Flyauburn,
A couple of other things to consider with the NJA schedule.
1) Your schedule will be set for an entire year. I can't guarantee that you'll get the line you really want because it's bid by seniority, but whatever 7/7 line you get, it's good for the entire year. So you can still do a great deal of advance planning.
2)If there are events that you wish to be home for, but are scheduled to work those days, you have options. The first is bidding your vacation to get those days off.
3)Should that not work, we now have an option to do a tour swap. It's something brand new from the IBB, and I don't have the details of how it works, but is a good option to try if you're really stuck.
4)PTO days. You will build up a bank of days that you can use to request extra days off. It only needs to be done no later than a week before you want them. So this is a good short-term solution to events that pop up less time ahead than say bigger events like weddings where you'd know far ahead of time.
5)Sick days. Technically, we're not supposed to use sick days for personal events. That's what PTO days are for. And I'm not condoning the use of sick days for this purpose. But whether I approve or not, it's an option to get those days off you really want. The PTO bank and sick bank are the same. Once those days are used up you're stuck either way. But the PTO days give the company advance notice that you'll be off, whereas they're scrambling to cover you when you call in sick at the last minute, hence the whole reason PTO days came into existence.
6)LOA. You could POSSIBLY take a leave of absence. Seems a little extreme to make your kids' little league championship, and I'm not sure what would actually qualify you for an LOA, but it is an option for certain events.
7)FMLA. This is definitely restricted to certain events, but nevertheless, is an option.
8)Bid the 18 day schedule. On this schedule you have a chance to request certain days off every month, and the company will try to build your schedule around those days. There's no guarantee that you'll get the days you want, but it's a better chance than zero. You may not want to fly the 18 day schedule, but guess what? There are bid periods every 4 months, so once you've used it to try to get those days off, you can get right back on the 7/7 schedule.
As you can see, there are very few GUARANTEES that you'll always get what you want, but odds are, you'll make quite a few of the occasions that you want to. We have numerous options for getting specific days off. So being on the 7/7 schedule, while difficult at times, isn't so bad. I think we've really got a good balance for QOL.
