September 10, 2015 07:10

PBS BASE SITS
Members of the PBS Committee and Crew Planning will be in the bases in October and November to help with holiday bidding and questions about pairings. Here’s the schedule:

Oct 5th SAN 930a-130p

Oct 6th LAX 6a-1p

Oct 7th PDX 615a-130p

Oct 8th SEA 5am-1pm

Nov 5th ANC 9am-3pm

Nov 6th ANC 5am-1230pm

Nov 9th SEA 5am-1pm

Local AFA Scheduling Committee members may be assisting as well.

Hope to see you!

FIRST ROUND OF VACATION BIDDING IS OPEN!

Refer to bulletin: #2015-0212 for more information

First Round: September 8, 2015 – September 22, 2015 (midnight); awards posted by
September 28, 2015
If you have enough days to bid two (2) or more openings and you only bid one (1) opening, you will be assigned your second block of seven (7) or more days. Do not leave yourself less than seven (7) days to bid in the second round.

1 – 13 days: must bid all in first opening
14 – 20 days: bid in one or two openings
21+ days: bid in one or two openings in the First Round; may leave seven (7) or more days for Second Round

***The remaining days available for the Second Round on your bid form when the Second Round opens.

Second Round: October 2, 2015 – October 15, 2015 (midnight); awards posted by October 23, 2015

Bid remaining days after First Round in up to four (4) openings. Again, each opening must contain at least seven (7) days.
***If you forget to bid in the Second Round, you will be assigned after all Second Round bids are awarded.

Vacation Trading will start October 28, 2015.
You will have until October 31, 2015 to trade January 1-4, 2016 vacation days.

NEW OPEN TIME PROCESS

Refer to Bulletin #2015-0210

New OPEN TIME key points:

Start date for trading/dropping trips is the 15th of the month. This date is for both FA-to-FA trades and OT trades.

New start times for each base:

• SAN-9am PT

• PDX-10am PT

• ANC-11am PT

• LAX-12pm PT

• SEA-2pm PT

Out of domicile pick-ups start on the 17th of each month.

Calendar will still show a white background for an open day and gray for a limited day just like before.

You can now drop a trip into Open without trading, if the day is open.

Starting Sept 15th for Oct Flying, only the day on which the trip reports has to be open in order for the trip to be traded or dropped

4K sequences will be processed within the system, no need to contact Crew Scheduling after Sept 15 for OCT sequences.

COUNCIL 19 LOCAL AFA BASE MEETING: OCTOBER 21ST

SEA TAC CONFERENCE CENTER

SEOUL ROOM

1PM TO 4PM

Parking in garage paid for if parked on Levels 1, 2, 3, 5, or higher (not level 4).

In solidarity,

Your Council 19 AFA LEC Officers and Council Representatives:

Laura, Jake, Linda, Stephanie, and Adam

September 7, 2015 21:51

Save The Date October 8th
LAX and SAN flight attendant bases will have a joint AFA meeting on October 8th. Please bid for the day off if you plan on attending this event with your LEC officers, committee chairs, and MEC President Jeff Peterson as the guest speaker.

Time and place TBD (somewhere between the two bases).

In Solidarity,
Your LEC

Sandra Morrow, LEC President • sleemorrow@verizon.net •
Kelly Johnson, LEC Vice President • laxvice@aol.com •
Kelese Stallings, LEC Secretary • kelesestallings@yahoo.com •
David Lehman, LEC Rep • lehmaninla@yahoo.com •

September 6, 2015 15:30

A letter from your LEC President,

Laura Masserant

Seattle Flight Attendants~

As some of you may know, my family and I are moving to Crete, Greece. next month. For those of you who have not heard, my husband has accepted a Security Specialist position at Souda Bay Naval Station on the island of Crete. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience one of the many deployments my husband has been assigned throughout our 19 year marriage, together, as a family!

What does this mean for our Seattle base?

We are awaiting the government to process our flight information. However, we have asked to travel on September 18^th. My September schedule is: BSE (Beyond Service Training) Aug 31-Sept 1, in the AFA office Sept 1-3, FADAP (Flight Attendant Drug and Alcohol Training) from Sept 9-11 in Baltimore, Recurrent Training on the 15^th, and attending the Sept MEC Meeting on the16-17.

The MEC scheduled monthly meetings through December. It is my intention to commute back for those meetings, and to be available in Seattle for a 2-week period during this time.

October: I will be arriving in Seattle on the 13^thfor the MEC meeting on the 14^th-15th. I am scheduling an AFA Local Base Meeting for October 22, 2015 (mark your calendars!).

November: I will be arriving back in Seattle on the 8^th for the MEC meeting on the 9^th-10^th.

December: MEC meeting is the 14^th~ I anticipate coming back to Seattle prior to this meeting and leave just after.

While I am in Greece, it is my intent to continue to do AFA work and be available to you. Seattle has been afforded the unique opportunity as we have an office to work out of~ thanks to the generous support of the MEC! The LEC Presidents in our other bases do their work from their home offices. It is not a requirement of the LEC President position to log time in the AFA office.

Section 27 P (AFA Collective Bargaining Agreement) does stipulate the necessity of the LEC Presidents to be available, during normal office hours, every week in case we need to meet with management. To ensure that I am adhering to the contractual language in regards to the LEC President company business pay, I will only be filing for CB pay for the time I am in the Seattle base. During the time I am in Greece one of the other LEC Officers will be designated to meet with management, if need be.

Again, while I am in Greece I will continue to do my AFA work that I do today. The majority of the work I do is via phone calls, emails, and text messages. I will continue to use the same cell phone number, 360.633.5905, and I will implement an international calling plan that allows me to send and receive calls, text messages and email. Crete is currently 10 hours ahead of Seattle and will fall back to 9 hours this fall. While I am in Greece you will have 24 hr access to an AFA rep!

For the past 4 years your LEC Officers and LEC Chairs worked hard to ensure that we are always available to you, and I don’t wish to see this change. Council 19 has a fully trained team of grievance reps that will attend meetings with management during the time I am out of the country. I choose to participate in grievance work because it is a passion of mine, but again, this work is not a requirement of the LEC position. I have been able to get out and fly an average of once a month since this past spring, and I believe that it is important I continue this practice throughout the rest of my current term~ which is just under 2 years (July 1, 2017 begins the new LEC Officer term).

This past year the MEC office changed from a traditional fax line to a Ring Central fax line. This means that any time you send me a fax at the following number, 206. 457.2622, it arrives via my email account. I can send faxes to you through the same system. In addition, your SEA LEC Officers have a Ring Central phone number, 206.457.2010, that rings my phone first. If I cannot answer the call it moves through the officer list until someone is able to pick up the call. If we are not able to answer any call right away, it is our policy to return calls within 24 hrs. However, at any given time, there is usually an LEC Officer available to you within a few hours of your call.

If you have any questions or concerns I hope that you call me so we can discuss. I also look forward to seeing you October 22 at the AFA Local Base Meeting.

In Solidarity,

Laura Masserant

LEC President- Council 19 Seattle

September 4, 2015 20:38

Dear San Diego Flight Attendants:

October bids are posted; please note the Open Time changes beginning in September:

Posting of trips for trade: 14th at 20:00 PT
Open Time trading & FA to FA trading: 15^th(see below for base start times)
Out of domicile trades, pick-ups and giveaways: 17^that 09:00 PT
Trading/Open Time start times for each base:

SAN 09:00 am PT
PDX 10:00 am PT
ANC 11:00 am PT
LAX 12:00 noon PT
SEA 14:00 pm PT

Save the Date – October 8^th from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm we will have a joint AFA Meeting with the LAX base. SAN based F/A and MEC President, Jeff Peterson, will be the guest speaker. Place to be determined (somewhere between LAX and SAN).

Scheduling Notes from Chase Vandergrift

Not much in the way of news from the last scheduling meeting. The eMaestro update went live today and is a “go” for September 15. The one thing to note is that now SAN trading will be first at 9am, which is a change from our usual 2pm. Both FA-to-FA trades and open time will happen all at once.

Hotels – we are about 2 weeks away from a new tool on the inflight page which will allow you to enter your pairing number and it will tell you what hotel you are staying at. It will not work for 1000 pairings but most of the time, those have an original pairing number listed at the bottom or a comment referencing the pairing the hotel is from at the top.

The SAN PBS base visit is first on Oct 5^th from 9:30 to 13:30, for people with bidding questions. I believe Sabrina from crew planning and Steve Poynter will be on hand.

We plan to have a pairing/trip suggestion box in place in our Inflight office if you would like to give me your feedback or feel free to send me an email – chase.vandergrift@gmail.com

– Chase

Tips & Reminders:

Vacation Bidding starts September 8^th – refer to Bulletin #2015-0212 for more information.

Upcoming Events:

September 9^th – 11^th – FADAP (Flight Attendant Drug and Alcohol Program) Melanie, Brice and several of our EAP Representatives will be attending this conference in Baltimore.

September 10^th – Bi-Monthly Air Safety, Health & Security Committee Meeting

September 15^th – Quarterly Uniform Meeting

September 16-17th – MEC Meeting

September 18^th – Benefits Meeting

Please feel free to contact one of your Officers or Committee Chair/Members if you have any questions or concerns you would like answered.

The PBS Committee and Crew Planning will be in the bases in October and November to help with your holiday bidding and answer any questions you may have about pairings.

Oct 5th – SAN 9:30 am-1: 30 pm

Oct 6th – LAX 6:00 am-1:00 pm

Oct 7th – PDX 6:15am-1: 30 pm

Oct 8th – SEA 5:00 am-1:00 pm

Nov 5th – ANC 9:00am -3:00 pm

Nov 6th – ANC 5:00 am-12: 30 pm

Nov 9th – SEA 5:00 am -1:00 pm

In solidarity,

Stephen Couckuyt – SAN AFA Council 15 President
Melanie Buker – SAN AFA Council 15 Vice- President
Brice McGee – San AFA Council 15 Secretary

September 2, 2015 09:53

Flight Attendants who are using iPads to trade are asking about the bookmark (url) for the new “Drop to Open Time” function. Here it is:

https://crxs.alaskaair.com/faDropAsmt.do

Enjoy!

In solidarity,

Your AFA Scheduling Committee

August 26, 2015 17:00

Flight Attendant Manual Revision and the Appearance of Sleeping

On July 8, 2015, our Flight Attendant Manual (FAM) was updated. One of the updates in “Standards” Section 7.100 page 6 regarding sleeping and the appearance of sleeping has raised a lot of concerns.

FAM Section 7.100 now states that if a Flight Attendant is in uniform, regardless of his or her on/off duty status, a FA is not allowed to sleep in the presence of customers. The only exception while in uniform is if the FA is deadheading and assigned a passenger seat.

Questions regarding commuters sleeping in uniform

AFA realizes there are looming questions regarding commuters sleeping in uniform while on board an aircraft. Management has assured AFA they will be issuing a communication addressing this concern very soon.

Flight Attendant recently terminated for the appearance of sleeping in uniform while on a sit

AFA has strong convictions about this issue in part because management recently issued a termination to a Flight Attendant who gave the appearance of sleeping while in uniform—and on sit time no less! The changes to FAM Section 7.100 were largely unaddressed in the manual revision summary: the only mention is “Revised Personal Conduct.” AFA believes that if a longtime policy is changed and that change could lead to termination on the first offense, management should address the new policy with proper notice and much more vigor than they did.

No reasonable sleeping policy

AFA made several attempts to engage management to develop a reasonable sleeping policy. Unfortunately, management chose to go in a different direction despite our concerns regarding inadequate rest facilities provided for Flight Attendants.

If you are too fatigued to fly or start to doze off while on a sit and in public view…

To date there is no official fatigue policy. If you find yourself too fatigued to fly or starting to doze off while on a sit and in public view, our recommendation is for you to call in sick on line. Additional information can be found in the AFA Alaska communication from January 8, 2015 “Too Fatigued to Fly.”

File an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) report

This is extremely important: any time you are too fatigued to fly or if you believe you might have inadvertently nodded off (i.e. given the appearance of sleeping) while in the presence of customers, immediately file an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) report. This is so the FAA can track Flight Attendant fatigue, which can help lead to regulatory changes. The other benefit is that if the ASAP Event Review Committee (ERC) accepts your report, you will not receive discipline for the contents of the report according to the terms of the ASAP Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and the “ASAP and Discipline” Letter of Agreement from July 25, 2006.

* * *

Questions? Contact one of your Local Executive Council officers.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Gesch, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Sandra Morrow and Stephen Couckuyt; MEC Grievance Committee chairperson Jennifer Wise MacColl and Grievance Committee member Stephanie Adams

August 20, 2015 19:00

Some big changes are coming with our new Open Time system. To help with the transition we’d like to point out some highlights and give helpful hints.

Open Time Video

For a full review of the new Open Time, check out the video that was produced during the TA-2 Roadshows:

Correction: Trading for any newly established domicile(s) would begin at 9am, not 3pm as stated in the video.

Fundamentals

Flight Attendant to Flight Attendant and the new Open Time trading will begin simultaneously on the 15^th of the month prior to the month in which the flying will occur. Trading remains unlimited. Access to trading will begin as follows: SAN at 9:00am PT, PDX at 10:00am PT, ANC at 11:00am PT, LAX at 12:00pm PT and SEA at 2:00pm PT.

Flight Attendants may post trips at 8:00pm PT on the 14^th of the month.

Every sequence in the new Open Time is coded with a reason code: e.g., TO (trades with Open Time), CP (Coupon Drops), SL (Sick Leave), UB (Union Business) and CB (Company Business). There could be other reason codes, but these are the most common. The CP code will likely be very rare since drop coupons haven’t been issued in years.

The “Threshold Sequence Number” is based on domicile population (see Section 12.F.3 [Open Time Trial]) and is currently calculated as 10 in Seattle and 3 in Anchorage, Portland, Los Angeles and San Diego. This means that when the total number of sequences coded as TO/CP in Open Time on that day meets or exceeds the Threshold Sequence Number, the day will be “limited.” Remember, only the first day of TO/CP sequences counts towards the Threshold Sequence Number and therefore the limiting of Open Time. The Threshold Sequence Number can change based on the number of Flight Attendants in a base; however, there will always be a minimum of 3. Any other type of sequence: SL, UB, CB, etc., does not count toward the Threshold Sequence Number.

A Flight Attendant is able to reduce his/her schedule by a net 40 TFP as a result of dropping to or trading with Open Time each bid month. There is no cap on how much TFP can be dropped as a result of dropping to or trading with another Flight Attendant.

Open Days

On any calendar day that is “open” and not “limited” (closed under the old contract), all sequences with that day of report may be picked up, traded or dropped into Open Time without respect to the number of flights, the number of days and/or duty periods, TFP credit or any other parameters.

If you wish to trade a sequence with a sequence on a different calendar day, the only day that needs to be open is the day in which you report for your sequence. For example, you have a 3-day trip beginning on October 4^th and you want to trade for a 2-day trip beginning on October 17^th, as long as October 4^th is open, regardless of the reason code, you can make this trade.

Limited Days

Once a day is limited because the Threshold Sequence Number has been met, all trips coded other than TO/CP will be converted to a reason code of TX.

If a day is limited it can be reopened if a Flight Attendant picks up a TO/CP sequence from that day.

Any sequence reporting on a calendar day that is limited and is coded other than TO/CP may only be traded for a sequence (with the same date of report) of the same or greater number of days. For example, if a sequence is coded TX, SL, UB, CB, etc., and you wish to trade with that sequence and the day of report is limited, you could only trade your 2-day trip reporting on October 4^th for a 2, 3 or 4 day trip reporting October 4^th, and you could not trade for a turn.

Any sequence reporting on a calendar day that is limited and is coded TO/CP then that sequence may be traded for another sequence with the same day of report regardless of the length of trip. For example, if you wish to trade your 4-day trip reporting on October 4^th with 1-day trip reporting on October 4^th, it would be approved provided the Open Time trip is coded TO/CP.

Miscellaneous

All things being equal, it is to your fellow co-workers’ benefit if you are going to pick up a trip you do so out of the Flight Attendant to Flight Attendant trade box, or if you pick up out of Open Time, that you pick up a trip that is coded TO or CP. This will open the day if it is limited, allowing another flight attendants to drop a trip into Open Time.

All of this information can be found in the Collective Bargaining Agreement in Section 12.F. [Open Time Trial].

* * *

Questions? Contact your Local Executive Council (LEC) officers or your local Scheduling Committee members.

In solidarity,

Your Contract Committee – MEC President Jeffrey Peterson, Kristy Stratton, Lisa Pinkston, Jake Jones, Christina Frees and AFA Senior Staff Negotiator Paula Mastrangelo

August 7, 2015 17:00

The Master Executive Council (MEC) has recently filed numerous grievances on your behalf.

Grievances Settlements

First and foremost, we filed and settled two very important grievances:

Grievance No. 36-99-2-17-15: Assigning a Failure to Report after Successful Check In.

This grievance was filed due to the Company’s violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, Section 32 [Attendance Policy], when it assigned failure to report occurrences after a Flight Attendant’s successful check in.

In certain circumstances management had been assigning a “Late Report” when a Flight Attendant arrived late to the gate or arrived late to the gate at RON, this was after a successful scan in at the beginning of her/his sequence. AFA’s long-standing position has been that “Late Report” occurrences only applied when a Flight Attendant failed to scan in at domicile. All other situations, which might result in a Flight Attendant arriving late to the aircraft, were handled as general performance issues; these will now be referred to as “Late Arrival to Aircraft”. Please note this does not change a Flight Attendant’s requirement to be at the aircraft 45 minutes prior to departure.

Management agreed and a settlement was reached with the following clarifications:

1) A Flight Attendant may only be assessed a Late Report (formerly Failure to Report) when s/he checks in after the scheduled check in time and has not been assessed a No-Show for the same event;

2) When a Flight Attendant is late to the aircraft at any time during a scheduled sequence, s/he will not be assessed any attendance points, these occurrences will be considered a performance issue and will be handled under the Company’s progressive discipline policy; and

3) The Company agrees to remove attendance points from any Flight Attendant who received them for being late to the aircraft during a scheduled sequence, provided the points were assigned in the 18 months preceding May 19, 2015.

If you believe that you may have been assessed a Failure to Report incorrectly and it occurred after November 19, 2013, please reach out to a local grievance representative for assistance.

A copy of the settlement language can be found by clicking here.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-26-15: Quarterly Productivity Premium.

The second grievance settlement involved Section 21.R [QPP]. It was filed due to Management’s position that Flight Attendants who had not received a PBS bid award for one or more months of the quarter were excluded from the Quarterly Productivity Premium. A copy of the settlement language can be found in its entirety here.

Grievances Upheld

Management granted the following two grievances:

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-11-15: Violation of Section 27.N [New Hire Initial Training Presentation].

The Company’s violation of Section 27.N, when it failed to provide the Association one hour for the purpose of new hire orientation during a regularly scheduled training day.

Resolution: Management has agreed to ensure that a full hour is provided.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-13-15-Failing to Provide Automated Trading of 4K Pairings.

The Company’s violation of Section 10.DD.6 [Long Stage Length (“4K”) Duty Period] and 12.C.1 [Trading Procedures], when it failed to automate trading of Long Stage Length Duty Period (“4K”) Pairings. In addition when it violated the Contract Implementation Schedule Letter of Agreement paragraph numbers six* (“One-hundred and twenty days after DOS-but no later than May 1, 2015,…”) and nine* (“The Company agrees to make a good faith effort to meet the above implementation time frames…”), when it failed to notify the Association of the delay and discuss the circumstances and necessary adjustments to the implementation schedule.

Resolution: Manual trading is in effect until the next emaestro release scheduled for September 15, 2015. Bulletin 2015-0182 issued on July 16, 2015, addresses how to manually trade “4K” pairings.

Grievances Pending

The following grievances have been filed and are still pending:

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-15-15-Limiting Access to the SAN Domicile.

The Company’s violation of Section 28.I [Company Provided Computers and Printers at Domiciles], when it limited access to the SAN Domicile including contractually required resources to only those Flight Attendants based in SAN.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-19-15-Failing to Pay Flight Attendants for Reasonable Suspicion Drug/Alcohol Testing.

The Company’s violation of Addendum to Section 21 [Compensation], when it failed to pay Flight Attendants for reasonable suspicion drug & alcohol testing.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-20-15-Converting a Line Holding Flight Attendant to ER Reserve Outside of her/his Contactable Period.

The Company’s violation of Section 11.C.3.b.6 [Conversion of Reserves to ER] and 11.C.3.c [ER Contactibility], when it converted a line holding Flight Attendant to ER Reserve outside of her/his contactable period.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-21-15-Section 21.M Compensation.

The Company’s violation of Section 21.M [Pay Protection Due to Weather, Mechanical or to Suit Company Convenience], when it removed a Flight Attendant from a trip and failed to pay protect her.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-22-15-Violation of Past Practice Regarding Manual Revision/Emergency Interim Bulletin (EIB) Insertion Timelines.

The Company’s violation of past practice regarding manual revision/emergency interim bulletin (EIB) insertion timelines, which fails to provide Flight Attendants sufficient time to thoroughly read and insert their revisions and/or EIB’s. Long standing past practice is articulated in the Flight Attendant Manual 6.500 page 1, dated July 6, 2012, which states: “Insert, post and record manual revisions within 14 days of receipt, no later than 30 days after distribution.” A new EIB 14-40 effective November 25, 2014, now states: “The holder of the FAM shall insert revisions/EIBs on or before the effective date or prior to the first assignment following the effective date, whichever comes first.”

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-23-15-Beyond Service Training Exceeding Contractual Training Hours.

The Company’s violation of Section 30.A.2 [Recurrent Training and Other Company-Required (Non-Computer-Based) Training; Hours], by conducting Beyond Service Training after 5:00PM local time, failing to provide a clear break between required training and the optional “Happy Hour” and failing to provide transportation information to Flight Attendants who choose to depart promptly at 5:00PM.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-24-15-Ground Floor Lodging While on Company Business.

The Company’s violation of Section 34 [Hotels], when it failed to avoid ground floor lodging for Flight Attendants attending company required Beyond Service training.

Grievance No.: 36-99-2-29-15-Section 28.G.6 Commuter Boarding Priority. The Company’s violation of Section 28.G.6 [Commuter Policy], when it allowed Company employees (and their dependents) on pleasure travel to be given higher boarding priority than commuting Flight Attendants.

* * *

The next step is to move forward to arbitration on any grievances that cannot be resolved appropriately. In addition, we continue to file disciplinary grievances, which occur on a near daily basis. Many of these will move forward to arbitration as well. All Flight Attendants system wide are impacted when AFA cannot resolve issues with management prior to arbitration. AFA is committed to resolving these issues and will soon be scheduling new arbitration dates for the year 2016. Periodic grievance updates will follow; however should you have questions on specific grievances, please reach out to your local grievance representative.

In Solidarity,

AFA Grievance No. 36-99-2-17-15 Failure to Report or Late Report Settlement

August 6, 2015 18:46

Dear San Diego Flight Attendants:

September bids are posted. We wanted to remind those of you that may have been awarded the September/October staffing adjustment leaves, that any carry in trips you are awarded with tfp flown into the month you are on a leave, your insurance will be covered. This does not include turns that depart on the last day of the month and return on the 1^st.

If you have questions about any type of Leave that you have vacation or company mandated meetings/training during the period, please contact one of your Officers or our benefits chair Sonia Quackenbush, for more information on insurance and or pay during that period.

Here are a few notes from Chase Vandergrift’s last scheduling meeting:

Scheduling News August 2015

An update on San Diego’s disappearing turns! Help is on the way. For September I was able to get daily turns locked for the SAN base. This is the first time this has been attempted so it’s an experiment and not guaranteed to stay but they were able to lock both daily SJD departures as turns, so that is 8 positions in addition to the other turns the system will construct on its own.

9:55 report
238 SAN-SJD 10:55-14:00
233 SJD-SAN 15:00-16:01
Debrief 16:16
Duty 6:21

11:50 report
248 SAN-SJD 12:50-15:55
239 SJD-SAN 17:00-18:02
Debrief 18:17
Duty 6:27

This is also welcome news to those of us who like multi-days but don’t really enjoy doing a Cabo turn on the end (or start) of a 3 or 4-day trip. I realize SJD isn’t the ideal turn for everyone and there won’t always be an early morning option for those that prefer to be home between noon and 1, but getting the 5.0 TFP ADPG (instead of 4.6) and being only 2 carts round-trip in the back should help sweeten the deal. This seemed like the best compromise since the pairing optimizer will still be able to use the early SEA/PDX departures to construct other trips that may bring some occasional variety to our usual layovers on certain days of the week. You’ll also see the not-so-regular SEA/PDX early morning/late night turns in addition to these. We did discover they currently lock almost all of the LAX Mexico flying as turns but do not do so for SAN so I am going to lobby for this to become a permanent change if people like it. Trips you love? Hate? Please send me your feedback on the pairings for September at: sanscheduling@gmail.com.

New Open time Delayed. We were as frustrated as everyone else to hear that it will be another month before the new open time rules go into effect but we have been assured there will not be any further delay and the testing is progressing well. The bad news is that this does push everything else from the new contract implementation timeline including the new reserve self-assignment back by about 60 days. The good news is that a new replacement program to e-maestro has been selected and is scheduled to be implemented by next fall. Hopefully that project can stay on track. The software is called JCTE (Jeppesen Crew Tracking Enterprise) and is apparently the one that AA uses so if you have friends at American ask them how they like it. It will add a ton of new features including a mobile interface.

Did you know crew-planning sends out text alerts that you can sign up for? Look for informational bulletin #2015-0155 if you’re interested in signing up. Some of the alerts seem redundant but others could be useful.

Once signed up you’ll get alerts for the following events:

Recurrent bidding open for XXX
Recurrent bidding closed for XXX
Recurrent training posted
PBS monthly bids open
PBS monthly bid close
PBS monthly bid posted
Bid protest ends
Open time available
Vacation bids open
Vacation bids close
Base trades close
Vacancy bid open
Vacancy bid close
Leave requests for XXX month due
Vacation trading available
Hotel change in planning process (tells the crew to read bulletin XXX)
Hotel hotline posted

These alerts can be received on your personal device but not on the IMD. A solution is in the works to provide these to the IMD in the form of push notifications but we discussed that most of us don’t use the IMD off the aircraft very much, and certainly don’t carry it around on our days off. Remember these are sent as text messages, so be sure that your carrier’s plan includes them to avoid extra charges.

People still seem to have a lot of questions about line averages. To possibly help clarify we recommend reading “Bidding Windows” on the Navtech PBS splash page. If someone wants a MAX line they can still use the MAX TFP option, which should guarantee their line, is built between the base line average +10 TFP (we haven’t heard of this being denied yet unless you are one of the very last line holders in the base). To add to the confusion the threshold at which PBS decides to stop adding TFP to your line and the base line average can be different. Also, no matter what the system will always try to get your line to the threshold or above even if you don’t specify MAX TFP; so essentially everyone’s bid is set to MAX by default. Since there is no longer a MIN TFP option what is happening is more senior line holders are finding their lines stacked with one or two extra trips to push them above the threshold. That’s because early in the award process it is easy for the system to find pairings to fit your bid preferences. As the system reaches more junior lineholders it has a harder time finding available trips and if nothing is available that fits their bid preferences but their line has reached the minimum window it will simply complete the line and move on. This creates a situation where more senior lineholders in general are seeing lines built higher than more junior bidders. For senior bidders it is possible to trick the system into thinking there are no other trips available to put on your line and that is to ask it to avoid any pairing >1TFP. This has been used with varying amounts of success, but in theory if you have a legal line and you insert this preference the system should then ignore all the remaining trips available and complete your line. This is seniority dependent and may not work in all cases but it’s one technique to try. -Chase

From Brice McGee – Council 15 Secretary:

San Diego based? We have an app for that.

I would like to present to you something exciting and exclusive to San Diego flight attendants that I have been working on.

SANAFA App

Inside this app you will find links to the contract, various forms, jump seat agreements, known crew member info, base news, and hotel crew care.

More items to come soon. Please let me know if you find any errors or if there is something you would like to see added.

Please open the following link using your Android, or Apple device. (Phones, tablets)

http://m.magmito.com/131271/843219counci

Instructions:

IPhone/ IPad: Click on the link. It will take you to the Magmito website click on install, it will download to your device. You will see a box with an arrow coming out of it that says add app to your home screen.

Android phones / tablets (there are a few more steps than iPhone) Click on the link it will take you to the Magmito website. Click on install. It will download to your device. Click on the downloaded file, follow the instructions; it will say install blocked, because the app did not come from the Play Store. Click on settings; scroll down towards the bottom until you see Unknown sources, click on that. It will give you a warning that downloading from unknown sites may be harmful. Click on OK, and then click on INSTALL.

Anytime Your LEC adds new content your app will ask you if you wish to update to newest version.

IPhone users the update is easy, Android users you have to follow the steps basically for installation.

The only issue I have found so far for fellow android users are when you first try and launch the app it will say SANAFA has stopped, click ok and open it again. It will open the 2^nd time.

I have found no issues with the IPhone.

Your AFA leadership hopes that you enjoy the APP and find it useful, this was a labor of love that I’ve worked on for the exclusivity of our SAN Flight Attendants. Please let me know if you have any issues or questions or even suggestions for additional content.

Remember, for our SAN base; tell everyone, “We have an app for that!” – Brice

In solidarity,

Your LEC Officers – Stephen Couckuyt, Melanie Buker, Brice McGee

August 6, 2015 10:33

Due to resignations in AFA Council 30 Anchorage, Vice President Lisa Pinkston became Local Executive Council (LEC) president of Council 30 ANC on August 1, 2015, pursuant to Article III.C.5.a.(1) [Local Council and Local Executive Councils à Local Council Officers à Council Officer Vacancies] of the AFA-CWA Constitution & Bylaws (C&B).

Pursuant to Article III.C.5.c.(3) [Local Council and Local Executive Councils à Local Council Officers à Council Officer Vacancies] of the AFA-CWA C&B, a special officer election was held to fill vacancies for the positions of Council 30 ANC vice president and secretary. The special election ended at 8am ADT this morning – August 6, 2015. The certified election results are as follows:

Vice President: Karen Ferrell

Secretary: Laura Rueckert

The officers will complete the current term in election Category III that began on January 1, 2014, and will run through December 31, 2016. Nominations and elections are governed by procedures outlined in Article VIII [Nomination and Election of Officers] and the AFA Policy Manual in the AFA-CWA C&B.

The Master Executive Council (MEC) congratulates the officers-elect and we sincerely thank the former officers who served our union and those who stepped forward to run in the election.

In solidarity,

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

A letter from your LEC President,

Laura Masserant

Flight Attendant Manual Revision and the Appearance of Sleeping

Questions regarding commuters sleeping in uniform

Flight Attendant recently terminated for the appearance of sleeping in uniform while on a sit

No reasonable sleeping policy

If you are too fatigued to fly or start to doze off while on a sit and in public view…

File an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) report

* * *

Open Time Video

Fundamentals

Open Days

Limited Days

Miscellaneous

* * *

Grievances Settlements

Grievances Upheld

Grievances Pending

* * *

AFA News in Review – September 19, 2025

Pre-Merger Alaska MEC Committee Election Results

Merged MEC Committee Chairperson Election Results

Election Notice: Alaska + Hawaiian MEC Officer Elections

SEA Domicile Negotiations – September 2025 Update #2

Recent Posts

Local Councils

Master Executive Council

Negotiations

Contract

Committees

News By Month

Want To Stay In The Loop?

Connect With AFA

A letter from your LEC President,

Laura Masserant

Flight Attendant Manual Revision and the Appearance of Sleeping

Questions regarding commuters sleeping in uniform

Flight Attendant recently terminated for the appearance of sleeping in uniform while on a sit

No reasonable sleeping policy

If you are too fatigued to fly or start to doze off while on a sit and in public view…

File an Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) report

* * *

Open Time Video

Fundamentals

Open Days

Limited Days

Miscellaneous

* * *

Grievances Settlements

Grievances Upheld

Grievances Pending

* * *

Recent Posts

Local Councils

Master Executive Council

Negotiations

Contract

Committees

News By Month

News By Category

Want To Stay In The Loop?

Connect With AFA