• OCTOBER BLOCK TIME
• TRANSOCEANIC DEADHEADS
• CREW BRIEFING TIMES AND POSITION SELECTION
• GENERAL REMINDERS
• LOCAL COUNCIL CONTACT NUMBERS

BLOCK TIME FOR OCTOBER 2009
For October, there will be:
1177 Primary line holders
306 SEC lines
9 LOD/O lines in SEC
This is a total of 1,492 positions and represents a decrease of 25 positions from September 2009.

TRANSATLANTIC DEADHEADS
Earlier this summer, I was asked by several PHL-based flight attendants to address the issue of Transatlantic Deadheads – specifically, who gets to upgrade if seats are available in Envoy.  Customer Service Agents were under the impression that if Envoy seats were available, pilots should be upgraded before flight attendants, regardless of seniority.  After reviewing the pilot contract, I found no such language that allowed for this procedure and asked the company to address this issue by instructing the CSAs to upgrade based strictly on ‘entire crew’ seniority - and the company did so.

On Thursday, September 3, the company issued a ‘DH on Transoceanic Flights’ message via CBS.  Please print and keep this memo with you, especially if you have a pairing(s) scheduled with a deadhead – and you will start seeing those pairings over the next two months as the seasonal service comes to an end.

During the crew briefing, on a pairing that contains a transoceanic deadhead, the CSD should obtain the seniority of the pilots and flight attendants.  This list should be given to the Customer Service Agent working the flight so that upgrades to Envoy, if available, will be awarded in crew seniority order.
If your return flight to PHL cancels and you are scheduled to DH the next day, once again you should obtain the seniority of all crew members and present the list to the CSA on your DH flight so that if Envoy seats become available, they are awarded in crew seniority order.

CREW BRIEFING AND POSITION SELECTION
As a reminder, Section 1.6 of your International Manual ‘Reporting for Duty’ states: The pre-flight briefing begins (5) five minutes after check-in for transatlantic flights.  Additionally, Section 9.M.2.b of your contract states: On an international pairing, position selection for all vacated lineholder positions shall be based on seniority among the flight attendants originating the pairing and shall be made at least one hour and ten minutes (1:10) prior to scheduled departure.
Therefore, if you have a scheduled departure time of 1810, the following would apply:

1640 – Check-in
1645 – Crew Briefing begins
1700 – If you are not at the Crew Briefing by this time, you will lose your position
1810 – Scheduled Departure

REMINDERS
The PHL LEC 70 meeting will be held Wednesday, October 21 at the PHL Airport Ramada.  Hector Adler, VP – Inflight, will be on hand from 10a -11a for a Q & A session and our meeting will start at 11:00a.  The agenda will be sent out prior to the meeting.

Round 1 of the 2010 Annual Vacation Bid for flight attendants is currently open and will close on Tuesday, October 6.  Review and print your protective bids from CATCREW Option 13.  Round 1 Awards will be posted in your CBS mail on Friday, October 9, by 1800.  Round 2 will open on Monday, October 12 at 1800 and close Monday, October 26 at 1800.  Final vacation award results will be posted on Wednesday, October 28 at 1800.

The manager of Crew Scheduling has set the maximum in ALL bases at 85 hours of Company time for October.

In Regards,