07.11.06

Hello, this is Denise Pointer, with an InfoRep Hotline for Tuesday, July 11, 2006.

The Flight Attendant Fatigue Study has finally been released by the FAA. The results of this study, greatly influenced by the efforts of APFA, are a year overdue. The study will be published on APFA's Web site as soon as it is available. Please listen to today's Special Hotline about this subject. This important report could not have happened without activist APFA member's involvement.

Many thanks to those Flight Attendants that have logged on to www.www.apfa.org to encourage congress to include the airline provision in the Pension Reform Bill. Your activism is one of the reasons the Senate version of this bill contained the Airline Provision that now sits in Conference. There were high hopes that the House and Senate would resolve the outstanding issues in the Pension Reform bill prior to the July 4th recess. However, congress missed its own self-imposed deadline. There has been some controversy over this bill – the most highly contentious point to be resolved is determining when a company is "at risk," which will shape how much a company must contribute to its pension plan.

APFA members must continue to be proactive in urging Congress to protect our Defined Benefit Retirement Plan. There are 44 million American workers depending on our elected representatives.

This past week, new Vice-Chairs were elected at BOS-I and LGA to replace the Vice Chairs who resigned the position. Sean Nowicke (BOS-I) and Alan Montana (LGA) have already assumed their duties. Results of the election can be found at www.www.apfa.org.

Last month, we announced that APFA and AA reached agreement on enhancements for Reserve Flight Attendants. The Scheduling department has provided the following Q&A's regarding trip trading while on Reserve.

Q: Why is Reserve trip trading (RTT) important?

A: Due to the fact that Reserve trips are awarded in GTD order, Crew Schedule cannot award flying out of order. As a result, some Reserve F/As desire flying for which they are not eligible based on their GTD. In order to honor the Contractual language governing the assignments, RTT allows F/As an opportunity to find a more desirable trip.

Q: May a Reserve trade their trip for an OE?

A: Unlike regularly scheduled Flight Attendants who may trade Optional Exchange trips, Reserves may not trade their Reserve-assigned sequences for OE's. Because OE's are paid at straight rates, allowing Reserve to trade for an OE trip with another F/A would create problems with paying the 75-hour Reserve guarantee correctly. Because this is a test, AA and APFA agreed to prohibit Reserve trading with OE trips.

Q: Reserves may only trade for sequences of the same duration. How many days is a single-duty period trip considered that arrives after midnight (all-night turns for example)?

A: The trades are based on calendar days. Because an all-night turn requires a two-day Reserve, it must be traded for a two-day trip. Also, a two-day trip that arrives on the morning of the third can only be traded with a three-day sequence.

Q: Which HISEND form do I use to request a trip trade?

A: Use the generic HISEND form for your base.

BOS/161
BOS-I/163
DCA/162
DCA-I/165
DFW164
IDF/166
LAX/170
LAX-I/175
LGA/171
JFK/174
MIA/167
IMA/168
ORD/169
IOR/172
RDU/173
SFO/176
SFO-I/177
SLT/178

Q: How will RTT affect my guarantee?

A: It will not affect a Reserve F/A's guarantee.

Q: Will RTT change my Projection?

A: Yes, your PROJ will reflect the actual value of the sequence you fly.

Q: Why do I care if the "buffer" is expanded?

A: When the buffer is expanded from the original +/- 3 hours to +/- 25 hours for 10 days from July 6th to July 16th, it is more likely that all Reserves will fall into the range eligible for preference consideration. The buffer is the difference in the number of hours from one Reserve to the next in their GTD column.

Q: Why must we test increasing the buffer to +/- 25 hours?

A: Although AA is reasonably sure that the computer programming is smart enough to balance the flying among Reserves, even while considering preferences, no one is sure. AA and APFA have agreed to evaluate the impact of the expanded buffers before determining if this test will continue.

The following was previously reported on APFA's General Hotline:

In order to honor more Reserve Preferences, Crew Schedule has agreed to test the expansion of the Average Daily Utilization Range buffer. Simply put, this buffer is intended to ensure Reserves are utilized optimally and that, whenever contractually eligible, Reserve Preferences are honored. Rather than the current range of plus or minus six hours in order for Reserve Preferences to be considered, for the period from July 2 to July 11, Reserve Preferences will now be honored within a range of plus or minus 25 hours. APFA is hopeful that this will allow many more of you to be awarded your Reserve Preferences.

A computer glitch did not allow this test to happen as scheduled and as stated above. The glitch was corrected as of July 5, 2006. Reserves who input their preferences should now see an improvement. The test will be expanded an additional five days to compensate for this problem.

Please remember that if you are on Reserve, you should input your preferences if you are interested in the quality of your Reserve trips. You can email any comments regarding this subject to [email protected]

On July 6, 2006, the Northwest Flight Attendants voted by a margin of 4,349 to 2,668 votes to elect AFA-CWA as the new representational voice for the Northwest Flight Attendants. The rumor mill has asked if APFA was in talks with AFA on the subject of "merging". The answer is no. APFA will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this coming May and is very proud to be the only independent Flight Attendant union in the nation.

From the Hotel Department – AA has made the determination to remain at the current layover hotel in Rio until the expiration of the current contract. The cost increase to change properties in the middle of the contract was cost prohibitive. In an effort to assist crews traveling to and from the Copa and Ipanema areas, the hotel has agreed to additional van service free of charge to all AA crews beginning July 17, 2006. There will be five vans departing the Copa and Ipanema areas. These vans will depart at: 2300, 0100, 0200, 0300 and 0400.

Contracts have been renewed at the current layover properties in PSP, MSP, EZE and LIH. Crews laying over in Dallas will be leaving the Stoneleigh Hotel at the end of this month and moving to the Crowne Plaza near the Galleria.

Recently, our new long layover in ORD, the Hilton Homewood Suites, notified AA that the property had undergone a change of in management. The new property mangers agreed to honor the recently executed contract with AA – with the exception of a slightly reduced room cap. This change forced APFA/APA and AA to secure a second long layover hotel in ORD. All efforts were made to insure that the crews were kept downtown. AA has been forced to relocate approximately ten crew rooms to the Hotel Indigo in downtown ORD. The Hotel Indigo is located at 1244 N. Dearborn and approximately 1 mile from Water Tower Place.

Due to your write-ups, a hotel team will be traveling to LHR this week to begin a review for a short LHR layover hotel. Stayed tuned to www.apfa.org for updates on this change.

AA will be moving IOR MAN crews to the Arora Hotel effective August 1, 2006. IMA and BOS-I crews are currently staying at this property. Although attempts were made to keep IOR crews at their current layover hotel, the Renaissance, the rate increase imposed by the hotel made it impossible to remain there. Negotiations on the hotel rate were pursued; however, the Renaissance would not match the rates being offered by other acceptable properties in MAN City Center. The Arora Hotel is a five-minute walk to the Renaissance.

The 2Q 2006 edition of Skyword has recently been mailed. Be on the look out for this latest edition.

Finally, please encourage all Flight Attendants to email [email protected] with a current email address. APFA continues to build our email database.

Again, thanks for all you do for the Inforep Program.