Reserve Committee
- Our AFA Reserve Committee Chairpersons met on Thursday, December 7 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 7, 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 Brandi Urban (ANC), Conner Gallagher (SEA), Anthony Eskander (PDX), Meghan Casey (SFO), Kanako Yamada (LAX), and Rebecca Garcia (SAN). Also present was MEC Reserve Committee Chairperson Julie Thornton.
The committee met with the Director of Inflight Crew Scheduling Sara Cook, Manager of Inflight Crew Scheduling Goose Hlaingmyint and Supervisor of Inflight Crew Scheduling Derrick Bernard.
The committee is next scheduled to meet on Thursday, March 14, 2024.
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 2024. Management has pushed the class 1 start date to the end of Q1 or the beginning of Q2, but they still intend to hire more Flight Attendants in 2024. However, the number of classes and the specific number of students in each class will depend on the delivery of new aircraft.
- Issues and glitches with Crew Access that are affecting Reserve Flight Attendants. Review of where known issues are documented and newly added/ fixed issues.
- Review of upcoming updates to Crew Access software and associated fixes to current issues and other improvements prioritization for programming fixes.
- Support for probationary Flight Attendants through the Probationary Buddy Program. We have had three classes complete probation, and the remaining four classes will all be off probation by mid-April 2024. Reminder to refer Probationary Flight Attendants to their Buddy for answers to contract and work rules questions.
- Increase in Lineholders picking up reserve days, which has resulted in increased flexibility for Reserve Flight Attendants.
- Review of reserve utilization statistics for November, where approximately 85.3% of Reserves were used in all bases.
- Review of personal drops: for November, they have been able to award 931 Flight Attendant personal drops.
- Review of reserve-related scheduling issues that have occurred recently.
- Review of reserve-related issues that have been escalated to the Scheduling Review Board (SRB) and Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) processes.
- Reminder to new hire Flight Attendants about the AFA Alaska Online Support Center to report issues, raise concerns, or ask questions.
What the Committee is Working On
- Assisting Probationary Flight Attendants Through the Probationary Buddy Program. Answering questions from and providing support to probationary Flight Attendants through an expanded AFA Probationary Buddy program. Growing support in all bases with more buddies & new useful tools.
- Addressing Reserve Contractual Concerns. Researching and investigating reports from Reserve Flight Attendants and actively ensuring management is complying with our contract. If not compliant taking issues through the SRB & ADR process to ensure compliance.
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 open a support request on the AFA Alaska Online Support Center or contact us directly using the information on the Reserve Committee page of the AFA Alaska website.
