AFA US Airways MEC E-Line - "Staying Informed"

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2002 Archived - E-Lines

• Guide to Implementation Revision - July 14, 2005
• Accessing The Hub
• AFA Local Numbers

Highlights Included in Revision #6:

• September Primary lines of Flying
• September IT Lines of Flying - Line Lead-in Pairings
• Sick and Vacation Premiums
• Line Bidding Modification

September Primary lines of Flying: The Director of Crew Scheduling, Rob Fuhr set the maximums in ALL bases at 90 hours of Company time for the month of September. The blocking objective was a flight attendant window for September of 75-90 hours. The pilot's scheduling committee and the computer built the lines as follows:

Note: The way the pilot lines are built (by aircraft type and all separately constructed) some lines did not reach the proposed low end of the blocking window. AFA agreed to publish such lines in order to give more flight attendants primary blocks. Those affected flight attendants may come in with the published time in his/her line of flying (less than 75 hours) or SAP to increase his/her flying obligation. Example (1): A flight attendant receives a line worth 70 hours and does not participate in SAP, his/her line obligation for September is the published value of 70 hours. Or, if he/she participates in SAP but his/her post SAP value is less than 70 hours because he/she dropped a trip worth 10 hours, his/her September obligation would still be 70 hours. Example (2): A Flight Attendant receives a line worth 70 hours and participates in SAP, his/her post SAP line value is 85 hours. Per the Agreement, his/her obligation for September would be the "greater of the line value or the post SAP value". Therefore, the obligation for this flight attendant is 85 hours. 

SAP: The timelines are: Group 1 (PIT, PHL, BOS) opens on 22/July/1800 and closes on 28/July28 /1800, Group 2 (CLT, DCA, LGA) opens on 22/July/1800 and closes 29/July/1800. Further, the non-high option window is the following: max is 90 and min is 60. The window was expanded to accommodate the oddities in the September line building process. Remember all rules pertaining to SAP still apply.

September IT Lines of Flying That Have Line Lead-in Pairings - PHL and CLT: Line lead-in trips are added to IT lines in order to bring such lines up to the minimum of 75 hours. Line lead-ins are pairings at transition time (i.e. August into September) that originate in one month and terminate in the another. The practice of adding such pairings has been on going for over 10 years and yields more IT lines of flying, with more continuity and some extra flexibility. PHL Example: Review September-IT Block 2913. Pairing 92002 leads-in from August into September and is owned by the originating crew in August. However, duty period 2 of pairing 92002 is also placed in line 2913 in September as "dummy time" just to create a legal line of flying. Therefore, line 2913 shows a published value of 82+45 but when 92002 (duty period 2) worth 9+45 (dummy time) is subtracted the recalculated value of the line is 73+00. CLT Example: Review September-IT Block 5021. Pairing 12001 leads-in from August into September and is owned by the originating crew in August. However, duty period 2 of pairing 12001 is also placed in line 5021 in September as "dummy time" just to create a legal line of flying. Therefore, line 5021 shows a published value of 89+35 but when 12001 (duty period 2) worth 9+30 (dummy time) is subtracted the recalculated value of the line is 70+05.

Those affected flight attendants that are awarded such a line may come in with the published time less the "dummy time". In the above cases, the recalculated values are 73+00 and 70+05 respectively. The aforementioned amounts would be entered as the flight attendants adjusted obligation in CATS. Or he/she could SAP up to 90 hours of Company time to increase his/her flying time in which case the increased post SAP line value would be his/her new obligation for September. Additionally, the AIL may be used to increase the flying time up to a maximum 90 hours of Company. However, in the case of using the AIL this action increases your flying time but not your monthly obligation of 73+00 hours or 70+05 respectively. Additionally, many other IT lines have line lead-in pairings in PHL and a few in CLT; therefore, just subtract the line lead-in value (duty period 2) to determine the adjusted September obligation. 

Note: Whenever a line lead-in pairing (dummy time) spans a Saturday or/and Sunday you are NOT required to touch for a restricted weekend.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, some lines of flying that were blocked below 75 hours which was the proposed low end of the blocking window. AFA agreed to publish such lines in order to give more flight attendants primary blocks. Those affected flight attendants may come in with the published time in his/her line of flying (less than 75 hours) or SAP to increase his/her flying obligation. Example (1): A flight attendant receives a line worth 70 hours and does not participate in SAP, his/her line obligation for May is the published value of 70 hours. Or, if he/she participates in SAP but his/her post SAP value is less than 70 hours because he/she dropped a trip worth 10 hours, his/her May obligation would still be 70 hours. Example (2): A Flight Attendant receives a line worth 70 hours and participates in SAP, his/her post SAP line value is 85 hours. Per the Agreement, his/her obligation for May would be the greater of the line value or the post SAP value. Therefore, the obligation for this flight attendant is 85 hours. 

Please keep in mind the flight attendant flying obligation is the greater of his/her published line or post-SAP value but in no case greater than the Monthly Maximum as declared by the Director of Crew Scheduling. This provision does not apply if you elected the high time option. Your monthly flying obligation will be 100-105. This flying obligation may be modified by the use ETB i.e. an ETB drop will reduce a flight attendants monthly flying obligation by the value of the trip "dropped/traded away". 

Sick and Vacation Premiums:

As you know on January 10th we agreed to eliminate all premiums paid (including night pay) for claiming sick leave, vacation, bereavement leave, settling days and jury duty. 

Premiums will not be paid on your August 15th paycheck for sick and vacation, hence effective with the July bid month premiums for sick and vacation has been eliminated. Premiums not paid are senior, aft lead, "E" galley, LOD/O, CRAF and international.

Line Bidding Modification: 

Effective with the September 2005 bid month there will be a slight modification to the codes used to designate a generic line bid by aircraft type. Please carefully review the following information: 

If you normally bid ANY LINE you may still do this by typing in the letter ASGN as one your bid choices. If you choose to use the designation, the computer will assign a line based on the highest premium valued position. You may choose to bid ABLK. The computer will go to the first available block, first available position for your assignment. 

If you wish to bid any line by specific equipment, the codes for the equipment are listed below. Each of these codes is considered one bid choice, and may be placed in any bid choice area. The codes may be used in conjunction with a letter in the POS field. As an example, A3T A = any A330 Transoceanic line in the "A" position. 

A3T = A330 Transoceanic 
A7T = 767 Transoceanic 
A3I = A330 Non-Transoceanic International 
A7I = 757/767 Non-Transoceanic International 
A76 = 757/767 Domestic lines only 
A30 = A330 Domestic lines only 
AAB = 319/320/321 NTI/Domestic 
A33 = 737 NTI/Domestic
AABM= A321 Extra Position 

Accessing The Hub: http://thehub.usairways.com 

Logging in the first time your user name is u0(zero) and your five digit employee number. Your initial password is the first five digits of your social security number. Questions about the Hub? Please contact the EDS Help Desk at 336-744-6000 for assistance. More information can also be found HERE.

AFA Local Numbers

Council 40 PIT 724-695-3329
Council 41 DCA 703-690-6859
Council 69 BOS 781-289-8454
Council 70 PHL 215-492-0840
Council 82 LGA 315-736-3483
Council 89 CLT 704-527-0325

New Hotline Number Toll Free: 866-USA-AFA2

US AIRWAYS Benefits Information: 800-872-4780

Reply to Inflight: askinflight@usairways.com

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