Reserve Committee Meeting Recap – 4th Quarter 2022

Reserve Committee

• Our AFA Reserve Committee Chairpersons met on Thursday, December 1 to discuss their ongoing program of work to represent and advocate for our Reserve Flight Attendants.
• The Committee also met with management to review a number of specific concerns that were brought forward by Flight Attendants.
• Your Local Reserve Committee is available to answer questions, provide clarification, or help to resolve any reserve related issues.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

On Thursday, December 1, representatives from our AFA Local Reserve Committees met to discuss their ongoing work to advocate for Reserve Flight Attendants.  Representing you at the meeting were Heather Reier (ANC), Conner Gallagher (SEA), Anthony Eskander (PDX), Meghan Casey (SFO), Kanako Yamada (LAX), and Rebecca Garcia (SAN).  Also present were MEC Reserve Committee Chairperson Julie Thornton and MEC Reserve Committee Vice Chairperson—New Hire & Probation Jarod McNeill.  The committee also met with Inflight Crew Scheduling Duty Manager Sara Cook from management.

Topics of Discussion

The committee reviewed a number of items both during internal AFA-only conversation and when meeting with management.  Some items discussed include:

• Plans for Initial Training classes for next year.  Management has indicated intent to hire more Flight Attendants. Number of classes and specific numbers of students in each class will be dependent on delivery of new aircraft.
• Service flights and service training will continue in Initial Training for next year.
• Top cause of occurrences for probationary Flight Attendants is forgetting to check in for trips and APSB on Block2Block.
• Increase in requests for assistance with PBS and bidding from new hires.  
• Reminder to new hire Flight Attendants about the AFA Alaska Online Support Center to report issues, raise concerns, or ask questions.
• Management staffing within Crew Scheduling.  Four new Crew Scheduling Supervisors started this fall and they are in the process of interviewing for a Director of Crew Scheduling and one additional manager to help support operations. 
• Review of reserve utilization statistics in all bases.
• Status of management’s new upgraded telephone system in Crew Scheduling. Management provided statics on call volumes, wait times, and call duration times.
• Issues and glitches with Crew Access that are affecting Reserve Flight Attendants.  Review of where known issues are documented and newly added issues. 
• Update on topics of interest that were reviewed at the monthly Scheduling Committee meeting.

The committee is next scheduled to meet on Thursday, March 9.

What The Committee Is Working On

1. Assisting Probationary Flight Attendants Through the Reserve Buddy Program.   Answering questions from and providing support to probationary Flight Attendants through an expanded AFA Reserve Buddy program.
2. Addressing Reserve Contractual Concerns.  Researching and investigating reports from Reserve Flight Attendants and actively ensuring that management is compliant with our contract. 
3. Developing Additional Tools & Resources for New Flight Attendants.  Working to create a plan to provide more user friendly, easy-to-access resources about the CBA and other job-related information for new Flight Attendants.

We Want to Hear From You!

Do you have feedback for the committee, concerns you’d like to share, or items that you’d like brought up with management?  Please let us know!  Your Local Reserve Committee is your voice to management.  You can find our contact information on the Reserve Committee page of the AFA Alaska website.