line, got 89 hours). Maybe this is part of the learning curve? Perhaps this is just the way it is, and my expectations of time away from work are unrealistic? I’m still trying to figure it out, but if I’m away from home 18 days a month, my wife is going to make me find a different job.
The problem is the senior guys really want those 8 hour a day trips that you do too.
All you can do is bid as productive trips as you can and as low line value as you can, and advertise your trips. If that doesn't work for you, that means you are too junior and the only cure is seniority, period.
12-26-2021 | 05:38 PM
#20
Gets Weekends Off
Joined: Feb 2018
Posts: 162
Likes: 0
I guess I don’t see it as entitled. I’m not trying to get sweet layovers, or commutable lines, or deadheads with lots of soft time, or trips with LCAs that get bought. I literally want to fly my MPG as quickly as possible, and go home to my family. 5 hours per day is a terrible batting average, especially when you’ve got a 89 hour month. Put me in coach. I’ll get 8 hours of block time a day if I can manage it. I’ve got 4 young kids and all I want is time with them. I’ve tried dropping and trading trips that CCS says are legal and I have yet to get a trip traded (I’m trading into open time trips or trips that other guys want to drop). I’ve used BidNav without any success (asked for low credit line, got 89 hours). Maybe this is part of the learning curve? Perhaps this is just the way it is, and my expectations of time away from work are unrealistic? I’m still trying to figure it out, but if I’m away from home 18 days a month, my wife is going to make me find a different job.
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