1. Arrival to Layover – FA #1/Purser or FA Designee take down all crew member hotel room numbers and or cell phone numbers for emergency contact only.
2. Pickup – If FA(s) are not present in time for pickup/hotel departure, have the hotel front desk call their hotel room(s), and or the provided emergency contact phone number(s).
3. If No Answer – Call both AA IOC Daily Ops at (682) 315-7070 as well as the APFA Safety and Security Department at (817) 540-0108 ext. 8302, or you may email at [email protected]. * Please note we recommend that you contact both AA IOC Daily Operations as well as APFA Safety and Security when alerting of a FA no show. When contacting; please provide, Date, Time, departing flight information, affected crew member(s) information, as well as the layover hotel so that we may follow up with hotel security.
4. Request Wellness Check from Hotel Security – After you have called and alerted both AA IOC Daily Ops and APFA Safety and Security, please ask that the hotel send up their security staff to conduct a wellness check on the affected crew member(s).
5. Call Crew Tracking – After contacting AA IOC Daily Ops and APFA Safety and Security and after advising the hotel to complete the wellness check. Please, contact Crew Tracking to alert of the missing crew member so that operations can take the next steps appropriately with staffing your departing flight.

When a need is determined in a given city whether because it’s a new layover city and/or a hotel’s contract is up, the market is sourced with a call for RFP’s (requests for proposal). Based on the responses, a list of hotels to be reviewed is created. APFA, along with APA and an AA representative, visits the hotels after which recommendations are submitted to AA hotel contracts. AA takes those recommendations and negotiates a contract with the hotel(s). Sometimes they are able to contract with a unanimous choice, but there are times when the hotel selected is outside of an APFA recommendation. When this occurs, the process outlined in Section 6 of the JCBA is implemented. The APFA Hotel Department has the opportunity to add hotels to the list of those being considered by AA.

JCBA Section 6.B.3 states:

In selecting hotels, the Company and the Union Hotel Committee shall consider the following: 

1. Hotels with twenty-four (24) hour restaurants or room service with discounted crew menus or twenty-four (24) hour transportation service to nearby restaurants
2. Hotels with rooms for Flight Attendants as follows: on the second or higher floor, on the same floor, with queen or king-size beds, with doors that open to an indoor hallway and are removed from elevators, ice machines, and other noise sources, and have effective sound-proofing; are away from stairwells and emergency exit doors; with effective blackout curtains, self-controlled quiet heating and air conditioning systems and on non- smoking floors (individual crew members may request to be assigned to smoking rooms based on availability)
3. Availability of a separate crew sign-in sheet and crew rooms that will be immediately available upon arrival of the crew
4. Hotels with unblocked telephones, free local calls, no charge for making toll-free calls and no long distance access charges, free hairdryers, coffee-makers, irons and ironing- boards, and refrigerators
5. Free high-speed or Wi-Fi internet access
6. Safe and secure transportation for the crew members and their luggage
7. Hotels with adequate guest security
8. Hotels with exercise facilities
9. Responsiveness to concerns raised

As outlined above, the company sends out requests for proposal to hotels in a given area/layover city. In some cases, hotels cannot accommodate the number of rooms required or they are not interested in crew business. Some may already have crews in house and are not willing to house additional crew rooms given the return of leisure and business travel.

Hotel contracts are generally signed for 2 years. In some markets, existing contracts can be extended monthly or yearly. Additionally, there are some markets (resort or Caribbean destinations generally) where the hotel is unwilling to sign a long-term agreement or does not meet the required criteria to be a contracted hotel. In these instances, a rate agreement is in place and either party can terminate the agreement at any time.

The APFA National Hotel committee is comprised of the National Hotel Chair and 10-12 committee members representing various bases and regions. When there is an opening, the Hotel Chair can put out a request for resumes/applications and then appoint a representative

Hotel representatives are trained on the layover market inspection and review process and represent APFA on site reviews. They can also be tasked with addressing Membership feedback, reports, and issues while working with AA Hotel Contracts when problems and inquiries arise.

When a debrief is received, it is logged and actioned depending on the nature of the concern. In most cases, the concern is sent on to Hotel Contracts for review and follow up with the hotel.

If there is an immediate issue that needs the hotel’s attention, please reach out to the hotel staff. Some examples would be situations with insects/other pests, plumbing concerns, noise issues. After the layover, please send in a report so that it can be logged and monitored. It is difficult to address immediate issues via the feedback report/phone calls as there may not be a committee member available to assist in the immediate moment. If an issue is unable to be resolved by the hotel and there is the potential for a schedule disruption due to a flight attendant’s inability to get their contractual rest, you should reach out to the Hotel/Limo desk and/or Daily Ops for further assistance.

AA has a Hotel Contracts department that is responsible for sourcing, reviewing and contracting with layover hotels. They are responsible for determining which hotels are assigned for which length of time before the beginning of the month. Once the month begins, the hotel/limo desk takes over for managing hotel assignments for the current month’s operation. When there are issues with an assigned hotel or there is an unanticipated need/IROP situation, hotel/limo works to secure and assign hotels as needed. The hotel/limo desk is operated and managed by TA Connections (formerly Travelliance and often referred to by the acronym TAC) with occasional support from special assignment flight attendants.

A list of the training hotels can be found on the Layover Hotels page.