Leave works on a bidding system. Blocks of leave (single weeks as well as blocks of 2 weeks) are allocated between the "summer" and "winter". Summer isn't exactly as nature would desire as it starts from April as far as I can remember. Each week you are bidding for has a points value attached to it. The attractive weeks encompassing school holidays, public holidays, Easter etc all attract low points so if you are successful in bidding for these weeks then your points total will be low. You accumulate points with your bids and from memory it works on a rolling weighted average basis so if you have a few years of effectively crap leave then you will start building up a decent points balance which will then put you in a stronger position to get the weeks you want. But as you are bidding against your colleagues its not unheard of to get lucky and score good leave with low length of service/points depending on what they are bidding for. Also 1 weeks leave is actually 11 days due to the 5/3 roster pattern. eg: FFFLLLLLFFF. If you get creative and organise a few swaps then you can get a decent amount of time off if you are that way inclined.
There is also reserve leave which you can bid for. After all the leave is allocated based on the above you put your name in and its effectively a first in first out system if the company finds that there is an excess of crews for certain weeks prior to roster production.
You can swap leave as well as swapping rostered duties. There are other types of leave for weddings and day off requests with various rules pertaining to them to avoid abuse by either side. Once your successful just ask the guy/gal you are flying with or read up for yourself the various leave agreements.
In the past few years there have been the occassional chance to bid for short periods of unpaid leave during the winter when we have had a surplus of crews. Many of the new FOs have availed of this to escape the European winter and go travelling. You will get ID90s on most of the major airlines in the world.
Last edited by MCDU2; 12th Apr 2018 at 21:20.