2.09.08 – (LAA) – British Customs, Ballot for National Officer Election, Presidential Grievances, Annual BOD Convention, Negotiating Team

This is Leslie Mayo, National Communications Coordinator, with the APFA Hotline for Saturday, February 9, 2008.

British Customs is conducting frequent bag searches upon arrival in the U.K. Be sure to review procedures and bring only allowed items into the U.K. Also, properly declare these items on your form for landing. Information on what is not allowed is available at www.apfa.org on the upper right hand corner of the site.

From the National Ballot Committee: if you have not yet received your ballot or have misplaced your ballot for the National Officer election, please call 817.540.0108, ext. 8311, or email [email protected] to request a duplicate. Ballots are due in the designated PO Box no later than February 26, 2008, at 0900 Central Time. If you have not seen the debate between the two candidates for President, go to www.apfa.org to view the 55 minute video available online. You may also download a copy of the debate to watch offline.

From the Vice President’s Department: There have been a number of Presidential Grievances filed recently on the following issues: (1) Off Schedule Operations including the Company’s inability to handle crew legality issues, reschedules, reassignments, procuring hotel rooms for crewmembers, etc; (2) AMR Event Reporting requiring FAs to complete the computerized form while unpaid; (3) Changes to the PPO Drug Coverage for the ’08 benefit year; (4) Staffing and workload on the S80; (5) Failure to compensate properly for Annual EPT’s resulting in the violation of Article 3.H.3; and (6) holding those FAs available indefinitely who have been noticed of a delayed trip assignment but have not received scheduled report time or flight departure by the company. For more info on these issues, go to Presidential Grievances on www.apfa.org.

The Annual APFA Board of Directors Convention begins Feb. 13 at the San Francisco Hilton. All members in good standing are welcome to attend the meeting. The awards banquet honoring our next Martha W. Griffiths award recipient Denise Hedges, as well as our Distinguished Service award winner Lynda Richardson and 4 Honorary Members who have served APFA well will be held on February 13, 2008. Tickets to the dinner can be purchased at the door. For more information, please contact Kim Ramos at 817.540.0108, ext. 8131.

From the Negotiating Team: The Negotiations online Contract Survey is available online through February 12, 2008. Please be sure to fill out your survey before that time as the results will shape APFA’s openers with the company in the spring. If you are having trouble accessing the members’ only area of www.apfa.org or the University of North Texas site once you log in, contact [email protected] to obtain your login information.

From the APFA Scheduling Department: FAs who experience trip cancellations can protect their guarantee. Follow the MIC language in Article 9.P.2 as explained on page 20 of the On Duty Contract Guide. FAs involuntarily low on time may also pre-plot from open time up to their applicable monthly maximum (No Option or Option 1).

APFA and the company have reached an understanding to assist high-time flyers affected by the pilot retirement/trip cancellations. Those FAs who were scheduled on cancelled flights due to the pilot retirements may contact Crew Schedule to plot trips in open time that originate in the contractual month of February. FAs may recover the time lost as a result of the cancellation(s) plus one hour. You will also be able to voluntarily substitute PVDs, if at the end of the month you are unable to recoup high time hours. A letter listing the specific flights eligible along with details of the understanding will be posted on www.apfa.org early next week.

This agreement does not resolve any disputes filed on this matter or prevent APFA from filing future disputes that may arise due to flight cancellations as a result of pilot retirements.

Also, for those FAs flying long-range and extended-long-range trips who are interested in reducing the default 24-hour rest, make sure to re-enter the HBR entry to reduce the rest following any trip trades. The waive is lost if the trip is traded, even if the trip is returned to the original schedule. The entry for this in DECS is HIHBR/SEQ/SEQ ORIG DATE.

From the APFA Contract Department: Several FAs questioned the company’s omission of the missing non-taxable TAFB info from Box 12 on your W-2 statements. Initially, the company responded that it was not a requirement for them to include this information and that crewmembers would be responsible for gathering it themselves. Upon further discussion between APFA and management, as a result of no notice of this significant change to our W2 statements, the company has agreed to prepare and mail a summary of the 2007 TAFB information to all crewmembers next week. AA will explore options for providing this information to us in the future.

Last week, the company purged all International proffer requests from SABRE. If you are interested in a proffer, you must reenter your requests. To see a list of your requested base proffers, enter 3* in your personal mode

From the APFA Retirement Department: Regardless of your seniority or age, every FA should be preparing for retirement. APFA’s retirement specialist Jena Hopkins and STL Base Chair Tim Hunter will be in attendance on Feb. 20th to answer questions on how to maximize your pension, medical insurance, travel, life insurance, and 401(k) info. Two STL sessions are scheduled beginning at 0900 and noon in the Flight Service Conference Room below Gate 8. Be sure to download and print your estimate from Jetnet for the seminar.

From the APFA Hotel Department: We will be changing hotels in Providenciales. Please note that the timezone at the hotel is one hour different than the timezone on the Island. The front desk will remind crewmembers on arrival. Check the hotel department’s web page for details on the hotel name. Also, the Hotel Committee is in the process of securing hotels for Moscow, Barcelona and Milan in the next few weeks. As soon as these hotels are agreed upon, we will notify the membership.

Four classes will be conducted at the Learning Center this month for the recently announced recalls. These formerly furloughed members will be returning to the line on March 25 and reporting to one of three bases: BOS, DCA or LGA. APFA welcomes back our members; we hope to see more recalls soon.

We still have 1,198 furloughed members awaiting recall.

That’s it for this week. Thank you for calling the APFA Hotline.