AFA Alaska + Hawaiian

Representing the Flight Attendants of Alaska + Hawaiian

Click here to report an issue to AFA
You are here: Home / Archives for Latest News

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

Alaska Airlines-Virgin America Merger Update: January 31, 2017

There have been concerns raised to your Master Executive Council (MEC) leadership about what exactly the acquisition of Virgin America by Alaska Air Group and the subsequent merger between Alaska Airlines and Virgin America will mean for the AFA Alaska contract. Specifically, the question on the minds of many: If the Virgin America In-flight Teammates (ITMs) ratify a second tentative agreement between the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) (the union representing the ITMs) and Alaska Airlines management, will our joint contract negotiations result in a deterioration of the “legacy Alaska” compensation and/or work rules? These concerns have been brought about by a recent communication from Alaska Airlines management to the Virgin America ITMs that hints an impending second tentative agreement (TA) and provides management’s perspective regarding the TA.

Be assured our bargaining objectives will not be negatively affected if the Virgin America (VX) ITMs have a contract, because the “floor” for our talks will be the AFA Alaska contract. In our preliminary discussions so far, Alaska Airlines management has indicated they want to simply assimilate the Virgin America ITMs into our contract with minimal or no changes. It is clear from executive management on down that they are not expecting to “negotiate” any changes to the AFA Alaska contract.

For example, check out the video of the Alaska and Virgin America Day One Town Hall in which MEC President Jeff Peterson asks Alaska Air Group CEO Brad Tilden about expectations related to the merger for enriching the Alaska labor group contracts. The video can be accessed by going to “AS+VX Day 1 roundup: Photos, videos and celebration” on Alaskasworld.com (login required), scrolling down to “Employee and teammate town hall” and clicking on the link to the full version of the town hall. Jeff’s question is found between 51:15 and 52:00 and Brad’s answer is between 52:00 and 53:15.

In spite of this prevailing opinion amongst management, we have indicated there must be improvements for the Alaska Flight Attendants as well as for the Virgin America ITMs.  The recent communication from Alaska Airlines management to the VX ITMs spoke of them getting the AFA Alaska pay and work rules, not lesser ones. Management also referred to our contract as “industry leading.”

Certainly, management recognizes there is no going backwards. We all want make this merger a success.  Undermining the pay, protections and benefits in our contract would be a disastrous for the merger. Finally, all AFA Alaska and AFA Virgin America members in good standing (dues current) will get to vote on the joint contract, so we are going to move forward in solidarity to improve the legacy Alaska contract.

Beyond providing this information to our membership, it is important that AFA Alaska does not speculate any further on TWU VX’s ratification process and how it may affect the merger of our groups. The VX ITMs should have the space to take part in their democratic vote without influence or interference from anyone, including us. The MEC encourages the VX ITMs to talk to their TWU leadership for any specific concerns or questions regarding their contract negotiations.

Until the NMB makes the determination that AFA is the representing union for Virgin America, the MEC affirms the right of TWU VX to achieve a historic first contract. As a reminder, AFA filed for single carrier status with the NMB on January 5, 2017. AFA looks forward to representing the Virgin America ITMs in the near future!

In Solidarity,

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

AFA Listening Tour: First Stop LAX

AFA Listening Tour – LAX

We are launching an AFA Listening Tour this winter and spring with Local, MEC and International Officers. We want to hear from you!

Our union is not an institution. It’s you and me and all of aviation’s first responders. To ensure our union is reflecting the needs and hopes of Flight Attendants today, these meetings seek to gather your questions, concerns and ideas.

Our first meeting is scheduled for February 16, 2017, in Los Angeles where we have Local Councils at Alaska, Compass, Hawaiian, and United. In addition to our International Officers, we’ll have Local and MEC Presidents from all four airlines to ensure we can address any issue. All Flight Attendants are welcome!

First Listening Tour Meeting: Los Angeles
February 16, 2017
11 am- 2 pm

Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel
6101 West Century Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA, 90045

RSVP HERE >

AFA Officers Scheduled to Attend:

Timothy Green, AFA Alaska Council 18 President
Jeffrey Peterson, AFA Alaska MEC President
Brandon Stone, AFA Compass Council 84 President
Mike Nelson, AFA Compass MEC President
Melissa Hooper, AFA Hawaiian Council 47 President
Sharon Soper, AFA Hawaiian MEC President
Dante Harris, AFA United Council 12 President
Ken Diaz, AFA United MEC President
Sara Nelson, AFA International President
Debora Sutor, AFA International Vice President

Additional locations coming soon.

In Solidarity,

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

Flight Attendant Check-In App and Elimination of Scanners Sideletter of Agreement

Collective Bargaining Agreement sections modified:

  • 8.D. [Hours of Service/Check-In and Debrief];
  • 24.L. [General and Miscellaneous/Company Provided Inflight Mobile Device (IMD)];
  • 28.I. [Domiciles/Company Provided Commuters, Printers and Scanners at Domicile(s)];
  • 32.C. [Attendance Policy/Attendance Policy Definitions]; and
  • 32.E. [Attendance Policy/Control Procedure]

Your AFA Master Executive Council (MEC) and Alaska Airlines management entered into a side letter of agreement that requires Flight Attendants to check-in exclusively via the company-designated app on their IMD beginning no later than January 31, 2017.

>>> Click here to view the Flight Attendant Check-in App and Elimination of Scanner Sideletter of Agreement <<<

Why did the MEC agree to this? First, we are keeping pace with advancing technology and the overwhelming trend in our group away from utilizing the hard-wired scanners. Less than 7% of Flight Attendants check in via the scanners as of this writing. Secondly, we secured several improvements to our contract, including but not limited to the following:

  • If a Flight Attendant unsuccessfully attempts to scan in while s/he is in the approved geographical area, s/he may call Crew Scheduling to be checked in; Crew Scheduling will report this as an “Inability to Remotely Scan In.” Only in the case of three or more instances of an Inability to Remotely Scan In within a bid month will such an event be considered a performance issue and handled under the Company’s progressive discipline policy. However, any instances of an Inability to Remotely Scan In that are due to circumstances beyond the Flight Attendant’s control (e.g., such as but not limited to a malfunctioning application or IMD, or atmospheric conditions causing interference with the IMD or GPS location function) will not be considered for the purpose of progressive discipline.
  • Management will provide sufficient training for the use of the IMD and related Company-required applications.
  • We created an Information Technology (IT) Review Process that provides Alternative Dispute Resolution committee members to review all claims brought forward by a Flight Attendant and allows for the possibility of compensation at one (1.0) TFP if the parties agree that IT support was provided by the Flight Attendant over and above reasonable maintenance.

This side letter establishes a significant improvement over the previous policy that did not allow Crew Scheduling to check-in Flight Attendants; now Flight Attendants who attempt to check in via the app may be checked in by calling Crew Scheduling if they are having trouble with the app, and s/he will be checked in with no questions asked.

Contact your Local Executive Council (LEC) president if you have any questions or concerns.

In Solidarity,

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

Hotel Committee Meeting Recap – April 2026

On Monday, April 13, our AFA Local Hotel Committee Chairpersons met virtually 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 pmAS), Kelly Hepworth (PDX), Barry Spitzer (SFO), Brian Sherill (LAX pmAS), and Kanani Vallot (SAN), […]

Single PSS Is Coming: What It Means For You

Tonight, the Alaska and Hawaiian merger will reach another major milestone—the integration of both airlines into a single passenger service computer system (PSS). While this change will affect Flight Attendants less than other groups—like Customer Service Agents and airport staff—there are still important updates you should know. Block2Block App and Onboard Service Pre-merger Hawaiian Flight […]

Navigating Acute & Delayed Stress As A Flight Attendant

Stress is an inherent aspect of the Flight Attendant profession, often stemming from the demanding nature of responsibilities and the unpredictable nature of air travel. It’s essential for Flight Attendants not only to understand the different types of stress they may encounter but also to recognize the warning signs of acute and delayed stress for […]

Protect Yourself From Potential Discipline on Social Media

Our Grievance Committee would like to provide background on social media, protected classes, and discipline. Federal protected classes include race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or transgender status), national origin, age, disability, or genetic information.  Alaska’s People Policy says: Personal Conduct22. Threatening, intimidating, or discourteous behavior, including abusive, profane, or obscene language, acts, […]

Human Rights & Equity Committee Meeting Recap – 1st Quarter 2026

On Wednesday, March 25, our AFA Human Rights & Equity Committee Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing activism to raise awareness and create positive change within our workplace and community. Your representatives attending the meeting included Louise Borras (LAX-pmAS), Bruni Agosto-Pinal (LAX-pmHA), Aaron Miller (PDX), Nyachan Chuar (ANC), and Yan Yan Teague (SEA). MEC Human […]

Recent Posts

News By Month

News By Category

AFA News Now Air Quality Air Safety, Health, & Security Committee (ASHSC) Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) AS/HA Merger AS/VX Merger Benefits Committee Committees Communications Committee Contract Contract 2014 Negotiations Blog Council 15 SAN Council 18 LAX (pmAS) Council 19 SEA (pmAS) Council 30 ANC Council 35 SFO Council 39 PDX Council 43 HNL Council 47 LAX/SEA (pmHA) EAP/Professional Standards Committee Extension 2021 Blog Featured Government Affairs Committee Grievance Committee Hotel Committee Human Rights & Equity Committee Industry News Inflight Service Committee Inflight Training Committee JNC Blog Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) Latest News Local Councils Master Executive Council (MEC) Membership Engagement Committee Message from the MEC President Mobilization Committee Negotiations Pairing Construction Preferential Bidding System (PBS) Press Releases Reserve Committee Retirement Committee Scheduling Committee Uniform Committee

Want To Stay In The Loop?

Stay up-to-date on AFA Alaska + Hawaiian news and information by signing up for our email and text message updates. Click a button below to get started or update your preferences if you're already a subscriber.
Sign Up for Emails
Sign Up for Text Updates