Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – March 2024

Scheduling Committee

• On March 26, 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, March 26, 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), Jaqui Bellenie (SFO), Rita Tillou (SEA), Melodie Anderes (PDX), Kanako Yamada (LAX), and Kitty Cohen (SAN). Also present were MEC Scheduling Committee Vice Chairperson—Pairing Construction Karen Ferrell, MEC Scheduling Committee Vice Chairperson—PBS Virginia Fritz, and MEC Scheduling Committee Chairperson Jake Jones.

The committee met with Managing Director Inflight Operations & Crew Scheduling Allen Thieman, Managing Director Inflight Operations Michaela Littman, Managing Director Ops Staffing & Resource Mgt Brittany Audette, Director of Crew Scheduling Sara Cook, Director of Crew Planning Mike Ostler, Director of Crew Staffing Nicholas Giles, Manager of Crew Planning Trisha Bennett, Manager of Crew Pay Debbie Bakke, and other management representatives from Crew Planning/Crew Scheduling.

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

Topics of Discussion

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

• The popularity of 2-day DCAs and their new integration into 3-day trips.
• Advocacy for fewer red eye flights from certain locations and more 2-day non-red-eye flights.
• Questions about the efficiency of splitting certain flight legs into separate operations.
• The desire for an increase in co-terminal turns and more productive 2-3 day trips.
• Requests to reduce the number of 4-day trips and specific connections.
• Issues with Crew Scheduling and open segments related to pre-cancellations for like assignments. Open legs are reviewed in all domiciles.
• Concerns about the process of resolving issues with pay analysts.
• Flight Attendant confusion regarding accrued sick leave and its availability for use.
• Questions about the transportation of sick family/sick child calls on overnight stays.
• Challenges with internal AFA OS tickets and restrictions on advertising.
• Clarification needed on how screenshots work for combining and breaking apart trips. See labor memos related to screenshots on AFA website.
• Request for CSA to meet the plane instead of other company employees (Flight Attendants/Pilots).
• Increase in reassignments for line holders at report, impacting planned layovers.
• April Bid awards were quick and had no issues, published the following morning.
• Light April bid protest, one violation of junior line bidder seniority honored.
• NavBlue discussions about meetings, including weekly pilot calls and management calls.
• NavBlue future updates discussed, including transition to Red Hat 8 and AWS transition.
• NavBlue UAT testing and install of version 23.7.10 to PROD contingent upon bug fixes.
• NavBlue planning for password reset changes and removing IT from NavBlue logins.
• Mention of NavBlue future releases 23.8, 24.1, and 24.3.
• Discussions about pairing selection, analytics, and collaboration with crew planning monthly.
• Challenges with pairing construction and optimizing for quality of life.
• Request for improvements and review of Jeppesen’s optimization capabilities.
• Navblue released an update, no problems reported from users at this moment.
• JCTE release March 26, 2024, with Buddy Roster, screenshots to be published after implementation.
• Trade analysis shows increased trades in March, performance remaining steady for Crew Access.
• Database reindex scheduled for April 9, 2024 to improve trade analysis.
• June JCTE release will include historical data of processed transactions and ability to advertise for work.
• B2B tap to pay implementation coming soon, training sandbox in progress.
• Outage message to be sent regarding JCTE update and for future updates at the request of Flight Attendants.
• Christopher joined Inflight Crew Planning from Flight Ops, brings experience in aviation and used to work for JetBlue. Some management employees have expressed interest in retirement over the next year and assisting with integrating new members on the team.
• Block hours are increasing significantly in May, with LAX showing a reduction.
• Targeting 79.69TFP line average and 20.1% reserves for reserve staffing, we expect peak month in July for staffing.
• Trip length distribution remains consistent, some more commutable trips.
• SEA/ANC have best commutability for Flight Attendants, SFO/PDX most challenging.
• 5 MAXs mitigated in latter part of Spring, potential risk to reduce schedule.
• May bid month frequency to destination changes reviewed, Mexico flights shifting to Alaska and Transcon.
• E-175 stage length reduced, Mainline overnights added to park aircraft in outstations due to limitations in some of our domiciles.
• Remote parking/hard stand issues in Seattle, coordinating with wheelchairs and special services.
• Concerns with pre-cancellations, PBS bidding, and FCR when trips release into subsequent day.
• Absence rates increasing, Crew Scheduling goal to clean out Open Time daily utilizing reserves.
• Waived pay causing a burden on the rest of the Flight Attendant population, reassignments increasing. Crew Scheduling reports that Flight Attendants are waiving pay for alternative assignments but not picking up and this sometimes causes a ripple effect on the operation to cover the remaining open segments. 
• Reserve utilization at 82.2-92.9% January to March, month over month increases.
• Fatigue reports in March increased. Total of 42 fatigue calls with several days remaining till month end.
• Attrition seeing 5 ½ – 8 years of service, 50/50 commuter versus in domicile.
• Payroll to attend scheduling meetings, communication and response clarity needed on processes and inquiries.
• Quick reference guide requested for Inflight webpage information filtering for rainmaker and timelines to complete pay and query responses. There is a lot of information available but we don’t believe Flight Attendants are accessing the documents.

What the Committee is Working on

1. NavBlue. The PBS Committee 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.
2. Pairings Survey. There is a discussion about conducting a survey on pairing construction, and there is a possibility of organizing a virtual session or town hall. A meeting with management occurred June 5, 2023, with a follow-up meeting to be arranged. However, there is no update or estimated time of arrival (ETA) at the moment.
3. Chime Communications. Flight Attendants may chat with crew scheduling via app/Microsoft Teams to reduce phone calls. Flight Attendant-initiated contact. Early stages of development, to be discussed with AS Labor Relations and AFA. Testing and implementation to occur in the next few weeks. We are working on a letter of agreement for implementation. This is still pending review. 
4. Crew Scheduling. There was a monthly review of PowerPoint presentations that 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. Similar to Crew Scheduling, there was a monthly review of PowerPoint presentations that cover subsequent month staffing, trip length distribution, Flight Attendant block hours, special initiatives (e.g., IROPs), commutability, and other relevant agenda items.
6. ITS. Representatives from ITS joined the scheduling meeting to provide updates on NavBlue, Crew Access, internal systems, and Block 2 Block. 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.