Hotel Committee

The Importance of Reporting Hotel and Transportation Issues

December 12, 2024 17:00

Hotel Committee

Reporting hotel issues is one of the most important tools Flight Attendants have to ensure continued quality and address concerns effectively.
When feedback is provided via the MyCrewCare app, the report is sent directly to those that can actually help, including the AFA Hotel Committee.
By using the appropriate reporting channels, you’re helping resolve current issues and contributing to the long-term quality of accommodations.
We also want to hear about positive experiences, so don’t forget to give a compliment when one is due.

Over the next couple of months, your AFA Hotel Committee will publish a series of communications to increase awareness of available resources. This month’s topic is how to best provide layover feedback.

The Importance of Reporting Hotel and Transportation Issues

One of the perks of flying is the opportunity to experience layovers in diverse cities, often with time to unwind and explore. The Hotel Committee plays a critical role in ensuring crew accommodations meet the highest standards for rest, relaxation, safety, and enjoyment of the local area. Each contracted hotel undergoes careful inspection to ensure it meets these requirements, providing the comfort and security we need during layovers.

However, maintaining these standards requires teamwork. Reporting hotel issues is one of the most important tools Flight Attendants have to ensure continued quality and address concerns effectively. Without these reports, the Hotel Committee cannot follow up on or resolve challenges encountered during layovers or with transportation providers.

We understand that platforms like Facebook are great for sharing travel tips, discussing industry topics, or even enjoying lighthearted conversations. However, social media isn’t the right avenue for addressing hotel or transportation concerns. To ensure feedback reaches the right people and is actionable, it’s essential to use the official channels available.

MyCrewCare App

When feedback is provided via the MyCrewCare app, the report is sent directly to those that can actually help: your AFA Hotel Committee, Crew Hotels, and API. ALPA is looped in as well, as pilots use the same feedback process. Additionally, the hotel or transportation provider is provided a copy of the feedback. With the MyCrewCare app available on our IMD, reporting feedback is easier than ever. The MyCrewCare app saves time by prepopulating the majority of the necessary fields (such as dates, city, flight number, room number, base, etc.) that are needed to research the issue.

MyCrewCare can also be accessed from the Inflight Website: Hotel & Station > MyCrewCare > MyTravel > Adjust dates if necessary and select the hotel/transportation company to provide feedback on.

Additional Support

If you need to escalate an issue or need further support, your local AFA Hotel Committee Chairperson is always available:

Dori Marron (ANC): anc.hotel.chair@afaalaska.org

Jarod McNeill (SEA): sea.hotel.chair@afaalaska.org

Kelly Hepworth (PDX): pdx.hotel.chair@afaalaska.org

Hilary Streem (SFO): sfo.hotel.chair@afaalaska.org

Chris Cardenas (LAX): lax.hotel.chair@afaalaska.org

Kanani Vallot (SAN): san.hotel.chair@afaalaska.org

James Bozanich (MEC): hotel@afaalaska.org

Your insights and reports are invaluable to maintaining and improving the layover experience for all crew members. By using the appropriate reporting channels, you’re helping resolve current issues and contributing to the long-term quality of accommodations. Next time you encounter a challenge, skip the social media post and let your Hotel Committee know with MyCrewCare. We also want to hear about positive experiences, so don’t forget to give a compliment when one is due. Together, we can ensure layovers continue to be one of the best parts of flying!

Hotel Committee Meeting Recap – 3rd Quarter 2024

September 23, 2024 17:00

Hotel Committee

On September 12, our AFA Hotel Committee Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing work to protect and improve the quality of hotel accommodations and ground transportation providers for Flight Attendants.
The Committee met with management and representatives from the company’s crew accommodations vendor to discuss current trends and concerns regarding layover hotels and transportation.
If you encounter problems or have positive feedback about hotels or transportation, please report it through the feedback function in the MyCrewCare app. Your feedback is crucial as it provides the Committee with essential data to support keeping high-quality hotels and push for change when conditions are unacceptable.

On Thursday, September 12, our AFA Local Hotel Committee Chairpersons met 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), Virginia Fritz (SFO), and Chris Cardenas (LAX), with MEC Hotel Committee Chairperson James Bozanich also present.

The committee met with Crew Hotels & Administration Manager Nichole Turner, Director of Crew Planning Trisha Bennett, Managing Director of Operations Staffing & Resource Management Brittany Audette, and Managing Director Inflight Ops South (LAX, SAN, & SFO) & Crew Scheduling Allen Thieman from management. Representatives from the Company’s crew accommodations vendor, Accommodations Plus International (API), hosted the meeting.

Topics of Discussion

The committee reviewed several items during the meeting with management and API. Much of the conversation during these Quarterly Business Reviews focuses on financials and the state of the hotel industry. Some items discussed include:

MyCrewCare App Features
- “News” tab in layover city
- Tweaking of the crew feedback prompts to make them more user friendly so that feedback can be obtained
API Process Improvements
- Phone systems migrating to the cloud for better workflow
- JetRFP – will be programmed to allow a hotel to bid on a block of business if they are unable to accommodate the full rooms per night request. Will potentially allow for more hotel options for crew accommodation
Request to improve the timelines when it comes to placing crew hotel information into the bid packets and Crew Access.
Crew complaints and transportation issues
Concerns surrounding the utilization of rideshares (Uber/Lyft)
Unpaid hotel incidentals – reminder for crews to settle their hotel incidentals before checkout

What The Committee Is Working On

Ad Hoc list review. Our crew hotels have been inspected, endorsed and are contracted properties. Occasionally crews need to be relocated for various reasons, such as known hotel blackout dates, planned property maintenance, fire alarm testing, irregular operations, etc. When our contracted properties cannot take the usage, Crew Hotels and API reference the ad hoc list for alternate accommodations. The Hotel Committee reviews this list periodically to ensure the properties listed still meet our standards.
Conducting hotel site visits. The Hotel Committee visits hotels that are under consideration by management, and we advocate for management to select hotels that will provide the safest and most comfortable layover experience for Flight Attendants. By the end of 2024, your Hotel Committee will have conducted site visits in 32 cities. For 2025, there are 40 markets that will be reviewed. Contract expirations, crew complaints and cost saving opportunities are the primary drivers that trigger a market review. Depending on the outcome of the market review, a site visit may be scheduled in that city.
Investigating MyFeedback (CrewCare) reports. Reviewing crewmember feedback and working to hold hotel and transportation providers accountable through management and API. Your direct feedback fixes problems, and it’s the documentation we need to support the decisions to remain where we are or to advocate for a hotel change or ground transpiration change.

We Want to Hear From You!

Don’t let any unacceptable experience with a layover hotel or ground transportation provider go unnoticed! Please report the issue via CrewCare so that it can be addressed. CrewCare is the only official way to report issues, as the Hotel Committee does not monitor social media channels.

Each CrewCare submission is forwarded to your AFA Hotel Committee, Crew Hotels (AS), API and the hotel or ground transportation provider. This ensures quick action can be taken to correct the issue or fix it for the next crewmember. It also allows us to monitor hotel and transportation trends. You can quickly file a CrewCare report using the web app on your IMD home screen or by clicking here.

Do you have any other feedback you would like to share with the committee or any specific items you want us to bring up with management? Please let us know! The Local Hotel Committee is here to represent you and ensure management hears your voice. You can find our contact information on the Hotel Committee page of the AFA Alaska website.

Hotel Committee Meeting Recap – 1st Quarter 2024

February 5, 2024 17:00

Hotel Committee

On February 1, our AFA Hotel Committee Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing program of work to protect and improve the quality of hotel accommodations and ground transportation providers for Flight Attendants.
The Committee met with management and representatives from the Company’s crew accommodations vendor to discuss current trends and concerns regarding layover hotels and transportation.
If you encounter problems or have positive feedback about hotels or transportation, please report it through CrewCare. Your feedback is crucial as it provides the Committee with essential data to support keeping high-quality hotels and push for change when conditions are unacceptable.

On Thursday, February 1, our AFA Local Hotel Committee Chairpersons met 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), Kelly Hepworth (PDX), Cassie Dole (SFO), Chris Cardenas (LAX), and Kanani Vallot (SAN), with MEC Hotel Committee Chairperson James Bozanich also present.

The committee met with Crew Hotels & Administration Manager Nichole Turner, Director of Crew Planning Mike Ostler, Managing Director of Operations Staffing & Resource Management Brittany Audette, and Director of Inflight Crew Scheduling Sara Cook from management. Representatives from the Company’s crew accommodations vendor, Accommodations Plus International (API), and ALPA also participated in the meeting.

Topics of Discussion

The committee reviewed a number of items during the meeting with management and API. Some items discussed include:

2023 hotel and transportation year in review from API.
Hotel contract expirations and hotel site visit plan for 2024.
Discussion of the new MyCrewCare app update and what new features will be available to help crews on their layovers.
Enhanced CrewCare database access for Hotel Committee Chairpersons to better monitor crew compliments and complaints with our hotel and transportation providers.
Presentation of Alaska’s newly developed IROPS Playbook and what processes have been implemented to better address crew hotels and transportation during IROPS.

What The Committee Is Working On

Conducting hotel site visits. Visiting hotels under consideration by management and advocating for management to select the hotel that will provide the safest and most comfortable layover experience for Flight Attendants. Our Hotel Committee conducted site visits in over 28 cities in 2023 and have so far scheduled 16 cities for 2024 with more anticipated.
Investigating CrewCare reports. Reviewing CrewCare reports and working to hold hotel and transportation providers accountable through management and API. Your direct feedback fixes problems, and it’s the documentation we need to support the decisions to remain where we are or to advocate for a hotel change.

We Want to Hear From You!

Issues with Crew Access: December 16, 2023

December 16, 2023 16:00

Scheduling, Grievance, and Hotel Committees

Hotel reservation details are not populating in pairings.
The “Drop” (to Open Time) drop-down was reported by a few (but not all) Flight Attendant as not visible prior to Open Time opening.
Drops to Open Time were not functioning for January 24-30, 2024, for all domiciles except Seattle until just before 2 PM PT.

What will come as no surprise to anyone, Crew Access is malfunctioning once again. So far, there are three issues identified:

Hotel reservation details are not populating in pairings,
The “Drop” (to Open Time) drop-down was reported by a few (but not all) Flight Attendant as not visible prior to Open Time opening, and
Drops to Open Time were not functioning for January 24-30, 2024, for all domiciles except Seattle until just before 2 PM PT. (Reminder: January 31 is the first day of the February bid month.) Seattle appeared to open normally at 2 PM PT.

Hotel reservation details not populating in pairings

This outage is specific to Jeppesen and not related to API. Outdated or no hotel information is being displayed. However, Crew Scheduling (CS) is manually updating hotel information in Crew Access. Additionally, the hotel information in the My Crew Care (API) app is importing correctly and is accurate.

[Update: This issue has been resolved as of 12/16/2023 @ 18:36 PT ^MECP Jeff]

Drop to Open Time not visible prior to Open Time opening for some Flight Attendants

So far, this does not appear to be a widespread issue, and Alaska ITS is investigating.

Drops to Open Time were not functioning for January 24-30, 2024

Alaska ITS and Jeppesen appeared to resolve the issue just before 2 PM PT, which meant that Seattle opened normally at 2 PM. Our Master Executive Council (MEC) and management have agreed to an initial remedy to help mitigate the impact of this outage (for all domiciles except Seattle):

Overview:

In chronological order, CS will review the Flight Attendants who attempted to drop trips to Open Time on these days but were unsuccessful. CS will offer to manually drop their trip into OT. CS will work down the list until they meet the contractually required number of Threshold Sequence Number (TSN) trips for the respective base. ITS has a report of all Open Time drop transactions, so they can replicate who attempted to drop trips first. This report will become available at 2:30 PM PT, but they will need time to prepare the report into a workable format for these purposes. Inflight Crew Scheduling Management will begin to contact Flight Attendants this evening to see if they wish to drop their trip. This process will preserve the integrity of the first-come, first-serve method of Open Time to give those who attempted to drop first the flexibility they attempted to achieve.

Details:

CS will place the identified sequence (processed in chronological order) in Open Time and hide the pairing until they can make positive contact with the Flight Attendant to confirm that they still want the trip dropped. The Flight Attendant will see a FCR (pre-cancellation) on their line until they confirm the drop. The use of FCR is to protect legalities should the Flight Attendant decide they wanted the sequence back and not dropped into Open Time anymore.
Once CS confirms the Flight Attendant wants the pairing dropped, they will unhide it in Open Time.
If FA does not want the trip dropped, CS will put it back on their roster and move down the list.
The timeframe for Flight Attendants to call back will be 24 hours. If the Flight Attendant does not call CS back within 24 hours, then their sequence will be placed back on their roster and CS will move down the list.
If the Flight Attendant who is first on the list no longer has the pairing they attempted to drop for that date, CS will move down the list.
This process will be completed until the TSN max equivalent is met for each base.

Ongoing dispute resolution

This situation is completely unacceptable, and our top priority is ensuring our contractual provisions are adhered to and protected. The tools that you rely on for contractual flexibility should work. Our Grievance Committee will continue to seek appropriate remedies via the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process.

Upcoming Day of Solidarity

Looking for an outlet to vent your frustrations? Join us on the picket line or via virtual picket on Tuesday, December 19. For more information, click here.

Wildfire Smoke Safety

August 21, 2023 17:00

Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC)

Wildfire smoke can harm you in multiple ways. Smoke can hurt your eyes, irritate your respiratory system, and worsen chronic heart and lung diseases.
Our Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC) has coordinated with management to establish a Wildfire Smoke Protocol to keep us safe during wildfire season.
Key protections include the availability of N95 masks, layover hotel safety, and accommodations for sensitive groups.

As we enter peak wildfire season in many parts of the country, it’s important to be mindful of the risks that come with it. Not only are wildfires dangerous in and of themselves, but the smoke they produce can also be hazardous to our health. Wildfire smoke contains a variety of harmful particles and gases, including carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and fine particulate matter that can penetrate deep into our lungs. Therefore, taking precautions to protect ourselves from the dangers of wildfire smoke is crucial.

Our Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC) has worked with management to develop and implement a Wildfire Smoke Protocol to keep Flight Attendants safe during wildfire season. When the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaches or is expected to exceed 200 at a given airport, inflight management will post an alert on the inflight website, and the protocol will go into effect for that location. When the protocol is triggered, the following will apply:

Availability of N95 Masks

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a properly worn N95 mask will offer some protection from wildfire smoke. Management will make N95 masks available at impacted stations and all Flight Attendant bases.

Layover Hotels

Management will evaluate air quality in hotel rooms located in affected areas. Alternative lodging options will be identified in case relocation becomes necessary. Hotels in evacuation zones will not be used. Flight Attendants will be notified of any hotel changes by Crew Scheduling.

Accommodations for Sensitive Groups

Individuals especially vulnerable to poor air quality due to pre-existing conditions such as heart disease or lung disease (including asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, or diabetes), making them sensitive to poor air quality as defined by the AQI, are part of the Sensitive Group. Flight Attendants who are part of the Sensitive Group will not be required to layover at stations that are experiencing or are forecast to experience an Air Quality Index (AQI) over 200.

Process for requesting an accommodation:

Flight Attendants in the Sensitive Group must self-identify to Inflight Base management to receive an accommodation.
To request a wildfire smoke accommodation, Flight Attendants must call Inflight Base management after an alert is posted.
Flight Attendants in the Sensitive Group will be removed or SIP’d from trips that layover in impacted stations with an AQI 200 or greater with a management drop, no points.
For lineholders, Crew Scheduling management will SIP the sequence prior to the affected RON either at a SIP if there is one or by ending the trip early and deadheading the Flight Attendant back to base.
If on reserve, Flight Attendant may be assigned additional flying or returned to the LTFA as applicable.

Note: Flight Attendants must send eligible documentation for pre-existing conditions to Absence Management’s secured email within seven business days. If documents are not received within seven business days or are denied, the management drop will accrue points.

Additional Information

The complete Inflight Wildfire Smoke Protocol can be found on the Flight Attendant website under the safety tab or in GoodReader on the IMD in the FAM Supplemental Folder. Both locations also contain information about mask usage.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact your Local ASHSC.

The Importance of Reporting Hotel and Transportation Issues