ONBOARD SALE OF BEVERAGES TO BEGIN TOMORROW

US Airways will join the ranks of the ultra low cost carriers such as Allegiant Airlines and the European carrier Ryanair tomorrow, when they become the first major airline to charge passengers for non alcoholic beverages.

US Airways management believes that charging $2.00 for a can of soda or juice and $1.00 for a cup of coffee or tea (coffee refills are free-how generous of them) will generate enough revenue to offset the ill will the new policy will cause.

In response to the Union's concerns, senior Company Directors have told me, "Actually, this will make your jobs easier, because we don't believe there will be much demand." The statement about demand is probably the only thing management is correct about in this entire scheme. I believe the complaints our Flight Attendants will be assaulted with and have to try to soothe will make our jobs much harder. Speaking for myself, I would rather serve the entire cabin free beverages than listen to one complaint.

If there isn't going to be much demand, the following scenarios are likely to occur:

• Unlike the movie theatre, an airplane is a pressurized tube, in which the cabin altitude is between six to eight thousand feet mean sea level. At that altitude, the human body becomes dehydrated. Passengers who don't purchase a beverage after passing through the security checkpoint or onboard the aircraft will be at risk of dehydration. We are going to see more passengers fainting or having other medical conditions develop during long flights. The Company claims to have a plan for this but, the remedy is fundamentally flawed. The plan is to allow Flight Attendants the discretion to offer complimentary beverages "appropriate for the situation to passengers experiencing medical distress." The flaw is that if the passenger has already passed out, it is too late to offer the passenger a complimentary beverage.
   
• The lack of demand for soft drinks will ultimately lead to a reduction in the provisioning of soft drinks onboard the aircraft. It will not take long for a Company wunderkind to put two and two together and say, "Wow, if we pull off three hundred pounds of consumables, just think of how much fuel we will save." That is where the problems with the decision to sell soft drinks will be amplified. Flight Attendants will find themselves in the same situation we find ourselves in today with the Buy on Board (BOB) meals- the quantity boarded almost NEVER matches the demand. The result of that equation is that Flight Attendants constantly have to say they are sorry to disgruntled (and hungry) passengers. Most of us have been around long enough to remember serving boxed snacks and hot meals and can attest once those service items were taken away and replaced with BOB, Flight Attendants became the complaint department. The same problem will eventually manifest itself with soft drinks and in this case two and two will equal three.

In addition to the above problems, the Company is going to force Flight Attendants to account for any complimentary beverages provided while in flight-including beverages consumed by the crew. Talk about "Big Brother" watching. This will inevitably lead to a decision to ration crew consumption and most likely a decision to require a complete inventory of soft drinks.

There is no doubt the airline industry is trouble due to high fuel costs. There are better ways to raise revenue than to charge for soft drinks, especially if Company Directors admit they believe there will be little demand. Little demand means little revenue for the Company and big problems for Flight Attendants and passengers.

The Company knows the Union has no legal grounds to stop this. Union leadership can't tell our members not to sell beverages without being in violation of Company policy and possibly federal law. So, the Company may have won round one of this battle. The court of public opinion will ultimately decide who is right.

The Company has distributed a 24 page document detailing the onboard sale of beverages to all Flight Attendants. There is not one sentence in the document that gives any guidance to Flight Attendants with respect to passenger complaints in flight over the onboard sale of beverages. 

Therefore the Union can tell our members the following:

Flight Attendants are not the "complaint department" anymore. Undoubtedly there will be passenger complaints and as licensed safety professionals we are charged with the overall safety of the flight. If any Flight Attendant feels threatened or intimidated in any way, we are trained and have the authority to diffuse the situation. If that means giving someone a free beverage, then so be it.

US Airways has made it very hard for passengers to express complaints to the Company by burying their email address inside the in flight magazine. If passengers have unsolicited complaints, Flight Attendants have every right to offer the email address of the Vice President of InFlight, Sherri Shamblin. Remember, these must be unsolicited complaints- we can not make announcements or any other type of solicited response to or from our passengers.

Ms. Shamblin can be contacted at: Sherri.Shamblin@usairways.com

In addition there is a Flight Attendant Onboard Sales Feedback form on our website. The form can be accessed via the following link: http://www.afausairways.org/EForms/onboard.htm

The decision to charge passengers for soft drinks was made by the top tier of management. The implementation of the decision was "subcontracted" out to lower level managers. All of those managers that I have spoken too have all said the same thing to me, "this will provide a significant amount of revenue and help save the airline and jobs." These remarks are in stark contrast to the remarks of their superiors. The Union does not believe this plan will provide enough revenue or cost savings to be worth the effort. For those that chose to drink the "Company Kool Aid", that will be $2.00 please-for now, anyway. 

FOCUS GROUPS COST MONEY

US Airways President Scott Kirby has made the statement quoted in numerous media outlets, "it costs the Company $299 in fuel to fly a passenger from point A to point B. The Company has an ongoing program of Flight Attendants flying around the system participating in programs to "coach" Flight Attendants or "observe" Flight Attendants in the performance of their duties. Additionally the Company continues to fly groups of Flight Attendants to various domiciles to participate in "Focus Group" meetings. The Company maintains that the meetings and programs are more valuable than their costs. In an environment where every dollar seems to count I wonder.  The Company has a collective bargaining agent-AFA- to provide feedback, offer suggestions and solutions. The Company has always invited the Union to participate in Focus group meetings but we have seen very few of our suggestions implemented.