11.07.20 – APFA PHL Base Brief – December 2020 Allocations

Saturday, November 7, 2020

December 2020 Allocations

Philadelphia Flight Attendants,

I am not even sure where to start, much less what to say. We were provided our allocations to review less than 48 hours before our scheduled allocations call. As expected, the trips were not any better than what we have seen for October and November. We are dealing with December, where most of the flying is in the last half of the month. As we look at these trips, many bases started to notice something we have never seen before: wide-body flying embedded in a narrow body sequence. Sequences have always been constructed with the same crew complement.

APFA Base Presidents and National Officers immediately questioned this sequence construction. We requested a call with network planning to explain, which yielded nothing more than anger, frustration, and APFA realizing the complete lack of respect this Company has for the Union and our Flight Attendants. This maneuver was done without notice to the Union, and they refuse to change these sequences.

These sequences are built in the 4 FA (737/321) solutions. When you bid these sequences, you will be bidding positions 1 thru 4; however, on the leg that you pick up a 777 or 787, you will move to positions 5 thru 8. Positions 1 thru 4 are part of a sequence in another crew base. I am sure you do not need me to provide you a list of all of the contractual problems and logistical issues this creates. Please know your APFA leadership made sure the Company is aware.

If you are not qualified on the wide-body aircraft and use a generic bid, these trips will not populate as part of your pairing pool. If you specifically bid them and are not qualified, they will not be awarded in your bid. If you are qualified and do not bid them, you could be assigned a ‘PN’ as the sequences have to be covered. The Company has told us they will communicate this to the membership.

Rest assured, your leadership is not happy with the Company’s decision to try to slip this in, in a double holiday month no less, as if we wouldn’t catch it. I cannot express enough to you how angry I am, but honestly, my anger is driven by disappointment. Never in all my years as a Flight Attendant and Union leader have I witnessed what we are experiencing by this management team this year.

Our Flight Attendants have endured more in the last 12 months than anyone could have imagined. We are still dealing with a global pandemic, risking exposure every day we come to work, verbal and physical abuse by our passengers, a reduction in flying resulting in VEOPS, and short-term and extended leaves. We are also seeing our member’s lives disrupted by furloughs, base closures, and displacements. What next?

Check rides!

Our staffing call also left us speechless due to the high line averages and higher reserve numbers. All of this amounts to a recipe for a perfect storm in a holiday month.

Below is all the staffing and allocations information:

The system line average is projected at 84.6, which raises the reserve percentage systemwide to 22.7%. Last December, we had a system line average of 77.8 and a reserve percentage of 22.8%. To say this is disappointing is an understatement.

Our flying in PHL has not changed that much from November to December. PHL will not have any IPD flying; however, we still have a good variety of NIPD flying. The sit times are still outrageous. We will see a decrease in one and two-day flying and a slight increase in three and four-day sequences. Like in years past, most of the flying is in the second half of the month, which will most likely trigger the holiday logic during the PBS bid run. Please refer to the holiday bidding tips hotline.

We do have a slight decrease in block hours for December; our total block hours are 48,620 with 3,612 in PIT. We had 49,845 total block hours for November. The Company is not offering any Voluntary Leaves of Absence (VLOA’s) for December.

Below are the preliminary numbers for December: