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Open Enrollment starts tomorrow (Monday, November 2nd). Your AFA Benefits and Retirement Committee compiled the following information in order to assist you with navigating Open Enrollment.

General Changes

 

  • Mailer will be sent to employee’s home addresses 10/15 to advise that Open Enrollment begins on 11/02/15.
  • Follow up emails will be sent as reminders through Outlook beginning 10/30.
  • A new tool will be added to the web portal. It is called “Alex,” and is a user-friendly tool to enter information, which will then enable employees to compare and contrast different health benefits options.
  • A ‘My Alaska Benefits-Annual Enrollment Tab’ will be added to the Alaskasworld website.
  • If desired, an employee can enroll or make changes by telephone.
  • This year, confirmation of changes/enrollment emails will be sent to employees in Outlook. There will be links in these emails directing F/As back to their selections in the portal, and their portal message folder if need be.
  • Employees may carry over up to $500 in unspent Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds into 2016.

 

2016 Consumer’s Choice (Health Savings Account/HSA)

 

  • In Washington State only, the Premera Network will change from the current Heritage Network to the Premera Prime network. This only affects Washington. In Alaska, the Heritage network will remain in place. All other states use the Blue Shield network, which will not change. F/As should be reminded to check to see that their current health providers are also Premera Prime participants.
  • The company contribution will remain $1,000 for employee only and $2,000 for a family. This year all enrollees in the plan will receive an additional $500 company contribution to the plan for an individual and $1,000 for a family. This bonus is available during open enrollment only, both for those switching plans and for current Consumer’s Choice plan participants.
  • A new “HSA On-Demand” feature will be added to the Health Savings Account (HSA) website. It will be called “Click to Pay,” with a sign up and usage explanation. It will automatically draw funds from the employees account to pay bills, similar to an online bill pay service.
  • A change in the crediting and access to the company contributions will begin in 2016. Similar to a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), the company contributions will be credited at the beginning of the year. IRS regulations require than an employee’s personal contributions cannot be credited until the beginning of the month in which they were actually deducted, and transferred to the HSA account.
  • If an employee has prior year contributions and/or an investment balance in their account, their cash balance would be used first. Next, they could access their investment balance, and then the company’s contributions. This might prove very beneficial for someone who incurs a large expense in the early part of the year.
  • The Health Saving Account (HSA) statements will look different this year—more information will be added. A “HSA for Dummies” booklet will be posted on the website.
  • For prior HSA plan participants who become ineligible (due to Medicare, or other disqualifiers which are listed in the booklet), the Company will contribute $500 to a Special Purpose FSA, which can be used for dental and vision expenses, as well as medical expenses after the relevant deductible is met in one of the other AS plans.
  • The 2016 HSA limit is $6750 for an individual under the age of 55.

 

Premera PPO

 

  • For 2016 forward, the plan is no longer ‘grandfathered’. The plan will provide 100% preventative health care coverage beginning in January.
  • Like the Health Spending Account (HSA), the Washington network will be Premera Prime for 2016 forward.
  • Hospice and palliative care will now be covered even for non-terminal conditions when appropriate.
  • Over the counter medications in the categories of Flonase, Nexium, and Claritin will no longer be covered, but can be submitted as a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) claim with a doctor’s written prescription.
  • Up to 90-day prescriptions for maintenance medications can now be filled in retail stores as well as through mail order. There are some exceptions depending on the medication.

* * *

 

Questions? Contact your local Benefits Committee chairperson.

 

In solidarity,

 

MEC Benefits & Retirement Committee Chairperson Terry Taylor and your AFA Benefits Committee

AFA Alaska

Your AFA Scheduling Committee and Alaska Airlines management team have worked together since July 2015 to send out a survey asking about your flying patterns, trip preferences and quality of life.  We ask that you please take the time to fill out this short survey and provide us with detailed feedback we plan to use in future discussions.  We appreciate you taking time from your busy schedules to engage in our survey. The survey link is available via your Outlook email and will be open for two weeks.

 

In solidarity,

 

Your AFA Scheduling Committee

AFA Alaska Logo No Tag

AFA advocated very hard on your behalf in regard to the recent changes to the sleeping while in uniform policy. Collectively we were successful in getting management to reconsider the policy. Inflight just published Bulletin #2015-0272 “Sleeping While in Uniform” that establishes a much-improved policy.

 

The bulletin outlines that a flight attendant “may not nest in any public area where customers gather at (a) terminal”, which “includes laying down on (the) floor or on seats inside public areas of (a) terminal” (sic). Essentially this means we may use our discretion to close our eyes as long as we’re not lying down.

 

Of course a flight attendant may never sleep or give the appearance of sleeping while in uniform when customers are present on the aircraft—except when assigned a customer seat such as when deadheading or commuting.

 

The bulletin contains an additional clarification that break rooms are acceptable locations even though they may not be appropriate sleep locations for other work groups.

 

The Master Executive Council (MEC) sincerely thanks Alaska Airlines management for developing a more sensible sleeping policy for the flight attendants. We also thank our members for their resolute support in getting the policy reconsidered!

 

In solidarity,

 

Your MEC—Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; and MEC ASHSC Chairperson Seth Heiple

AFA Alaska

What is going on with ____ (fill in the blank)?

 

Sometimes you just have to shake your head. First it was Open Time (going on several months now). Then Vacation Open Time yesterday. Today it’s basically everything: Alaska’s World, PET, World of Inflight, eMaestro, etc. Today’s systemic outage is reportedly for different reasons than the challenges with Open Time or Vacation Open Time.

 

AFA requested that management communicate something about the outage earlier this morning to give a more complete update. We believe they are working on it, but they are also attending to the operational challenges resulting from the outages. Hopefully more information will be out soon.

 

Beyond frustrating!

 

In solidarity,

 

Your MEC—Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; and MEC Scheduling Chairperson Jake Jones

AFA Alaska

AFA and management have set priorities to resolve issues with Open Time

 

AFA and management have set priorities to resolve issues with Open Time. At this time a work request is pending with Jeppesen and we are waiting for an estimated time of delivery for the fixes to eMaestro. In order of priority the items pending include:

 

  1. Net 40 TFP calculator visible in eMaestro
  2. No need to recall your trip before being able to trade with OT
  3. Correct coding of trips – programming the TX code (i.e. non TO/CP/DD coding)
  4. Codes displaying on trips in eMaestro
  5. Single trip trading for another trip of a greater number of days and covering the same dates even if not sharing the same date of departure

 

AFA’s position is that the Open Time trial of 12 months is still pending until we are able to fix issues #1 through #4 above. Once the trial begins we will be submitting a monthly survey to Flight Attendants on feedback regarding the new trading system.

 

In order to assist you with the new trading system we have provided helpful OT trading tips below. Additional information can be found in a previous AFA Alaska communication from October 14, 2015: “Open Time Trading Tips.”

 

Picking up a SIP

There are many four day trips in Open Time and you will have to be quick, but you can pick up a trip, SIP it, dump back the portion you don’t want to keep back into OT as long as the day remains open and someone else does not drop while you are processing your SIP.

Example: I see a 4-day starting on the 5th, but I want the MCO 2 day on the 7th and 8th. I pick up the trip, I go back to drop it to open time, I click on the SIP, I give away the top half (because the day is open (because I picked it up and the TSN dropped below the threshold which allows me to drop it quickly back as long as it remains open) and process. The 2-day MCO stays on my schedule.

Again, you have to be quick and only wanting to keep the bottom portion of the SIP while giving back the top portion of the SIP to OT.

Month End Overlap

When you are dropping a trip on the last few days of the month that carries over into the subsequent month, the TFP in the current month will count towards the current month. The additional TFP dropped in the subsequent month will also count towards that month’s net 40 drop.

Example: On Oct 31st I have a 4-day pairing and I drop it into OT. The first day on the 31st is worth 4.0 TFP and takes my 40 TFP net for October down to 36 TFP. The trip dropped also covered November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd which totaled 20 TFP. My net drop for November is now only going to allow 20 TFP in the month of November when I get my next schedule for the subsequent month, unless I pick up more flying from Open Time that overlaps into November.

“Process” button

When processing transactions you must click once and only once on the “Process” button. If you click more than once, the system will process the trade “approved or denied” and then boot you off the system. You will get a duplicate session and have to click “Reset,” then log back on. Click “Process” only one time, let the transaction process, and then go onto the next transaction. Please realize there are many transactions taking place nearly simultaneously on Open Time trading day and that you will need to allow the server time to complete the entire transaction.

Downtrading

Once a day is “limited,” you can still downtrade a trip that operates on the same date of departure as the trip on your schedule.

Example: The 4th is limited and there is a 1-day turn. I have a 4-day trip that originates on the 4th. I can trade down my 4-day, for the 1-day as long as they both operate on the 4th when the day is limited and provided I have not exceeded my net 40 TFP drop.

Recall Trip

If you have a trip posted for pick up, you must recall the trip in order to drop it to Open Time.

* * *

 

We’ve definitely heard there are concerns with multi-day trading and other functions that changed between the old and new system. We appreciate the feedback and will continue to review all suggestions and concerns. If you have questions regarding trading, dropping or picking up please contact your LEC Scheduling Chair.

 

In solidarity,

 

Your MEC — Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; and MEC Scheduling Chairperson Jake Jones

AFA Alaska

Here are minutes of the October 21, 2015 LEC Base Meeting. If you have any questions you can contact any of your LEC Officers.

AFA-CWA Base Meeting

Council 19 Seattle

October 21, 2015

1:00PM

(Agenda)

 

Call meeting to order: 1:45

  1. Call for late agenda items

A. Late agenda items – none

B. Announcements – none

2. LEC Update

             A. LEC President Report: LEC P Laura Masserant

Budget 16K a month and over budget in Sept/Oct because of the training (FADAP and Advanced Grievance Training). Andy is cutting the CB pay and some of our AFA paid by Company is being reduced. Our Benefit committee appears to be first on the list and it is only a total of 30 TFP’s for all bases. Laura has asked that our committee members’ complete monthly logs to show work completed. The company will only allow 1 chair to meetings and no additional pay. Vice chair can attend but no CB pay.

The Inflight Crew Room is moving and will eventually be just outside the KCM area where the pilot room is now. That is also going to be the area that is going to be the FA area for rest.

            B. LEC VP Report: VP Jake Jones

Pretty much the same thing doing a lot of back scene issues. In office Monday thru Friday and fly on the weekends and that is the only time my phone is off. In charge of the implementation meetings and those are once a month along with scheduling once a month.

             C. LEC Secretary: Sect/Tresurer Linda Christou

Membership dues update: Check to see if it was paid because notices cross in the mail with payment updates from Alaska. First, you need to review your paystub and you look at your 20th check for the month you were invoiced (if you get a invoice from AFA International Membership department). If you are invoiced for October you look at your October 20th paycheck not September 20th paycheck.

        3. Open Time Update:

The company believes it didn’t crash. Company added more servers to help offset the accessibility issues, but Seattle reports continuing concerns with log on attempts. The MEC will discuss at the next meeting, November 9-10. Seattle Open Time accessibility is added to the agenda to discuss possible changes to the December OT for January. It must be fair for all bases~ MEC is monitoring OT and Laura will send out a blast (Went out as MEC blast on 10.27.5)

December Staffing update: More flying in the back end of December so bid accordingly.

          4. BUDGET REVIEW

Went over it earlier in Laura’s report

Meeting adjourn at 2:50pm

 

eMaestro not able to adequately handle the amount of users

 

Over the past few months the Master Executive Council (MEC) and the AFA Scheduling Committee have been actively working with management to help ease the transition during implementation of the new Open Time system. The reality of the situation is that eMaestro is not able to adequately handle the amount of users accessing the system at one time. This is why Open Time crashed in September when Seattle OT trading began.

 

User capacity increased in October, but…

 

To help remedy the issue, management agreed to increase the user capacity in October. This action did appear to soften the blow during Open Time. However, there were still reports of Seattle flight attendants continuing to experience accessibility issues.

 

eMaestro has just about reached maximum performance given its limitations

 

The changes in the contract to the Open Time system are designed to help enhance trading options for flight attendants. Unfortunately, it appears that management did not fully understand the capabilities, or lack thereof, of the eMaestro system during negotiations. Management continues to work with Jeppesen and the Information Technology (IT) department to tweak the system for maximum performance given its limitations. Unfortunately these adjustments have returned about as much improvement as we’re probably going to get.

 

AFA has the daunting task of finding workarounds

 

This leaves AFA with the daunting task of finding workarounds to ensure all flight attendants have the ability to exercise their contractual rights to trade with Open Time. Once the new Jeppesen Crew Tracking Enterprise (JCTE) program is in place the issues will subside. During negotiations management estimated that JCTE would be implemented at the end of second quarter 2016.

 

Seattle Open Time trading moved to the 16th at 0900 PT

 

One workaround in effect during November Open Time for December trading is Seattle flight attendants’ Open Time moved to the 16th at 0900 PT.

 

  • Posting of trips for trade: 14th at 2000 PT.
  • Open Time trading & FA to FA trading:  15th or 16th (see below)
  • Out of domicile trades, pick-ups and give-aways: 17th  0900 PT

 

Trading/Open Time start times for each base:

 

  • SAN:  15th at 0900 PT
  • PDX:  15th at 1000 PT
  • ANC:  15th at 1100 PT
  • LAX:  15th at 1200 PT
  • SEA:  16th at 0900 PT

 

The Threshold Sequence Number (TSN) for ANC, PDX and SAN is 3 trips per day.  For LAX, management has agreed to increase this to 4 trips per day on a trial basis.  For SEA, the TSN is 11 trips per day. For more information, see Inflight Required Bulletin #2015-0210.

 

The MEC believes moving Seattle trading a day later will help offset the problems with capacity overload for all bases when their respective Open Time trading begins. We will continue to monitor Open Time and work with the AFA Scheduling Committee to find solutions to problems if they occur.

 

Update on the upcoming fixes for Open Time Trading

 

There are four items that will be fixed in the coming months:

 

  1. Net 40 Calculator being visible in Maestro
  2. No need to recall your trip before being able to trade with OT
  3. Correct coding of trips – programing the TX code
  4. Codes displaying on trips in Maestro

 

We will keep you posted on the progress of these fixes, but please know they are on the list and actively being addressed.  Once the coding is corrected, this will allow you the ability to trade a trip on your line with a trip in OT coded other than DD (direct drop to OT), TO (open trade with OT) or CP (coupon drop) (e.g. TX, SL, ML, UB, CB, etc.) for a different report date as long as you are covering the same days of flying or greater. Remember, trips coded with DD, CP or TO cannot be traded in this manner although they can be traded down based on day of departure only.

 

Example: You have a two-day trip on October 20/21 and you want to trade for a 3 day trip coded TX on October 19/20/21 in Open Time, the fix will now allow this trade to occur.

 

Vacation Open Time Update

 

Due to problems with vacation open time, the MEC has worked with management to make it easier for you to trade your vacation with vacation open time! Refer to Inflight Bulletin #2015-0268 for detailed information.

 

Vacation trading will start on October 28th

  • SAN at 0900 PT
  • PDX at 1000 PT
  • ANC at 1100 PT
  • LAX at 12:00am PT
  • SEA at 2:00pm PT

 

* * *

 

We know that is a lot of information! If you have any questions, contact a Local Executive Council (LEC) officer (ANC 30 | SEA 19 | PDX 39 | LAX 18 | SAN 15) or a local Scheduling Committee member.

 

In solidarity,

 

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; and MEC Scheduling chairperson Jake Jones

AFA Alaska

AFA Alaska news and information are now easier to access than ever with the recent launch of our new optimized mobile website.  Just visit afaalaska.org on your IMD or personal smartphone for easy access to AFA resources when you’re on the go.

There’s An App For That

If you’re using an Apple device, you can save the AFA Alaska mobile website as an app icon on your device’s desktop.  It’s easy; just follow these steps (or check out the screenshots below):

  • On your device, visit afaalaska.org
  • Click the center icon at the bottom of the screen (arrow pointing up inside a square)
  • Click “add to home screen”
  • Click “add” in the top right corner

The mobile web app will be available as an icon on your desktop an you’ll have easy access whenever you need it.  Please note that the AFA Alaska web app requires an active Internet connection to function.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your Local Council.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt

IMG_9944

Step 1 – Click the center icon (arrow pointing up)

Step 2 - Click "Add to Home Screen"

Step 2 – Click “Add to Home Screen”

Step 3 - Click "Add"

Step 3 – Click “Add”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFA Alaska Logo No Tag

Out of an abundance of caution, Alaska Airlines management has made the decision to turn crews out of Puerto Vallarta (PVR) tomorrow in response to Hurricane Patricia. AFA and Alaska Airlines have agreed to enact the provision of 8.S [Natural Disasters…] in order to facilitate their removal. Management is working on providing additional communication that will be out shortly.

If you have any questions, contact your Local Executive Council (LEC) officers or Scheduling Committee members.

In solidarity,

Your MEC—Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; MEC Scheduling Chair Jake Jones

AFA Alaska

AFA Council 30 Local Base Meeting

Date: November 3rd
Time: Noon-2pm
Location: Uncle Joe’s Pizzeria
11700 Old Seward Highway
Anchorage, AK 99515

Please join your newly elected officers and Committee Chairs as we host our first Council 30 Base Meeting!

Agenda

  1. Call meeting to order
    Call for late agenda items
    Late Agenda Items
    Announcements
  2. Officer Update
    LEC President Report
    LEC VP Report
    LEC Secretary Budget and Membership Report
  3. Committee Update
    Air Safety, Health, and Security Chair Report
    Benefits Chair Report
    Communications Chair Report
    Employee Assistance Program Chair Report
    Government Affairs Chair Report
    Hotel Chair Report
    Inflight Service Chair Report
    Reserve Chair Report
    Scheduling Chair Report
    Uniform Chair Report
  4. Open Time Update/Feedback

Please RSVP and advise if you would like anything added to the agenda by November 1st to LEC Secretary, Laura Rueckert at laura.rueckert@afaalaska.org.

We look forward to seeing all of you!!

Your ANC LEC Officers

Council 30 (ANC) LEC Officer Election Results

Polls closed at 12 PM PT today for the election of Council 30 LEC Officers, representing Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants based in Anchorage. The following AFA Flight Attendants have been elected to Local Council Officer positions: LEC President: LeiLauni ScheidemanLEC Vice President: Heather ReierLEC Secretary: Anne Madsen View the certified election results here >> These newly elected officers […]

Apps To Help You Save Money On Food

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What You Need To Know About The FAA Capacity Cuts

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced plans for a 10% reduction in flight capacity across 40 markets, starting this Friday. According to news reports, these schedule reductions will begin on Friday and will gradually increase throughout the weekend until they reach the full 10% by the following week. Reports also suggest that all Alaska […]

Council 47 (LAX pmHA) LEC Officer Election Results

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Pre-Merger Alaska MEC Committee Interviews—December 2025

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Flight Attendants In accordance with Article VI.C of the AFA Alaska MEC Policy and Procedure Manual, the terms of office for the MEC Committee Chairpersons and other MEC-level positions align with those of the MEC Officers. Since the current term for the MEC Officers will conclude on December 31, […]

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