01.18.06

Hello, this is Denise Pointer DFW InfoRep, with an InfoRep Hotline message for Wednesday, January 18, 2006.

AMR reported a 4th Q ’05 loss today of $604M, as compared to a $387M loss in the same quarter last year. That brings the overall net loss for 2005 of $861M, which is $100M more than last year’s loss. AMR attributed its loss to high fuel prices and low-cost competitors.

APFA, APA and TWU met with senior management yesterday in a second meeting to receive clarification on the bonuses scheduled to be paid out in April. Unfortunately, no resolutions were reached as a result of this meeting. Another meeting is set for next week and we will continue to keep you up-to-date.

As of today, the majority of our joint work has been put on hold. The relationship between labor and management at AA is at a crossroads. To quote APFA President Tommie Hutto-Blake in last week’s Hotline, “When APFA agreed to ‘join forces’ with fellow labor unions on AA’s property to work with management on ways to turn our company around, no one was foolish enough to believe there would not come a time when this relationship would be tested. We are there.” Continue to log on to www.www.apfa.org for updates.

Please resist the urge to spread unfounded rumors. Email your questions and if there are answers to your questions, we will make every effort to get those answers to you.

The APFA Annual Convention is scheduled to begin on Monday, February 20, 2006. It will be held this year at our LAX layover hotel, The Ayres in Los Angeles. If you would like to attend, The Ayres Hotel is holding a block of rooms at a discounted rate for APFA members. All members in good standing are invited to attend. Additional information is available at www.www.apfa.org.

On Monday, February 20th, APFA will hold numerous workshops and training classes. Classes on contracts and scheduling will be offered as well as a retirement seminar and a legislative workshop. In addition to the workshops and classes, representatives from Communications, Legislation, InfoReps, Hotel, Safety, Health, Retirement, Scheduling and Contract will all be available all day to answer any questions you may have.

Also, the annual APFA Awards banquet will be held that evening at the hotel. If you would like to attend, dinner reservations are $50 in advance and $60 at the door. Contact Rosemary Cooper at APFA Headquarters at 817-540-0108 Ext 8121 for reservations.

APFA has received several calls and emails asking for further clarification on the announcement of the ending of the speaker test. The Company and APFA are still in discussions to find a solution to speaker staffing during this no-growth period. For the month of February, bidding and staffing will remain at the levels that were in place during the test. Any comments regarding the speaker test should be directed to [email protected].

If you are contemplating retirement, you need to be aware that there are administrative changes in the methods of actually retiring that will legally go into effect on February 1, 2006. Most of the differences are just administrative and nothing else. It will not noticeably change the way we retire. The major difference is primarily in the Pension Benefit Election Form.

The company is now required to send the Pension Benefit Election form and an estimate, which compares the relative values of the different methods of taking ones pension no sooner than 90 days and no less than 7 days prior to retiring. AA has requested that APFA ask our members to give a minimum of 30 days notice.

One additional major change is that there will be no ability to give less than 7 days notice as we have been able to do in the past and under no circumstances will AA be able to make paperwork retroactive as may have been done in the past.

As a reminder, International proffer preferences were purged on January 6. If you are interested in proffering to an international base, you must re-enter your proffer request in Sabre. The IOR proffer announced last week will close at 0730 Central Time on Friday, January 20.

From the Hotel department * the assigning of HNL hotels and flights will be posted on the Hotel Department’s Web page as soon as this information is received from AA. We are hopeful we should have this information very soon. Hotel allocations for LAX, LAS and SAN for the month of February are also available on the hotel department’s web site.

Also, as a reminder, if you smoke in a non-smoking room, any and all charges accessed you by the hotel are your personal responsibility. Some hotels are charging upwards of $400 for cleaning charges.

Communicating accurate information in a timely manner to our members is very important. Please encourage everyone you fly with to advise APFA of their email address. Contact [email protected] with updated email addresses.

Thank you for all you do for the InfoRep Program.

Denise Pointer, DFW InfoRep
InfoRep Program
1004 W. Euless Boulevard
Euless, TX 76040
817-540-0108 Ext. 8743
[email protected]