Vacation
Vacation Management System Guide
The Vacation Management System (VMS) allows you to bid and/or manage the monthly processes related to your vacation days.
Annual Vacation Bid & Award Guide
The Annual Vacation Bid and Award (AVBA) allows you to bid and/or manage your annually accrued vacation days.
Leave of Absence Vacation Guide
APFA Guide to How Vacation Works for Flight Attendants who have been out on the PVLOA, EVLOA, and STLOA leaves.
Vacation Bidding Calendar
Vacation Hotlines
Gift Vacation Policy
Gift Vacation Days Policy is a voluntary program designed to assist eligible team members.
Gift Vacation Days Policy
Gift Vacation Donation Form
Annual Vacation Bidding
Vacation Guide
Crew Bid Month Calendars
Vacation Tips and Terms
Annual Buyback
Occurs once a year prior to primary vacation bidding. You may bid to buyback a portion of or all of your net accrual. Opening and closing dates are shown. You may add/edit your yearly buyback bid by clicking on the tab to the right.
Primary Bidding
Shows opening and closing dates and will display the number of days awarded during primary bidding.
Secondary Bidding
Shows opening and closing dates. Your remaining accrual indicates how many days you are bidding for, if any, in the secondary round. Secondary Award and Assignment will show how many days you were awarded and/or assigned in the secondary round. You will only bid in the secondary round if you did not bid enough in the primary round to award all of your vacation days. Additionally, if you have unscheduled days carrying forward from the previous vacation year, you may only bid them during the secondary round. If you do not bid or did not input enough bids to be awarded all of your vacation days, your days will be assigned in the secondary round.
Adding Date Range
You do not have to bid within a contractual or calendar month. Your blocks of vacation days may encompass more than one month. For example, you could bid to have vacation days start on June 27th and end of July 5th.
You have the option of bidding in ascending or descending date ranges. For example, you may bid to prioritize the end of the month over the beginning of the month by bidding a 7-day block with a descending date range starting on March 31 and ending on March 1. If you bid in this way, the system will look for a 7-day block you can hold at your seniority starting on March 31st. If it is unable to award you a block starting on the 31st, it will continue to look for a 7-day block, in descending dates and will award if you can hold such a block within that date range.
Be sure to specify the minimum and maximum number of days you are bidding within the date range you are entering. For example, if you want a 7-day block between March 31st and March 1st, you would bid for a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 7 days. This indicates to the system that you want no more and no less than a 7-day block within the date range. If you are willing to be awarded less than 7 days in that block, you could enter the minimum number of days desired.
Example: You would like 7 days of vacation from May 16 – May 22. Just in case you can’t hold that 7 day block, your second choice might be to expand the range of days to May 12 through May 26, to ensure that you are awarded vacation as close to your desired block of days as possible. Then, you might enter a third choice of May 30 – May 2, with 7 days in that range. This way you would get the first available 7-day block starting at the end of the month going to the beginning, since the days you want are towards the second half of the month. If you aren’t senior enough to hold all 7 days within that date range you might consider lowering the minimum number of days you are requesting in order to get as many desired days in your vacation block as possible.
Buddy Bidding
- Buddy Bidding for Vacation is allowed
- A Vacation Buddy Bid is processed at the JUNIOR Flight Attendant’s seniority
- You may only buddy bid with one Flight Attendant
- The buddy bid ballots must be identical
- Both buddy bidders must have the other employee’s number on their ballots – the system will not recognize the buddy bid without it
Vacation Bidding Tips
- If you have an anniversary pay increase, you could bid your vacation AFTER your anniversary to increase your vacation pay.
- 7 or more consecutive days are paid at 4.0 hours per day; 6 or less consecutive days are paid at 3.5 hours per day.
- You may have as many splits of your vacation as you want – however, you may only choose to have one split that is 3 or less consecutive days. The other splits must be 4 or more consecutive days.
- You may bid all your days in one vacation, but any vacation of 28 days or more in one bid month will not leave you enough hours to bid a trip to receive premium pay.
- If you have 7 or more days of vacation in your line or RSV month your days off will be pro-rated. You can find the proration chart in Section 10.D.18.d.
- If you bid down (senior bump) to reserve in a month where you have more than 3 days of vacation, you will not fulfill your reserve obligation for that month.
- You are only able to attach VEX days (up to 4 days) to a vacation of 7 or more consecutive days.
- Contractual language pertaining to vacation may be found in JCBA Section 8.
- Any questions about bidding or accrual should be sent to: [email protected]
- Remember annual bidding is just the “first draft” of vacation bidding. The Monthly Rebid opens every month from the 1st to the 10th and allows you to rebid your vacation.
Annual Buyback
Occurs once a year prior to primary vacation bidding. You may bid to buyback a portion of or all of your net accrual. Opening and closing dates are shown. You may add/edit your yearly buyback bid by clicking on the tab to the right.
Primary Bidding
Shows opening and closing dates and will display the number of days awarded during primary bidding.
Secondary Bidding
Shows opening and closing dates. Your remaining accrual indicates how many days you are bidding for, if any, in the secondary round. Secondary Award and Assignment will show how many days you were awarded and/or assigned in the secondary round. You will only bid in the secondary round if you did not bid enough in the primary round to award all of your vacation days. Additionally, if you have unscheduled days carrying forward from the previous vacation year, you may only bid them during the secondary round. If you do not bid or did not input enough bids to be awarded all of your vacation days, your days will be assigned in the secondary round.
Adding Date Range
You do not have to bid within a contractual or calendar month. Your blocks of vacation days may encompass more than one month. For example, you could bid to have vacation days start on June 27th and end of July 5th.
You have the option of bidding in ascending or descending date ranges. For example, you may bid to prioritize the end of the month over the beginning of the month by bidding a 7-day block with a descending date range starting on March 31 and ending on March 1. If you bid in this way, the system will look for a 7-day block you can hold at your seniority starting on March 31st. If it is unable to award you a block starting on the 31st, it will continue to look for a 7-day block, in descending dates and will award if you can hold such a block within that date range.
Be sure to specify the minimum and maximum number of days you are bidding within the date range you are entering. For example, if you want a 7-day block between March 31st and March 1st, you would bid for a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 7 days. This indicates to the system that you want no more and no less than a 7-day block within the date range. If you are willing to be awarded less than 7 days in that block, you could enter the minimum number of days desired.
Example: You would like 7 days of vacation from May 16 – May 22. Just in case you can’t hold that 7 day block, your second choice might be to expand the range of days to May 12 through May 26, to ensure that you are awarded vacation as close to your desired block of days as possible. Then, you might enter a third choice of May 30 – May 2, with 7 days in that range. This way you would get the first available 7-day block starting at the end of the month going to the beginning, since the days you want are towards the second half of the month. If you aren’t senior enough to hold all 7 days within that date range you might consider lowering the minimum number of days you are requesting in order to get as many desired days in your vacation block as possible.
Buddy Bidding
- Buddy Bidding for Vacation is allowed
- A Vacation Buddy Bid is processed at the JUNIOR Flight Attendant’s seniority
- You may only buddy bid with one Flight Attendant
- The buddy bid ballots must be identical
- Both buddy bidders must have the other employee’s number on their ballots – the system will not recognize the buddy bid without it
Vacation Bidding Tips
- If you have an anniversary pay increase, you could bid your vacation AFTER your anniversary to increase your vacation pay.
- 7 or more consecutive days are paid at 4.0 hours per day; 6 or less consecutive days are paid at 3.5 hours per day.
- You may have as many splits of your vacation as you want – however, you may only choose to have one split that is 3 or less consecutive days. The other splits must be 4 or more consecutive days.
- You may bid all your days in one vacation, but any vacation of 28 days or more in one bid month will not leave you enough hours to bid a trip to receive premium pay.
- If you have 7 or more days of vacation in your line or RSV month your days off will be pro-rated. You can find the proration chart in Section 10.D.18.d.
- If you bid down (senior bump) to reserve in a month where you have more than 3 days of vacation, you will not fulfill your reserve obligation for that month.
- You are only able to attach VEX days (up to 4 days) to a vacation of 7 or more consecutive days.
- Contractual language pertaining to vacation may be found in JCBA Section 8.
- Any questions about bidding or accrual should be sent to: [email protected]
- Remember annual bidding is just the “first draft” of vacation bidding. The Monthly Rebid opens every month from the 1st to the 10th and allows you to rebid your vacation.
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Monthly Rebid
The Vacation Monthly Rebid (MRB) is a monthly process which allows you to change your scheduled vacation days by bidding for days not awarded in the annual bid and/or days vacated by Flight Attendants due to retirement, leaves of absence, transfers or as a result of a previous monthly rebid. The MRB matrix contains vacation days not awarded in the annual bid and/or vacation days vacated by Flight Attendants due to retirement, leaves of absence, transfers or as a result of a previous monthly rebid.
The monthly rebid is awarded in seniority order. You can be awarded a maximum of one bid per ballot; however, a bid from each of your ballots can be awarded. The system will first attempt to award you from Ballot 1. If your primary bid is not awarded, it will move to your first alternate bid, then your second alternate bid, and so on. Once a bid is awarded from a ballot, the system will not look at the remaining bids in that ballot. Instead, it will move on to Ballot 2.
Rebid Timeline
Action | Date | Time | When |
Opens | 1st of the month | Noon (CT) | 2 months prior |
Closes | 10th of the month | Noon (CT) | 2 months prior |
Awarded | 11th of the month | Noon (CT) | 2 months prior |
Vacation Management System
You must access the Vacation Management System by logging into Crew Portal and selecting Monthly Bids > Vacation. Before you submit your rebid, review the monthly rebid matrix, which will show days available for rebid. Select the Monthly Rebid Tab.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you do not change the listed vacation month. This indicates the month for which the monthly rebids are available and beyond for the remainder of the fiscal year. If you change it to another month, it will show it is closed.
Red denotes the day is unavailable to rebid, while green is available to rebid.
A common strategy for rebidding is to obtain 7 (or more) consecutive days to increase the daily paid value and to be able to add VEX days.
How to Bid
Step 1
Step 1 - Getting Started
First, click the "Add / view MRB ballots" button:
Step 2
Step 2 - Add Ballot
Next, click the "Add ballot" button:
Step 3
Step 3 - Unscheduled Days tab
Next, under the Unscheduled Days tab you will find your previously cancelled days to rebid. Click the "Add bid to ballot" to add a bid:
Step 4
Step 4 - Calendar Appears
After clicking on 'add bid to ballot', a calendar for the selected month will appear. The calendar will not show the dates that are available or unavailable so you must know this ahead of time.
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Last Step
Final Step
Once you have selected the month in which you wish to rebid your days, you will need to select a Bid Start date and a Bid End date.
When you are entering the MAX and MIN days, the MAX day corresponds with the total amount of days you would like to be awarded, and the MIN is the minimum days you would like to be awarded.
Then click "Add ballot":
That's it!
While your ballot is saved automatically, it is recommended to either screen shot your ballot or export to pdf and save/print a copy.
Tips to keep in mind while bidding
- If you are trying to move an existing vacation that was not cancelled out by the PVLOA, it is very important to remember the calendar will not show/indicate where you previously held or currently hold vacation. Additionally, there is no validation process for your rebid, so you must know your current vacation days and where you are bidding.
- As you are rebidding your days, you will need to place them in order of importance, and list them horizontally across the ballot.
- Be cautious, the system allows you to enter any dates and does not alert you if you inadvertently enter a vacation date that does not belong to you. Carefully review your work to avoid entering incorrect days.
- Although the system allows you to enter any days in the year, only those available in the MRB matrix can be awarded.
- You may only have a single block of three or less vacation days. You should take this contractual limit into consideration when creating your bids.
- You may reorder your bids by clicking and dragging.
Adding Multiple Ballots
You are able to add multiple ballots for the same month, and even the same time period. The MRB process will look to see if you can hold the first request, then second, and so forth until your request is either satisfied or the system has considered all of your ballots. Additionally, you can add multiple bids and ballots, but only one bid from any ballot will be awarded. If you want to request multiple moves, multiple ballots are advised.
Tips to keep in mind while bidding
- If you are trying to move an existing vacation that was not cancelled out by the PVLOA, it is very important to remember the calendar will not show/indicate where you previously held or currently hold vacation. Additionally, there is no validation process for your rebid, so you must know your current vacation days and where you are bidding.
- As you are rebidding your days, you will need to place them in order of importance, and list them horizontally across the ballot.
- Be cautious, the system allows you to enter any dates and does not alert you if you inadvertently enter a vacation date that does not belong to you. Carefully review your work to avoid entering incorrect days.
- Although the system allows you to enter any days in the year, only those available in the MRB matrix can be awarded.
- You may only have a single block of three or less vacation days. You should take this contractual limit into consideration when creating your bids.
- You may reorder your bids by clicking and dragging.
Adding Multiple Ballots
You are able to add multiple ballots for the same month, and even the same time period. The MRB process will look to see if you can hold the first request, then second, and so forth until your request is either satisfied or the system has considered all of your ballots. Additionally, you can add multiple bids and ballots, but only one bid from any ballot will be awarded. If you want to request multiple moves, multiple ballots are advised.
Filler Days
- This is an optional bid type.
- Filler days are part of your accrued days that may be set aside and placed later in a monthly filler day bid process. It allows you to designate up to 20% (or up to 6 days maximum) of your accrued vacation days as filler days during the annual vacation bid. You do not bid for the dates you want your filler days to occur. Instead, you are only bidding how many days, if any, you would like to set aside as filler days.
- Filler days may be designated (up to your max allowed) during the primary or secondary bid period. They are not awarded based on seniority; anyone who designates filler days during the annual vacation bid will receive them.
- You don’t have to designate filler days – it’s your option.
- If you elect to designate filler days during the annual vacation bid, you can participate in the monthly filler day bid for the months you would like to schedule your filler days. Monthly filler day bids are awarded in seniority order.
- Filler days will not be bid with the calendar date range–you just need to decide how many filler days you might like to set aside and bid later.
Quick guide to
Bidding Filler Days
- Change the Bid Type to Filler Days.
- Notice that the Start Date and End Date are now gray, and you can’t enter dates in those areas.
- The Max Days now shows the maximum number of days you can designate as Filler Days.
- With Filler Days, you are bidding to have a maximum number of days selected only.
- These are the days that will be set aside to be bid for specific days later.
- Click 'add to ballot'.
Why Bid Filler Days
A good example of why you would designate filler days is you know there is a special event next year, but you’re not sure exactly when it will be. By choosing filler days, you can bid to place them once you know when your event date has been determined rather than relying on holding those days off in PBS.
How to Bid for Filler Days
To create a bid for filler days, first select Filler Days as the bid type. Upon doing so, the Start Date, End Date, and Min Days fields are grayed out and become inactive. This is because during the annual vacation bid you cannot bid for the dates you want your filler days to occur; you can only bid for the number of days, if any, you would like to have awarded as filler days.
The system automatically calculates the maximum number of filler days you are able to bid for and populates your choices in the dropdown list accordingly. Keep in mind, the number of max filler days is included in your accrual total, not in addition to. For example, if your total accrual is 31 days, your max filler day amount is 6 days (20% of your total accrual). This does not mean you have 31 days + 6 days for a total of 37 days. It simply means out of your 31 days, you may bid up to 6 of them as filler days.
- In the Max Days field, select the number of days you want and click Add to ballot.
- After you have created either a date range bid or a filler day bid, continue adding alternate bids to your ballot, if desired. To do so, click the Add bid to ballot button again.
- You may only have a total of eight bids per ballot. If you attempt to add bids beyond this limit, you will receive an error message.
On the other hand, there is no limit as to how many ballots you may enter. When you are ready to create a second ballot, simply click the Add ballot button again. A new ballot will appear. Proceed by clicking the Add bid to ballot button in line with the newly created ballot. Continue this process until you have finished entering your primary bid.
Filler Day Matrix
Contains vacation days solely dedicated for filler day use based on the number of filler days awarded but not less than 5% of average vacation days allotted in the yearly matrix. Contractually, every day of every month has at least one filler day allotted (per base). If vacation days remain available for the following month after the monthly rebid, these days are added to that month’s filler day matrix.
Annual Filler Day Matrix
Displays the total amount of filler days by base at the time the annual vacation bid opens and is found under the tab in VMS (see pg. 82). The amounts displayed may increase throughout the year, but they will never decrease. The annual filler day matrices should be used as a reference only. During the annual vacation bid, you are simply designating how many days, if any, you would like as filler days. You are unable to bid for the dates you want your filler days scheduled. After the annual vacation bid, you will bid for desired dates during the monthly filler day bid periods.
Filler Day Tips
- The filler day matrix (located under the links tab in VMS, see pg. 82) can be used as a reference during the annual vacation bid
- Once you have been awarded filler days from the annual vacation bid, you will use VMS to bid for desired dates during the monthly filler day bid period
- Although filler days are initially awarded during the annual bid, this does not guarantee you will be awarded desired dates from the monthly filler day bids
- Any unused filler days at the end of the fiscal year will not carry-forward, rather they will be paid out at a rate of 3.5 hours per day
- If you bid a mixture of date range and filler day bids within the same ballot, only one of the bids per ballot may be awarded
- Because filler days are awarded to anyone who bids them, it is typically recommended to bid filler days in your first or last ballot; depending on your strategy
- You do not have to create bids for varying numbers of filler days depending upon the number of days you may have left over. The system will automatically adjust your filler day bid based on the number of days you have left. For example if you bid 5 filler days, depending on how your date range bids are awarded, you may only have 3 days left when the system gets to your filler day bid, so the system will automatically award you the 3 filler days.
Vacation Premiums
Contractually, you will receive each applicable pay premium for your vacation hours if all awarded credit hours are inclusive of any single premium(s), (e.g., 100% speaker award). Premiums for vacation include the following pay categories:
— Purser/Position 01/Lead*
— Aft Lead/Galley*
— Speaker (each pairing must contain at least one leg of speaker flying)
— International* (IPD or NIPD)
— CRAF
*Blends the rate if different pay rates apply
Premium Pay Example
You have a vacation block of 7 days (28 hours) in the month.
— You receive a PBS award of pure Purser sequences worth a total of 45 hours
— You will receive Purser premium pay for your entire vacation block of 28 hours
Blended Rate Example
You have a vacation block of 10 days (40 hours) in the month.
— You receive a PBS award of pure Lead sequences worth a total of 30 hours (15 hours on the A321T / 15 hours on the A319)
— You will receive a blended rate of Lead premium pay for your 40 hours of vacation (20 hours of your vacation will receive the A321T Lead rate / 20 hours of your vacation will receive the A319 Lead rate)
Premium Pay Example
You have a vacation block of 7 days (28 hours) in the month.
— You receive a PBS award of pure Purser sequences worth a total of 45 hours
— You will receive Purser premium pay for your entire vacation block of 28 hours
Blended Rate Example
You have a vacation block of 10 days (40 hours) in the month.
— You receive a PBS award of pure Lead sequences worth a total of 30 hours (15 hours on the A321T / 15 hours on the A319)
— You will receive a blended rate of Lead premium pay for your 40 hours of vacation (20 hours of your vacation will receive the A321T Lead rate / 20 hours of your vacation will receive the A319 Lead rate)
Purser, Lead, Aft and Galley Position Premium Pay
* One Galley position per class of service, i.e. 3 class of service = 3 Galley positions, two class of service = 2 Galley positions
Speaker pay: $2.00
Trading
Flight attendants can create vacation trade posts or search for trades through the ETB just like any other type of transaction. Vacation day trades are processed automatically and will be reflected immediately on your schedule.
Trading vacation days is similar to doing a trip trade. Trade requests must be fore the same number of days.
Vacation Trading Rules
1. Trades cannot create an additional grouping of 3 or less days.
Example: You accrued 12 days of vacation this year. You bid a block of 9 days and a block of 3 days. You could not take 3 days from the 9 day block to trade because that would create an additional group of 3 days. If you do not have a vacation grouping of 3 days or less, you may trade into one.
2. The deadline for submitting a vacation trade is the 5th of the month, prior to the vacation. In other words, if you want to trade your January vacation for a March vacation, it must be submitted by Dec 5th.
Buyback
The Vacation Management System (VMS) User Guide and the Annual Vacation Bid & Award (AVBA) User Guide are found under Crew Change on Jetnet. For further information, contact the Flight Attendant Vacation Department at 1-800-VIP-CREW #, 8 or by email at [email protected].
Annual Vacation Buyback
The JCBA provides the opportunity for Flight Attendants to participate in the buyback of accrued vacation days. The company is contractually required to provide annual buyback of a minimum of 5.5% of the total annual crew base vacation accrual (8.F.1) prior to the annual vacation bidding process. Buyback awards will be processed in seniority order by base. Any days that are awarded in the annual buyback will be removed from your accrual and you will not be able to bid for those in either the primary or secondary round of vacation bidding.
You may access the Annual Vacation Bid and Award (AVBA) via Crew Portal under the monthly bidding tab. Click on Monthly Bids then Vacation.
Buyback Payment
You may choose to participate in the buyback for a portion or all your vacation days and they are paid according to:
— If you are selling back 1-6 days, it will be paid out at 3:30 hours per day
— If you are selling back 7 or more days, it will be paid out at 4:00 hour day.
— Premiums are not paid out on vacation buyback
Buyback Awards
Vacation buyback is awarded by base, in seniority order within the base and will be paid out on the first paycheck of June. You can also participate in monthly vacation buyback but only if it is offered for those specific months.
Annual Accrual
Your annual accrual will show on the AVBA summary page. You may view your accrued sick hours and vacation days in Crew Portal by selecting “Last Year SK/VC Accrual – (HISK/L)”. Check the “AAC SK/VC” Column in the HISK to verify if you have accrued sick and vacation for the month.
Buyback Payment
You may choose to participate in the buyback for a portion or all your vacation days and they are paid according to:
— If you are selling back 1-6 days, it will be paid out at 3:30 hours per day
— If you are selling back 7 or more days, it will be paid out at 4:00 hour day.
— Premiums are not paid out on vacation buyback
Buyback Awards
Vacation buyback is awarded by base, in seniority order within the base and will be paid out on the first paycheck of June. You can also participate in monthly vacation buyback but only if it is offered for those specific months.
Annual Accrual
Your annual accrual will show on the AVBA summary page. You may view your accrued sick hours and vacation days in Crew Portal by selecting “Last Year SK/VC Accrual – (HISK/L)”. Check the “AAC SK/VC” Column in the HISK to verify if you have accrued sick and vacation for the month.
Monthy Vacation Buyback
Monthly buyback may be made available throughout the year at the company’s discretion.
If the company makes vacation buyback available on a monthly basis, any vacation block originating in the buyback month is eligible. If you are awarded monthly buyback, the preplanned vacation absence will be removed, as well as any adjoining VEX days.
Lineholder
If you are a Lineholder and you have vacation this month you may relinquish any vacation days the month in order to pick up more time.
A Lineholder Flight Attendant may relinquish any vacation days during the month. If you have carry-over vacation between two months, e.g., November/December, and you are a line holder in one month and a reserve in the other month, you must follow the guidelines established for Reserves and request the entire block in advance of the scheduled vacation.
Reserve
If you are a Reserve Flight Attendant, you may only relinquish vacation days not yet taken, and only a full block at a time. A Reserve Flight Attendant may not relinquish a vacation block if they have already picked up an ETB trip(s) on any day(s) within the block. Once a Reserve block is cancelled, the Flight Attendant will be obligated for all Reserve days within that block.
A Reserve Flight Attendant may only relinquish vacation days not yet taken, and only a full block at a time. A Reserve Flight Attendant may not relinquish a vacation block if she/he has already picked up an ETB trip(s) on any day(s) within the block. Once a Reserve block is cancelled, the Flight Attendant will be obligated for all reserve days within that block.
Awards and Pay
A Flight Attendant awarded a vacation buyback will have the designated vacations days removed. Pay for the block of days of vacation relinquished and the block of days of vacation remaining will be paid in accordance with the following:
A Flight Attendant will be paid for the relinquished vacation day(s) within the normal pay cycle at her/his applicable rate, excluding any premiums. Relinquished vacation days will be paid at four (4) hours per day for blocks of seven (7) or more consecutive days and three and one-half (3.5) hours per day if less than seven (7) consecutive days.A Flight Attendant will be paid for any scheduled vacation days remaining on schedule at her/his applicable rate, including applicable premiums. Schedule vacation days remaining on her/his schedule at four (4) hours per day if in blocks of seven (7) or more consecutive days and three and one-half (3.5) hours per day if less than seven (7) consecutive days. Premium pay (Lead, Purser, Aft, Galley, Speaker, International and CRAF) will be paid for scheduled vacation days remaining on her/his schedule.
The payment for vacation day(s) will be above the monthly guarantee for a Reserve and in addition to the Flight Attendant’s pay and credit for the full month. The vacation payout will not apply to the monthly maximum for the Flight Attendant.
Lineholder
If you are a Lineholder and you have vacation this month you may relinquish any vacation days the month in order to pick up more time.
A Lineholder Flight Attendant may relinquish any vacation days during the month. If you have carry-over vacation between two months, e.g., November/December, and you are a line holder in one month and a reserve in the other month, you must follow the guidelines established for Reserves and request the entire block in advance of the scheduled vacation.
Reserve
If you are a Reserve Flight Attendant, you may only relinquish vacation days not yet taken, and only a full block at a time. A Reserve Flight Attendant may not relinquish a vacation block if they have already picked up an ETB trip(s) on any day(s) within the block. Once a Reserve block is cancelled, the Flight Attendant will be obligated for all Reserve days within that block.
A Reserve Flight Attendant may only relinquish vacation days not yet taken, and only a full block at a time. A Reserve Flight Attendant may not relinquish a vacation block if she/he has already picked up an ETB trip(s) on any day(s) within the block. Once a Reserve block is cancelled, the Flight Attendant will be obligated for all reserve days within that block.
Awards and Pay
A Flight Attendant awarded a vacation buyback will have the designated vacations days removed. Pay for the block of days of vacation relinquished and the block of days of vacation remaining will be paid in accordance with the following:
A Flight Attendant will be paid for the relinquished vacation day(s) within the normal pay cycle at her/his applicable rate, excluding any premiums. Relinquished vacation days will be paid at four (4) hours per day for blocks of seven (7) or more consecutive days and three and one-half (3.5) hours per day if less than seven (7) consecutive days.A Flight Attendant will be paid for any scheduled vacation days remaining on schedule at her/his applicable rate, including applicable premiums. Schedule vacation days remaining on her/his schedule at four (4) hours per day if in blocks of seven (7) or more consecutive days and three and one-half (3.5) hours per day if less than seven (7) consecutive days. Premium pay (Lead, Purser, Aft, Galley, Speaker, International and CRAF) will be paid for scheduled vacation days remaining on her/his schedule.
The payment for vacation day(s) will be above the monthly guarantee for a Reserve and in addition to the Flight Attendant’s pay and credit for the full month. The vacation payout will not apply to the monthly maximum for the Flight Attendant.
Vacation Accrual
You are eligible for vacation accrual, subject to the completion of probation, according to years of service and number of months of active service in the preceding year. Vacation is accrued monthly in the calendar year: January 1st through December 31st. The number of vacation days you accrue is contractual, based on your years of active service.
Accrual Tab
The accrual tab allows you to view the months you’ve accrued vacation for the current and past calendar years (vacation is accrued from January 1st to December 31st). The default display is the current calendar year. You may select to view the previous calendar year, if desired.
Each month will display “Y” if you accrued or “N” if you did not accrue.
You must be active 15 or more days in a contractual month to accrue vacation. If you have less than 12 active months, your accrual will be pro-rated accordingly.
You are eligible for vacation on accrual according to number of active months in the previous year and years of service.
Accrual Chart
VEX Days
Vacation Extension [VEX] Days - If you have seven or more consecutive vacation days, you can request up to four VEX days per vacation block. There are no blackout dates for VEX days, and they are not seniority driven.
Requesting VEX Days
Step 1
Step 1 - Getting Started
To enter your VEX days go to VMS through Crew Portal (faportal.aa.com). Once you’re logged into Crew Portal click on the Monthly Bids tab then click on Vacation.
Step 2
Step 2 - Go to the Vacation Actions tab
Once you are on the Vacations page click the 'Vacation Actions' tab
Step 3
Step 3 - Select your VEX days
Once you are on the Vacation Actions tab you'll be able to see if you are eligible to request VEX days.
If you have a block of seven or more vacation days that are eligible for VEX day requests, a pencil icon will appear under the Edit VEX column.
Select the pencil following the vacation block you would like to add VEX days to and a pop-up window will appear displaying eligible VEX days according to your vacation block.
Select the desired days and click Save.
When do I Request VEX Days?
2 Months Prior - VEX day requests must be entered two months prior to the bid month you would like the VEX days to be placed or two months prior to the bid month in which your vacation starts – whichever is earlier.
MAY VEX days - The monthly process timeline for the May bid month differs slightly from the remainder of the year due to the annual vacation bid and award timeline. The timeline for May vacation processes is adjusted as follows:
- VEX bidding OPENS: March 21st
- VEX bidding CLOSES: March 31st
- VEX awards: There is no award process - requests are automatically granted.
The Curious Case of VEX days EXACTLY 2 months out - There is a freeze period that only applies to VEX days exactly two months out; if you’re trying to add VEX days, they can only be entered from the 20th through the last calendar day of the month in this unique scenario.
VEX Day FAQs
How many VEX days can I request per vacation block or per month?
You can request up to 4 VEX days per vacation block.
However, you may have no more than four VEX days per bid month even if you have separate seven-day (or more) vacation blocks in the month.
Are VEX days awarded by seniority?
VEX days are not seniority driven.
Are there blackout dates for VEX days?
There are no blackout dates for VEX days.
Where can I place VEX days on my schedule?
VEX days may be placed before, after, or split in any combination on either side of a vacation period.
They may also be placed in the bid month prior to your vacation or carry into the next bid month or two months prior to the bid month in which your vacation starts (whichever is earlier).
Are VEX days paid?
No.
In PBS, vacation extension (VEX) days act as a planned absence or a placeholder for lineholders, but do not carry a value for pay or credit. VEX days count toward the prorated minimum number of days off (see proration chart). Once the award is final, they become regular days off.
On a reserve line, VEX days count toward the prorated number of reserve days off (see proration chart). They are placeholders in PBS and will convert to off days (Golden Days) on your final reserve schedule, included in your total days off.
Keep in mind, VEX days are used as a placeholder to prevent PBS from assigning you a pairing or a reserve day. Therefore, they will only appear in VMS and PBS (not in Crew Portal, DECS, etc).
Reserve and VEX days - a Cautionary Tale
- Although you may be eligible for VEX days, is itsn't required that you use all or even any of them.
- There are cases where VEX days work very well. For example if you are planning a big trip and need to ensure you have extra days off or if you can't hold off a holiday but can hold a string of 7 days before, VEX days are a perfect solution.
- However, during reserve months it can get complicated. Adding VEX days during a reserve month can actually LIMIT your possibilites for award patterns. So, if you don't have a good reason to request them, you will have a better choice of off day patterns with fewer (or no) VEX days pre-plotted during a reserve month.
- Another point to remember is that VEX days will be honored during a reserve month unless PBS cannot produce a solution. Therefore, your VEX days aren't necessarily a guarantee during a reserve month.