6.27.06 – (LAA) – Reserve and Option II Enhancements, Last Day of the Month, Reserve Preferences

 

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Tuesday, June 27, 2006.

In APFA News: The APFA Scheduling Department has been working with AA to resolve one outstanding issue and offer several Reserve and Option II enhancements for our members. Each of the clarifying letters is available on the APFA Web site.

First, effective immediately, there is a new procedure in place for Reserve flight attendants who are at or above 85 hours in the PROJ column, or are above 80.01 and good for the last day of the month to be considered as “Regularly Scheduled” Flight Attendants. In short, this will allow a F/A to identify their desired status to the Company more accurately than was previously available. Make sure you meet all the requirements before assuming you qualify as “Regularly Scheduled.”

Next, effective July 2nd, Reserve Flight Attendants based at DCA and DCA-I will be able to indicate the desire to fly out of BWI, and be awarded flying according to the GTD order for that specific co-terminal. For next-day flying, you must list BWI in your Reserve Preferences as your Co-Terminal Preference. For same-day coverage, BWI must be listed in your Reserve Preferences as a “Short Call Preference.”

Third, in order to honor more Reserve Preferences, Crew Schedule has agreed to test the expansion of the Average Daily Utilization Range buffer. Simply put, this buffer is intended to ensure Reserves are utilized optimally and that, whenever contractually eligible, Reserve Preferences are honored. Rather than the current range of plus or minus six hours in order for Reserve Preferences to be considered, for the period from July 2 to July 11, Reserve Preferences will now be honored within a range of plus or minus 25 hours. APFA is hopeful that this will allow many more of you to be awarded your Reserve Preferences.

Fourth, Regularly Scheduled and Reserve Flight Attendants should watch for the opportunity to fly Option II in the opposite division during July. Submit a HISEND message for Crew Schedule at the adjacent base, opposite division. Include the following information: “International F/A Proffering for Domestic Flying” or “Domestic F/A Proffering for International Flying,” along with the date you wish to fly and specific sequence numbers. If the flying is awarded prior to 1900, you are assumed to have been notified of the assignment and the trip will be considered confirmed by Crew Schedule.

And finally, Reserve Flight Attendants will be able to request trip trades during the entire month of July. Reserves may trade with other Reserves or with Regularly Scheduled Flight Attendants. Once a Reserve confirms their Reserve assignment, the trip may be posted on HIBOARD or traded. Trips must be for the same number of days and the trade must be completed prior to sign-in. Trip trades will not be allowed for standby assignments or trips assigned from standby. These trades will not affect Reserve guarantees – in other words, you will not reduce your guarantee if the trip you trade for is worth less time. Requests for processing of the trades must be made via HISEND and will be processed in the order received. Please go to APFA’s Web site to review the details of each of these scheduling enhancements.

The Summer 2006 Skyword will be shipped to your homes beginning this Friday, June 30th. This issue contains an update on the Executive Bonus Arbitration, updates for your On-Duty Contract Guide, information on the onerous new reporting system – or LM-2’s – for union reps and vendors required by the government, a detailed explanation of Simplification and the new Series 2000 Open Replacement lines, an update on the pension bill and foreign ownership, the facts about sleep aids, and several other interesting articles. For those of you who read Skyword online, this issue should be available at www.apfa.org by July 7th.

Several Reserve Flight Attendants have informed us that you are receiving harassing phone calls from Crew Schedule threatening missed trips if you do not answer your phone during your rest break at home base. APFA would like to remind all Flight Attendants that you do not have to be available to the Company during your home rest break. Do not let Crew Schedule intimidate you into answering the phone. If you receive harassing phone calls during a rest break, please contact the APFA Scheduling Desk at 8161. Refer to the On-Duty Contract Guide, page 29 for your contractual obligation for maintaining contact with Crew Schedule.

Additional reinstatements to MIA-D are being offered to those F/As displaced to STL in ’03 as a result of an agreement reached between APFA and AA last year. Reinstatement will be offered to the four most senior Flight Attendants accepting reinstatement effective August 1, 2006. In order to be considered for reinstatement you must complete the ballot posted on the Flight Service Web site under My Job/Crew Resources/Featured Links/MIAD Reinstatement Ballot. The deadline to respond is 0830 on Wednesday, July 5. If you are eligible for and desire reinstatement you must complete this ballot regardless of whether you completed ballots for previous reinstatements. A Flight Attendant with reinstatement rights to MIA who either rejects or does not respond to the reinstatement offer and who is senior enough to hold the reinstatement will forfeit their reinstatement rights to MIA. The next offer of reinstatement will be dependent upon attrition at MIA as explained in the Letter of Agreement.

For those F/A’s who go out on IOD, the APFA Health Department recommends that you sign the medical release form contained within the IOD packet. Signing this form will help expedite the approval of any medical treatment. This form allows only the information pertaining to the occupational injury to be shared.

Please continue to contact your Representative and Senators in Washington, D.C., regarding the pension reform bill. Encourage Congress to support the Senate’s version of the bill, which includes protection for the future of our defined benefit plans. Please go to www.apfa.org and click on Contact Congress Today re: Pension Reform to generate an automatic message via Capwiz to your elected officials.
 
If you left a voice mail for APFA’s Retirement Specialist within the last two weeks and have not yet received a response, please leave another message at APFA Headquarters, extension 8397. Some of the messages were inadvertently deleted due to technical difficulties with voicemail.

Rumor Control: One Flight Attendant wrote APFA asking if the newly-designed Super 80’s were going to have one jump seat eliminated. APFA’s response: The Super-80 re-design will not include the elimination of any jump seats.

Industry News: DOT Secretary Norm Minetta announced his resignation effective July 7th. Maria Cino, deputy transportation secretary, will sit in as DOT Secretary pending the confirmation of Minetta’s successor.

Fuel Watch: As of Monday, June 26th, a barrel of crude oil cost $68.56, up $3.24 from last Tuesday’s price. The crack spread price was $13.80, down .74 cents from last week’s price. This brings the cost of one barrel of jet fuel to $85.60 – up $2.12 from the price of jet fuel a week ago.

One year ago June, the price of a barrel of crude was $56.42, and the crack spread price was $13.06. The total for one barrel of jet fuel a year ago was $69.48, $15 less than the price of a barrel today.

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Please remember we have 3,922 APFA members on furlough and ten members serving the military full time. That’s it for this week. Thanks for calling the APFA Hotline.