JetBlue vacation policy

[commuterguy]

I'm curious how the vacation time works at JetBlue. Where I'm at, a week of vacation can touch two four days getting rid of them. We maintain the monthly guarantee of 75. I know Continental used to do the same, only they would keep the original line value. Now with pb, they only lose their actual vacation days. So I'm curious how your vacation works in comparison. Thanks.

 

[B6Driver]

We have Pref. bidding.

 

[thruthemurk]

Commuter Guy,

Vacation time is hour for hour. JB pilots(<5 years) earn 9 hours per month "PTO" time- or 108 hours per year. This is a little over 21 days per year and is the total for vacation and sick. You can use it either way, but it pays less than flying if you are over 70 hours for the month (which everyone is).

When the leadership tells you how much money you are making, they include this time in your total, while not including vacation or sick in the time of your competitors compensation package.

 

[FlyBoeingJets]

When the leadership tells you how much money you are making, they include this time in your total, while not including vacation or sick in the time of your competitors compensation package.

Hmmm.

Neeleman must think you aren't smart enough to notice this.


Now that it looks like ALPA will get on the property, do you think he has changed his tune? Is he trying to get sneaky?

 

[8vATE]

When the leadership tells you how much money you are making, they include this time in your total, while not including vacation or sick in the time of your competitors compensation package.

Atually,
I don't think this is true..

We were talking about this the other day ...

I think what you are referring to is the relatively high monthly credit hour examples used at some of the "road shows" for our pay compensation.

But I believe that the Paid Time Off credit is not "included" in those powerpoints.
If what you said was true then the months you take vacation would not be credited with vacation credit since they have already included that number in your example. In other words... the vacation time supplements your pay credit when you take it (to make up for time not working) the months you take it... not as an additional credit for each month of the year to figure your pay?? Does that make sense?


FWIW...??

As stated before, we accrue approx 9 hours a month (increases with longevity) of PTO. It is capped at 216 a year (increases with longevity).

Also stated before... the preferential bid system will build you a schedule when you have vacation using two methodologies. Either maxxing credit hours for the month or time off.

Yes... PTO is not as lucrative as the "old legacy airline" system but I think most would agree that the JB scheduling system provides lots of flexibility to the crewmember.
Of course everyone's individual perspective is related to what they had before and their current seniority.

 

[8vATE]

Hmmm.

Neeleman must think you aren't smart enough to notice this.


Now that it looks like ALPA will get on the property, do you think he has changed his tune? Is he trying to get sneaky?

???


No.. No Neeleman games in my opinion.
I personally don't know how much of this very vocal "majority" of ALPA supporters actually exists.

I do think the leadership has done a very poor job of communicating to the pilot group.

We had a "Pilot Compensation Committee" that further dropped the ball by not taking their research and educating the pilot group on what is going on also.

And I think some of the pilot group is pissed that the delivery deferrals have shot their upgrade times to the moon.

But what are the options?
Weaken the company with unsustainable growth plans?
Put your head in the sand and continue to bitch?

 

[viking737]

So if you call in sick for a trip it reduces your vacation time for the year?Doesn't seem right to me.........

 

[Blue Dude]

So if you call in sick for a trip it reduces your vacation time for the year?Doesn't seem right to me.........

It's all in the same bank, but it accrues relatively quickly and you can use it anyway you like, or not at all. It's like using unused sick leave to take vacation or drop trips with. If you never call in sick you can take six weeks off a year, starting year one.

 

[Truckdriver]

Commuterguy,

It sounds like you are an XJT guy. If you are into the three weeks of vacation at XJT, you have better vacation than you will have at JetBlue. If you are not into three weeks yet, then JetBlue is about the same. The cool thing about JetBlue is all of your vacation, sick time, and PTO time is in the same bank and you can use it freely. You basically get the equivalent of 27 days of time per year (figuring 4 hours per day) to use for sick, vacation, or PTO. If you don't use it as sick time you can use all of it as vacation time. If you don't want either, you can sell a portion of it back at your hourly rate. You can also use your time at PTO time off to drop turns at the front or back of trips if the coverage is good. It is a very flexible system that works much better than the vacation/sick time at XJT did. You can actually call in sick without thinking you are going to get fired at JetBlue and the PTO option lets you drop stuff without using sickation if that is an issue for you.

 

[SonicPig]

???


No.. No Neeleman games in my opinion.
I personally don't know how much of this very vocal "majority" of ALPA supporters actually exists.

I do think the leadership has done a very poor job of communicating to the pilot group.

We had a "Pilot Compensation Committee" that further dropped the ball by not taking their research and educating the pilot group on what is going on also.

And I think some of the pilot group is pissed that the delivery deferrals have shot their upgrade times to the moon.

But what are the options?
Weaken the company with unsustainable growth plans?
Put your head in the sand and continue to bitch?

The problems extend a lot deeper than poor communication. I don't care how you communicate "go p*ss up a rope", the message is still the same.

The Pig.

 

[commuterguy]

Yes Truckdriver, I'm a 3 weeks xjt guy. I like the flexability of the Jetblue plan. I've always thought it would be nice if we could use our vac/sick time for personal days, instead of feeling like we're going to get fired for calling in sick.

Thanks for the responses, I've never heard discusion before about the vacation policy.

 

[Whiskerbizkit]

If you dont use it all, does it roll over to the next year?

 

[MD80DRVR]

Your PTO balance doesn't expire, but you're capped at 216 Hours. If you go over this amount, you can sell back time to the company. With pref. bid, you really don't need to take a "vacation". I just came off 21 days off and took no vacation, and didn't drop a single trip.

 

[clickclickboom]

We do need some sort or improvement here. I say keep the current policy with PTO and allow each crewmember 1 week of paid time at 4 hrs per day.

If a guy gets real sick he could drain his PTO balance in no time.

I will add that our bid system is excellent. I am in the 75% seniority currently and while i dont bid for weekends off If i need one or two weekends I will get them.. Other guys I know bid weekends off but their trips are not so productive.

For the holiday I had an AM red eye that came in at 5am. I was able to get home for the kids and went out the next night on a 2 day. Got done the 28th and was off until the 6th..

Taking the last 2 weeks off this month for vacation.

I am blocking 77 hrs this month and have 20 days off. Originally my sked was 85.35 hrs and 18 days off but i uto'd a FLL 2 day

 

[GuppyWN]

So you're capped at 216. What happes if you have surgery and you're out 4 months? You burn up your bank in 2 months and go hungry for 2?

Gup

 

[Truckdriver]

So you're capped at 216. What happes if you have surgery and you're out 4 months? You burn up your bank in 2 months and go hungry for 2?

Gup

Yep. If you get sick enough or break a leg, then you drain your bank. If I knew I was going out longer than a few weeks, I would go on short term disability and get paid 60% of base wages tax free. The only problem with that is it is based on 70 hours of pay and won't include any premium time. So it is really only about 40% of what you would normally make flying an 85 hour line. There does need to be something in the policy that addresses major illnesses that drain the bank. It is very rare to have something take you out for more than a week or two, but it does happen and when it does your vacation is gone. The current system plus a week of vacation independant of the sick bank would be nice.

 

[rayford steele]

Yep. If you get sick enough or break a leg, then you drain your bank. If I knew I was going out longer than a few weeks, I would go on short term disability and get paid 60% of base wages tax free. The only problem with that is it is based on 70 hours of pay and won't include any premium time. So it is really only about 40% of what you would normally make flying an 85 hour line. There does need to be something in the policy that addresses major illnesses that drain the bank. It is very rare to have something take you out for more than a week or two, but it does happen and when it does your vacation is gone. The current system plus a week of vacation independant of the sick bank would be nice.

Not necessarily. If you opt for the short term disability plan you can receive the benefit within one week of being "disabled". Now you do have to pay for the short term disability but you do NOT have to burn all your PTO time up first.

 

[JudgeSmails218]

How many hours per day is a "vacation" day worth? i.e, how much out of your bank would 1 week of "vacation" cost in terms of hours?

 

[BLUE BAYOU]

Vacation is paid at 5 hours per day, so a week off would equate to 35 hours of pay/ or the same amount of PTO. On any given month, since you're asking for 7 days off, your schedule will also add the minimum 12 days off, so any given vacation week in a bid month would give you a minimum of 19 days off-- unless you bid to work max with just your 7 days you requested off. Each year, a preferential bid goes out for vacation, with 52 weeks of vacation to bid on, some weeks for example would have 7 vacation periods open, some more, some less. You may bid for one, more than one, or in my case, none at all because at my seniority level, I can just bid the days off I want.