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Information on 2025 vacation bidding

Vacation Bidding

Its that time of year again, vacation bidding for 2025!   You can find information on vacation bidding in the contract Article 11, Page 123, and in our Sideletter posted on our website and below for your reference. 

Vacation slots for each base will be posted electronically no later than Oct 21st @ 5pm PST

Round 1 bids Open Oct. 1st @ 9am and close Oct 21st @ 5pm. PST via eCrew.

Round 1 Vacation awards will be posted no later than November 1st @ 5pm 

AFA will be hosting video chats on the Google platform on the dates below. All times are PST and will be one (1) hour.  If these time do not work for you please reach out to your Local Officers for assistance with bidding. 

 Allowable Vacation Carryover

5 years and under 78 hours 

5-20 years 117 hours 

20 and over 142.5 hours 

Full Time Accruals

5 Years or less 2.1666 hours 

Between 5 and 20 years 3.25 

Over 20 years 3.9583 

Reduced Credit Accruals

5 Years or less 1.0833 

Between 5 and 20 years 1.625 

Over 20 years 1.9792 

How to Calculate Your Total Vacation Weeks Available

Look at your paystub. How many vacation hours do you have available. Do you have any weeks booked for the rest of 2024? Each vacation week is worth 17 or 2.43 per day. Are you Full time or a Part time status Flight Attendant? As of September 8th we have seven (7) paychecks till the end of the year.  The accrual rate for your years of seniority will determine how many hours you can add to your amount listed on your paystub. 

Let’s do an example - Jimmy is an 18 year, full time Flight Attendant with an accrual rate of 3.25.  We know from the information above that there are seven (7) paychecks left in 2024. (7x3.25) Which equals 22.75 hours. Jimmy’s last paystub had a total of 103.88 hours and has two (2) weeks of vacation booked for the holidays. 

103.88 + 22.75 = 126.63

However, we must subtract the weeks booked for 2024. Each week is worth 17 hours. 

126.63 - 34.00 = 92.63

Then we divide by 17 to get the total weeks available to bid.

92.63/17 = 5.44

Jimmy will have five (5) weeks to bid in 2025!

If you find yourself over the allotment on Dec. 31st; one week of vacation (17 hours) will be paid out on January 20, 2025.  After the 17-credit maximum payout, all vacation that is still above the allowable carry over may be forfeited to the company as unused. Please review the information below to avoid forfeiting your vacation entitlement to the company.

 Another Example -  If you have a total of 140 vacation hours and your max carryover is 117 hours, then 17 hours will be paid out on Jan 20th, and six (6) hours may be forfeited back to the company. 

 Vacation Settlement Information

The Vacation Settlement has provided that no less than 60% of the annual accrual, per base, will be put out for bid (improvement in our contract language from 40-50% in years past).

 Additionally, probationary Flight Attendants may now bid for any weeks after the end of their probation period. Please reach out to a supervisor to verify this date. Any slots that are bid for in error will be removed after each round of bidding (another improvement in our contract language from only those FAs that were off probation in October and November of the current year being able to bid for next year’s vacation slots.) 

FAs may qualify for a pay out of any vacation that would previously have been forfeited. To qualify, you must bid your full accrual and bid for all available slots in Round 2. Please review the Vacation Settlement for the full details. (this is an improvement in our contract language from a forfeiture of anything over the 150% plus the 17 hours)

A Flight Attendant who voluntarily transfers to a domicile in which there are insufficient weeks to replace vacation held in her/his pervious domicile may cash out all or part of any unused vacation.

Round 2 bids will be held in November and will close on November 22 @ 5pm PST

Please reach out with any questions. Happy Vacation Bidding! 

Jamie Moore, Vice President Master Executive Council 

360-790-0039

[email protected]