5.04.05

Hello, this is Denise Pointer, DFW InfoRep, with an InfoRep Hotline message for Wednesday, May 4th, 2005.

On May 5, 2005, APFA will begin the second of four Membership Opinion Surveys via the APFA website in conjunction with the University of North Texas. As a reminder, UNT will only share percentages of F/A responses – your individual answers will not be divulged to APFA. Please take a few minutes to visit www.apfa.org to fill out this very important survey.

Hopefully by now, all of you have received our recent InfoRep mailing as well as your new Skyword Express. This inaugural edition of Skyword Express deals solely with legislative issues. Please bring it with you to the Fly-In on May 11th in Washington, D.C.

If you haven’t already done so, and you are planning on attending the Lobby Day, please go to www.www.apfa.org and follow the links to sign up. It is important we have your personal information as without it, we cannot make appointments for you on the Hill.

For those of you who will be joining us in the Nation’s Capital, please plan on arriving at the American Legion Hall, Post 8, by 10:00 am. The Hall is located at 224 D Street, SE, Capital Hill, Washington, D.C. To get there via the Metro, take the Blue Metro Line. Get off at the Capital South Metro Stop. The Hall is at 3rd and D Streets. The Metro stop is at 1st and D or a two-block walk.

During this meeting time, we will provide you with your appointments and also with additional directions and instructions. We will make sure everyone is on the same page regarding the points we need to get across to our lawmakers. Please wear your uniform!

If you should have additional questions regarding this very important event, please email me at [email protected] or contact Rick Musica, [email protected].

This week, while running through several airports, I saw lots of "We’re Restless" bag tags! Thanks for helping get the word out. If you need more bag tags, you can download them from the www.apfa.org website.

Thank you to everyone who emails asking for rumors to be clarified or just asking questions in general. Staying informed is important! If you email me, I promise I will respond to each and every email. Sounds like a simple plan but recently, it hasn’t been the situation.

If you send an email, please make sure that your email program is setup to receive a response. Numerous times when I respond to a question via email, my email is returned as "suspected spam". I’ve been called a few things in my life, but never "spam". Guess there’s a first for everything!

In the upcoming edition of Skyword will be a tear out ‘Renewal of Commitment" card. For those of you who have not contacted me via email or phone, I would appreciate you completing this card and mailing to the InfoRep program at APFA headquarters. In January, via the Hotline, I asked for everyone who wanted to remain active in the program to contact me. I heard from hundreds of you and to each of you, thanks! Your commitment to this program is so important.

For those of you who emailed me in January and February, no need to do it again. But, if you haven’t done so, please complete the card in Skyword and let me know if you wish to remain active in the program. Remember, in order to be an InfoRep, you must not be in dues arrears.

We have asked for all InfoReps to advise us of their desire to continue their participation by July 15, 2005.

APFA’s retirement specialist Jill Frank and AA’s retirement counselor Karyn Mally. will be in Miami on May 19th from 10:00 to 11:30 or 1:30 to 3:00 in the 3rd Floor Conference Room, Concourse C. If retirement is on your horizon, plan on attending this retirement seminar. Please visit jetnet.aa.com to download your pension statement as you will need this individualized document for the seminar.

One of the most frequent complaints that Hotel Department hears is from Flight Attendants who have been given a smoking room or a room that has been smoked in. As you know, AA contracts for 100% non smoking rooms at all hotels. Smoking, whether you do or don’t, whether you should or shouldn’t, etc., is a very personal matter and one that I certainly don’t think is anybody’s business but your own. But, in some instances, such as this one, it is a subject that has to be addressed.

If you are a smoker and you request a smoking room, the hotel may be able to accommodate you if they have availability. Our layover hotels are not required to accommodate you. They do so as a courtesy.

Please be advised that if you smoke in a NON-SMOKING room, many hotels across the system are now charging the flight attendant for the cleaning and the sanitizing of the room. Charges are varying but the average seems to be in the range of $400 to $600, depending on the specific hotel.

Additionally, some hotels have hinted that the violation of non-smoking rooms will lead to contract cancellations. If a hotel cancels our contract because a flight attendant has smoked in a non-smoking room, we have no ground on which to stand.

Please know that the Hotel Department is working very hard to either maintain or improve the quality of our layovers, no matter how short or infrequent they may be. In these difficult financial times, finding and keeping nice hotels is becoming a challenge, to say the least – combating the smoking issue on top of all the other struggles has been very disheartening. We are asking all InfoReps to please help your fellow flight attendants and spread the word. Please don’t smoke in non-smoking rooms. And, if you do, please be prepared to pay a very hefty fine directly to the hotel. Neither AA nor APFA will pay for these charges.

The rumor mill raised its little head some this past week, but nothing out of the ordinary. A few rumors were old recycled ones but one, specifically, dealt with future recalls. On May 1, 2005, a group of flight attendants returned from bid leaves of absence. A few of you thought this was an actual recall. It was not. At this time, AA has not notified us of any future recalls of flight attendants.

That’s it for this week. I look forward to meeting many of you on Wednesday, May 11th in Washington. Fly Safely!

Denise Pointer, DFW InfoRep
InfoRep Program
1004 W. Euless Boulevard
Euless, TX 76040
817-540-0108 Ext. 8743
[email protected]