 | d. In the event of a delay at the gate awaiting push back, power back or taxiout due to congestion with de-icing operations off the gate, flight time pay and credit will begin at the time the aircraft was ready for immediate departure in all respects except for clearance from ramp or ground control, as determined by the Captain. |
K. DIVERSIONS
When a flight is diverted and the aircraft is not blocked in at a gate, and/or passenger egress is prohibited, each Flight Attendant shall receive full flight time pay and credit for all such time on board. Such flight time will not be included in the duty aloft calculation as provided in Article 7.J. of the Basic Agreement nor will flight time pay and credit run concurrently with any holding time or ground time compensation as provided in Article 3.J. and 3.I. of this Agreement.
ARTICLE 9 - SCHEDULING
A. COMPOSITION OF SCHEDULES
The elements required to construct the schedules for Flight Attendants are:
1. Trip Allocation: The trip allocation is the arrangement of American Airlines' general schedule into legal crew routings to constitute trip sequences for Flight Attendants.
2. Trip Selections: The arrangement of trip sequences or trip pairings contained in the trip allocation into patterns of flying assignments constituting a monthly work schedule for regularly scheduled Flight Attendants. A trip selection may contain one (1) or more Flight Attendant positions. As used in this Agreement, "trip selection" shall mean both the pattern of flying and the Flight Attendant position.
3. Daily Scheduling: Crew Schedule/Crew Tracking is responsible for the day-to-day scheduling, rescheduling, and assignment of all Flight Attendant personnel, regularly scheduled, replacement and reserve.
B. FLIGHT ATTENDANT STAFFING
| 1. Classification of Flight Attendants
a. Regularly Scheduled Flight Attendants. A regularly scheduled Flight Attendant is one who holds a regularly scheduled sequence of trips for a month. Under this "regularly scheduled" category is included a Flight Attendant who holds a replacement assignment. His/her monthly flying assignment is made up of parts of the schedules of other Flight Attendants which have been left uncovered as the result of absences due to vacation, leaves of absence, resignations, sickness (SLOA), etc., or uncovered schedules, such as Planned Variable Manning (PVM), etc.
b. Reserve Flight Attendant. A reserve Flight Attendant is one who does not hold a regular flying assignment, whose function is to be available to back up regular schedules and to perform any open and/or reserve flying not flown by regularly assigned Flight Attendants. Scheduling rules which apply to reserve Flight Attendants are found in Article 10 - Reserve.
2. Minimum Staffing Requirements
a. The current published staffing guidelines, effective August 1995, shall be used to determine the number of bid positions and the total number of Flight Attendants who will be assigned to flights with variable manning. Thereafter, the Company may establish, at its discretion and from time to time, new staffing formulas. These formulas shall be made |
available to Flight Attendants, and APFA shall be notified of a change forty-five (45) days prior to implementation of the new formula. Staffing formulas shall specify increments based on the type of equipment, level of service, flying time and passenger load, as determined by the Company.
b. While it is understood that the Company shall have discretion in changing staffing or service levels, APFA shall be afforded a safeguard against the Company abusing that discretion. Accordingly, APFA shall have the right to file a Presidential grievance if the Company abuses its discretion by assigning an unreasonable workload to Flight Attendants.
c. APFA shall have three months from date of implementation of a change in staffing or service level to file a Presidential grievance which shall be processed in accordance with the Presidential grievance procedures set forth in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
C. REPLACEMENT FLIGHT ATTENDANTS
1. Classification. Replacement Flight Attendants are regularly scheduled Flight Attendants, and not reserves.
2. Categories. Replacement Flight Attendants fall into two (2) categories:
| a. Regular Replacement
(1) "Regular Replacement" Flight Attendants are Flight Attendants who are awarded a flying assignment consisting of preplanned required duty-free periods and "relief flying", defined as the trip sequence(s) left uncovered by a Flight Attendant with a planned vacation, whose vacation dates were published on the monthly bid sheet.
| (a) Vacation/replacement selections will be awarded according to procedures agreed upon by the Company and the APFA...
(b) The assignment may include one or more days of availability, in accordance with 4.a. below, and/or unscheduled days off (DO).
(c) A Flight Attendant's vacation will not be included for bid if s/he is on the planned reserve list or has fewer than ten (10) days vacation, unless the Company and the APFA agree to include vacations of less than ten (10) days.
(d) Any vacation replacement selection containing reserve will be shown as "no bid" in the bid results and will not be awarded.
(2) A Flight Attendant with one (1) or more AVBL days on her/his monthly activity record for reasons other than 4.a. below (e.g., Article 9.E. and 9.V.), will be considered a Regular Replacement Flight Attendant for such AVBL days for the purposes of this Article. |
b. Open Replacement
(1) "Open Replacement" Flight Attendants are Flight Attendants who start out the month with either no assigned flying or have one (1) or more trip sequences which were not awarded/assigned based on a published vacation as described in 2.a. above. These Flight Attendants will have on their activity records preplanned required duty-free periods and may have included one (1) or more days of availability in accordance with 4.a. below, and/or unscheduled days off (DO). |
| (2) A Flight Attendant awarded or assigned a Planned Duty-Free Replacement schedule (PDF), pursuant to 5. below, is considered an Open Replacement Flight Attendant.
(3) An Open Replacement Flight Attendant who is not on availability on the last day of the contractual month and has reached seventy-seven hours one minute (77:01) or more in her/his greater-time-to-date (GTD) column shall be released from all remaining AVBL days. An open replacement Flight Attendant who has reached seventy-nine hours one minute (79:01) or more in her/his GTD column and has an available day on the last day of the contractual month will also be released from that day.
(4) In the event the Company pre-plots a trip(s) on an Open Replacement Flight Attendant's schedule and the combination of the GTD and the Company pre-plotted trip(s) results in the Flight Attendant reaching seventy-seven hours one minute (77:01), any AVBL days remaining on her/his schedule will be converted to DO's. In addition, it is understood that any credited absences on future AVBL days will also be added to GTD for purposes of release. |
3. Replacement Schedule Adjustments
a. Adjustments Due to Legality and Qualifications. Adjustments may be made to a replacement schedule due to legality and qualifications.
b. Pure Monthly Trip Selections. A "pure" monthly trip selection, as provided in Article 7.A. of this Appendix, may be awarded to a replacement Flight Attendant as a vacation relief selection, provided, however, that a replacement Flight Attendant shall be scheduled for more than eighty-two (82) credit hours only in accordance with the following restriction: no more than two (2) Flight Attendants' bid awards, one (1) of which must have been published as a "pure" trip selection, are used when creating the vacation relief selection. The monthly trip selection schedule maximum for "pure" monthly trip selections shall be eighty-seven (87) credit hours unless the Company and the APFA have agreed to an exception as provided in Article 7.A. of this Appendix. A replacement Flight Attendant awarded such "pure" monthly trip selection will be considered to have exercised the provisions of Article 7.C., Option I of this Appendix.
4. Flight Attendant Obligation with Available (AVBL) Day(s)
a. "Available (AVBL) Days". Any replacement Flight Attendant scheduled with less than a seventy-seven hour one minute (77:01) projection may have included AVBL days designated on the Flight Attendant's activity record as AVBL. The number of AVBL days shall be based on the following chart. The cumulative total time of pre-plotted trip assignments, plus AVBL days, shall not project the Flight Attendant in excess of the scheduled monthly maximum of eighty-two (82) hours. The following chart is used as a limitation guide of the total pre-plotted AVBL days in relation to projection:
| International Projection (Hours) | Number of AVBL Days | | 0 - 6:15 | 18 | | 6:16 - 10:30 | 17 | | 10:31 - 14:45 | 16 | | 14:46 - 19:00 | 15 |
| International Projection (Hours) | Number of AVBL Days | | 19:01 - 23:15 | 14 | | 23:16 - 27:30 | 13 | | 27:31 - 31:45 | 12 | | 31:46 - 36:00 | 11 | | 36:01 - 40:15 | 10 | | 40:16 - 44:30 | 9 | | 44:31 - 48:45 | 8 | | 48:46 - 53:00 | 7 | | 53:01 - 57:15 | 6 | | 57:16 - 61:30 | 5 | | 61:31 - 65:45 | 4 | | 65:46 - 70:00 | 3 | | 70:01 - 74:00 | 2 | | 74:01 - 77:00 | 1 |
| (1) A replacement Flight Attendant will receive three hours fifty-three minutes (3:53) of flight pay credit and flight time credit for each day of availability spent in paid meeting(s), paid classroom training, or on vacation, special assignment, union leave, personal emergency and paid sick leave.
(2) A replacement Flight Attendant will receive three hours fifty-three minutes (3:53) of flight time credit for each day of availability while on unpaid sick, personal leave, credited military leave and suspension. |
b. Pre-Plotting of Open Time Trips. Replacement Flight Attendants shall be eligible to access open time ("pre-plot") in accordance with the provisions of paragraph K. of this Article. Pre-plotting exceptions for Open Replacement Flight Attendants are outlined in 9.K.1.e.
c. Flight Attendant's Responsibility When AVBL. During periods of "availability" the unassigned replacement Flight Attendant should call Crew Schedule at his/her convenience, between the hours of 1000-1400, local base time, on each day preceding an AVBL day. At that time Crew Schedule will make known to the unassigned replacement Flight Attendant the choice of trips available the next day. If an unassigned replacement Flight Attendant is on a duty-free period on the preceding day and if voluntary contact is not made during these hours, it is mandatory that such Flight Attendant contact Crew Schedule as soon as the duty-free period is over.
d. AVBL Open Time Assignment. Notwithstanding paragraph c. above, open time which exists at the beginning of the month, as well as open time which develops during the course of the month, may be assigned, to the extent possible, to Flight Attendants on AVBL days. However, the Company shall not pre-plot replacement Flight Attendants on Variable Staffing trip sequences seventy-two (72) hours or less prior to the day of departure of such trip sequences.
| 5. Planned Duty-Free Replacement Selections.
a. At bases where the total number of planned reserves is at a level of sixteen (16) or more Flight Attendants, the Company shall reduce that portion of the total number of reserves which were planned for the purpose of variable staffing by a minimum of forty percent (40%) unless the Company and the APFA otherwise agree to a lower percentage.
b. Once established, the reduction number equal to a minimum of forty percent (40%) shall be used to determine the amount of planned duty-free replacement selection(s) offered for bid.
c. Such selection(s) shall be of an amount equal to seventy-five percent (75%) of the aforementioned reduction number and shall have eight (8) preplanned duty-free periods offered for bid on the selection. Two (2) additional duty-free periods shall be indicated on the activity record prior to the beginning of the contractual month. |
6. Move-Up/Move-Back of Available Day. A replacement Flight Attendant may request to move a future available (AVBL) day in the current contractual month to an earlier or later day in the same month by exchanging it with an unscheduled day off (DO) or a Duty-Free Period. A request to move up or move back an available day must be for a date which is still prospective.
7. AVBL days may be pre-plotted on the monthly trip selections (bid sheet) on any such trip selection scheduled for seventy-four hours (70:00) or less. The number of such AVBL days shall be predicated on the basis of one (1) AVBL day for each four hours twenty minutes (4:20) or any portion thereof, below seventy-four hours one minute (74:01).
D. CHANGEOVER PAIRINGS
1. A changeover pairing is one which reflects a change in schedules that occurs between two (2) contractual months. Trip sequences as depicted in the monthly trip selections reflect a commitment of flying only for that particular month. Changes that occur in the following month reflect a new commitment of flying.
2. Changeover pairings are listed on the base Trip Selection Header Sheet as "Prior Removals". They may be longer or shorter than the original pairing and may affect legality as well as trips to be flown or trips to be credited because of conflict with a Flight Attendant's vacation or training.
E. SCHEDULE CHANGES
Schedule changes may occur after the allocations have been received and trip selections awarded.
1. Major Changes. A post selection schedule change may be of such magnitude as to precipitate an entirely different pattern of equipment and flight crew utilization. Under this condition, the blocks of flying time for each type of equipment originally allocated to the crew bases may change to some degree, creating the need for an entirely new trip selection. It is, therefore, possible to have more than one (1) trip selection during a contractual month.
2. Minor Changes. A post-selection schedule change is usually not great enough to warrant a re-selection of trips, i.e., the change only affects one (1) or two (2) bases or is small enough that the overall effect on the system is relatively slight. In such cases, the trips affected by the schedule change are reworked within the framework of the trip selections as they were awarded.
3. Flight Attendant Obligation In the Event of Schedule Changes. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph P. of this Article, in the event a Flight Attendant loses his/her entire month's trip selection or balance of his/her month's schedule because of a major or minor schedule change, including natural disaster and/or substitution of equipment and/or extraordinary operational circumstances, the following shall apply: A Flight Attendant whose pay projection falls below his/her monthly guarantee as a result of the Schedule Change shall be held AVBL only on those days originally scheduled to fly (DOSTF) in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs C.4.b.,c., and d. of this Article.
F. TRIP SELECTION (BIDDING), SCHEDULE COVERAGE AND NOTIFICATION
| 1. Calendar Bidding Periods
a. The monthly trip selections shall be distributed and made available to Flight Attendants for selection no later than 0001 of the seventeenth (17th) day of the contractual month. The due date for the bid ballot submission shall be no earlier than 0001 of the twenty-first (21st) day of the contractual month. Such bid ballot submission deadline may be deferred by the local Crew Schedule office. Such deferral shall be noted on the monthly trip selection. Bid results shall be posted by midnight of the twenty-sixth (26th) day of the contractual month.
b. If extraordinary circumstances prevent the accomplishment of the above stated time schedule, the Company will make every effort to adhere as closely as possible to such schedule.
c. Changes to the bid sheet will be made available to all Flight Attendants by computer file and by posting at each crew base operations. The Company may make changes to the bid sheet up to twenty-four (24) hours prior to the actual time of bid closing. Changes made during the twenty-four (24) hours prior to the actual time of bid closing, other than the complete elimination of a trip selection, will be treated as a reassignment. |
2. Bidding Responsibility. A Flight Attendant must submit, in writing, his/her preference for a trip selection. It is permissible for a Flight Attendant to submit his/her selections through another Flight Attendant as long as such selections are in writing.
3. Bid Awards. Trip selections shall be awarded in accordance with seniority and the provisions of Article 13 -Seniority General.
4. Notification of Bid Award/Subsequent Assignment. Each Flight Attendant at the base shall be furnished with a copy of his/her trip selection award, replacement schedule or reserve assignment on a Flight Attendant Activity Record. This record represents notification of the month's flying. When a Flight Attendant must be informed of an assignment not shown on his/her trip selection, replacement schedule or reserve assignment or when a change must be made in his/her schedule, notification must be made to and acknowledged by the Flight Attendant. Third party notifications are not acceptable.
| 5. Selecting to Fly Together-Buddy Bidding
Two (2) or more Flight Attendants may bid to fly together according to the following provisions:
a. All Flight Attendant(s) involved must submit a bid ballot with the following information completed:
(1) Names of the Flight Attendant(s) involved in the buddy bid,
(2) Employee numbers, |
| (3) System seniority numbers,
(4) Signatures of all Flight Attendants involved in the buddy bid. |
b. Only the most junior Flight Attendant will list the trip selections desired on his/her bid ballot.
c. The senior Flight Attendant(s) must accept the seniority of the most junior Flight Attendant.
d. Awards/assignments shall be made in order of the first open positions available on the trip selection, regardless of the cabin involved. Such awards/assignments shall be made in order of the seniority of the Flight Attendants involved and by preference in positions, as listed on the bid ballot.
e. If Flight Attendants bidding to fly together desire positions in the same cabin, they must indicate this preference by bidding only those cabin positions desired.
f. Flight Attendants bidding to fly together may bid two (2) or more trip selections.
| (1) Such selections must be bid together and designated as one (1) unit.
(2) Awards/assignments shall be made in order of the first open positions available on any of the designated selections.
(3) Should a substitution of equipment occur during the month, Crew Schedule shall determine the assignment/reassignment of the Flight Attendants without regard to the buddy bid. |
g. Flight Attendants bidding to fly together may be denied a selection(s) if the Flight Attendants involved do not possess the required qualifications for such selections, e.g.,language, service, equipment.
6. Paper Bid
a. A "paper bid" is a trip selection awarded on paper to a Flight Attendant when it is known that s/he will be absent for the entire month, so that the same trip selection may be awarded to the next most senior Flight Attendant bidding the selection. A Flight Attendant on a paper bid will receive the pay and/or credit (as applicable) of the trip selection awarded. For purposes of legality from one (1) month to the next, a Flight Attendant on a paper bid is considered to have flown the trip selection awarded.
b. A Flight Attendant shall be awarded a paper bid when it is known that s/he will be absent for the entire month as a result of:
| (1) four (4) or more weeks of vacation,
(2) four (4) or more weeks of SLOA/authorized leave (PLOA/ULOA, etc.),
(3) four (4) or more weeks combination of (1) and (2) above. |
7. Cancellation of Vacation/Authorized Leave
a. A Flight Attendant awarded a paper bid who has his/her vacation or authorized leave canceled subsequently shall be assigned to a replacement schedule.
b. When not awarded a paper bid, the following guide shall be followed when a vacation or authorized leave is canceled at the request of:
| (1) the Flight Attendant: such Flight Attendant shall be assigned to a replacement schedule,
(2) the Company: reinstate such Flight Attendant's original schedule and adjust the replacement Flight Attendant's schedule. |
8. Assignment of Unbid Selections and Open Replacement
a. If, after awarding flying assignments to all Flight Attendants who have made their selections, there are still some unselected regular and replacement assignments, these will be assigned by Crew Schedule in the following order:
| (1) Flight Attendants who failed to submit a bid ballot, in reverse order of seniority,
(2) Flight Attendants who submitted a bid ballot containing an insufficient number of bids and did not bid open replacement, in reverse order of seniority,
(3) Flight Attendants who submitted a bid ballot containing an insufficient number of bids and who did bid open replacement, in reverse order of seniority. |
b. Flight Attendants who are left without an assignment for the month after the awarding of all published selections, whether regular or replacement, shall be assigned open replacement.
9. Bid Denial/Drafting
a. Bid Denial Due to Lack of Qualification/Trigger Training. In the event a Flight Attendant having sufficient seniority to be awarded a trip selection is denied such selection solely due to the lack of qualification, and training as required, the training shall be offered at least once every four (4) months to cover the following reasons for bid denial:
| (1) Lack of service qualification contained within the selection;
(2) Lack of initial equipment qualification contained within such selection;
(3) Lack of new equipment qualification contained within such selection; |
so that if the training under (1), (2), and/or (3) as provided above is completed as offered, the Flight Attendant will be qualified to bid and be awarded a trip selection on such service and/or equipment in the months following training.
b. Drafting: Purser/Foreign Language Qualification
| (1) A Flight Attendant who possesses a Purser and/or a foreign language qualification(s) shall be subject to drafting only on those trip selections which contain two (2) or more trip sequences requiring such qualification(s). The inclusion of a single trip sequence which requires a qualification(s) into a trip selection which is otherwise free of qualification(s) shall be avoided. A trip selection containing a single trip sequence which requires a foreign language and/or Purser qualification shall be awarded in accordance with seniority without regard to such qualification(s). A Flight Attendant awarded such trip selection who does not possess such required qualification(s), may trade the trip sequence containing the qualification(s) without regard to the qualification(s). |
| (2) When drafting to fill trip selections requiring Purser and/or language qualified Flight Attendants, the Company may, if necessary, assign such trip selections in reverse order of seniority. There shall be no exception in such order of assignment, the vacation status of the Flight Attendant notwithstanding.
(3) When drafting to fill a position on a trip selection which requires a Purser and/or a foreign language qualified Flight Attendant, the Company will go first to the Domestic fall-off list and then to those Flight Attendants desiring to Drop Back to the Domestic Operation, as provided in Article 12.H.8. of this Appendix, prior to drafting a reserve Flight Attendant to the trip selection. |
10. Notice of Meetings and Training
a. Required meetings and training schedule information will be provided on the monthly allocation.
b. Regularly scheduled Flight Attendants will be scheduled for required meetings and/or training through self sign-up, except the Company may elect to preplan and indicate on the monthly trip selection FAA required training.
c. A Flight Attendant may trade required meetings and training date(s) through an automated system. The Company will maintain either the Help Desk or a comparable system to assist Flight Attendants with training needs.
d. A Flight Attendant desiring to attend a required meeting and/or training, other than EPT drills, at another base may make such request through the Training Department. Such request will be considered no more than twenty-four (24) hours prior to the day of the required meeting and/or training. A Flight Attendant desiring to use an available EPT drills date from another base may request such change through the Training Department up to seventy-two (72) hours prior to the date of the desired EPT drills date.
e. Training classes, except FAA training, will be scheduled for a minimum period of three (3) months. A Flight Attendant who does not attend a required meeting and/or training during this designated mandatory period will be scheduled for such required meeting and/or training during the make-up period, as applicable. Make-up classes will be offered no less than two (2) times during the make-up period. If the required meeting and/or training cannot be accomplished on an unscheduled day off during the make-up period, the Flight Attendant will be scheduled on a day s/he would otherwise have been on flight assignment or day of availability, and the Flight Attendant will be removed from his/her scheduled trip sequence or day of availability. If the failure to attend the required meeting and/or training during the designated mandatory meeting/training period was for circumstances beyond the Flight Attendant's control, including vacation, such removal will be fully paid and credited, in accordance with Appendix I, Article 8 of this Agreement. If the circumstances surrounding the Flight Attendant's failure to attend the required meeting and/or training during the designated mandatory meeting/training period are determined to be within the Flight Attendant's control, such removal from a scheduled trip or day of availability will be without flight time pay and flight time credit; however, the Flight Attendant's applicable monthly guarantee will not be reduced.
G. FLIGHT ATTENDANT RIGHT TO BID: PROFFER/TRANSFER
A Flight Attendant transferring or proffering into a base may submit trip selections at the base prior to his/her arrival if s/he is to be available for service at the start of the schedule period involved, allowing for base indoctrination and post-arrival rest period of forty-eight (48) hours off duty.
H. DUPLICATION OF COVERAGE
1. If, as the result of an error, there is a duplication of regularly scheduled Flight Attendants on a given trip, the Flight Attendant(s) who does not fly such trip shall be paid and credited on a scheduled basis for such trip, provided such Flight Attendant attempts to recover the time lost through make-up flying request. To qualify for this error protection, a Flight Attendant should make an effort to fly any trip for which s/he is legal and available which originates up to eight (8) hours after the scheduled termination time of the duplicated trip.
2. A Flight Attendant who declines the opportunity to make up a trip, as provided in 1. above, shall forfeit trip error pay.
3. A Flight Attendant who successfully makes up a trip, but in so doing is paid and credited with less time than was contained in the original trip, shall be paid and credited with the difference between the trip flown and the trip for which s/he was protected.
4. Pay protection is limited to the hours scheduled to be flown during the contractual month in which the trip was scheduled to originate.
5. The make-up obligation/make-up flying shall not extend beyond the contractual month in which the trip sequence was scheduled to originate.
I. SCHEDULE CONFLICT
1. Definition
Schedule Conflict: A schedule conflict is created when a Flight Attendant is awarded a trip selection, the first trip sequence of which is scheduled to depart prior to the termination of the last trip of the preceding month or when the first trip of the new month cannot legally be flown because of the legality requirements defined in Article 7 of this Appendix.
2. Flight Attendant Options. In the event of a schedule conflict, a Flight Attendant may elect to eliminate the conflict as follows:
| a. Trip trade either of the trip sequences involved in the schedule conflict to another Flight Attendant or with Open Time in accordance with Article 25.A. and C. of this Appendix.
b. "Schedule Conflict Trip Drop," i.e., relinquish his/her schedule conflict trip sequence into Open Time. Such Schedule Conflict Trip Drops shall not be credited and shall not be subject to the six (6) day monthly limitation described in Article 25.C.8.d. of this Agreement. |
3. Automatic Removal. If, forty-eight (48) hours prior to the beginning of the contractual month, a Flight Attendant has not eliminated his/her schedule conflict, as provided in paragraph 2. above, the Company will automatically remove the schedule conflict trip sequence from the Flight Attendant's monthly activity record and Schedule Conflict Trip Drop the trip sequence into Open Time. Such Schedule Conflict Trip Drops shall not be credited and shall not be subject to the six (6) day monthly limitation described in Article 25.C.8.d. of this Agreement. |
Current Contract 