Now that First Round 2023 vacation awards are available, one of the most common questions asked is about the difference between a no bid and an insufficient bid.
A no bid is exactly that. When no bid is submitted to the system the resulting award will reflect that no vacation has been awarded or assigned during the first round of vacation bidding. All vacation must be bid during the second round of vacation bidding.
On the other hand, an insufficient bid results when a bid has been submitted and the Flight Attendant is unable to hold any of the vacation periods for which she/he has bid. In this instance, vacation is assigned in seniority order from December backward through January after that round of vacation has been awarded to all bidders. The assignment shall be based on the number of days in your bid with the largest block of days assigned first.
In the event a Flight Attendant does not submit a vacation bid in the second round of bidding, they will automatically be assigned a vacation after the second-round vacation awards have been completed for all Flight Attendants who did submit a bid. Vacation will be assigned in seniority order from December backward through January, with the largest block of days being assigned first.
One of the most common bidding errors is not recognizing the end of a schedule month which ultimately results in not having the proper number of days in each of the schedule months when bidding overlapping vacations.
When bidding for round two, we strongly urge you to bid to cover yourself to ensure you are awarded a vacation based on your seniority and preferences as opposed to being assigned after all vacations have been awarded.
More detailed information on bidding and assignment is available from the Vacation Microsite on unitedafa.org.
If you have questions on your Vacation award, please contact the Vacation Team by e-mail to FAVacationTeam@united.com .