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April Bid Re-Award and Trading Timeline

This message is for pre-merger Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants

On Monday, March 12, management advised AFA that a programming error was discovered with the new user interface of NavBlue PBS.  The error, related to the programming of the “Duty On” preference in the new user interface, resulted in trips being awarded incorrectly to Flight Attendants despite bid preferences that were submitted properly.  As a result of the programming error, NavBlue was immediately contacted by management and the necessary programming was corrected.

NavBlue made necessary corrections to the PBS programming which were completed earlier today.  Management subsequently worked to re-award bids with the NavBlue programming having been corrected.   Bid awards will be posted at 5 PM Pacific time today and F/A-to-F/A and Open Time trading will begin as originally scheduled.

Bidding and Trading Timeline

All times based on Pacific time

Bid Re-Awards Posted Tuesday, March 13 @ 17:00
Bid Protest Begins Tuesday, March 13 @ 17:00
Bid Protest Final Wednesday, March 14 @ 17:00
F/A-to-F/A Trading Begins Thursday, March 15*
Open Time Trading Begins Friday, March 16*

*Please note that there is no change to the F/A-to-F/A and Open Time trading timeline.

It is AFA’s positon that management has an obligation to ensure Flight Attendant bidding and scheduling systems are fully functional and free of programming errors.  AFA will be meeting with management to review the programming error with NavBlue PBS and discuss the future plans for roll out of the system.

If you have any questions about the bid re-award or trading timeline, please contact your LEC Officers.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Lisa Pinkston, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee

2017 Vacation Rebid

AFA and Alaska Airlines management have agreed to a first-round vacation rebid in order to resolve a valid system-wide vacation bid protest. Why? The new Inflight website allowed Flight Attendants to bid for vacation dates outside of 2017, and the issue was discovered in the awards process.

As reported last night, the good news is that your initial bid will be retained. As a result, you will not need to do anything if you are satisfied with your initial bid. However, you may revise your bid if desired.

New 2017 vacation bidding timeline

The new timeline for the 2017 vacation bids will be as follows:

  • 1st round rebid opens: Friday, September 30, 2016 – by noon PDT
  • 1st round rebid closes: Thursday, October 6, 2016 @ 11:59 PM PDT
  • 1st round awards posted: Tuesday, October 11, 2016
  • 2nd round bidding opens: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 @ 12:01 AM PDT
  • 2nd round bidding closes: Thursday, October 20, 2016 @ 11:59 PM PDT
  • 2nd round awards posted: Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Vacation trading is on schedule

Vacation trading for 2017 opens as originally scheduled on Friday, October 28, 2016, at the previously agreed to times for each domicile.

Instructions for Flight Attendants with illegal vacation bids outside of 2017

Flight Attendants who inadvertently submitted a first-round vacation bid containing days outside the 2017 calendar year are highly encouraged to revise their bid because those bids are illegal. If your initial vacation bid included individual bid lines with start and end dates both outside of 2017 and if you do not adjust your bid prior to the rebid closing, then management will adjust the year of each illegal bid line to 2017 for you.

Again, we strongly suggest that you correct any illegal bid lines yourself to make sure you are bidding for the intended date. Any individual vacation bid lines including 2017 year-end overlap (either January or December) will be removed (i.e. ignored/skipped) prior to the awards process if left unchanged.

Management has agreed to individually contact those affected via email to advise them of the rebid. Management will also contact Flight Attendants who initially submitted a bid completely outside of 2017 at the F/As’ respective primary contact phone number on file with the Company.

* * *

If you have any questions or concerns contact one of your Local Executive Council (LEC) officers.

In Solidarity,

Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Yvette Satterlee, Lisa Pinkston, Laura Masserant, Cathy Gwynn, Tim Green and Brice McGee

SAN Bid Awards

August schedules have been posted.

If you would like to see all of the SAN base awards go to:

First Class – World of Inflight – PBS Q & A – Line Awards & Coverage Reports – SAN Final Awards.pdf

To see a pairing award, in the top right  “search” box, type in the pairing number (with a “D” in front of it) and hit enter. In the left panel you will see all of the awards for that pairing and in the right panel the pairing highlighted in yellow on the line it was awarded. If it operates on multiple days or has 3 positions, keep hitting enter and it will continue down the list until the last award.

If you need clarification on any of your awards, please email “PBS Q&A” in first class and they will get back with you.

Bid protest begin at 09:00 PST on the 13th and must be sent by first class email to: “FA Bid protest”, they end on the 14th at 09:00 PST.  Please include your base and arctic number plus a copy of your reasons report (copy and paste), be sure to include where you feel the violation occurred, i.e. a pairing awarded to a more junior bidder. Please copy me in if you are filing a protest so that I can see the response.

Under the same PBS Q & A tab, informational video’s and Q & A’s are available.  If after viewing, you have further questions or feel that you need help with future bids, please send me an email so that I can get you the help that you need.

In solidarity,

Stephen Couckuyt
LEC President

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