A brief word of caution before planning your vacation trips:
Before putting any money down for vacation plans, e.g. for planes, trains, busses, or hotels, make sure to obtain pre-approval for the time-off requested. You could lose money, for example in non-refundable deposits or other pre-payments, should your vacation request be denied.
It’s always possible that a vacation request can sit at the first level of approval and not be forwarded up the chain of command in a timely manner. Thus you must follow-up on the status of your time-off request early and often. Follow up immediately and regularly on the status of your request, copying up the chain of command if necessary.
Do not assume your vacation request has been approved until you have it in writing in your hand.
A recent case saw a member’s request denied at the eleventh hour, not long before the member was to board a plane for a family reunion on the other side of the country. Were it not for the timely response of the HR Manager to my call on the member’s behalf revealing the irregularity, this member would have lost money already put out in pre-payments and non-refundable deposits.
Do not let this happen to you. Please make sure to obtain approval in writing from your supervisor for all time-off requests before making your travel plans.