5.31.24 – American’s Operational Meltdown

American’s Operational Meltdown

Friday, May 31, 2024

Once again, American Airlines management has failed Flight Attendants. The ongoing IROPs caused by severe weather events shows that management is incapable of supporting our work group.

The Senior Vice President of Inflight and Premium Guest Services this week made public statements about the company’s successes in handling the current IROPs. This was an insult to the Flight Attendants who were in that very moment suffering with a lack of hotels, who were being illegally rescheduled, who were unable to reach scheduling/tracking, and who were enduring insufficient communication – or none at all – regarding the repair of broken sequences. IROPS Report Form

The litany of offenses and contract violations is not limited to the following:

• Long wait times to reach Crew Scheduling, Crew Tracking, and Hotel/Limo
• No hotel rooms and transportation
• Illegal Reschedules in violation of:
  • JCBA 10.J.3 & 10.J.4 – Notification of disruption
  • JCBA 10.J.7 – Return to base in footprint of original trip
  • JCBA 10.L – Last Sequence
  • JCBA 10.V.5 – Positive contact
• Missed Trips (TM) and Late Reports (LR) due to no positive contact

It is clear that crew scheduling and crew tracking are not adequately staffed nor do they have processes in place to handle an extended IROPs situation.

APFA reps on the national and base level have been available to assist Flight Attendants by phone and live chat well beyond published hours. Reps across departments and bases have coordinated and escalated every illegal reschedule and hotel need as quickly as possible.

In the aftermath of past company failures during weather-driven IROPs, APFA leaders demanded – and the company promised – to put processes in place that would deploy base management in assisting Flight Attendants with securing hotels and escalating rescheduling issues. This current debacle has made clear that the company has not made good on that promise.

Instead, local base management have busied themselves blowing up balloons and decorating crew rooms in anticipation of passing out veritable crumbs on “Flight Attendant Appreciation Day”.

Ultimately, the operational meltdown is the company’s to fix.

The company must take responsibility for the erroneous TMs and LRs. These can lead to harsh discipline and we have seen far too many issued when the company failed to make positive contact or otherwise reschedule per the contract language.

The company must take responsibility for the insufficient staffing and training of crew schedulers, crew trackers and hotel/limo reps at IOC.

The company has contractual provisions at their disposal including Calling in Well (JCBA 9.D) and Incentive Days (JCBA 3.J).  At APFA’s insistence, the company has allowed for Calling in Well. However, it was open for only one day this week. The company has refused to offer Incentive Days, which would provide Flight Attendants incentive pay similar to Holiday Pay.

Flight Attendants, supported by your Union,  will hold the company accountable for mishandling these IROPs and failing to make the improvements we have been promised time and time again.

To do this, we need information on your impacted sequences. If you have suffered from a company failure(s) in the ongoing IROPs, use this form to report the details: IROPS Report Form

As we have previously communicated, there are many resources on the APFA website to assist you in understanding your contract when these events occur. On the Job Resources

As always, your fellow Flight Attendants serving as APFA reps at the national and base level will continue to be available to assist Flight Attendants. Please reach out if you need assistance.

In Solidarity,

Jeff Petersen
APFA National Contract Chair
[email protected]

Marti McMillan
APFA National Scheduling Chair
[email protected]