Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – June 2024

Scheduling Committee

• On June 25, our AFA Scheduling Committee Chairpersons met to discuss their ongoing work representing Flight Attendants’ interests in lineholder scheduling.
• The Committee met with management to receive updates and discuss issues and problems Flight Attendants face with scheduling, pairings, and bidding.
• Your Local Scheduling Committee is available to assist with any lineholder scheduling-related issues. Don’t hesitate to reach out for help!

On Tuesday, June 25, our AFA Scheduling Committee Chairpersons/Representatives 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), Jaqui Bellenie (SFO),Rita Tillou (SEA), Russel Rivinius (PDX), Kamako Yamado (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 Virginia Fritz. 

The committee met with Managing Director of Inflight Operations Michaela Littman, Managing Director of Inflight Operations & Crew Scheduling Allen Thieman, Director of Crew Staffing Nicholas Giles, Manager of Crew Planning Trisha Bennett, Senior Manager of Product Management Rick Mitchell, Director of Crew Scheduling Sara Cook, Manager of Crew Pay Debbie Bakke, and other management representatives from Crew Planning and Crew Scheduling.

The Committee is next scheduled to meet on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.

Topics of Discussion

The committee reviewed several topics during internal AFA-only conversations and when meeting with management. Some items discussed include:

• In Portland, there is concern over the HNL layover construction for June extended to 3 days instead of 2. Local Scheduling Committee Chairperson plans reviewing July/August pairing construction to see if trips changed.
• It was reported that there are Reserve issues with iPhones and privacy settings, specifically AT&T. Collaboration with MEC Reserve Committee and MEC Grievance Committee. As a line holder if you are experiencing issues, please open an AFA Online Support Center ticket.
• Many of the bases said they don’t want to fly from domicile to Seattle and then work a Redeye flight. During pairing construction, AFA will review flights for duty start in Seattle to avoid other domiciles having to connect and fly these types of pairings.  The duty start would allow the redeye pairing to originate from the domicile it departs.  This could potentially impact the cost of the pairing solution. 
• Potential missed calls for those with Wi-Fi calling turned on.
• New Flight Attendants from the new hire classes are coming in and out of the ANC and there’s an increase in summer seasonal flying.
• Unhappiness with trips and inconsistent redeye connections in Seattle.
• Tickets being reassigned due to Flight Attendants not updating their profiles in the AFA Online Support Center.
• The SFO base reports that they are seeing a high percentage of unproductive redeyes that are commutable. Would prefer to have more efficient flying or commutable on one end of the pairing.
• Open Time failure and active grievance.
• Revised vs reassignment language preference.
• API failures with Flight Attendants and pilots causing hotel wait time issues.
• The SEA base has several requests for nonstop PVR 2-day flights. The base is seeing reduction of 4k flying for the fall as management reduces the flying schedule. 
• Busy July for PBS bidding with IT issues.
• Bid awards for July using extra combinations to reduce seniority violations.
• Bid protest for July considered normal.
• Frustration with lack of updates from NavBlue and request for separation from pilots in meetings.
• Future releases and installations for NavBlue, including fixes for pilots and Redhat 8 postponed. Both AFA and ALPA are tied to the program and this reduces our ability to install program updates for Flight Attendants. 
• IT issues with password reset and plans to redirect their help.
• There were several successful in person base sits around the system, including virtual sits and a new class virtual hour.
• Bid awards viewing invitation and committee overview.
• Selection of more expensive D run with the best soft lock ratio.
• Advocacy for more productive trips and reduction in commutability.
• Review and improvement of pairings in conjunction with sick calls.
• Testing completed for JCTE 24.1.6 and trade analysis review.
• Reduction in block hours for August, line average and reserve percentages.
• Discussion on August pairings, trip distribution, and upcoming schedules.
• We reviewed a PowerPoint with management tracking sick leave for lineholders and reserves, it shows year-over-year and month-over-month increases in absence rate.
• Reserve utilization and sick call percentages per base.
• Use of premium to reduce reserve utilization.
• Thoughts on posting premium OT trips in advance and personal drops.
• Increase in sick leave due to COVID in the Pacific Northwest. 
• Ditching drills going into JCTE and being audited.

What The Committee Is Working On

1. NavBlue. The PBS Subcommittee is seeking feedback on how they can improve their assistance to flight crews regarding bid awards and understanding results. They provided both in-person and virtual meetings for this purpose. The next in-person PBS Training is planned for June 
2. Pairings Survey. There is a discussion of reviewing bidding data from NavBlue to see what kind of pairings Flight Attendants are interested in flying instead of sending out a survey. We will continue to review options. 
3. Chime Communications. To reduce phone call volumes, Flight Attendants may soon be able to chat with Crew Scheduling via app/Microsoft Teams. The chat will be for Flight Attendant-initiated contact only. The function is currently in the early stages of development and still needs to be discussed with Labor Relations management and our MEC. Testing and implementation are continuing over the next few weeks. We are working on a letter of agreement for implementation, which is still pending review. 
4. Crew Scheduling. A monthly review of PowerPoint presentations covered various aspects such as reserve utilization, detailed breakdowns, sick leave (week by week and year over year), premium, personal drops, and other relevant agenda items.
5. Crew Planning. Like Crew Scheduling, there was a monthly review of PowerPoint presentations that covered subsequent month staffing, trip length distribution, Flight Attendant block hours, special initiatives (e.g., IROPs), commutability, and other relevant agenda items. Statistics around teaming continue to be reviewed. Crew Planning continues to maximize pairing construction and optimizing teaming strategies to minimize costs and ensure that crews (Flight Attendants) can stay together for multiple segments.
6. ITS. Representatives from ITS joined the scheduling meeting to provide updates on NavBlue, Crew Access, internal systems, and Block2Block. These updates include performance reviews, data analysis, and information about future releases.

We Want to Hear From You!

Whether you have feedback for the Committee, concerns to share, or items you’d like brought up with management – don’t hesitate to let us know. Your Local Scheduling Committee is here to be your voice to management. You can easily open a support ticket on the AFA Alaska Online Support Center or directly contact us using the information provided on the Scheduling Committee page of the AFA Alaska website.