Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – January 2022

Scheduling Committee

• Our AFA Scheduling Committee Chairpersons met on Tuesday, January 25 to discuss their ongoing program of work to represent Flight Attendants interests related to lineholder scheduling.
• The Committee also met with management to receive updates and discuss issues and problems that Flight Attendants are experiencing with scheduling, pairings, and bidding.
• Your Local Scheduling Committee is available to answer questions, provide clarification, or help to resolve any lineholder scheduling-related issues.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

On Tuesday, January 25, our AFA Scheduling Committee Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing work to represent our Flight Attendants and push for improvements in our workplace.  Representing you at the meeting were Heather Reier (ANC), Rita Tillou (SEA), Melodie Anderes (PDX), Virginia Fritz (SFO), Brie Donoghue (LAX), and Kitty Cohen (SAN).  Also present were MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones, MEC Scheduling Committee Vice Chairperson—Pairing Construction Karen Ferrell, and MEC Scheduling Committee Vice Chairperson—PBS Adam Clarey.  The committee met with Director of Inflight Crew Scheduling Denia Pisia, Manager of Crew Planning Mac Patterson, and other management representatives from Crew Scheduling and Crew Planning. 

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:

• Snow Operations – Precancellation, reassignments, diversions, stranded and hotel/transportation concerns reported by Flight Attendants through the AFA Alaska Online Support Center.
• Regional aircraft flying within the State of Alaska and the lower 48. How it affects our bases and block hours. 
• Filing Activity Claim Forms within Rainmaker to assist Flight Attendants with pay related questions.   Scheduling representatives do not have access to individual Flight Attendant Rainmaker profiles and need to request screenshots when assisting with pay.  
• Contactability requirements of Section 8.Q. Reviewed when Flight Attendants are required to be contactable and return calls to scheduling.  Also being available for ground time while on duty. 
• El Paso flying locked in SEA base March through May 2022. 
• Sick Leave and staffing, if sick leave is reduced could potentially add more line holders and reduce the overall reserve staffing system wide. 
• Flight Attendants with ground time on more than 4 hours need to request day rooms.  Scheduling will wait to book the room until the Flight Attendant makes contact.  
• Pyramiding Pay – premium, holiday, over duty, winter incentive

What The Committee Is Working On

1. Information Technology Improvements.  Including, but not limited to, Block2Block/Inflight Mobile, Flight Attendant website performance, JCTE performance, Open Time statistics and trade processing times, JCTE releases, and Crew Scheduling/Crew Admin items (non-JCTE).
2. Reassignment Flow Chart.  Developing an easy-to-follow flow chart to help explain how reassignments work, similar to the pre-cancellation flow chart. 
3. Scheduling Quality of Life Improvements.  Reviewing ways to improve Trip Length Distribution (TLD) and other quality of life options.  Working with management to develop a quality of life survey to determine Flight Attendant scheduling priorities. 
4. Sunset of NAVBLUE ClassBid PBS.  Conducting PBS base sits to help support Flight Attendants in preparation for the cutover.

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 Scheduling 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 Scheduling Committee page of the AFA Alaska website.