7.15.15 – (LUS) – Meetings, ISAP, ETB, Mixing Generic and Specific Bids, Must Off vs Prefer Off, Virtual Meetings

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July 15, 2015

Meetings, meetings and more meetings.

The Past Week:

The JIRC was in Dallas last week. Below is a summary of the items discussed:

Review of the ISAP and ETB Timelines:

The ISAP processing window contractually is 2100HDT to 0600HDT. This timeline was adjusted through a Letter of Agreement (LOA) between the Company and the Union to a processing window of 2000HDT to 0800HDT to ensure adequate processing time. The LOA stated that The Company and the Union agreed to meet 120 days after PBS implementation to discuss the feasibility of reverting to the contractual times.

The JIRC and the Union have been strongly in favor of changing that time to more realistic hours because while the ISAP processing is happening, ETB will not process transactions. To give our Flight Attendants the most time available to drop/pickup/trade using ETB, we would like to achieve a shorter ISAP processing window but there are a few limitations with processing the CLT/DCA/PHL bases and the PHX base in between a required nightly Catcrew refresh that occurs at 0100CDT.

The topic was discussed this past week and the agreement was reached to adjust the ISAP processing window to 2000HDT – 0600HDT. While this is still an hour different than the contractual negotiated language, the JIRC and the Union have agreed that for a consistent ETB daily opening time, 2000HDT to 0600HDT is more desirable than 2000HDT to 0800HDT with room to adjust that window at a re-evaluation meeting on a to-be-determined date with the Company.

The implementation date for this change is to be determined and will be communicated as soon as it is established.

Review of Data Testing

The JIRC was presented with the test results of a few possible programming changes for evaluation. We did request some additional information that we felt was necessary in order to determine if these changes will be beneficial and satisfactory for the Flight Attendants. Once a determination is made, we will communicate more to you about these items and how they may affect your bidding strategies.

Testing of Co-Terminal Pairing properties for DCA/IAD

DCA is going to begin operating co-terminal pairings from IAD. Those properties have been tested and we are just awaiting the final test results to ensure that PBS is able to award those pairings properly.

The Upcoming Week:

PBS will close on the July 16^th at 0900 PHX time/1200 EST. Make sure that your bids are properly entered before the bid closes by checking the Layer tab in PBS. You should not see “0” in any Layer and if you do, it is recommended that you make some adjustments to ensure that PBS has additional trips to consider in that layer. Another way to double-check your bid is to click on the “View Pairing Set” button in the Layer tab. This allows you to look at the pairings in each layer’s pairing pool. By glancing through each layer, you can double-check that the correct types of pairings are included in each layer.

Awards will be posted in PBS on July 18^th by 0900 PHX/1200 EST. Awards will be loaded into Catcrew and available for ETB trading on July 19^th at 0900 PHX/1200 EST.

*Note: Once the August Award has been posted, if you feel you have received a mis-award, you must present it for investigation no later than July 23^rd at 1200 HDT. Any mis-award questions must be directed to the FARC – (480)693-8232 or (800)327-0117 option 2, 8.

Tip Of The Week:

Mixing Generic and Specific Bids

When bidding, it is highly recommended that your Specific Pairing bids are in a layer that does not include any other generic Pairing properties.

For example, this bidder is telling PBS that they want EITHER these 3 specific pairings OR any other layover in CDG. They only bid 3 specific pairings but their Layer 1 is showing that this pairing pool has a total of 240 available positions. This should be a RED FLAG that PBS is including more pairings than you intended.

Here is an example of what this bidder likely meant to tell PBS. Notice that there are no Pairing Properties bid in Layer 1 with the specific pairing and

now Layer 1 is only showing 24 possible positions available:

Just remember, when bidding a specific pairing, you have already defined exactly what you want by bidding that pairing; no other Pairing Properties are needed except Prefer Position Order which tells PBS which positions you are willing to work on the selected pairings. Line Properties CAN be in a layer with specific pairings.

Reserve Tip Of The Week – Must Off vs Prefer Off:

Must Off is an “all-or-none” property. If you have any Must Off’s in a layer and cannot be awarded all of them, PBS will discard that layer and move to the next layer.

Prefer Off is a preference only. If you have all Prefer Off’s in a layer, PBS can award a Reserve line from that layer even if it can not award all of those Prefer Off days. It will try to give you as many of your preferred days as possible.

Reserves get 11 days off per month. You do not need to bid all 11 days off if you do not have a preference or you are not sure what you can hold.

It is important to remember that each person’s rotation of days on/off can play a big part in someone’s ability to hold one specific day off that they want. For example, if someone junior to you has the first few days of the month off but you could not hold those days, it is because the junior person’s AVL block of days from the end of the previous month dictate that they have the 2^nd and 3^rd off to maintain legalities.

Virtual Meetings:

Watch your CBS and AA email for information regarding the first of what is planned to be a series of “Live Meetings” to begin on July 20th. These meetings will be led by Company Leadership, including Hector Adler, Tim Campbell and Todd Christy to address the issues that have been experienced with the new scheduling technologies.

In Solidarity,

Laura Albert – PHL and DCA
Scott Barnes – PHX and the FARC (Flight Attendant Resource Center)
Emily Arner-Brown – CLT

About the JIRC:
The Joint Implementation Resolution Committee (JIRC) is a committee that was created by the current contract (the Redbook) to oversee the implementation of PBS.

Posted in Hotlines - 2015

7.15.15 – (LUS) – Meetings, ISAP, ETB, Mixing Generic and Specific Bids, Must Off vs Prefer Off, Virtual Meetings

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