Allowing you to optimize your time off and airline points.

Let’s start with the how and then move to the why.

First take the year and divide into why you travel. Is it to escape the cold, is it for a hobby, or do you just enjoy adventure.  Here is my division of a year and how many vacations and floating days I want to allot for that year. I am assuming one floating holiday and based on the usual standard American holidays for the exercise below.

NAME YEAR	16 days PTO	21 days PTO	26 days PTO
January -Early March – ski season	1	2	3
Mid-March to Mid-May – scuba/escape cold	3	4	4
Early May to Mid-June – hiking hack, other interest	0	0	3
Mid-June – End of August – Beach or hike	4	4	4
September -November – football, long trip	5	6	6
October – fall foliage, hiking	1	2	2
December – ski, Christmas markets, New Years	1	1	1
Total	15	19	23
* Always leave a minimum 1 day for emergencies

First trip I am able to use less time for in the May Hiking trip is book on utilizing Memorial Day off, either planning before or after. The same is true for my summer vacation.  I always take the week of July 4^th off, so I get nine days off in a row by only using four days of time off.  Finally, my long trip I try to use Labor day or the Friday after Thanksgiving to extend my time. What I planned for the last two years is leave the Wednesday night before Labor Day after work for Europe. Then I come back the Saturday after to recover and get ready for work. Which isn’t too hard after 11 days off from work. There are so many ways to utilize the Christmas time off, just use your imagination.

If you have a plan and set it ahead of time you will not run into the issue of using all your time for random days off. Now those happen, especially when you have kids, but you really think twice about wasting the days off you have if you have an adventure awaiting you.

Another thing I do is load PTO earned in a spread sheet for my husband and I and line up our holidays to see where they match.  He gets less time then I do and earns by monthly so our formulas are different, but by loading the hour earn rate and time off we plan to take I now know if I can squeeze in an extra little getaway. Here is how it looks for me:

Pay period end		Used this pay		Total PTO used for year		PTO Balance
What day you get paid		What hours you used that pay period		Add second column with row above		Balance above plus the hours you earned minus colum2

I know that looks confusing but it is great for me and my husband so that I can make sure I do not use up all his time when planning out the year or next two years vacations.

Here is one of the whys. Airline POINT

I have a reel on my Instagram sight so look me up at: instagram.com/perkynerd?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

There you can visually see my explanation. Every airline has a magic date that you can buy tickets in advance.  This is most important if you use points and most important if you want to fly to a top destination in Business Class. For Example the magic day for American Airlines is 331 days before same for Delta, however Qatar is more like 365 days before.  How you figure it out go to your airline that you want to use points on, then book a pretend flight as far in advance as you can book you pretend flight. That is their magic day. Google the day available and ask how many days away that is. Not look at when you want to travel and google when is for example 331 days before.

Now part of the trick is to book the first leg when it comes that alarm come up for the day you want to leave.  You just get up early and book that flight.  Then set an alarm for the day you want to return and you book the return flight then.  If I am completely honest to save points, which equals more vacations book the Premium Economy seat.  They are comfortable, you get great service and you can recline to sleep.  Also, another quick tip is DO NOT USE POINT TO GO TO or THROUGH LONDON. You will  pay a lot for the flight as there is a tax and still use a ton of points. IM me with questions I would be happy to help.