8.18.17 – Manning Numbers, Point of Contact for Pay Protection, HISEND, Release Before Leaving the Airport, Last 5 Days Header on HI1

Friday, August 18, 2017

Hello Miami! This is your base brief for August and allocations numbers for August and September. 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.

Manning Numbers

Here are Miami’s preliminary manning numbers for September, with August numbers for comparison.

The co-terminal and satellite job numbers for September are;

PBI 44
FLL 100; 44 international, 56 domestic
ATL 30

The percentage of trips per calendar day is:

1 day    2 day    3 day     4day
 22%    20%     49%     10%

Point of Contact for Pay Protection

When you become aware of an illegality or cancelation 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.

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 or you become illegal, 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 will they 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 in the hyperlink under your name to receive the proper pay.

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

Last 5 Days Header on HI1

Last 5 days obligations are manually reviewed by Pay Comp until closeout to see if the obligations have been met, which is usually the 9^th of the next month. Your HI1 header may say “Pending” or “Protection Lost” until it is reviewed and verified, even if you have been awarded a trip and/or met your obligation.

MONTH ENDING 31JUL17 AS OF 03AUG17/0949          TT-YES    SC-Y
SMITH BR      02000 123456 MIA  5000-01        OPTION-2 95
WAV
H 9541234567
TTOT-Y FLYDFP  0.00 VOLP-Y
PROJ 97.29 GTD 97.29 PPROJ 100.29 SPROJ 96.10
PAY PROT LOST -NOT ON MU LIST/30 – OBL 2135/30-2359/31 -8.20

Guarantee/Adjusted Guarantee

This is how your guarantee appears on your HI-1.
GUAR ORIG  92.25 ADJ  80.15

The ORIG number is your line value (22C/JUN/SEL/MIA), 80 for relief/replacement lines, or 75 for reserve. The ORIG will not change during the month.

The ADJ number is your adjusted, current guarantee at any time during the month. As long as the Restoral column on your HI-1 header is set to “Y,” this number can go up or down with trip trading, unpaid absences, etc. The ADJ number will never exceed the ORIG guarantee.

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.

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

Ready Reserve Assignments

When you are on ready reserve any time 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.

Reserve ORs and OEs

There are two types of Optional Exchange trips, OE and OR. OEs are trips picked up between line holders on line months. ORs are trips picked up by reserves originating in the reserve month on their 12 planned duty-free periods. ORs are reflected in the header of the HI1 as FLYDFP.

If you pick up an OE that carries over from your line month into your reserve month, those hours will not go on top of your guarantee. That is not considered as flying on your planned duty-free periods since the flying originated in a line month. Crew Schedule is still required to provide you with 12 planned duty-free periods.  The hours will be absorbed into the guarantee and you could end up flying the trip for free, unless you are flown 75 reserve hours. ORs, which originate in your reserve month, are the only trips that will be paid on top of your guarantee.

If you pick up an OR and later drop the trip, make sure your guarantee is not reduced.

Availability Plot

If you have an AVBL day and are plotted by Crew Schedule, the assignment must be on your schedule by 1330. Crew Schedule’s courtesy call to you notifying you of the assignment requires a return call to confirm. If they have not heard back from you by 4 hours to departure, they will remove you from the trip with a missed trip.

DECS Codes

Many of us don’t readily know the codes to use for entries such as reducing rest, adding to the makeup list, etc. We have attached a list of most-used codes:

CQ Grace Month

If you are in your grace month and are unable to attend a CQ class, you will have to completely redo the online home study, as well as a second WBT course for going QI. Be very careful scheduling yourself in the last possible class, as cancelations and other operational issues happen. If you aren’t able to get qualified in your grace month and the next month’s bids are out, you will lose your bid.

Tablets

We have had an increase in discipline being issued for tablet issues. Remember that you must have a charged, updated tablet when you go to work and it must be ON. You must also have your charger and spare battery. Be sure to also charge your spare battery occasionally. This is an FAA requirement and checks have been stepped up recently.

Residual Alcohol

While you may be in compliance with the 8 hour rule, keep in mind that many factors determine the rate at which someone metabolizes alcohol. Gender, weight, food intake, and many others factor into how quickly your body can process alcohol. A Company positive test is .02% BAC or higher.

Hotel Charges

It has been recently reported that some crew members are not paying for their incidental charges at hotels. The Company receives a report every month. Please settle your charges before you leave a hotel.

Per section 6.D.2 of the Contract, “Each Flight Attendant shall pay for any incidental charges (e.g., telephone calls, in-room movie rental, etc.) prior to checking out of the hotel. All expenses (e.g., restaurant, lounge, room service, laundry/dry cleaning, etc.) must be paid at the time the services are rendered unless credit arrangements have been individually established by the Flight Attendant with the hotel upon check-in. It is the Flight Attendant’s responsibility to resolve any discrepancies in incidental charges at the time of check-out.”

Absence of 7 Consecutive Calendar Days or More

This is an important piece of the attendance policy that you can use to keep yourself from progressing through the steps of the policy. Per the policy, a single sick absence of 7 consecutive days or more (unless you’ve had one year with no chargeable absences) will count as 2 points. You can have the 2 points reduced to 1 point by calling the Absence and Return Center (ARC) at 817-967-6700 and answering a few questions related to your absence. A message will be sent to your manager that the absence is to be reduced, but no medical information be shared with her/him. This must be accomplished within 10 business days of clearing the sick list.

Attendance Record, HI10M

Be sure to check your HI10 once a month for discrepancies such as late sign-ins (LR). Remember that a seat swap after sign-in requires a new sign-in. If you receive a short call out for a trip and the scheduler says she/he will waive sign-in, make sure the LR does not show on your HI10M. Sometimes the scheduler forgets to send the message.

If you get a TM and there are extenuating circumstances such as traffic jams, train delays, etc, speak to your manager right away. She/he can investigate and usually there are several people who also had a problem that day. You may be able to have the TM excused.

If you find any issues with your record, address them with your manager while they are fresh in your mind. Be proactive with your attendance to prevent problems later.

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! However, it’s one or the other. If you want to let Professional Standards help you, don’t go to the office at the same time. Our rep for September will be Christine Grandillo. Her number is 917.549.8177.

Professional Standards Message

Professional Standards reps requested that we include that they are receiving many calls about crews using double catered items. Please don’t use down-line items intended for the next flight. Also, if the proper supplies (such as pretzels, cookies) are not on board, please call catering to have those items delivered. It makes for a bad day when we don’t have what we need!

Until next time, fly safely!