Harlok
not certain its the same for an SO with 21 days, but this is how it works for most of us at Cathay. When the leave bid comes out..I forget exactly when that is ....you can bid for either 1 2 or 3 weeks at a time (or more if you are entitled to more leave). then, depending on a points system and seniority you will either be awarded the leave you want, or, if not available allocated leave which you might not want...your unwanted leave you can then throw back in a pool in the hope that someone else has done the same with the period that you do want, which you can then bid for.
You then need to wait for your awarded leave to be confirmed, which, unless things have gone a bit tits up since it was awarded, it will be. You can also request up to 4 days off to be tagged on to the beginning or end...you do this on the request system about 2 months before and it is usually successful.
the upshot is that its a bit complicated but in 11 years or so, Ive usually had at least 2/3rds of the leave I have wanted either at initial bid or subsequently from the pool.
The one certain thing as an SO is that because of the solely longhaul nature of the flying, you will get a lot of time off even without leave!
Hope this helps
Last edited by sorvad; 6th Nov 2011 at 21:26.