how do you go into vacation mode?

I started this game a week ago against a friend of mine who's new here to the chess.com community. We played a series of moves before he had tuck his little one to bed (he's a young father). Then he went to visit relatives and was unable to get back to this game resulting in a win on time for me. I've actually also wondered this question myself but exactly how do you go into vacation mode so that an unfortunate time-lapse loss does not happen when you know you won't be able to get back to a game in time for the next move?

I'm pretty sure that vacation time kicks automatically for Premium members, whereas Basic members have to switch it on in their Settings.

https://support.chess.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1444787-how-does-vacation-work-how-much-time-do-i-get-

Thanks for that info. I'll have to tell that to him. Does seem a little biased toward paying members though...

It's not like basic members don't get any vacation time: it's just that premium members don't have to remember to switch it on when they want it: seems eminently fair and reasonable to me. It's actually an excellent way to reward people who pay without changing the rules of the game itself.

I'm not sure if premium members accumulate vacation time at a faster rate than basic members - I haven't checked on that...

Well they also get more vacation time which does seem like it could create an unfair time advantage...

Accrual is the same, they can just bank more of it. I think at one point in time going premium or renewing would add days, but I don't think that has been the case in a long time. 

Any way, enough of that particular banter--I best tell him how to enact vacation time in case that happens again.

Basic members can use a lot of other available resources to do the same thing (jut not here). I personally only use the site resources when I'm not on my main computer. And I have yet to research my opponent's games in daily/correspondence.