Everyone can get access to the internet so there really is not excuse for repeated longer periods.
Not strictly true. I was at a university summer school with no internet access for the entire period (and no way to get to it) and as a result timed out two votechess games! But life goes on.
Many tournament groups seem to have one player, who looses on time to virtually everyone in the group sometimes after only plaing a very few moves? Often they take the maximum timeon vacation as well, which keeps the outcome of the group undecided for several months.
Correspondence chess takes time. For example "Aleksandr Surenovich Dronov of Russia edged Jurgen Bucker of Germany on tiebreak to win the 22nd World Correspondence Championship. If any tournament that lasts 31 months can be called thrilling, this one qualifies.". http://www.latimes.com/features/puzzles/chess/la-ca-0808-chess-20100808,0,5131267.story
This massive chess.com tournament http://www.chess.com/tournament/1st-chesscom-tournament-1401-1800 lasted only 24 months from 2008 02 25 to 2010 03 16.
Vacation on the site has evolved over time. With the various caps on different levels of membership and the addition of no-vacation tournaments.
The next change is a minimum charge of 24 hours for each use of vacation so players who use auto-timeout protection multiple times in a day will soon run out of vacation. http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/important-change-coming-to-vacation-use
Severely overburdened players are a major cause of tournament delay so this change may speed up tournaments enough to appease you.
Many thanks for this very comprenhensive and interesting reply
If you need help, please contact our Help and Support team.
I am a recent member and I like the whole site and facilities very much. But the vacation policy I think needs rethinking. I have been playing one person in a tournament for about eight weeks. He has had one vacation period already and now in a totally lost position he has taken another. He has now has a further 22 days to make a move but may be back sooner! Clearly this round of the tournament will not be over until matches with him and similar vacation players are resolved.
So I would recommend you can only have one vacation and only for 14 days. Everyone can get access to the internet so there really is not excuse for repeated longer periods. Interested on contray views of course!
So I would recommend that you can only take