3.20.15b – (LUS) APFA Schedules Meeting with Company re: ISAP, ETB, PBS I.T. Issues

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March 20, 2015

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Last week, APFA President Laura Glading called for a meeting with the company, the LUS Presidents and the CEC to discuss the less than stellar launch of new scheduling components in the Red Book. As we all know, numerous computer IT issues and lack of training for ISAP, ETB and Reserve have proven extremely problematic for LUS Flight Attendants.  

During the meeting, LUS base representatives and the CEC openly and systematically listed the failures and breakdowns and the resulting fallout to our members. Management was made aware of the financial and life style hardships imposed on the LUS Flight Attendants by the company’s lack of preparation.

None of this should have happened, as the CEC and APFA made management aware of the problems in plenty of time to make the corrections. They did not heed our concerns at the time – or in time for the launch. In the meeting, management acknowledged the problems, apologized and pledged to do better. Rather than simply accept the apologies, APFA has drawn the company into a series of meetings and cooperative discussions to address both the company’s failures and necessary corrective measures.

APFA has requested that the company:

• Appoint a project manager to oversee the program
• Provide training, specifically on ETB/ISAP and new Reserve
• Provide to APFA the Business Requirement Document (BRD) for ETB/ISAP
• Fix the transparency screens in the Reserve section

APFA has agreed to prioritize the issues for the company by determining which issues are contractual and must be complied with immediately.

Here are a few of the items that were addressed at the meeting as well as the company’s response:

• DCA-US VP requested the post deadline addition of VEX days for a few FAs. Those VEX days are being accommodated.
• The CEC Reserve Chair requested a new indicator in CATS to discern when a Reserve FA has been awarded a trip by the Daily RAP. This item has been communicated to HP and will be in queue for work. A Business Technology Request (BTR) will be opened to request the change.
• The CEC Reserve Chair requested access to the “reasons” report which is generated by the Reserve processing application. This has been communicated to USAIT. It is this group who will need to establish the CEC Reserve Chair’s connectivity.
• There was a request for a CATS option which would allow the bidder to review their ISAP bids. That screen’s functionality is now available to Flight Attendants.

There still continues to be frustration with ETB and ISAP, including the fact that ETB opened a day earlier than scheduled this week, abruptly closed and all transactions had to be reset. These mistakes wreak havoc on a Flight Attendant’s efforts to build her/his schedule and these issues must be resolved.

APFA has asked that when there is a problem with ETB or ISAP, the company sends a message to Flight Attendants as soon as possible letting the Flight Attendants know about the issue along with a projected time for the repair.

A meeting is scheduled with company on April 10th to address the remaining IT problems. We will report out following this meeting. The CEC and APFA are working with the company around the clock to get these IT issues resolved. All of these problems are beyond frustrating for the membership.

IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING A PROBLEM WITH PBS/ISAP/RESERVE/ETB click here and fill out the report form. This form will be routed to the JIRC or the appropriate company departments for handling.

Leslie Mayo
National Communications Chair