12.15.15 – (LUS) – Reserve Update

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Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Reserve Update – December 2015 – LUS

The holiday season is here. Reserve Flight Attendant utilization has a history of being high in December and early January. APFA suggests that you familiarize yourself with the Red Book Contract language pertaining to Reserve, Scheduling and Hours of Service. Any questions and concerns should be directed to your local Union officers, Reserve representatives or the LUS Contract desk at the APFA National office.

Here are a list of common questions or issues relating to Future/Reserve Open Time Award/Assignment (ROTA) and Daily Scheduling:

Q: How can a Reserve double-up?
A: The Reserve must notify Daily Scheduling of their intent and leave a list of preferences. By definition, this is considered an aggressive bid because the Flight Attendant does not have a Reserve Availability Period (RAP). The bid will be honored after all available aggressive Reserves have been processed.

Q: If a Reserve extends their RAP, will they be considered AVR or slot into seniority?
A: A Reserve may extend their RAP and will be considered for utilization before any Reserve in the RAP they have extended into.
For example: Reserve on RAP B extends his/her RAP to RAP C. This Reserve that extended his/her RAP, will be utilized first before any RAP C Reserve. This process will not be considered aggressive and the FA extending their RAP will be able to extend to any time frame within the RAP. Reserves may notify crew scheduling of their desire to extend their RAP at the end of their original RAP.

Q: What is the procedure that Crew Scheduling will follow if a Reserve standing On Premise Reserve (OPR) does not call Crew Schedule at the beginning of their OPR shift with a list of ISAP like preferences?
A: Crew Scheduling will assume the Flight Attendants wants to Remain on Call (ROC), and will by pass the Reserve in seniority order
until it becomes necessary to assign a pairing.

Q: Will a Reserve receive an ASG code, also know as “click”, when receiving OPR from Daily Schedule?
A: No. The reserve will only receives a “Click ”as a place holder to keep tally of how many times she/he was assigned OPR for the month and will not receive daily clicks for any assignment coming from OPR.

Q: Will a future trip be dropped from a Reserve’s line if he/she is aggressive for Daily Schedule and receives a pairing?
A: Yes. A Reserve can not be denied a daily pairing. Daily scheduling assignments supersede all future scheduling bids.

Q: If a Reserve places a future bid for a pairing that will exceed the monthly maximum, will ROTA assign the pairing?
A: Yes. The Reserve’s monthly Company hours minus any Electronic Trade Board (ETB) activity that places him/her under the monthly max the ROTA system will award the the pairing over the monthly threshold.
For example: Reserve Flight Attendant has a monthly hourly total of 85 hours and bids for a 3-day pairing worth 15 hours of pay and credit. The system will award the pairing and his/her monthly hours will increase to 100 hours. Consequently, if the same Reserve has a monthly pay and credit of 90.01 in a month where the monthly max is 90 and places the same bid for a 3-day pairing, the system will deny the request because
she/he was already at the monthly maximum. The same procedure will apply to Daily Scheduling. In no situation will a Reserve be forced to fly over the monthly max unless he/she has aggressive flying over the threshold of 40 hours. (Section 12.K.4.b.)

Q: If a Reserve inputs a standing bid in the Crew Portal that works into his/her Moveable Day (MD) or Golden Day (GD), will the day/days off be reinstated?
A: No. The system assumes the Reserve is waiving the day(s) off and will not reinstate. This also applies to bidding OPR when only available for one day.

Reserve Facts

When reaching the monthly maximum, less the value of a minimum day, a Reserve Flight Attendant will be considered out of time. For the month of December in all bases, the monthly max is 90.00 and the out of time threshold is 85.01.
When a Reserve receives a pairing or OPR award/assignment that takes him/her to the 85.01 threshold or beyond at the time of award/assignment, the Flight Attendant is permitted to notify Crew Schedule of their intent to call “Out of Time.” The Scheduler will mark the Flight Attendant out for the remainder of the month following the trip/OPR award/assignment.
If a Reserve is assigned into their MD(s), such day(s) will be restored at the time of assignment.
Red Flag pairings will be paid @150% on MDs/GDs as pay, no credit.
Priority Of Assignments (Section 23.M.) will be followed during critical coverage and/or after future or daily processing is complete and pairings/OPR shifts remain open. This section must be followed for an orderly process of assigning trips/OPR.
Reserve are not contactable outside of their RAP unless they are on a RAP at time of contact.
Reserves are not released from their current day RAP when assigned/awarded a Future pairing/OPR, unless advised by CS.
The ROTA system will assign a complete 12-hour RAP after the Flight Attendant’s legal domicile rest following a pairing/OPR shift, unless the Reserve requests a modified RAP and this is at Crew Scheduling’s discretion.
A Reserve attempting to pick up a carryover ETB trip will be denied prior to the following months PBS award.
Reserves must have a minimum of 2 hours from contact to report
A Reserve Flight Attendant that reports to the airport for an assignment/awarded pairing and does not fly the FA will receive 3 hours pay and credit.
Daily assigned OPR cannot exceed 2 times in a bid month, unless all available reserves have been assigned 2 times

APFA Reserve Representatives are addressing the following issues with the Company:

APFA is looking into a procedure and protocol change that must be followed by crew schedule if the ROTA future awards/assignments and RAP assignments are delayed past the contractual language of 1930 HDT.
Receiving ASG “clicks” from assignments off of standing OPR.
Reserve day off trades using an ETB format.
Daily pairing assignments from “the day of” Daily Scheduling procedure rules. APFA does not believe that the procedure Crew Scheduling follows is the intended language of the section. We are working on coming to a solution for daily assignments on “the day of” assignment.
A solution for daily assignments on the day of assignment. Currently, the earliest departure to the first available Flight Attendant is being assigned without having a choice.
ETB transition trips being denied before the PBS award.
Pre-planned absences for Reserves being loaded into the PBS system prior to the run. For example, mandatory probationary Company meetings. This pre-planned absence which would eliminate any conflict with a MD/GD.
APFA does not believe that PBS should have such a high percentage of Reserves per month. We continue to work with the Company to resolve these high numbers.

These items are just a few of the items that are being actively pursued for change to help the Reserve Flight Attendants.

The following charts were published in late Spring and we would like to have this information shared again for all FAs that are just now becoming Reserves or our new hires.

ETB Reserve Rule Enhancements