Along with the busy summer travel season has come an uptick in issues with crew hotel accommodations and layover transportation. Management has a responsibility to provide hotel accommodations and corresponding transportation to and from the hotel to Flight Attendants on a layover. This information is contained in section 34 of the contract.
1. If you have a problem with your hotel or transportation, report it!
Management, in conjunction with their hotel vendor API, has recently launched a new version of CrewCare, the website that is used to give feedback on hotel and transportation issues. The new system, My Crew Care, can be accessed through the new Flight Attendant Website.
In order to take action on issues with layover hotels and transportation, your AFA Hotel Committee needs to know when you have a problem. Reports submitted through My Crew Care are automatically routed to your AFA Hotel Committee so they can track issues and trends in our layover locations.
To Access My Crew Care
- Log-in to the inflight website (http://asainflight.alaskaair.com)
- Open the menu
- Click “Hotels”
- Click “Hotel Links”
- Click “My Crew Care”
- Open the menu
- Click “Feedback”
- Click “Provide Feedback”
First Time Using the New My Crew Care System?
When you open the My Crew Care site for the first time, you’ll need to register with your alaskaair.com email address. After registering, the system will send you a confirmation email. From the confirmation email, click the link to confirm your registration. Once you complete this registration process, you won’t need to do it again.
API has written a user guide for the My Crew Care system that you can access here: https://api2.apicrewcare.com/Uploads/Public/UserGuides/CrewMember/CrewmemberUserGuide_AlaskaAir.pdf.
2. If your transportation is late, you can take a taxi, Uber, or Lyft!
If your van hasn’t arrived to pick you up from the airport within 35 minutes of block-in, you have the right to take other transportation and submit the expense for reimbursement from management. The same thing applies if your van hasn’t arrived to pick you up from the hotel within 10 minutes of the scheduled departure time. You can find this contractual language in section 34.B. Be sure to save your receipt and submit an expense report after your trip. Your supervisor can assist you with completing an expense report.
3. There’s been an increase in unscheduled layover hotel blunders
Recently, Crew Scheduling and the Company’s hotel vendor, Accommodations Plus International (API), have dropped the ball in multiple cases involving unscheduled layover hotels and transportation. Your Hotel Committee has been advised of recent situations where layover hotel rooms were not secured until after crew arrival in a layover city, transportation not being booked, and hotels being booked that didn’t meet minimum contractual requirements. Crew Scheduling is following policy and using a hotel vender as required by management, so AFA holds management ultimately responsible for these unacceptable and ongoing slipups. Management has an obligation to have contractually compliant hotel accommodations reserved and transportation arranged prior to crew arrival in their layover city. AFA has requested a meeting with management and API to call for immediate resolution of these issues.
4. You can check to see if your unscheduled layover hotel meets contractual minimums
Example of how to determine the Travel Weekly classification for a specific hotel
If you end up with an unscheduled layover, it’s possible that the regular crew hotel in that city could be full and you might end up with a room at an alternate hotel. Section 34.A.4 of the contract specifies that the company must make every reasonable effort to ensure that an alternate hotel meets the minimum requirements outlined for regular layover hotels. At a minimum, Flight Attendant layover hotels must meet a rating of 5 or above as rated by Travel Weekly. You can check to see how your alternate hotel is rated by typing the hotel name into the search box at http://www.travelweekly.com/Hotels.
If you have been placed at a hotel that doesn’t meet the minimum rating of 5 or above, you should contact Crew Scheduling immediately to request a different hotel that meets contractual minimums. If you’re told that no other hotels are available, please forward your pairing information, hotel name, and hotel address to your Local Hotel Committee as soon as possible.
Have Questions?
Your Local Hotel Committee can help! You can find contact information on your Local Council’s committee page or on the Hotel Committee page of the AFA Alaska website.
In Solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green, Brice McGee and MEC Hotel Committee Chairpersons Laura Hinojosa and Jodi Snow
