Re: Vacation
 

Has anyone seen their vacation award yet by any chance? I thought it was supposed to be released today.

It seems the awards are out, just didn't get anything, which is first since I bid in the off times. I took a screen shot of my bid, anyone know who I should be contacting?

They're out. Go to flying together>pilot>manpower planning>vacation.

did you put in a bid for every possible bid week? If not, you might be too junior to hold the week you had on your bid groups. I know they produce a master list that you can see all the awards... should be on flying together i'm pretty sure... maybe who to contact on that site?

You can also see what you were awarded if you look at vacation modification in CCS and select the current year.

Thanks for the input. It is strange, I can't even see anything regarding my original bid, almost as if it wasn't there. Of course, no one is responding to my email trying to verify that my bid was even run. I will try to look at the master list and see how that lines up.

your bid group disappears when the award is completed... and will reappear when they reload round 2. I just logged onto flying together and the master list of dates awarded (by pilot name), what bid group, and what weeks are listed for everyone...

I bid for 21 days, many possibilities, so-so many. got 7 days awarded. This vacation bid is BS.

Old Cal system held back some good weeks for the last couple bids, on this system the really Senior guys grab it all on the first one or two bids. I think you really need to be over 50% to get the good weeks.

21 day string is hard to get unless your in the upper 30-40%... and if its over a big holiday you have to be in the top 10%. I bid obscure dates nobody wants and get my first couple bids every time :)

Advice For Junior Types
 

Pro Tip 1: If you have kids in school, bid their spring/fall breaks. If you don't have kids in school, bid dates just before school ends or after school starts.

Pro Tip 2: Bid for late in the vacation year and try to move up in the monthly vacation bid.

Pro Tip 3: If you are so junior it doesn't matter, try to use the vacation drop. *cough*

For someone quite junior, that's key! Bidding all the weeks means you'll get something awarded first cycle, and it will be the best you can do in any cycle. If you don't do this then in the second cycle those senior to you will take the leftover weeks from cycle one (which you could have had) and by the time it gets to you there will be even fewer decent weeks available. This is basically my bid,

Group One: Christmas, Thanksgiving, and a couple of other specific weeks I really want, then every week chronologically from Jul to Dec. I know I won't get the holidays, but you gotta try, then it's guaranteed you'll get the best Fall week your seniority will hold.

Group Two. Same as group one, except every week reverse chronologically from week 52 to Christmas, which will give you the best Spring week your seniority will hold.

If someone got zero weeks awarded on the first cycle this might be a good strategy on the second cycle, except there's no need to bid slots that have zero availability.

If there's nothing good left you can always use a week for the Super Bowl!

Great advice. Bid all 52 weeks....or at least the ones you really care about. I bid the holidays then every week in the summer at a minimum.

Unlike the old UAL contract there is no move up in the current contract. So bidding all late in the year doesn't make that moveable. If you want vacation to bid in the monthly rounds you should have selected the minimum number of required days in the declaration phase. Those undeclared days are the ones you bid in the monthly rounds. Also if you have your vacation canceled for training those days become available for monthly bidding.

not correct!
I moved two weeks from this winter forward to last summer in the monthly bids.
If you have unassigned you can bid for that in monthly as well, but when you go into the monthly vacation bidding you will see the option to request to move forward future assigned vacation as well.

Was it a trade or a move up. I swear I read no move ups in the current agreement.

I moved a week from January and a week from February both forward to July.

Couldn't believe I got it because it is always staffing dependent, but I put it in the system and it came through.

Helped that I was on the 747 and they were overstaffed, but the system is set up to have you select which vacation you would like to move, so it is definitely legal. If they have the staffing to allow for more vacation to be taken than is currently assigned to annual folks, it goes out in seniority order. (to those who ask)

All that matters is that you get vacation during Oshkosh and Reno.

Pro Tip 1.......Success!!!

Several times I've had rips assigned over Reno, and the crew desk could not figure out why so many in SFO were calling in sick over a particular weekend in Sept....:cool: