5.07.21 – APFA PHX Base Brief – June 2021 Allocations

Friday, May 7, 2021

June 2021 Allocations

On Monday, May 3rd, your APFA PHX Scheduling Team participated in the monthly staffing and allocations call with AA Crew Planning. Your APFA PHX Scheduling Team includes PHX Base President Robin Agee, PHX Base Vice President Secorra Flowers, PHX Base Council Representative Scott Barnes, and PHX Base Council Representative Michele Wentworth.

The first conference call/meeting was the staffing call. During the call, we discussed the available headcount, number/percentage of Reserves deemed necessary, and the possibilities of unpaid VLOAs. The Company opened the meeting and conveyed that VLOAs would not be offered for June at any base. PHX was the second to the last base allowed to speak to the Company’s numbers. As with every other base, we questioned the high number of Reserves for June. 25.4% is high, even for a summer month. The Company reiterated that historical data was used to determine the percentage of Reserves. Our answer was simple; historical data does not apply to PHX as over a third of our base was displaced. In our opinion, the displacements render all historical information for PHX moot.

The second call later that day was the allocations call. On this call, we discussed the sequence construction, type of trips (i.e., number of 1,2,3 and 4-day sequences, ODANs, red eyes, etc.), any contractual violations, the length of duty day and overnights. Scott Barnes spoke for PHX reporting our concerns and requests. We were happy to see an increase of 3,000 hours to our flying in PHX for June. The addition of domestic overnight destinations on the A319/A320 such as Madison, WI, Fort Walton Beach, FL, McAllen, TX, Myrtle Beach, SC and Bozeman, MT were added to our flying. 4-day trips had a slight increase from 4% in May to 6% in June, with the overall look of the 4-days being commutable. Once again, the construction of Mexico and Speaker designated sequences was discussed. Scott pointed out the benefit of pure speaker sequences, not wasting them on 32-hour overnights in domestic destinations when their qualifications are needed on flights south of the border. He also discussed the inability of Flight Attendants to bring their food when we have Mexico destinations at the beginning and in the middle of sequences due to US Customs regulations. There was a 1% decrease in turn days and an increase of 1% in 2-days. While we did request more ODANS, we did see a reduction from 3.7 to 3.5 for June.

A communication was sent out today from APFA National President Julie Hedrick to all Flight Attendants stating the unacceptably high number of Reserves for June systemwide and trip construction is exhausting. As Julie said, “..The company had no clear answer for the outrageous numbers…” using excuses ranging from vaccine removals to historical storms. The Company did, however, agree to send APFA reserve utilization numbers going forward.

Remaining June Bidding Timelines

Tablet Tips
by Michelle Wentworth, PHX Base Council Representative

The Company sent out an email on April 12 stating that they were enhancing mobile device security. It should have been said that they were sunsetting the orange email icon on the FA tablet and requiring you to set up your AA email account in the Outlook icon.

Failure to do this may have disabled your email access due to security concerns. To fix the issue, you can call IT at 480-693-6029 or Stratix at 800-343-0343 for support. You may also fix it yourself, but make sure you are not in airplane mode. Click on the orange icon on your tablet > hit the menu > then settings wheel > then email address and delete your email account from this space. Then, you may need to turn your tablet off and then on, and/or be in WIFI and not just on the network. Next, go to the outlook icon and add your email by typing in your AA email address and Jetnet password.

FYI, within the outlook email, swiping left automatically moves email to archive. You will need to change email default settings to trash. To do that, within outlook, hit the icon to the left of “inbox”>the settings wheel (on bottom left)> swipe options > then change next to swipe left > delete. Then the swipe left will delete the email instead of going to archive.

Check Your Dashboard

As a reminder, whenever you are on Reserve, check your dashboard and your HI1 and HI10M for any Late Report (LR) designation. When you are assigned a sequence with less than 2 hours to scheduled report, but within 2 hours of departure, the computer system will automatically assign a LR to your line if you check-in after the scheduled report time of the sequence. Crew Scheduling would send a communication to your FSM and have them remove the LR in a perfect world. However, as we know, the world is not perfect, and errors can happen. If you notice you have an LR and you reported to your sequence within the 2-hour report window, email your FSM and ask them to remove the late report.

Secorra suggests that all Flight Attendants periodically review your HI10M for any errors. Discuss any irregularities with your FSM. It is always better to be proactive than reactive.

Contract & Scheduling Classes

Your PHX leadership has been in discussion with APFA Contract and Scheduling Chairs Jeff Petersen and Marti McMillan, to offer an online class to our base members. We are hoping to be able to announce class times and dates for June or July 2021.  We will communicate with the base as soon as we know the dates and times available.  Both National Chairs are excited to be able to offer classes to our membership. They are also discussing adding informational contract/scheduling classes in a taped format to APFA.org. While there would not be interaction in the taped classes, the information taught will be invaluable. Remember the old adage; knowledge is power.

PHX Base Meeting

We have been in communication with APFA National Secretary Josh Black at the possibility of having a virtual base meeting for PHX. It would be online, and similar to the townhalls that APFA has hosted in the past. As we get more information, we will send out a communication to the PHX Flight Attendants.

“Well for Work” for May

As a reminder, all active Flight Attendants are required to a complete and Well for Work in Comply365 or at aa.comply365.net by the end of each month.

It is a short declaration acknowledging that you are aware of the symptoms of COVID-19 and you agree to do an individual health evaluation before reporting to work each day to determine if you are displaying any new, unusual, or worsening symptoms of COVID-19.

If you are on leave, you are not required to submit a Well for Work self-declaration until you are back to active status. You do have to complete Well for Work if you are attending CQ.

***New*** APFA PHX Phone Number

800-595-1471

• Ext. 1 – National Office and Contract & Scheduling Desk
• Ext. 2 – PHX Base President Robin Agee
• Ext. 3 – PHX Base Vice President Secorra Flowers
• Ext. 4 – Mandatory Meeting Representation
• Ext. 5 – Medical and Injury on Duty
• Ext. 6 – Reserves
• Ext. 0 – General Questions

 

PHX Base Council Representatives (BCRs)

• Scott Barnes – [email protected]
• George Bertges – [email protected]
• Johnnea Bigcraft – [email protected]
• Beth Flannery – [email protected]
• Del Frohlich – [email protected]
• Ralph Huerta – [email protected]
• Gene Labat – [email protected]
• Robin Rakiec-Jones – [email protected]
• Nicole Sartain – [email protected]
• Randi Scanlon – [email protected]
• Michelle Wentworth – [email protected]

 

On a Final Note…

Robin Agee will be on vacation May 8-14 and will be in DFW from May 12-14 for meetings. Secorra Flowers will be on vacation May 19-25.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

In Solidarity,

Robin Agee
APFA PHX Base President
480-238-2303
[email protected]

Secorra Flowers
APFA PHX Base Vice President
602-551-8116
[email protected]