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Representing the Flight Attendants of Alaska + Hawaiian

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Transition Training

As part of the merger between Alaska Airlines and Virgin America, Flight Attendants from both pre-merger airlines will need to be trained to work on the aircraft of the other pre-merger airline in order for crews to be able to fully integrate.

Transition training will take place regardless of whether or not the pending joint collective bargaining agreement (JCBA) is ratified.  All Flight Attendants, both pre-merger Alaska and pre-merger Virgin America, will be qualified to work both Boeing and Airbus aircraft by the end of 2018.  If the JCBA is ratified, all Flight Attendants will be able to fly on both aircraft types once full integration takes place (currently scheduled for the March 2019 bid period).  If the JCBA is not ratified, pre-merger AS and VX Flight Attendants will continue to re-certify on both aircraft types during recurrent training each year starting in 2019, but will not be able to serve as a working crew member on the other pre-merger fleet of aircraft until a JCBA is ratified.

Airbus Transition Training

For Pre-Merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

Airbus transition training will take place between July and November 2018.  Pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants will attend two, 8-hour days of transition training in either ANC, SEA, PDX, or LAX.  SAN F/As may bid into any location that has scheduled training sessions.  Similar to recurrent training, there will also be a 4-hour computer based training (CBT) that needs to be completed before attending class.

AFA and management have signed a letter of agreement pertaining to Airbus transition training, which you can view by clicking here.

Bidding

Pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants will bid for transition training between April 21 and May 4; awards will be posted by May 10.  All available training dates will be available for bid during this process.  Bids will be awarded in seniority order.  If you do not submit a transition training bid, you will be assigned a training date by management.

Boeing Transition Training

For Pre-Merger Virgin America Flight Attendants

Boeing transition training will take place between July and October 2018.  Pre-merger Virgin America Flight Attendants will attend two, 8-hour days of transition training in either SFO or LAX.  Similar to recurrent training, there will also be a 4-hour computer based training (CBT) that needs to be completed before attending class.

Bidding

Pre-merger Virgin America Flight Attendants will bid for transition training one month at a time.  Bids will be awarded in seniority order; if not enough Flight Attendants bid for the available training dates in a given month, FLICA will assign the dates in inverse seniority order until all classes for the month are full.

Management will be communicating specifics on when bidding will occur and when awards will be posted for each month.

Questions?

Management will be putting out more information about transition training within the next several weeks.  If you have additional questions, please contact your Local Council Officers.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

Custom Uniforms: Let Management Know What You Think!

Just over two months ago, Alaska’s new Luly Yang-designed custom uniforms were unveiled at a company event in Seattle.  Since then, a group of wear testers (including many members of the AFA Uniform and Air Safety, Health, & Security Committees) have been wearing the new pieces on the job.  Wear testers have been providing regular feedback regarding every aspect of the uniform from how much stretch and give the pieces have to how well the pieces hold up to washing and drying.

Whether you’ve had the chance to see a wear tester with the custom uniform in person or you’ve only seen pictures online, your AFA Uniform Committee wants to make sure that you’ve had the chance to let management and the design team know what you think about the custom uniform.  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts about the custom uniform, both positive and negative, by using the online uniform feedback survey (click here to access).  Not all of the pieces currently being wear tested will make it to the final uniform program; your feedback is critical to let management know what you want to see included.  The online feedback site will close on Thursday, March 22, so you only have a short time left to ensure your voice is heard!

If you have any other questions about the custom uniform or the wear test, please contact your Local Uniform Committee.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green, Brice McGee; and MEC Uniform Committee Chairperson Bob Moore

[pmAS] Follow Up to April Bid Re-Award

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

On Tuesday, March 13, AFA released information about the April bid re-award that recently took place.  The initial need for a re-award came about after several bid protests were filed based on the original April line awards.  After further investigation, the protests were found to be valid and the error occurred due to programming in the new web app user interface of Navblue PBS.  The programming error affected the bids of 22 Flight Attendants which required that action be taken to properly honor those bids. Resolving the bid protests was bound to have an impact on the previously awarded lines of Flight Attendants beyond those who initially filed bid protests.

After Navblue corrected the necessary programming but prior to running the bid re-awards, Crew Planning and the PBS Committee had the need to perform some administrative work in PBS to ensure that Flight Attendant bids properly reflected those that were originally entered prior to bids closing on March 10th.  Performing this work required that PBS be switched back into the normal bid entry mode so that the necessary work could be done.  The system does not contain the ability to be switched into a “maintenance” or “offline” mode where administrators can work in the system while preventing Flight Attendants from also making entries.  As a result of this, it was also possible for Flight Attendants to log in to the system and make bid entries during the period of time that the administrators were in the system verifying the integrity of original bids.

Section 10.J.4 of the Flight Attendant collective bargaining agreement states that a Flight Attendant must submit her/his bid by 9 AM Pacific time on the 10th of the month prior to the bid period.  Management’s failure to have PBS properly programmed to prevent additional bid entries while the administrators were working in the system has resulted in a clear contractual violation.  At no time did AFA agree to an exception or waiver to this contractual provision.

The MEC had substantial discussion regarding what transpired, including the possibility of requesting that a full re-bid be conducted for the month of April.  The option of a full re-bid was determined to be unfeasible as it would have had a greater negative impact on Flight Attendants, especially those who would be unable to participate in the re-bid (on vacation, etc.) as well as those who had planned their schedules around the F/A-to-F/A and Open Time trading timeline.

AFA will be pursuing resolution to the contractual violation through the grievance process and every other avenue at our disposal.  The MEC Grievance Committee has already filed grievance number 36-99-2-116-18 addressing management’s failure to comply with the contractual bidding timeline.  We will also be calling for a meeting with inflight management to have additional conversation about the new Navblue PBS user interface, the associated programming errors, and the necessary steps that need to be taken to prevent reoccurrence of a similar situation.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

April Bid Re-Award and Trading Timeline

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

On Monday, March 12, management advised AFA that a programming error was discovered with the new user interface of NavBlue PBS.  The error, related to the programming of the “Duty On” preference in the new user interface, resulted in trips being awarded incorrectly to Flight Attendants despite bid preferences that were submitted properly.  As a result of the programming error, NavBlue was immediately contacted by management and the necessary programming was corrected.

NavBlue made necessary corrections to the PBS programming which were completed earlier today.  Management subsequently worked to re-award bids with the NavBlue programming having been corrected.   Bid awards will be posted at 5 PM Pacific time today and F/A-to-F/A and Open Time trading will begin as originally scheduled.

Bidding and Trading Timeline

All times based on Pacific time

Bid Re-Awards Posted Tuesday, March 13 @ 17:00
Bid Protest Begins Tuesday, March 13 @ 17:00
Bid Protest Final Wednesday, March 14 @ 17:00
F/A-to-F/A Trading Begins Thursday, March 15*
Open Time Trading Begins Friday, March 16*

*Please note that there is no change to the F/A-to-F/A and Open Time trading timeline.

It is AFA’s positon that management has an obligation to ensure Flight Attendant bidding and scheduling systems are fully functional and free of programming errors.  AFA will be meeting with management to review the programming error with NavBlue PBS and discuss the future plans for roll out of the system.

If you have any questions about the bid re-award or trading timeline, please contact your LEC Officers.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

[pmAS] Trading Recurrent Training To Early Or Grace Months

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

Recently, AFA worked with management to clarify the ability of Flight Attendants to trade Recurrent Training (RT) into the month before or after your RT base month.   The result of this agreement is the Trading Recurrent Training to Early or Grace Months letter of agreement (LOA).  You can view the LOA by clicking here.

This LOA solidifies the ability of a Flight Attendant to trade RT with another Flight Attendant or with RT classes in OT into the month before your base month (Early month), base month, or month after your base month (Grace month).  JCTE will eventually be programmed to process these trades but until the programming is done, Flight Attendants should contact Crew Scheduling to process trades into Early or Grace months.

Please note that if you trade into your Grace month and are subsequently unable to attend RT during your Grace month and become no longer current, you will receive no pay protection or credit for any trips or scheduling obligations that have to be dropped because you are no longer current.

If you have received attendance points as a result of recurrent training trades since this LOA was agreed to and signed (02/08/2018), please contact your LEC Officers for assistance in contacting your performance supervisor.  If you have any other questions about this LOA, your LEC Officers are also available to assist you.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

Hotel Committee Meeting Recap – September 2025

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants On Monday, September 8, our AFA Local Hotel Committee Chairpersons met in person in Seattle to receive an update about current layover hotels and transportation providers and discuss concerns with management. Representing you at the meeting were Dori Marron (ANC), Jarod McNeill (SEA), Ila Christy (PDX), Hilary […]

We Will Never Forget – September 11, 2001

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Vacation Survey Now Open

This message is for both pre-merger Alaska and Hawaiian Flight Attendants Your Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) is working diligently to understand and improve the vacation benefits for our Flight Attendants at Alaska and Hawaiian. Your input is essential in ensuring that the vacation provisions we adopt reflect your needs and preferences. To gather your perspectives, […]

SEA Domicile Negotiations – September 2025

This message is for pre-merger Hawaiian Flight Attendants Negotiations Update The SEA Domicile Negotiating Committee met this week for three days of collective bargaining with management.  The SEA NC met with management on September 3 to September 5 in Honolulu. At the negotiating table for this session were: Representing AFA and our Flight Attendants   […]

Pre-Merger Alaska MEC Committee Interviews—October 2025

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants In accordance with Article VI.C of the AFA Alaska MEC Policy and Procedure Manual, the terms of office for the MEC Committee Chairpersons and other MEC-level positions align with those of the MEC Officers. Since the current term for the MEC Officers will conclude on December 31, […]

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