3.21.20 – April Schedule Concerns & Updated Timelines

Saturday, March 21, 2020

April Schedule Concerns & Updated Timelines

Navigating This Hotline

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Introduction
Pay Protections for March 2020
Pay Protections for April 2020
Delay in Opening of TTS/ETB for the April Contractual Month
PBS Award

 

Introduction

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There has been an unprecedented amount of cancellations due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on American Airline’s operations. Because Government directives, CDC guidelines, and City/State procedures are changing hourly, the Union has been in constant contact with the Company.

APFA has worked in conjunction with the Company to help mitigate further adverse effects of the current situation affecting all airlines. Unfortunately, not all information is as forthcoming as needed from the Company to help us disseminate factual information to our members in a timely fashion. This has made our duty to inform you difficult, to say the least.

 

Pay Protections for March 2020 NIPD/DOM

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The Membership should be outraged at the disparity the Company has created within our ranks by not extending the LOA pay protections to Flight Attendants who experienced cancellations on NIPD and Domestic sequences. We have appealed to the Company repeatedly that their reluctance to discuss with us cannot continue. The lack of additional pay protections for NIPD/DOM sequences is causing enormous financial harm and continues to divide our members. We encourage all Flight Attendants to reach out to the Company telling them this is unacceptable.

When the Letter of Agreement for the IPD cancellations was first agreed to there was no insight as to how widespread the cancellations would later become. The intent was never to exclude NIPD/DOM from any future pay protections, in the event the operation experienced cancellations to the rest of the operation. The Company not agreeing to extend the pay protections for NIPD/DOM was disingenuous when the cancellations did start affecting the NIPD/DOM operations.

 

Pay Protections for April 2020

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APFA has been in continuous discussions with the Company regarding pay protections for the month of April. The PBS awards will be unprecedented and shocking, and we are diligently working to find the best solution that will cause the least amount of financial impact on our Flight Attendants. We continue to explore pay protections above and beyond what the JCBA already provides. We will have communications coming shortly.

 

Delay in Opening of TTS/ETB for the April Contractual Month

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Cancellations will be continuing into April. Unfortunately, the bulk of the cancellations were not fully known until after the bid sheet was published, and the Company was unable to remove a majority of the sequences from PBS in time for the delayed bid run.

We realize this delay will be a major disruption for Flight Attendants after already experiencing so many challenges recently. Regrettably, it is unavoidable for two major reasons explained below. APFA and the Company agreed for the best interest of the Flight Attendants to delay the opening of TTS and ETB, until the completion of the cancellation package. This delay will ensure that no additional harm is experienced by our Flight Attendants. If you were affected by the grounding of the MAX aircraft last Spring, you experienced the negative impacts of failed continuity and inaccurate sequence values. We learned a few lessons from that situation and the harm it had on our workgroup.

• Failed continuity: When a sequence has canceled segments and no longer is a viable sequence it will show in FOS as a broken sequence with the indicator “Failed Continuity” and you will not be able to trade/drop/pick-up these sequences until they are repaired. With the volume of cancellations in APR, there will be a significant amount of sequences with failed continuity resulting over half of Flight Attendants not being able to participate in trading.
• Inaccurate Sequence Values:  Failed continuity sequences can potentially reflect inaccurate sequence values in TTS/UBL/ETB for the Flight Attendant picking up a sequence and a negative effect on the TTS credit window. This is on account of how these systems read data from FOS when changes have been made to a sequence related to failed continuity.

 

The new Timeline for TTS and ETB will be as follows:

• 22MAR – April PBS awards visible in your Activity Sheet (HI1) April cancellations will not be reflected on this date.

• 23MAR – April PBS awards will be final (cancellations will not be reflected yet).

• 23MAR – TTS and ETB will unfreeze for March sequences in the
  last 3 days of March (29MAR-31MAR) at 1200 CST.

• 30MAR – (estimated) April cancellations will be
  reflected on your schedule.

• 31MAR – (estimated) TTS opens at 1200 HBT

• 31MAR – (estimated) 1st TTS run for April starts at 2300 HBT

• 1APR – (estimated) ETB opens at 0400 HBT

 

PBS Award

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The PBS run will likely yield unusual results and we understand many Flight Attendants will have numerous questions and concerns. We have asked the Company to have full capacity of the FABRC up and running to handle the higher than normal volume of calls. The FABRC is a contractual resource for Flight Attendants to get answers on their PBS awards.

Please be aware that the schedule you see in PBS starting March 21 is very likely to experience significant changes as the additional flight cancellations are processed.

1. You must call the FABRC first. We know that the wait times may be long and have asked the company to fully staff the FABRC in anticipation of a higher than usual call volume.
2. If your issue is sent to the PBS Admin’s or AOS for review, please wait for the review prior to contacting the APFA PBS team.
3. If you disagree with the information provided by the FABRC/PBS Admin’s/AOS or have further questions please fill out the PBS Mis-Award form on the website.

 

In Unity,

Becky Lydecker
APFA National Scheduling Chair