Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – March 2022

Scheduling Committee

• Our AFA Scheduling Committee Chairpersons met on Tuesday, March 22 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, March 22, 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), Natalie Codd (LAX), and Kitty Cohen (SAN). Also present were MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones, MEC Scheduling Committee Vice Chairperson—Pairing Construction Karen Ferrell, MEC Scheduling Committee Vice Chairperson—PBS Adam Clarey, and MEC Reserve Chairperson Julie Thornton. The committee met with Managing Director of Inflight Operations Michaela Littman, Crew Scheduling Duty Manager Sara Cook, 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:

• Pairing construction including concerns about high line averages, reserve utilization, and fatigue.
• Concerns about reassignments, conversion of deadheads, sick calls, and the number of trips consistently in Premium Open Time.
• Review of PBS Base Sits including training video views and level of participation at the base sits and on conference calls.
• Spring Incentive Premium including both negative and positive feedback received from Flight Attendants.
• Concerns about PBS bid groups causing issues with bidding and raising the low line average higher.
• Inclusion of scheduled charter flying in bid packets and PBS pairing search.
• Feedback about the Jeppesen Crew Access core system for the vendor.
• Discussion about the company’s network planning strategy and how flying is assigned to Alaska, Horizon, and/or Skywest.

What The Committee Is Working On

1. PBS Base Sits.  Conducting virtual meetings, trainings, and in-person meetings in preparation for the sunsetting of NAVBLUE ClassBid PBS.  
2. Reassignment Flow Chart.  Developing an easy-to-follow flow chart to help explain how reassignments work, similar to the pre-cancellation flow chart.  A rough draft is expected next month for further review by the Scheduling Committee.
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. Review of user guides and links of Flight Attendant website.  Ensuring information is still accurate in existing resource materials, links are still active and working, etc.
5. Updating Crew Access videos.  Working with management and ITS to update the Crew Access instructional videos to reflect updates and changes to the user interface.

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.