6.20.17 – BOD Meeting and LOAs, Manning Numbers, Point of Contact for Pay Protection, Vacation Trip, Mid-Sequence Call Out Pay, Ready Reserve Assignments, HIBOARD Etiquette, Professional Standards

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

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Hello Miami! This is your base brief for June and allocations numbers for July. Please continue to call us with your daily questions and base concerns. We are here for you. We have base reps on call after hours and on weekends.

BOD MEETING AND LOAS

A special BOD meeting has been called to address members’ concerns regarding the LOAs that are planned to go out for a vote on the Hard 40 and vacation changes. The BOD wants to examine the content, along with the Company’s latest communication concerning both LOAs.

The meeting has been set for June 24-25, 0900 at the Marriott Solana hotel in DFW. All members in good standing are welcome.

MANNING NUMBERS – JULY

Here are Miami’s preliminary manning numbers for July, with June numbers for comparison.

The co-terminal and satellite job numbers for July are:

PBI 36; -4
FLL 76; +12
ATL 30; +9

The percentage of trips per calendar day is:

1 day    2 day    3 day    4day
 24%     17%     49%     11%

We have the highest number of flying hours in the history of the airline for July. The reserve percentage has been bumped up across the system to address last year’s critical coverage problem in July.

POINT OF CONTACT FOR PAY PROTECTION

When you become aware of an illegality or cancellation at sequence origination, you must call Crew Schedule to initiate the provisions of pay protection. Failure to do so will result in the loss of your pay protection.

HISEND FORM #67

HISEND #67 is the ONLY form that is accepted for makeup and pay protection messages. HISEND MU / IPP requests sent to any other form number will not be accepted. 

LEGAL TO FLY AFTER VACATION TRIP

Article 9.T. of the Foundation Document states that you are legal to fly after a paid absence removal, such as vacation, with only debrief then sign in between trips. Full legal rest is not required. So, if you have a vacation trip that carries over into reserve, you are legal for an assignment that signs in after the applicable debrief.

For example, if you have an international vacation carry over trip removal that flies into reserve on the 2nd and arrives at 1400, you would be legal for a trip that signs in at 1430 (1400 + 30 minute debrief) and departs at 1530.

RELEASE BEFORE LEAVING THE AIRPORT

We are still having issues with crews not calling Crew Schedule when they have a cancelation at the airport. We understand no one wants to risk getting another assignment; but you do have a contractual obligation to contact Crew Schedule. 

With Interim Pay Protection, if your flight cancels, you must call Crew Schedule to find out what option they want to exercise with you. If you leave the airport without contacting Crew Schedule, not only they will deny the call out pay, but you will also forfeit the opportunity to pay protect your sequence.  

If you are at the airport for any length of time, you may be entitled to more than 3 hours, so it is important to get a release time from scheduling. Don’t leave any pay behind!

MID-SEQUENCE CALL OUT PAY

If you report to the airport mid-sequence and do no flying, you are entitled to a minimum of 3 hours pay and credit for the day. Make sure that the RPT is noted on your HI3 and send a claim form to Direct Connect on the Flight Service page to receive the proper pay.

If the RPT is not on your HI3, call Crew Tracking.

READY RESERVE ASSIGNMENTS

When you are on ready reserve outside of the call-in window and you receive a call for an assignment, you must return the call directly to Crew Schedule and speak to a scheduler to confirm your assignment. Using the AVRS “reserve assignments” option does not confirm a ready reserve call from Crew Schedule. You have a contractual 15 minute window to return their call, but you must speak to a scheduler.

The only appropriate time to use the AVRS reserve confirmation feature is during the normal call-in assignment window 1700-2100.

HIBOARD ETIQUETTE

We continue to receive reports of Flight Attendants “stealing” trips. More often than not, the result is a miscommunication or another error on someone’s part. 

When posting trips in HIBOARD, make sure you are listing the correct trip and the correct date. If you want a phone call or text before a trade or drop is performed, it should be stated in the remarks. When trading or dropping trips listed in HIBOARD, please verify all of the following BEFORE processing the transaction: sequence #, position #, Flight Attendant’s name, date, and the remarks. Sequences change hands frequently and quickly, so it is important to make sure the sequence you are trading or picking up from HIBOARD is the correct one. 

Additionally, many Flight Attendants are now using a trip trade application which notifies the subscriber the minute a trip is listed. If you are in TT mode and it is listed as a drop with no request to call or text, it may be picked up very quickly, possibly in a matter of a few seconds. The best way to protect your schedule is to make sure your TT authorization is set to NO.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

There is no such thing as a perfect trip, a perfect day, a perfect relationship, or a perfect person. As the saying goes, “one person’s ceiling is another person’s floor.” In other words, perception is key. When it comes to crew members, what was a perfectly satisfactory trip to one may have been a living nightmare to the one on the other side of the cart or the cockpit door. Too often, a bad trip can be attributed to conflict with our colleagues.

Conflict occurs when our expectations of others, or our job performance goals and objectives aren’t shared. We always hope our differences will be few, but should conflicts arise Professional Standards can discuss them openly and resolve them quickly, without Company intervention. 

The APFA Professional Standards Representatives at our base are available to facilitate conflict resolution by reflecting your concerns before problems deteriorate into unmanageable turmoil on the airplane – or even escalate into action by the Company. 

If you have an issue with a fellow crew member on the flight deck, APFA Professional Standards reps work with their APA reps directly, so please reach out to our Professional Standards reps.

Don’t take it to the office, call Professional Standards. It does work!

Our rep for July will be Christine Grandillo. Her number is 917.549.8177.

Until next time, fly safely!