7.18.14b – (LAA) – Contract and Scheduling Info, EU Passport Rules, Leaves and Wage Works, Sen. Hagan, Retirement Training, FA Drug Test Wait Time

APFA Hotline – Contract and Scheduling Info, EU Passport Rules, Leaves and Wage Works, Sen. Hagan, Retirement Training, FA Drug Test Wait Time

 

Contract Department – [email protected]
Vacation Relief Bidding – Keep in mind when bidding Vacation Relief, particularly R2, you only “own” the trips and Duty Free Periods (DFPs) that fall during the actual vacation period of the relief. Days Off (DOs) within the vacation and the days outside of the vacation will be filled in with trips and or AVBL days. You can use the “remarks” section of the ballot to enter preferences to complete the relief. Keep in mind requests for NP or DF will not be considered for Relief building.
 
Back-Up Reserve – If you are on the Back-Up Reserve list you should enter some Reserve selections on your bid ballot in the event you are pulled onto Reserve for the month. Keep in mind if you bid onto Reserve in a month in which you either have vacation or are awarded a Bid Leave, your rotation will not be satisfied.
 
Bid Leaves (BL) – If you have been awarded a BL, be sure to confirm the exact dates on your HI10 before you bid for your monthly schedule. Also, if you bid onto Reserve after you have been awarded a BL, as mentioned above, it will not count towards satisfying your Reserve rotation.
 
Scheduling Department – [email protected]
“Schedule Conflict’ is when a Flight Attendant holds a line where the first trip of the new month conflicts with the last trip of the last month. A schedule conflict is treated like a TT down in time, the Flight Attendant has no obligation and the guarantee will be adjusted to the actual time.

Unless the Flight Attendant drops the conflicting trip or trades out of the conflict, the trip would be automatically removed 72 hours prior to the new month.
 
“Paper Legality” is when a Flight Attendant is removed from a Vacation (VC) or Sick (SK) trip, the Flight Attendant does not hold the legality of that trip, including the HBR time. However, the Flight Attendant would be illegal for any trip that signs in before the end of the debrief of the removed trip and would be legal, if the sign in time is after the debrief of the removed trip.
 
Bidding for vacation? You will be removed with pay from any sequence that touches your VC by at least one minute as it is displayed in your HI10, including debrief and sign-in time.
 
Safety & Security Department – [email protected]
A reminder to all Flight Attendants who have a current International qualification: the European Union (EU) is enforcing the requirement that, effective August 1, 2014, at least three months of validity remain on your passport on the day following your planned departure date. Failure to meet this requirement will likely result in denial of entry to the Schengen Area. EU Countries that the new American flies to are Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. 
 
Hotel Update – [email protected]
LHR– Due to a city-wide bicycle race on August 9-10, it was necessary for some crews to be relocated. The APFA Hotel Dept. will post this information as soon as it is received from the company.

Returning from a Sick Leave of Absence or IOD – [email protected]
We have received several calls regarding Wage Works and paying for benefits. If you were paying for your benefits while out on Sick (SK), Leave of Absence (LOA) or an IOD online through the Wage Works website, we recommend that upon your return to work you remove your banking information and/or the “recurring payment” option to avoid future withdrawals. Benefit invoices are issued with two months of premiums and when they automatically withdraw the funds for the account they will take the entire amount that is due on the invoice.  We are working to get this issue resolved, but in the meantime, protect your money.

The IOD packet has been updated and is now available on the Health Department’s page at www.apfa.org.
 
Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Increased TSA Security – [email protected]
APFA Government Affairs Representative Julie Frederick met with North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan this week. Senator Hagan faces a strong challenger in her race for reelection from Thom Tillis and we are closely following this race. APFA will soon be adding members from the large US Airways base in Charlotte. In addition, we have members at our Raleigh-Durham base. Senator Hagan remains a strong supporter of Flight Attendants. 
 
APFA looks forward to working with Senator Hagan in her reelection this fall. Sen. Hagan said, “Growing jobs for the middle class is my number one priority, and I spend every day in Washington working hard on behalf of middle class families across the state. Whether it is working to protect Social Security and Medicare for our seniors, fighting to increase the minimum wage to benefit over a million North Carolina workers, or standing up to special interests, I will always put North Carolina and our working families first.”
 
Increased TSA Security Measures
Passengers traveling into the U.S. now face increased security screening from some overseas airports.  Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson ordered the TSA to put extra security measures in place at some international airports with direct flights to the United States. Passengers are being asked to power on their electronic devices, including cell phones and laptop computers while passing through security. If passengers are unable to do so, they will be subject to additional screening and devices may not be permitted on board. The increased security measures are in response to reports that terrorists continue to find ways to bring hidden explosives on board airplanes. The DHS is evaluating whether such measures will be implemented on domestic flights.
 
Advanced Retirement Training – [email protected]
Flight Attendants who are interested in receiving retirement training above and beyond the regular APFA Retirement Briefing and/or becoming a base retirement representative, are invited to contact their local Base President about attending the Advanced Retirement Training on September 4, 2014, 09:00 – 16:45 at APFA Headquarters in Euless, Texas.
Prerequisites: We request that all Trainees have already attended a retirement briefing, that we regularly conduct for line Flight Attendants across the system. To accommodate those that have not yet been able to attend one of the regular briefings, the DFW and IDF Base Presidents are hosting a regular retirement briefing on September 3, 2014 at 1300 – 1600 in the Yandry Center (across from Gate C2 – Terminal C – DFW). This will allow trainees to fly into DFW on the morning of the 3^rd, attend the training at DFW, then overnight in fabulous Euless, and attend the Advanced Retirement Training on the 4^th.
If you are interested in attending, please contact your Local Base President. For additional information on the training, please contact Patrick Hancock [email protected].

Flight Attendant Wait Time for DOT Random Drug/Alcohol Testing – [email protected]
Should you be notified of a DOT Test, and the technician fails to arrive within the 45 minutes, you MUST fully comply with all required procedures to avoid being assumed to have refused the test, which are grounds for termination. Do not leave the testing site before being 100% sure you have fully complied with all required steps of this policy below. For future reference, these may also be found on page 1.19 in the General Policies and Guidelines section of our inflight manual.
 
A Flight Attendant who reports as directed to the designated testing area for a random drug and/or alcohol test and who has waited 45 minutes from the time of notification indicated on the notification form for a drug testing collector or Breath Alcohol Technician (BAT) (who has not arrived at the designated testing area to perform the test), MUST call his/her Manager on Duty (MOD) or Flight Service Daily Ops at 817-967-8409 along with the appropriate contact listed on the test notification form to advise them of the failure of the collector or BAT to appear. The Flight Attendant shall indicate on the notification form the date and time calls were made and the names of the persons with whom they spoke. The Flight Attendant shall provide a copy of the notification form to her/his Flight Service Manager (FSM) within five business days. If you have problems or questions about a random test please contact your APFA EAP department at 817-540-0108.
 
From the FACT Rep Hotline
FACT or Fiction:
Q: There are rumors that International training is only going to affect Flight Attendants down to seniority 7000, there are also rumors that ALL Flight Attendants will be internationally trained. Can you confirm one or the other? Who can I contact to find accurate training information for future months, i.e. will there be training in Nov and Dec? How many per month will be trained (so that we can plan to proffer vs. being drafted during a month where other personal obligations would interfere)? 
 
A: All Flight Attendants (approximately 3,200 of the remaining Flight Attendants not subject to Reserve) will be over water trained but the type and length of training for those not subject to Reserve has yet to be determined. Discussions are ongoing and we expect a decision will be made and announced shortly. As with last year there will not be any drafting for the months of November and December for overwater quals.
 
American in the News

• American Airlines Group Announces Webcast Of Second Quarter 2014 Financial Results
• American Airlines Group Customers Gain More Access To Finland And Key European Destinations Through Codeshare Agreement With Finnair
• American Airlines picks CFM for $2.6 billion engine deal

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REMINDERS!

Vacation Trade Bulletin Board at APFA.org
If you would like to trade your 2014-2015 vacation, APFA offers an electronic bulletin board at www.apfa.org to post your trade requests. Click here and follow instructions to post your requested VC trades.

APFA “Flyer” iPhone App
APFA’s Flyer App, Version 5 is available for download from APFA’s website. To download the app, click here.

APFA Website Update
If you’re an APFA member / pre-merger AA Flight Attendant, and don’t yet have access to APFA’s website, go to www.www.apfa.org and click on “Create An Account” under the Log In Form from the main page. Once you fill out the form, a verification email will be sent to you. Click on the specified link within the email, and you will gain immediate access to the members-only portion of APFA.org. Get to know it!

Staffing
Do you have a report concerning staffing-related issue and would like to submit data to APFA? Please email all details to [email protected]. This email is a no-response email. It is strictly used to collect data. If you have a scheduling or staffing question or issue, please email [email protected].

Share Your Photos
We continue to receive some great pictures from our members both on and off the plane. Please remember that in order for the photos to be useable, they must include the names and employee numbers of all Flight Attendants, as well as contact information (if available). Otherwise, the photos are unusable.

Photos may be incorporated in future APFA web and print projects, including upcoming issues of Skyword, press releases, our APFA New Hire guide and a welcome booklet for our future members from pre-merger US Airways. Please email your hi-res photos to: [email protected].

If you are emailing several high-resolution photos, please limit your photos to 3 per email as our server will block files over a certain size.

If you prefer to mail a hard copy, send to:
APFA Communications
1004 W. Euless Blvd.
Euless, TX, 76040

Photos must:

• Be the sole property of the sender. By sending in photos, you are giving APFA permission to use them in APFA communications.
• Contain the name(s), employee number(s) (if you can obtain your coworker’s employee number easily), email and phone number of each person in the photo in order to obtain permission to publish.
• Be tasteful in content.

 

AmericanAirlines + US Airways 
“On Our Way”

Leslie Mayo
APFA National Communications Chair