2023 Vacation Bidding Reminders

Date: October 18, 2022

The Vacation Election Process closed as of October 15, 2022.  During this process, Flight Attendants had the ability to choose additional options with their vacation to include:

•        Vacation Buy Back
•        Deferral of Vacation into their 401(k) or U.K. Stakeholder plans
•        Flex vacation options paid or unpaid.

With the close of this process, Flight Attendants move into the Contractual Vacation Bidding phase where, over the next several weeks and into the month of November 2023 Vacation bidding will occur. 

Under the terms of our Contract, vacation bidding is conducted in two (2) rounds according to the following schedule:

During the first round of bidding, a Flight Attendant may not bid more than 50% of their accrued vacation days unless:

They have eleven (11) or fewer days of accrued vacation, or

When a Flight Attendant has an odd number of vacation days; in this case, the odd day may be added to the 50% maximum for the first round.

Example: a Flight Attendant with nineteen (19) days of vacation may bid a maximum of ten (10) days in the first round.

Additional vacation rules include the following:

•       Flight Attendants may opt to split their vacation accrual into periods of not less than six (6) days each
•       A Flight Attendant may have a maximum of five (5) vacation periods
•       A Flight Attendant who has eleven (11) or fewer days of accrued vacation shall bid her/his entire accrual in a single block

Note: A partial day of vacation accrual will be rounded up to a full day for vacation bidding and scheduling, but it is paid as a partial day. A partial day is always the last day of the vacation period in which it is awarded.

Vacation Bidding Options

When bidding, Flight Attendants have additional bidding options to maximize vacation.  These include:

•        Buddy Bidding,
•        Crossing month bidding using the 14-, 15- & 16-day exception or with more than 17 days,
•        Date slides,
•        Accepting fewer days.

These options provide Flight Attendants with more bidding alternatives and improves their chances of being awarded the vacation period they want.

When bidding, Flight Attendants will preference:

•       Buddy Bidding
•       The number of days in each vacation period
•       The vacation period in which they want their partial day to be awarded
•       The option to “slide” the vacation up to three (3) days in either direction of the start date to help ensure they are awarded the maximum number of days utilizing their initial bids

•       The option to indicate whether they are willing to accept the vacation period with fewer days

•       Flight Attendants may enter up to 365 choices of start dates for each vacation period