2.05.18 – Vacation Bidding, New Hire FAs, Pairing Constructions and Duty Periods, Duty Day, Reserve FAs, Annual Convention, Upcoming Events

Vacation Bidding

Annual Vacation bidding round 1 for fiscal year May 2018 – April 2019 is now open and will close February 27, 2018.

The application to submit your ballots and view the vacation/filler day matrix and individual accruals can be accessed through crew portal under the vacation tab.

If you do not receive all your vacation in round 1 you can re-bid remaining days during round 2 which will open after round 1 results are posted.

Last month, I attended a meeting concerning the matrix. I proffered to the Company to allow more vacation days during the summer and holiday months and less days during January and February, but was informed that it was not possible. The Company sites many reasons that contribute to less vacation days during peak marketing times such as summer months and December. The main reason would be short staffing due to sick calls and FMLA.

I stated going forward that we need a less restrictive vacation model to increase vacation days in these premium months.

FYI:
*DCA-US will NOT be bidding vacation with a combined seniority list with DCA-AA FAs this year.

Rotating Reserve will be implemented at FOI in October 2018 at which time we will be completely under the JCBA. If you believe you may be in the pool of Flight Attendants that will rotate and serve reserve, familiarize yourself with the vacation rules referring to senior bump and rotation when bidding for vacation.

*More information on rotating reserve will be coming in months ahead.

New Hire Flight Attendants are coming!

We will be receiving a total of 23 new hires arriving for duty February 23, 2018. Let’s welcome them to DCA-US!

Pairing Construction and Duty Periods

I continue to advocate for improvements to the pairing construction and duty days that are offered to DCA-US Flight Attendants items of concern are:

• commutable trips
• return of ODANS and IAD flying
• less 8 hour block days and short rest  periods
• return of more one days

I will continue to voice my concerns over these items with allocations and hope to see changes going forward. I am pleased that limited IAD flying is returning for the March bid period.

Scheduling: Duty Day

When reporting to the airport for duty and encountering a delay and then, consequently, your flight cancels with no other flight segments scheduled, actual duty time will not update in CatCrew unless you call crew tracking and have them manually update the duty day. This time can be reflective of illegalities, per diem , and 1:2 duty rig.

Reserve Flight Attendants

As a reminder when you receive a pairing from crew schedule, you have a minimum of 3 hours to report. Flight Attendants are being removed from pairings when arriving at the airport at the 3 hour mark. If this is done due to Company convenience and not the fault of the Fight Attendant, inform crew schedule that you should receive a 3 hour show no fly credit.

APFA Annual Convention

The APFA Annual Convention will be held in Charlotte, NC. All members in good standing are not only welcome, but encouraged to attend.

Up-coming Events in DCA:

Late spring/early summer we are planning on bringing in APFA retirement specialists for another seminar. Those who are planning to retire can find helpful information on the Union website, APFA.org.

The JSIC Committee will be visiting again this coming year to give an overview of what to expect in October 2018. The presentation is very informative and covers many of the changes we will experience at FOI.

APFA PBS Specialist Alana Porter will visit DCA-US. Alana will be available to help answer specific questions concerning PBS bidding in our base:

• Vacation Low
• Utilizing all 7 PBS layers
• reserve patterns
• December soothing and much more.

Stay tuned for dates and times for all upcoming events.

Please join us on our Facebook page: DCA-U Flight Attendant Union.

In unity,

John Pennel
APFA DCA-US Base President
[email protected]