3.12.09 – (LAA) – SABRE Personal Mode Activity

Special APFA Alert on SABRE Personal Mode Activity

Over the past few months the company has received a number of complaints from Flight Attendants that indicated there may be possible abuses of the contracts it has with Trip Trade Services. It is the company’s responsibility to enforce the contracts they have entered into with Trip Trade Services. As part of their investigation the company became concerned that some Flight Attendants may have shared their passwords and may not be aware that someone else is accessing open time from their personal mode.

The company did send notices to Flight Attendants with high FOS usage to ensure they were aware of the activity taking place in their personal mode. In many cases it is possible that these transactions are being conducted by the Flight Attendant as they search open time, facilitate trip trades, plan their commutes or otherwise need information from FOS to help them with their jobs. The notice did take an overly accusative tone.

After discussions with the company, Flight Service assured APFA that it was not intended that Flight Attendants would be disciplined due to the activity. Rather it was to make sure they were aware of the activity and, if it was not consistent with their usage, that they change their password to prevent continued use of their personal mode by another party.

At the same time the company was conducting this investigation they became aware that the sharing of personal mode passwords was widespread. They implemented a security enhancement to Jetnet which has since been temporarily rolled back. This temporary rollback was to allow time for the development of some Sabre enhancements which would permit a Flight Attendant to voluntarily share some of the information in their personal mode without having to share their password. For example, many Flight Attendants have requested the ability to allow others to view their schedule to help facilitate trip trades between Flight Attendants. The company is in the process of reviewing various options.

APFA believes Trip Trade Services provide a valuable service to our members and has not/is not attempting to shut down Trip Trade Services. However, as with any business, these services should abide by the terms of their agreement as well as the language of our Collective Bargaining Agreement. There is a lot of change in the works and a great deal of confusion. Rest assured APFA does not want to take away our members’ ability to have flexibility with their schedules.