Local 70 Reserve Update
October 21, 2005

Issues:

• Picking Trips During Assignment Mode
• Trips Sent Out of Base
• SCK Screen Reminder
• Report No Fly and Rest Period
• Weekend Holidays
• ETB Processing
• Altered Trips MSY Turns

On Tuesday October 18th the LEC VP Terry Graf and I went to the Operation Control Center in PIT. During the visit we met with John Petronzi, Manager of Flight Attendant Scheduling along with various supervisors and schedulers. The goal of this trip was to talk one on one with the scheduling department about current issues and get a better feel for how flight attendants are processed for trips. This e-line will hopefully address some important issues we face and how best we can handle them.

Trip Choice in Assignment Mode
In the past few days we had several reports of reserves being denied a choice of trips while scheduling was in assignment mode. There was some confusion over the process and the schedulers should now be fully aware of just how the assignment process works. For example, if there are multiple trips open that depart around the same time when the scheduler reaches you in inverse order, you do have the right to choose from those open pairings. Schedulers are not allowed to just place you on a pairing of their choosing when multiple morning departures exist. This is clearly outlined in the 2000 agreement Section 11-5. I know it can be complicated when scheduling goes into assignment mode but, I just wanted to clarify that point of picking trips. There is also a process of "moving up" (i.e. reassigning) reserves to morning departures off of an afternoon departure. The goal is to protect the RSV's OFF days and create as little impact as possible on the OFF period. Last week, RSV's were released after trip assignment and that made the moving up process virtually impossible. Option 11 on CATS is the best way to see what is open should they be assigning.

Trips Sent Out of Base
Scheduling is not allowed to bundle trips and send them out of base to be covered until they have gone through the entire RSV book. This happened last week with OPR and while the scheduler's main function is to protect the integrity of the schedule, it must be within the F/A working agreement.

Report No Fly & Rest Period
If a RSV F/A shows to the airport and fails to accumulate flight time (i.e. aircraft movement) and is sent home by scheduling, they are still considered on duty. This provision can be found in Section 9-28 of the 2000 agreement. While scheduling can still call you back to the airport to fly another trip after the report no fly, your duty day starts at your original show time thus limiting what you are legal to fly. 

Section 9-28
"If a reserve flight attendant is taken off a trip because of a double coverage, he/she shall be considered "on duty", as defined in Section 2.L.1., until released by a crew scheduler Upon release, he/she may be required to remain available for further scheduling purposes on that same day. However, in accepting any further trip award/assignment that day, the reserve flight attendant's report time for the original trip will be used in determining his/her applicable maximum duty day period. The affected reserve flight attendant's pay for the remainder of the double covered trip is protected if, when future trips are awarded for the following day, he/she selects a "like" trip(s)." 

Sick Screen Reminder
Using CATS option 24 "Sick Benefit Summery" is not an accurate screen to determine how many sick calls you currently have on your record. If you call in sick and do not claim sick time from your bank, the call does not show in this screen. Since CATS only keeps 3 months of data, it's a good idea to write down any sick call in your journal for more accurate record of your sick calls.

Holiday Awareness
With the holiday season approaching please be mindful that the major holidays fall on or near weekends this year. With the new weekend touch rule for block holders it very important to bear in mind that 12/24, 12/25 & 12/31 are not only protected holidays but now include touching both Saturday and Sunday flying. For reserves, this means the flight attendant cannot fly on his/her INV/OFF days 4 days before or after the protected holiday (blackout period) w/o company consent.


ETB Processing
Scheduling asks for your patience during the first few days of the ETB opening every month. Since this is a manual process for them, it takes time to process the amount of requests they get when the ETB opens. Just to give you an idea of how many trades scheduling has processed:

• May 2005 (1st month of ETB) Trades Processed for PHL 5,093 System Wide 12,045
• September 2005 Trades Processed for PHL 5,968 , System Wide 14,988
• On October 18th of this month scheduling had already hit the 15,000 mark.

MSY Cancellations
It imperative that flight attendants call the scheduling update line between 6am-12pm the day prior to ensure the pairing has not been altered. Any F/A that was awarded the pairing via Line Award or SAP was already notified however, when going on the bid sheet please be vigilant as there is no pay protection for these trips. We have been assured by scheduling that they will update the line with any altered pairings around 6am the day prior and when in doubt just ask the scheduler before submitting the pairing. The update line prompts are 1-6-3 for Philadelphia. The company expects to restart service to MSY November 8th with very limited service.

Michael Elias
AFA Council 70 RSV Chair
melias@afausairways.org