If you’re like most people with paid vacation, there’s a number in your company’s HR portal that’s been growing all year and gathering digital dust. That’s your PTO. You earned every hour of it the slow way, by showing up.
What happens to it in January depends on where you work. Some plans roll the balance over. Some pay it out. And some let it quietly disappear on December 31 like it was never there. It’s worth two minutes to find out which kind you have — because if it’s the third kind, you’re on a clock.
You’re not the only one sitting on a balance. According to the Burnout Report conducted by Southwest Airlines®, across 2025 and 2026, three in four people with paid vacation days are failing to use all of them.
It’s not that anyone’s trying to leave time on the table. PTO is just slippery. One project becomes another, you decide you’ll get out of town once the Q4 push is done, and then the push doesn’t end so much as change names. Then it’s the holidays. Then it’s January, the balance resets, and the whole thing starts again.
“3 in 4 people are failing to use all their vacation days1.”
It helps to stop thinking of that number as a perk and start thinking of it as a checking account. The money is already in there. The only thing standing between you and spending it is raising your hand and taking the time.
And it doesn’t take much. Two days around a weekend is four nights in Charleston or San Antonio. Three around a holiday gets you somewhere warm and back at your desk before anyone’s had time to miss you — which, depending on how you feel about your coworkers, is pretty ideal.
It’s time to Enter Airplane Mode. Southwest® isn’t going to file the request for you, but it will do the next most useful thing: tell you how close to the edge you actually are, then show you what’s leaving from your airport. The Burnout Quiz at airplanemode.Southwest.com gives you a burnout score and a few ideas for where to put those days to work. And with no change or cancellation fees2, booking now costs you nothing if the dates end up shifting.
Check the portal. Pick a week. And take your time back. 
1Based on a Southwest-sponsored survey fielded August 17–25, 2026 with 2,001 adults aged 18–64 living in the U.S.
2 Fare difference may apply. Basic fare roundtrip bookings must be canceled or upgraded. Cancel 10+ minutes before departure to avoid forfeiture of travel funds.