Scheduling Committee Meeting Recap – October 2024

Scheduling Committee

• On October 29, 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, October 29, 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 Rebekah Olds (ANC), Jaqui Bellenie (SFO), Rita Tillou (SEA), Melodie Anderes (PDX), Kelese Richardson (LAX), and Kitty Cohen (SAN). Also present were 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 Crew Staffing Nicholas Giles, Director of Crew Planning Trisha Bennett, Senior Manager of Product Management Rick Mitchell, Manager of Inflight Scheduling (Training/ Policy Procedures) Interim Matthew Trujillo, 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, November 19, 2024.

Topics of Discussion

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

• Crew Frustrations with Cancellations. Crews faced challenges with cancelled flights, resulting in lost premium pay and communication timelines when cancellations occur. 
• Bidding Carry Over Pairings. November bidding encountered issues with illegal carryovers and pay protection for flight attendants, requiring audits and process reviews for 10.S pairings 
• Increased December Demand. A block hour increase is expected in December, affecting staffing and pairings, particularly in PDX.
• Pairing Analytics Tool. A Pairing Analytics dashboard is nearing completion to improve efficiency and may expand understanding of pairing trends and historical data.
• Staffing Adjustments. Management plans to reassess staffing and budgets in January based on ongoing operational data. 
• Pairing Construction Feedback. Ongoing scrutiny of decrease of desired pairings, especially regarding the equity of short turns for flight attendants and desired pure 2-day pairings
• NAVBLUE User Conference. AFA PBS Subcommittee represented AFA Alaska at the yearly NAVBLUE User conference bringing forward outstanding concerns, collaborating with other customers and advocating for improvements
• Future Operation Impacts. Teaming is set up to help if operation affected by winter IROPS. Question of Unpredictable flight schedules due to factors like the Boeing strike and cancellations due to them.

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 PBS Subcommittee is working with management on PBS base sit budgets.  Management has the committee keep track of how money is being spent to assist flight crews with their bidding. We appreciate your participation in virtual and in person base sits. 
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.