9.13.14 – (LAA/LUS) Pin it with Pride, Reps in Ops, Non Reving, OSTD/LTD, Pre-Designee Form, Hotel, CQ Prep, New Boarding Door Procedures, JP Morgan, GOTV, Marijuana

APFA Hotline: “Official APFA Communication,” Pin it with Pride!, Reps in Ops/Crew Rooms, Non Rev Travel, Benefits, OSTD/LTD, Physician Pre-Designate Forms, Hotel Update, CQ Preparation, New Boarding Door Procedures, J.P. Morgan Name Change, Gold Medal of Honor, GOTV, Marijuana, AFA-CWA Pass Travel Arbitration Decision, AFA-CWA Postcard About Joining APFA

September 13, 2014

 

The contents of this APFA Hotline was approved by APFA.

LAA/LUS
Pin It With Pride!
In recognition of the tremendous work Flight Attendants put into accomplishing the merger, APFA is mailing new silver union pins to all members. Representatives in Operations/Crew Rooms will have a limited supply of the new pins on hand to distribute over the next several days. As we welcome LUS Flight Attendants into APFA, grow our membership, strengthen our organization, and build the world’s largest airline, wearing the new silver pin will represent the renewed unity of our 24,500 members. Please continue to wear your gold APFA pin until you receive the silver pin.

LAA/LUS
Representatives in Operations/Crew Rooms – September 13-18, 2014
Beginning today through the 18th of September, APFA Representatives will be in operations/crew rooms throughout the system distributing information on the negotiations process and answering your questions. Please take a moment to stop by and speak to your Base Reps and/or FACT Reps/LUS Mobilizers. Handouts will be made available describing the two paths to a contract (ratification or arbitration). You can download that document here.

LAA/LUS
Non-Rev Travel at the New American – [email protected]
On Monday, September 15th, the company has stated that the boarding methodology and boarding priority will be fully integrated for Legacy American (LAA) and Legacy US Airways (LUS) non-revenue travel for both legacy airlines. This means Flight Attendants will no longer need to create a listing via the myIDTravel website. Instead, LAA Flight Attendants will be able to check flight loads, list, check in and view priority lists for LUS flights by accessing the Travel US site via Jetnet. Similarly, LUS Flight Attendants will be able to check flight loads, list, check in and view priority lists for LAA flights by accessing the NRTP site via Wings. LUS Flight Attendants will be grouped into the D2 boarding priority on LAA flights and LAA Flight Attendants will be grouped into the SD2E boarding priority on LUS flights. Boarding priority will be based on check-in time within each pass classification.
 
Even though the placement on the priority list for purposes of being issued a passenger seat is changing, there is no change to the order of accommodation for the cabin jumpseat for each carrier. Flight Attendants at each airline will continue to have priority for the jumpseat on their metal. Please refer to the updated jumpseat accommodation matrix and Q&As on JetNet/Flight Service for more details on the processing of jumpseats.

LUS
Non-Rev Travel Check In Problems
The new First-Come First-Serve non-rev policy is a major change for our coworkers from LUS. During the first 24 hours, we understand that some LUS Flight Attendants experienced problems while attempting to check in for flights. Management has told us that the issue has been resolved.

If you continue to experience problems checking in for you flight, please email one of the following addresses at American for assistance:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

If you experience(d) problems commuting to work as a result of the inability to check in for a flight via Wings, please contact your Base President or Base Vice President. Base Rep contact information can be found on www.apfa.org.

LUS
Ouramerican.org eLines
You may have received an eLine from “ouramerican.org” that included APFA’s logo and addressed difficulties checking in for a flight via Wings. That message was not written, authorized, approved or sent by APFA. Please note, going forward, authorized APFA communication will contain a notice at the top stating that it has been approved by APFA.

LAA
Crew Schedule/Tracking Recording and MIC Guarantee – [email protected]
Keep in mind that all of our conversations with Crew Schedule/Tracking are recorded. Recording runs continuously, even when we are on hold. This can make for some interesting listening, as you can imagine.  
 
MIC Guarantee Chart – [email protected]
Check out the handy flow charts for protecting your guarantee after a MIC at https://www.www.apfa.org/departmentsmenu/scheduling.

LAA
Benefits Sign-Up – [email protected]
The LAA 2015 Benefits Enrollment period will be 11/3/14-11/14/14. For more information go to my.aa.com. Enrollment information will be mailed to Flight Attendants homes in late September, 2014.

LAA
OSTD/LTD – [email protected]
The Health Department continues to receive calls and emails from Flight Attendants who are questioning and/or missing application filing deadlines for OSTD and LTD. Both policies have an application filing deadline whether or not you are out of SK time.

OSTD – you MUST apply/file within 6 months of the disability. 
LTD – you MUST apply/file within one year of the disability.  

Applying/filing for OSTD or LTD can be done online by clicking on the MetLife link in Jetnet Benefits, or printing the application in the forms section.

LAA
CA/TX Pre-Designate Physician Forms for Worker’s Compensation Injuries – [email protected]
Letters were mailed to all Texas- and California-based LAA employees from Harbor One late last month regarding changes to network coverage for any Worker’s Compensation injury/illness from September 1, 2014, forward.

Change for California-Based Flight Attendants: Pre-designation laws require that Flight Attendants submit updated information on the pre-designated physician. The form, recently mailed by Harbor One, must be returned if you wish to have your own physician on file in the event of a Worker’s Compensation case. If you do not pre-designate a physician, you will be required to use a Worker’s Compensation Network doctor.
California Medical Provider Network (MPN) for California-based Flight Attendants: (855) 854-6141 www.harborsys.com/GenexMPN.

Texas Health Provider Network (HCN) for Texas-based employees: (866) 611-9949 www.talispoint.com/genex – Username: American / Password: Airlines.

LAA
Hotel Department – [email protected]
Every month the APFA Hotel Department requests a list from AA’s Hotel Department containing the allocations for markets where we use more than two hotels. Since the company’s computer system cannot read more than two hotels for a city, company reps have to manually assign the hotels for cities with multiple hotels. Once management completes the hotel/flight assignments, it sends this list to APFA to share with our members. The APFA Hotel Department’s goal is to get this information to our members before bids close. Usually, the information received in time for bids, but not always. Please refer to the Hotel Page each month throughout the bidding process to review the latest hotel assignments.
 
MXP, CLT-Long, MCI-Short Temporary Relocations – Visit APFA’s Hotel page for details on these temporary layover hotel relocations.

LAA
CQ Preparation – [email protected]
Just a reminder that the required online training lessons for CQ Recurrent Training must be completed before you check in for your CQ class at FSU. International and dual-qualified Flight Attendants are required to complete both the Domestic online course and the Ditching online course. Be sure to either print, write down or take a picture with your phone’s camera the confirmation code(s) and have them available for the Training Instructors at check-in. Also, be sure to turn on your tablet before check in to ensure you have the latest eManual revision and bulletins downloaded.

If you experience technical issues with your tablet at check-in for training and the tablet support assistants are not able to assist you in fixing the issue before class time, the training department should be able to provide you with a loaner tablet for training only. You will need to return the tablet upon completion of your CQ training. If you are denied entry into your training class due to a tablet issue, contact the Safety & Security Department as soon as possible at 817-540-0108 ext #8302 or email [email protected].
 
LAA
New Boarding Door Procedures – [email protected]
The Safety & Security Department has recently received quite a few questions regarding the upcoming new boarding door procedures. Although APFA strongly opposes the new procedure requiring Flight Attendants to close the aircraft door, the company will proceed with the implementation for all LAA Flight Attendants. (This procedure is already in place for our LUS Flight Attendants). The planned implementation date is set for October 20, 2014. Until the new procedure is in place, all LAA flights should follow the standard operating procedure with the agents as they continue to close the aircraft boarding door without assistance from the Flight Attendant.

Once the new procedure is implemented the #1/Purser will be responsible for closing the aircraft boarding door with the assistance from the gate agent. If the aircraft door being used for boarding is not assigned to the #1/Purser (such as on the 757 and 777 with 2L) then the Flight Attendant assigned to that door exit will be responsible for closing the boarding door and will coordinate with the #1/Purser and the gate agents before door closure. There are no changes to the current procedures for aircraft door opening. Flight Attendants are never required to open the aircraft door during normal operations, only in an emergency. LAA Flight Attendants are required to “crack” the forward entry door on our S80 and 737 aircraft only. We do not “crack” the doors on our 757, 767, 777 or Airbus aircraft. Just remember this helpful tag line, “Bracket Crack It, Lever Never”. If your aircraft boarding door has a arming bracket, then you “crack” the door after the gate agent knocks and you have disarmed your door. If your aircraft boarding door has an arming lever, then you simply provide a “thumbs up” in the viewing window after you have disarmed your door.

LAA
J.P. Morgan Name Change – [email protected]
The company that handles the record-keeping and account administration for our 401k Plan, $uper-$aver, (J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services, LLC ) has been sold.  The new name will be Great-West Financial Retirement Plan Services, LLC., or Great-West Financial in the short version of the name.  There will be no change in the website www.retireonline.com or the contact number 800-345-2345, 0700-2000 CT.  But be prepared for a new name on your statements and when you contact them.  For additional information contact [email protected].

LAA/LUS
Washington, D.C., Gold Medal Ceremony Honoring our Fallen Heroes – [email protected]
APFA was invited to attend the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony at Emancipation Hall in the U.S. Capitol this week. Leaders of the House and Senate honored the Fallen Heroes of 9/11 by presenting a Congressional Gold Medal to the National September 11th Memorial & Museum in New York City, the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, PA, and the National Pentagon 9/11 Memorial in Arlington, VA.  

DCA-AA President Robert Valenta and DCA-AA Vice President Tim Weston attended the ceremony along with Julie Frederick, APFA Government Affairs Representative. Members of leadership including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made remarks.   

House Speaker John Boehner welcomed the invited guests. “Since our earliest days, Congress has awarded Gold Medals in  recognition of extraordinary deeds. Among the first recipients were George Washington, John Paul Jones, and Andrew Jackson. To this day, there is no higher honor we can bestow. This is the first time the Medal has been given in honor of so many fallen innocents. And we pray it is the last time.  That, more than anything, is why we do this.  All that we Americans are – all we will ever be – we owe to the Fallen Heroes of 9/11.”

APFA was honored to have been invited to participate in this ceremony.

LAA/LUS
Get Out The Vote – [email protected]
Just 53 days until the midterm elections. Have you checked to see if you are registered to vote? Go to http://www.vote411.org/ to find out everything you need to know about early voting and absentee voting in your state.  Your voice is your vote.

LAA/LUS
Marijuana – [email protected]
Marijuana is a drug listed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The Department of Transportation’s Drug and Alcohol Testing Regulation – 49 CFR Part 40 – does NOT authorize the use of marijuana for any reason even though many states are legalizing recreational marijuana and/or medical marijuana.
 
It remains UNACCEPTABLE for any Flight Attendant subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana even if the state you live in passed either recreational or medical marijuana initiatives. If you use recreational marijuana and/or medical marijuana and receive a positive drug test because of it, your employment with American will be terminated. If you have questions or concerns, please make a confidential call to your APFA EAP Department at 817-540-0108 ext. 8701 or email us at [email protected].

LAA/LUS
Pass Travel Arbitration Decision
Flight Attendants may have seen Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) communications on Thursday, September 11, 2014, regarding an arbitration decision issued on September 9, 2014, in which the arbitrator ruled that the Company did not violate the US Airways/AFA-CWA contract by having boarding priority based on time of check-in rather than based on seniority. To clarify: the grievance was filed by AFA-CWA under the US Airways/AFA-CWA contract before APFA was certified as the representative of all Flight Attendants at the new American and was arbitrated by AFA-CWA – not APFA.

The AFA-CWA has posted a description and commentary of the case on afausairways.org as well as distributed it in an e-line. LUS Flight Attendants should contact the AFA-CWA Contract Enforcement Committee with any questions in reference to the arbitration or the description and commentary AFA-CWA has posted about it.
 
LUS
Postcard About Joining APFA
This week, you may have received a postcard from AFA that said its records showed that you had not signed up for APFA membership and dues check-off. Although the front of the card contained the APFA logo and other graphics, APFA did not approve, review, edit, or send the card.

Unfortunately, the AFA mailing included some LUS Flight Attendants who, according to APFA’S records, have already signed up for APFA membership and dues check-off. If you did receive one of these postcards, and know that you already signed up for APFA membership, feel free to contact the APFA Membership Department at [email protected]. If you haven’t signed up, we encourage you to do that now by going directly to APFA.org and completing the electronic APFA membership and dues check-off card. Cards are also available in hard copy from the APFA Membership Department.
__________________________________________________
REMINDERS!

LAA
Vacation-Trade Bulletin Board at APFA.org
LAA Flight Attendants who would like to trade your 2014-2015 vacation can take advantage of the electronic bulletin board at www.apfa.org to post your trade requests. Simply click here and follow the instructions.

LAA/LUS
APFA Website Update
If you’re an APFA member, 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 on the main page. Once you fill out the form, a verification email will be sent to you. Click on the link within the email, and you will gain immediate access to the members-only portion of APFA.org. Get to know it!

LAA
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].

LAA/LUS
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, and our APFA New Hire guide. 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