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Representing the Flight Attendants of Alaska + Hawaiian

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I’m a Reserve. What Does Jeppesen Crew Access Going Live Mean for Me?

When the switch is flipped to make Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) trading go live, Reserve self-assignment and automated Reserve repositioning will finally be implemented. In fact, we are expecting JCA to go live at 11am Pacific Time (PT) despite the fact that in the opinion of the Master Executive Council there has not been adequate notice. There was an alert posted on the Inflight webpage this morning around 7am PT along with an alert to the Inflight Mobile Device (IMD); however, the text alert and email notification that was just sent out was done so at the request of AFA. It is extremely disappointing that something of this magnitude was not communicated using all of the channels available to Inflight management with the full four-hour notice as promised.

Reserve self-assignment

Reserve self-assignment will be available between 10am and 2pm Pacific Time, and the contractual rules associated with the assignments are found in CBA §11.E.1 [Reserve: Order of Assignment].

Automated reserve repositioning and the Cabin Service Report

Automated reserve repositioning is outlined in CBA §11.J [Reserve Repositioning]. The ‘Reserve repositioning calendar’ is found in the report “Cabin Reserve Coverage Report.”

The Cabin reserve coverage report is the equivalent to a reserve-repositioning calendar, showing you what days are open or closed. To access this report, login to Crew Access, click on the hamburger menu (the icon in the upper left corner that has three parallel horizontal lines stacked like a meat patty between two buns) -> Reports -> Reports on Demand -> Cabin Reserve Coverage report. Choose a range of dates (we suggest the entire month so you can see all days that are open at once) and choose your base. This report can be confusing at first glance, so below is a brief overview on how to read it.

When looking at the report, start in the left column. It will show “FAM” and “FPM” (AM or PM reserve). Just below that it will say if the day is open or closed. The next two columns show the threshold that Crew Scheduling (CSKD) follows when opening and closing the days. The “Actual” column shows how many FAs are currently on the LTFA list for that day and the “Available” column shows how many spots are actually available.  The “Available” column will change based on how many trips are currently in Open Time for that particular day.

In order to reposition into a day, the “Available” number needs to be less than the “Maximum” number. In order to move out of a day, the “Available” number needs to be more than the “Minimum” number.

AFA has requested that this be an actual calendar since day one, but our request was not accepted. We have already suggested that this be moved to an easy to read calendar, and we will keep you posted on any movement in this area.

Reserve Trading

Unfortunately, the ability to post and trade reserve days/blocks has not been implemented. Management has advised AFA that a delay of one month is expected. Be assured that AFA will be filing a grievance today.

For now, Reserves will need to send an Outlook email for trade requests to CrewSked.ReserveDesk@alaskaair.com. Include the following information in your email:

  • Both Flight Attendant’s names and Peoplesoft numbers
  • Is it a Trade of Giveaway
  • Base
  • Month in which you want to trade
  • Reserve day(s)
  • Reserve classification
  • Are you waiving duty or rest limitations to approved the trade?

If you would like to “advertise” (post) reserve blocks reserve, send an Outlook email to: CrewSked.ReserveDesk@alaskaair.com.   In order to view the Reserve trading bulletin board, you can either utilize the classic or web version of FirstClass system.

Reserve trades will be processed manually in the order they are received, by Crew Scheduling.

[Update (2/3/2017): The “Reserve Trade Board” in First Class cannot be viewed in the web version–only in the discontinued “classic” version that many do not have. AFA and management are aware of the issue. Management is actively working on a fix as soon as possible. AFA has already filed a grievance on this issue and will continue to push management to restore the ability to post reserve blocks/days. ^jtp]

How do I access the Trade Bulletin Board to advertise a reserve trade?

  • Click on the World of Inflight icon.
  • Click on FA Trading.
  • Pick the folder for your base.
  • Here you can post your days for trade on the bulletin board so other can view.
  • You can also post a request for reserve days you may want to pick up.
  • When sending in a request you must use the following email: CrewSked.ReserveDesk@alaskaair.com.

Fasten your seat belts!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC Reserve Committee Chairperson Jarod McNeill, MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones and MEC Grievance Chairperson Stephanie Adams

Jeppesen Crew Exchange is Going Live for Trading. What’s Next?

Jeppesen Crew Exchange (JCE) is almost certainly going live for trading later today. What exactly does that mean and what should you expect?

First, the Master Executive Council (MEC) recognizes all of the hard work of so many: Your AFA MEC Scheduling Chairperson Jake Jones and the Scheduling Committee, MEC Reserve Committee Chairperson Jarod McNeill and the Reserve Committee, Flight Attendant JCE Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), the Crew Schedulers, Jeppesen programmers and more, all of whom have spent many sleepless hours preparing for the official cutover. Secondly, the MEC thanks all of you in advance for your patience, which is definitely going to be tested over the coming months. Why?

Jeppesen Crew Exchange (JCE) looks, feels and functions with little to no resemblance to eMaestro. We somewhat expected that, but who knew we would be missing eMaestro so soon? The new colors and icons are nice (except what’s the deal with a palm tree for vacation and sick leave?), but in looking at the system in totality we are very, very concerned about minimal functionality. The MEC is hoping that JCE is appropriately programmed to not violate any of our contractual rules, but we are not entirely confident that will be the case. We’ll know for certain very soon. If you believe JCE is not correctly programmed, contact one of your local Scheduling Committee members so that AFA can track the concern and file a contractual grievance if necessary. If you are having any technical difficulties with JCE whatsoever, it is absolutely critical that you generate a ticket with the IT Help Desk: either call 877-238-1077 or email help.desk@alaskaair.com.

JCE Video Tutorials

AFA has done our very best to advocate for additional testing throughout the process, but management has made a decision to proceed despite our objections. At this point in time, the MEC highly encourages you to watch the JCE video tutorials and to take the 3-question quiz so that you are paid 1 TFP for the voluntary training. We also suggest that you brush up on your scheduling-related contractual rules because you can take nothing for granted in JCE until it has been proven.

Otherwise, there is one extremely important piece of information that we would like to highlight: JCE notifications.

JCE Notifications

When you log into JCE, you may notice one or more pop up notifications. These could range from advising you of a change to your report time to a reserve assignment. If you click through the notification, that is the equivalent of Crew Scheduling directly delivering the notice to you. In many ways, this could be a huge convenience for Flight Attendants as well as for Crew Scheduling. However, if you do not want to be “on the hook” for accepting the notification, you need to click the little “X” in the corner of the pop-up. Crew Scheduling will then be required to contact you the old fashioned way.

If you have general JCE-related questions or concerns, contact one of your local Scheduling Committee members (ANC: anc.scheduling@afaalaska.org, SEA: sea.scheduling@afaalaska.org, PDX: pdx.scheduling@afaalaska.org, LAX: lax.scheduling@afaalaska.org and SAN: san.scheduling@afaalaska.org. For reserve-specific questions or concerns, contact MEC Reserve Committee Chairperson Jarod McNeill at jarod.mcneill@afaalaska.org. During this challenging time be assured AFA will continue to advocate to management to do the right thing for our Flight Attendants. We’ll get through this together!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones; MEC Reserve Committee Chairperson Jarod McNeill; and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

How to Get Ready for the January 30th Jeppesen Crew Access Cutover

Management is going forward with implementation of the new crew tracking system despite AFA’s objections (see “AFA Objects to January 30th Jeppesen Crew Exchange Cutover”). So now what?

Voluntary Paid Computer-Based Training (1 TFP)

Alaska Airlines management developed Crew Access Instructional videos in partnership with the AFA Scheduling Committee and other Flight Attendant Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) selected by AFA. You can access the videos here: http://www.aagtechnologyuniversity.com/as-inflight/crewscheduling/learning-roadmap.html. Although this computer-based training (CBT) is not required, AFA advocated for the training to be paid and management has agreed to do so.

If you watch all the video tutorials and score 100% on the three-question quiz within 30 minutes of starting the quiz, you will be compensated 1 TFP. AFA highly encourages everyone to take advantage of this paid resource!

Quick Reference Guides

Quick reference guides are located on the same web page as the links to the video tutorials. There are four helpful topics:

Base Sits and Voluntary Unpaid Classroom Instruction

Management is working with the MEC, the AFA Scheduling Committee and the Flight Attendant Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to arrange base sits in all domiciles as well as voluntary unpaid classroom instruction in select locations. Management will communicate the details shortly.

Please keep in mind that the AFA Scheduling Committee members and SMEs are available as friendly peer resources. They can certainly pass along feedback to management about the new Jeppesen Crew Access (JCA) system, but they are not responsible for implementation nor are they “experts” on JCA due to limited training. They also have had no opportunity to practice on a fully functional system prior to live launch.

Upcoming trip trading freeze and the associated contractual grievance

In order to implement the new crew tracking system, all Flight Attendant trade will be suspended starting at 8pm Pacific Time on Monday, January 30, 2017, for up to 78 hours. AFA filed a contractual grievance on the issue in August 2016 (see “Trip Trading Freeze Part 1” and “Trip Trading Freeze Part 2” for more information). The MEC believes we are on the cusp of finalizing an acceptable settlement agreement to resolve the contractual grievance. Stay tuned for additional developments hopefully early next week!

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

AFA Objects to January 30th Jeppesen Crew Exchange Cutover

Alaska Airlines management is a “go” to implement the new crew tracking system on January 30th

Alaska Airlines management held a “Go/No-Go” meeting earlier today to determine whether or not the new crew tracking system will be implemented on January 30th. Stakeholders from multiple divisions and labor groups indicated if they were “go” or “no-go” for cutover. Unfortunately, management made the decision to proceed with implementation despite AFA’s objections. This means eMaestro will be turned off at 8pm Pacific Time on January 30th for up to 78 hours in order to be replaced by Jeppesen Crew Exchange (JCE).

AFA recommended “no-go”

Master Executive Council (MEC) Scheduling Chairperson Jake Jones recommended “no-go” on behalf of AFA:

AFA does not support the implementation of a product that does not meet our current user functionality or better and is not contractually compliant with our 2014 agreement. While we appreciate the dedication and hard work of Alaska management and Jeppesen, we represent the contractual compliance of our collective bargaining agreement for nearly 4000 flight attendants. We still have a lot of work ahead to meet the minimum requirements AFA needs in order to support implementing the product.

Inflight executive management recommended “go” despite concerns within the division

Director of Inflight Crew Scheduling Kieran Whitney recommended “no-go” based on concerns the system has not received enough testing to ensure acceptable functionality—particularly with regard to Open Time trading. The manager of Inflight Crew Pay also expressed concern, citing that there are 25 identified bugs and no additional automation with the new payroll system; however, ultimately she recommended “go.” Despite these concerns within her own division, Vice President of Inflight Services Andy Schneider recommended “go.”

Inflight executive management’s explanation

When AFA asked Andy for an explanation, she wrote:

I truly understand the on-going concerns held by both AFA and Kieran. I based my “Go” decision on a few key pieces of information. First, Jeppesen (the company responsible for the system) has committed to us that all critical system issues will be fully addressed before January 30th. Secondly, at the beginning of this project AFA comprised a list of must-have issues and all of these have been successfully addressed. I would like to make it clear that if critical items are not corrected by the 30th or any new critical issues are identified then we will certainly reevaluate.

While any launch of this scale has some level of risk, I feel strongly that we are at greater risk every day we remain on eMaestro. I do not doubt that this transition will have its bumps and I thank you in advance for your patience. I’m confident that the new system will be a great improvement for all of our Flight Attendants. Based on everything I heard from our IT team, system engineers, Flt Ops partners and project team members, I am optimistic that we will be ready to deliver a new, mobile and modern system to our Flight Attendants on January 30th.

AFA’s rebuttal

While it is true that all “must-have” issues brought forward by AFA have been addressed, JCE currently lacks many “extremely desirable to have” items. Despite many months of best effort by the Scheduling Committee to help debug JCE, in AFA’s opinion there was not enough time to adequately test a final version prior to the decision date. Consequently, the AFA Scheduling Committee and the MEC are gravely concerned about the JCE cutover—not only with regard to Flight Attendant perception and satisfaction but with overall system functionality as well. We all agree that eMaestro needs to be replaced, but AFA strongly believes the new system needs to be put through additional development and testing prior to live launch.

What now?

AFA recommends Flight Attendants prepare themselves for the inevitable. The next MEC membership release to be published tomorrow will address how to get ready for the January 30th cutover. We also have an update regarding the upcoming trip-trading freeze (see “Trip Trading Freeze Part 1” and “Trip Trading Freeze Part 2”) and the associated contractual grievance. In the meantime, be assured that AFA will actively monitor the cutover and is prepared to take appropriate action should any contractual obligations not be fulfilled.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee; MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones and MEC Grievance Committee Chairperson Stephanie Adams

Benefits Committee News

In This Edition

  • Leave of Absence Insurance Changes
  • Understanding your Health Savings Account (HSA) and your Limited Use Healthcare (FSAEE) account.
  • How to Get Benefits Help

Leave of Absence Insurance Changes

If you are planning to take a health-related leave of absence, please be advised that management is changing the way health care premiums will be handled.  The process for paying for continuing health care coverage while on such a paid leave of absence will be changing.  We have been advised that leaves will be coded differently in PeopleSoft in the future.  This change in coding will mean that health benefit premiums will no longer automatically be deducted from your paycheck EVEN IF you are coordinating.

If you are coordinating sick leave, vacation or PTO with Short Term Disability or California State Disability, management considers these to be a paid leave.   Under this new policy, you will receive a letter from Cobra Management Services (CMS) with instructions for paying the employee portion of your health benefits premium each month.  Once you have been on a Worker’s Compensation leave of absence for twelve weeks, and begin coordinating sick leave, vacation or PTO with Worker’s Compensation time loss payments, the process will be the same.

This does NOT mean that you are being required to pay for COBRA coverage under this coding change, but you will have to self-pay the employee premium directly to CMS.  It is very important that the premiums be paid on time, or health benefits will end.

If you are already on a leave of absence and are coordinating to keep health benefits in place, we suggest that you double-check your paychecks each month to be sure that premiums have been deducted.  If not, contact your leave coordinator immediately.

Understanding your Health Savings Account (HSA) and Your Limited Use Healthcare (FSAEE) Account

The high deductible PPO comes with a prefunded health savings account (HSA) that was funded on January 1, 2017 with $1000 from Alaska Airlines (and a portion of your designated contributions). Your FSAEE should be completely funded at this time.

Both of these accounts are managed with your Premera Healthcare Payment card.  When you use this card, vision and dental will withdraw from the FSAEE contributions and medical expenses will withdraw from the HSA.  Under our plan, you can roll over $500 each year to the FSAEE while roll over to the HSA is currently unlimited.  This means that your HSA dollars can be used to pay for medical cost after you separate from the company.

This healthcare payment card is used like a credit card and should be treated as such.

You can learn more about these two accounts, your balances, payments and what both accounts can be used for at: www.premera.com.  After logging in, proceed to Member > Member Services > My Account > Personal Funding Account > Manage Your Account (shows balances, how much you can contribute each year, payments, etc.) You will also find a Help and Tools tab here for qualified medical expenses and FAQs.

How to Get Benefits Help

Your Local Benefits Committee is available to assist you.  You can find contact information at http://afaalaska.org/benefits.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee and MEC Benefits Committee Chairperson Terry Taylor

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Inflight Service Committee Meeting Recap – 1st Quarter 2026

On Thursday, February 26, our AFA Inflight Service Committee Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing work in representing our Flight Attendants and advocating for improvements in our workplace. Representing you at the meeting were Naomi Parcell (ANC), Ross DeJong (SEA), Todd Horn (PDX), Raymond Ramirez (SFO), Johanna Thomas (LAX pmAS), Gary Manoi (LAX pmHA), Andrew […]

2026 AFA Board of Directors Convention Recap

The 2026 AFA Board of Directors Convention concluded on Wednesday, marking the end of an engaging and productive three days. Delegates participated in a full agenda: hearing from elected officials and union leaders, joining a spirited picketing event at PDX to support Horizon Flight Attendants in their contract fight, honoring the achievements of AFA award recipients, electing […]

Reserve Committee Meeting Recap – 1st Quarter 2026

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants On Thursday, March 5, representatives from our pre-merger Alaska AFA Reserve Committee Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing work to advocate for Reserve Flight Attendants. Representing you at the meeting were Conner Gallager (SEA), Anthony Eskander (PDX), Meghan Casey (SFO) & MEC Reserve Committee Vice Chairperson—New Hire […]

2026 AFA Board of Directors Convention: What You Need To Know

Next week, our Master Executive Council (MEC) Officers, Local Executive Council (LEC) Presidents, and several other LEC Officers, Committee Chairpersons, and Committee Members will attend the 53rd Annual AFA Board of Directors (BOD) Convention in Portland, Oregon. They will join representatives from other AFA airlines to address our Union’s business at the international level. Watch […]

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