FRH – 10.01.15

FACT Rep Update –
Flight Attendant Communications Team

Thursday, October 1, 2015

APFA Fall Board of Directors Meeting Notice – LAA/LUS
TSA Policy Change Now in Effect for Active Crewmembers – LAA/LUS
Flight Service Daily Operations – LAA/LUS
Effective October 1st: Up to 6 OR’s, Stand-by Trades, 35-in-7 Legality – LAA
Lineholders 30-in-7 Update – LAA
Trip Trade Etiquette 101 – LAA

APFA Fall Board of Directors Meeting Notice – LAA/LUS

The APFA Board of Directors will be convening for the regularly-scheduled Fall meeting October 5th & 6th in Downtown Dallas.

The Board meeting will convene Monday, October 5th at 9:00am at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel. All members in good standing are welcome to attend the open portions of the meeting.

TSA Policy Change Now in Effect for Active Crewmembers – LAA/LUS

Please visit the APFA Safety/Security page on APFA.org (Login Required) for an important message regarding a TSA policy change for active crewmembers. Please note, this is Secure Information which should not be copied and forwarded via email or posted on social media.

Flight Service Daily Operations – LAA/LUS

Flight Service Daily Operations (Daily Ops) has moved into the new Integrated Operations Center (IOC) next to the Flight Academy in Fort Worth, TX.

For 24/7 Flight Attendant support and assistance from home or base, or while in mid-sequence or on layover, call 682-315-7070 – or toll free at 1-888-222-4737. Daily Ops are available to support you outside local base management hours. Should you require medical attention while on a layover, need emergency travel, assistance with an AMR Event report or require a mini-manual, we are here to help. Scheduling related issues need to continue to be brought to the Crew Scheduling department.

Calling from an international location? Use the AT&T country codes and dialing instructions guide, or obtain assistance from hotel operator. Need help with link? AT&T country code and dialing instructions:
http://www.att.com/media/att/2012/support/pdf/USADirectTravel-AccessCodes.pdf

LAA Reserves – Effective October 1st: Up to 6 OR’s, Stand-by Trades, 35-in-7 Legality

Reserves beginning October 1st will have the ability to relinquish up to six (6) Duty Free Periods (DFPs) in order to pick up supplemental flying (OR/L2/CR). This will be an increase of two days over the current four. Flight Attendants will have to contact Crew Schedule for assistance with the pick up when it exceeds four days due to programming limitation.

Reserves beginning October 1st will be able to trade Stand-by assignments when all requirements for the stand-by are met, such as similar days available, necessary equipment qualifications for the time slot, etc. This does include co-terminal trades. Once the Flight Attendant has confirmed their assignment and has a Flight Attendant to trade with, call Crew Schedule the day prior to stand-by shift to accomplish the transaction.

LAA Lineholders 30-in-7 Update

Due to the programming implementation of 35-in-7 for Reserves effective on October 1st, all line holders 30-in-7 will be set to waive (WAV) in the HI1 header. Reserves will remain no waive (NWAV) unless s/he waived during the bid process. This change in HI1 header does not change how we are scheduled. The Domestic 30-in-7 limitation was eliminated on May 2nd with the combined operation. Crew Resources agreed to continue to build purely domestic selections within the 30-in-7 limitation until the JCBA 30-in-7 scheduled, 35-in-7 actual for all line holder can be implemented and that practice will continue to apply regardless of the WAV indicator in the HI1 header.

35-in-7 Update – Reserves

The programming is completed for the 35-in-7 legality during Reserve months and will be effective October 1st. The computer will not count all the time in the previous month, so Crew Schedule will still need to manually review the previous month’s flying during the first six days of the Reserve month to exclude OEs. After the 7th day of the month, the programming will capture all applicable flying that counts toward the illegality and no assignments exceeding the 35 hour limit will be made unless the Flight Attendant waives for the month.

Beginning November 1st, a Reserve looking back into the line month of October will also exclude TTs from the calculation. The JCBA language for 35-in-7 for Reserve excludes ETB transactions. ETB is equivalent to LAA OE and TT transactions. There’s one conflict in the current TT system regarding the need to 2-4-1: a TT could potentially be a Flight Attendant’s original trip that’s been used for a trade. Because it is an original trip, it will be included until ETB is implemented. The Flight Attendant needs to alert Crew Schedule at the point of assignment to include the trip in the 35-in-7 calculation. The scheduler will confirm by pulling the Flight Attendant’s bid award. If the 35-in-7 illegality exists, the Flight Attendant would be removed from the reserve trip.

35-in-7 is based on actual block hours. Please keep in mind it is possible to be paid more than 35 hours in 7 days without actually having a 35-in-7 legality. Only actual hours flown are considered for 35-in-7, even though you are paid the greater of scheduled versus actual flight time. For calculating future trips, use scheduled flying time only.

The following hours do NOT count towards 35-in-7:

Deadheading
OR/OE
TT (unless it was your original scheduled trip on your selection)
ATC
Diversion
Standby
Duty and Trip Rigs (E,F,G,P)
Location Delay Incentive (LE) and Voluntary Duty Waiver (VE)
Ready for Departure (RFD)
Ramp Congestion Delays (RCD)

For more information on how 35-in-7 is calculated please click here.

LAA – Trip Trade Etiquette 101

There has recently been an increase in feedback from Flight Attendants who have had their schedules negatively impacted by unauthorized trip trades with other Flight Attendants. Incidents range from the unwanted “parking” of trips on schedules all the way to the outright “stealing” of trips. Trip trading is a flexibility that comes with responsibility. Abusing this flexibility isn’t just unethical, but may also have a serious impact on the work lives of your co-workers.

How can you protect yourself from unauthorized trip trades?

Don’t share your password(s) with anyone.
- A licensed trip trade service doesn’t need your password in order to help you.
- Licensed trip trade services are issued an administrative log-in from the Company which allows them to view flight attendant schedules and conduct legitimate trade transactions on their behalf.
- Sharing your password violates the Company’s IT policy and will leave you open to identity theft and other unwanted consequences.
Don’t leave yourself in trip trade mode indefinitely.
- While many flight attendants leave themselves in trip trade mode to facilitate dropping trips from HIBOARD, it leaves you open to having your schedule manipulated by a third party.
- If you have a trip posted on HIBOARD, be specific in your request regarding trading or dropping and have Flight Attendants interested in trading with you/taking your trip make positive contact with you. This way you can minimize the amount of time your schedule is open to being manipulated.