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SCHEDULING MATTERS

Vacations Matter

Our vacation section is the best in the industry. It is flexible and generous yet complex. In the next series of

articles we’ll help you understand the many benefits and the limitations of Section 7 so you can customize and

enjoy the time off you’ve earned.

The first article in this series will address some vacation basics that apply to all pilots (accrual and bidding) and

regular line holders’ options. Future articles will cover some examples of strategies available to maximize your

vacation benefit then reserve pilots’ vacation utilization options.

Basics and Definitions

For a regular line holder, the vacation bank is only charged when a trip conflicts with a vacation period as slid

or expanded (7.G.1). Reserve line holders will be covered in a future article. A “vacation period” is the series of

vacation days taken together (7.A.2). Or for you visual learners out there, that’s the red line with “VAC” on your

schedule. In common pilot speak, we often say, “vacation footprint” but for commonality with the contract, we’ll

use “vacation period.”

The “vacation day” corresponds to the local base day (7.A.2). So that’s 0130L for everybody except EUR, which

is 0215L (25.A.2). Which means, if you have a domestic trip which ends at 0129L the day prior to your vacation it

won’t be dropped. International trips are slightly different. If a pilot slides his vacation to within 48 hours of a trip

in which the last duty period is international then it will be dropped. Also, if the pilot does not slide his vacation

yet an international trip over 120 hours TAFB falls within 48 hours of his vacation period the trip will also be

dropped (7.G.1 and 7.E.2.c.).

Only trips on your awarded line can conflict with vacation (7.G.1). In other words, you can’t pick up a trip during

the View/Add Window or once open time is released and then conflict it with your vacation period (7.A.3)

You can’t fly over your vacation period. Period. (Remember: A vacation period is that red line on your schedule.)

No make-up, no draft, no nada (7.A.4).

If you don’t have any credit hours in your vacation bank, you won’t get a vacation period that month (i.e., if you

used up all your vacation bank, and you still have a week of vacation in November, you won’t have a vacation

period to use in November (7.A.5)).

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Vacation Accrual After your service milestones of years 1, 5, 10 and 20 your vacation

benefit increases (7.B).

Didn’t get hired on January 1? As you approach each of these service

milestones, there is a pro rata formula in Section 7.B.5 that determines

how many days of vacation you’ll receive.

Each day of vacation is worth 6 CH. So if you have a vacation period of

7 days, you’ll have 42 CH to use at the start of that month.

►Heads Up: You must be on active pay status for 10 months or have

an on-the-job injury in a calendar year to accrue a full year’s worth of

vacation. If you put in less than 10 months worth of active employment due to retirement, furlough, disability,

or unpaid leave, you’ll accrue 1/10th of your normal vacation for every month you were available. What’s a full

month? Don’t be gone for more than 15 days (Section 7.B.2).

Bidding for Vacation (7.C) Like everything, we bid on vacation, and we do it in four rounds

with the first round starting when the August bid packs come out.

You can take your vacation in as many as 4 separate periods as

long as the period contains a minimum of seven days (7.D).

For example, if you had 15 days of vacation you could take your

vacations in chunks of 8 days and 7 days or take all 15 days in one

shot. If you had 29 days of vacation, you could take your days in

chunks of 7, 7, 7, 8 or 10, 10, 9 or 15, 7, 7 or even just 29 days all

at once.

The number of days you wish to take in each round determines

the number of slots that needs to be available (VIPS>Vacation

System>Vacation Bidding Procedures).

How to Move Your Vacation

In the unlikely event there’s an open slot available after all the bidding is over, you can simply swap

with that available week (VIPS>Vacation System>Vacation Swap Information). E-mail cavacdesk@corp.

ds.fedex.com for Captains or fovacdesk@corp.ds.fedex.com for FO’s to check availability and with your

request after October 31.

If no slots are available, you can check the list of pilots’ scheduled vacation (VIPS>Vacation

Years of Service Days of Vacation

1 15

5 22

10 29

20 36

Days to take Slots Needed

7–10 One

11–17 Two

18–24 Three

25–32 Four

33–36 Five

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System>Vacation Schedule) and start typing emails to see if anybody is interested in a swap. What if you

completely forgot to submit a vacation bid? Don’t worry, you can just bid in the next round in your normal

seniority order. And if you still have vacation periods left after the four rounds are over, the company will

assign at their discretion (7.C.4).

Sliding Your Vacation Week Whatever trips the vacation period touches are dropped. Period. How many hours you have in your

vacation bank or how many vacation days you have in your vacation period does not matter. If that trip is

on the red line on your calendar (the vacation period), you’re not responsible to fly and you will be paid the

value of the trip.

Regular line holders can slide their vacation period five days in either direction during the Conflict Input

Window so that it either touches or avoids a trip (7.E.2.a). For example, if you have 7 days of vacation

starting May 16, you could slide it two days to the right to touch more trips.

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How about those vacation weeks in either the first or last weeks of a bid month? They can also be slid either

direction to affect trips in the previous or subsequent bid month.

For example: Say you’re awarded a line with flying weeks 2, 3, and 4 of May yet you have vacation the first week

of June. During the Conflict Input Window for May (which is open mid-April), you can slide that June vacation

week into May and knock out some week 4 trips.

►Heads Up: Once that vacation week is slid, it’s done. So you can’t slide it around when your June schedule

comes out. You get one slide per vacation period.

What if you have 1 hour in your vacation bank and your vacation touches a 96 CH trip? A touch is a touch. It’s

gone and you will be paid 96 CH (7.E.2.d) but be sure to read the vacation deficit discussion below.

And if you have 42 CH in your vacation period, but you only touch a 9 CH trip? You keep the remaining 33 CH

for future use (expansion, the next vacation period, end of year vacation buy back), and 9 hours comes out of

your vacation bank.

►Heads Up: You can’t slide your vacation forward (left) from December into November or from January into

December (7.E.2.a).

Expansion If sliding five days wasn’t enough customization, then you can expand your vacation.

After you’ve slid your vacation to where you want it, you can expand it up to your remaining credit hours (CH)

for the month plus an additional 6 CH (7.E.3.b).

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For example, say you have 7 days of vacation, which means you have 7 days x 6 CH/day = 42 CH to work

with. Temporarily forget that you have a 7-day vacation period because the number you really care about is

42 CH. Additionally, we’re given the option to expand an extra 6 CH (7.E.3.b) if need be. So, the potential max

vacation credit you’re working with is 48 CH.

An example: You get a line in May. You slide (or not) your vacation period, but it remains within May, and it

touches 30:54 CH worth of trips.

You still want more time off so, in this example, you expand to touch up to a total of 43:48 CH worth of trips

all within May. Why not expand to 48:00 CH? That last BOS trip on the 25th would have put you over 48 CH.

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Enjoy that big stretch of time off.

Next example: Your vacation is the last week in May. And since you paid attention to the slide section, you slid

your vacation five days to the right and partially into June. Now you can expand into either May or June or both!

But you can only touch trips that add up to 48 CH between both months (7.E.3.b and c).

First slide to the right:

Then expand back to the left up to 48 CH (but in this example we’ll only knock out 18 CH).

Now you've saved 30 CH that you can expand into June.

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►Heads Up #1: You can’t expand outside a month in which your vacation lies. Unless you slide your vacation

into the previous or following month, you have to take it all within the month your vacation lies (7.E.3.c). In

pilot-speak, that means if your vacation period lies entirely within May, you can’t expand into April or June.

►Heads Up #2: You can only expand to touch consecutive trips. No leap frogging a trip to touch another

(7.E.3.b).

►Heads Up #3: You can expand to go negative, but once you go negative you cannot expand any further.

(e.g. you have 30 CH in the vacation bank, 1 trip of 15 CH is in direct conflict with your vacation period, the

next trip is 13 CH and the next trip is 6 CH = 34 CH. You can expand to hit the 13 CH trip and the 6 CH, but

you cannot expand any further because you are now in the negative -4 CH. (7.A.2 & 7.E.3.b).

►Heads Up #4: Heads Up #4: You can’t expand to touch trips that operate over Thanksgiving Day,

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Year’s Eve or Day (7.E.3.d). Slide yes, expansion no.

Why Slide When You Can Expand (and Vice Versa)?Slide:

• Can work in the months before or after your current bid month.

• Knocks out as many hours as the trips it touches no matter how many hours are in your bank.

• Can knock out trips over the holidays.

• Can move your vacation period (red line) to a different week so you’re available to fly if you so choose.

Expansion:

• Can extend your time free from work outside your vacation period.

• Can maximize your time off by hitting trips you couldn’t reach with just a slide.

Vacation Buy BackTrying to nudge up that W-2? Not taking your vacation can help. Two types of “buy back” may be available.

The first option, which is always available, is if you still have credit hours remaining in your vacation bank

after your last vacation period of the year the company will buy back up to 40 percent of your yearly vacation

allotment (7.G.6.a).

For example: A 7-year pilot has accumulated 22 days x 6 CH/days or 132 CH for the year. If she only takes 80

CH of vacation throughout the year, the company will cut her a check for the remaining 52 CH prior to the end of

the year.

But at which pay rate? At the pay rate you held at the beginning of the bid period in which the buy back is

paid (7.G.6.a).

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The second option may be available when the company is short staffed in a particular seat. If offered, you

can voluntarily cancel your own vacation in a given bid month (7.I.2). You’ll then receive a 24-CH “thank you”

from the company plus the value of your vacation period you sold back. So, say you didn’t have any plans for

those 7 days of vacation in May, and the company offers to buy it back. You would receive 24 CH (thank you)

+ 42 CH (7 days x 6 CH) + normal BLG (7.I.2)

Selling back your vacation in May doesn’t affect the 40 percent buy back possibility at the end of the year

(7.G.6.a).

Vacation DeficitsIf you have 32 CH in your vacation bank left for the year, yet your vacation period touched a 40 CH trip (either

intentionally or unintentionally), what happens? You have a deficit . . . but you may want it.

When you get into a vacation deficit, you have a few options:

1. Let it go. You’ll start the next year with your vacation bank reduced by your vacation deficit (7.F).

2. Make up the 8 CH during the View Add Window. In fact, you can reach a bit and make up 14 CH (the

original 8 + an additional 6), but you only get View Add Window privileges during the month in which

you had a vacation period that put you in a deficit (7.G.5.a).

3. Make up those vacation hours anytime throughout the year through the normal make-up process

(7.G.5.b & 25.L.6). Essentially, rather than picking up a trip as normal make-up (M/U), you’ll pick up a

trip as Make Up Vacation (MUV), but you’ll be doing it at one of the lowest priorities (25.L.6.b.vii).

Vacation ReductionDon’t want a vacation deficit? If you’re going to have one during your last vacation period, you can reduce the

number of vacation days in your vacation period during the Conflict Input Window (7.G.4).

The International BufferWhen you have international trips greater than 120 TAFB the red line on your calendar affects more than just the

trips it directly touches.

International trips over 120 TAFB have a buffer of 24 hours before the trip and 48 hours after the trip (12.D.1.d.i/

ii and 7.G.1). If your vacation period touches either the trip itself or one of these buffers, the trip will drop (7.G.1).

And yes, you can slide your trip to conflict with these buffers to cause the drop (7.E.2.c).

►Heads Up #1: “International” means anything outside of the contiguous 48 states, Canada, Mexico and

Puerto Rico.

►Heads Up #2: If you slide your vacation to within 48 hours of the end of a trip in which the last activity is an

international duty period that trip will drop (7.E.2.c.).

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Summary

Who knew taking time off could be so complicated? But precisely because it’s so complicated is why our

vacation benefit is so flexible and popular. Taking the time to understand the nuts and bolts of Section 7 yields

more time off or more pay or both.

Did you learn something about scheduling? Be sure to check out the Scheduling Matters archive for more

articles on how to use the benefits you have earned.

In Unity,

ALPA FedEx Scheduling Committee