Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – May 2024

Scheduling Committee

• On May 21, 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, May 21, 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),Melinda Jorge (SEA), Melodie Anderes (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, Managing Director of Operations Staffing & Resource Management Brittany Audette, 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 Inflight Crew Scheduling Goose Hlaingmyint, 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, June 25, 2024.

Topics of Discussion

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

• There are concerns about the decrease in Hawaii flying.
• PDX/SAN are facing challenges with Hawaii flying, including red-eye flights. There is also limited parking for planes in Seattle.
• Questions were raised about the July increase in Flight Attendants and the decision to grant domicile transfers, which caused SAN to increase and SFO to decrease.
• LAX is providing examples of issues with sit pay when Flight Attendants are assigned to pre-board, causing concerns about timely handling and violation of order of assignment. The parties are investigating. 
• There needs to be clarity regarding text notifications for trips before Open Time and discrepancies in Crew Access. This sometimes occurs when the next month is loaded into the system. 
• Some individual Flight Attendants are unsatisfied with the calendar view issue workaround. The calendar should actively work with the latest update and show the updated days under 90 seconds. 
• SFO lost 40 Flight Attendants in July, raising concerns about the base’s future. Management said there’s no plan to reduce the number of gates at this time, and they are hopeful business travel will pick up in the near future.
• There are concerns about Open Time issues from the April 16, 2024 system technical issue event.
• There are concerns about Open Time issues from the May 15, 2024 system technical issue event.
• Hotel wait times have improved compared to the previous month.
• Seattle had a shortage of one TSN in June. This issue has been referred to the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, and the TSN is updated to show 17 correctly.
• The PBS Subcommittee discussed bidding, bid awards, bid protests, and future releases. There are upcoming base sits in June.
• There are plans to increase the number of pairings and improve commutability.
• There are discussions about payroll issues, ITS updates, JCTE, and tap-to-pay adoption in Block2Block.
• There will be no more requirement to file for sit time and release adjustments in the next JCTE update when pilots manually adjust the block in times.
• Crew Planning discussed the increase in block hours for July, the reduction in SFO base block hours, and the impact of MAX delay on aircraft availability.
• Pairing selection for July focused on keeping flight crews together and adding soft locks.
• Commutability for July is best for SEA/ANC and most challenging for SFO/PDX.
• There are ongoing challenges with sick leave and absences for lineholders and reserves.
• Feedback from Flight Attendants includes the need for more productive trips, better scheduling, and increased TSN.
• Flight Attendants desire contractual language protections and an improved work environment to address challenges.
• Reserves are being highly utilized, and Crew Scheduling is covering flights saved by premium pay. However, we are seeing a reduction in lineholders picking up reserve days.
• There are discussions about premium trips, reassignments, personal drops, and fatigue.
• Hawaii flying has changed, shifting towards more transcon and Mexico flights.
• Crew Pay is conducting base sits and aims to attend all bases this year.

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.