AA and Labor Negotiations-2020

[CremaDiLimone]

I wish someone has a plan.....and fast. This is miserable coming to a near empty airport (in the hot zone), only flying hub to hub flights only (all of the connecting flights went elsewhere in the system) It's kind of difficult breathing & working with a mask on. You have to wear it all day, from the employee bus;

i have only used the employee bus for 3-4 years out of some 33 working at ord. aa lost the bus driving jobs from the 2011 bk. everyone had complained about the 20 minute, now 25 minute bus ride.

since march, the company and other airlines, including united, have reached deals with the city to get passes to park in front of terminals to avoid crowded employee buses.

hasn't your station done the same? avoiding 25-35 people on a crowded bus and you know there are sick people who don't care they are sick, but come to work anyways...especially now, when there is not much to do.

hopefully your union can work a deal with your company and go to your airport for temporary passes. if they have, consider the extra drive in exchange for personal safety and reassurance.

 

[T5towbar]

i have only used the employee bus for 3-4 years out of some 33 working at ord. aa lost the bus driving jobs from the 2011 bk. everyone had complained about the 20 minute, now 25 minute bus ride.

since march, the company and other airlines, including united, have reached deals with the city to get passes to park in front of terminals to avoid crowded employee buses.

hasn't your station done the same? avoiding 25-35 people on a crowded bus and you know there are sick people who don't care they are sick, but come to work anyways...especially now, when there is not much to do.

hopefully your union can work a deal with your company and go to your airport for temporary passes. if they have, consider the extra drive in exchange for personal safety and reassurance.

Well that's not much of a problem since the lots we have aren't even a quarter of the ways full. You can see spaces abound, so that isn't the problem. (One saving grace is I don't have to worry about someone hitting and denting my car door.) Trip that normally takes about 10 to 15 min. takes about 5 now. But the PA isn't that creative in letting us park in the short term lots unless you pay. $$$$$. The PA needs money too.

It's a Executive Order by the state Governor that all modes of transportation (buses & rail and even taxi/rideshare) require a mask to board. The lot buses are limited to 25 pax, and the seats are marked where you can't sit. It's not much of a problem since things are at a quarter of capacity. We get a "kit" when we clock in and take the temp. check: a ziploc bag with a mask, gloves; and sometimes wipes. I keep 2 sets in my car, JIC. I usually work in my face cover (the shop stewards has given out either black or white sets of IAM cloth masks which are washable.) which I find more comfortable than the blue mask. And I have tried to work in a N95 mask (which those are very hard to get nowadays), but after time, they are very uncomfortable. and even harder to breathe.

 

[CremaDiLimone]

I see 300 + there are 4 pages of departure flights ,yes you're right a long haul but that's NOT my point, is there more passengers in the airport than 4 weeks ago? We have to wait for the country to open up and see what happens no one is flying to NYC to see a Broadway show or to Chicago to see the Cubs play. Lets see how it goes.The lockdown isn't sustainable for the airlines or for any business

mothers' day..

3 flights ord-lax, all basically full. 3 flights, ord-phx, all basically full. 6 flights, ord-dfw..all 70-90 pax, except 1st flight, i believe only 49. ord-bos, 2 flights, about half full..60-80 pax for each. i didn't check, but was told that ord-mia and ord-tpa were full, not sure how many flights each.

really picking up the past week or so.

 

[CremaDiLimone]

Well other than my job could be in jeopardy,

i think it's important to note that the english govt. and spanish govt. have given aid to iag airlines british and iberia. not much compared to usa aid given to usa carriers. air france though, will get 7 billion euro from the french govt.

lufthansa is close to getting nearly 10 billion euro from the german govt., while austria air is asking for nearly 1 billion euro in aid.

i believe the usa govt. started this (aid packages) and the european govts. had no option, just as the europeans picked up salaries for airline workers (still some layoffs) and then the usa govt. followed suit with that provision (aid, but no layoffs) in the cares act.

what's important is that if the aid increases in intensity, it will be hard for the us govt. to walk away from american carriers in sept/oct.

all this has to be bitter poison for any airline that was/will be rejected for aid by it's home country.

 

[ALUS78]

Finding it hard to believe half the people flying are on AA, but good for you if true.

Okay I see where I got it wrong(in a way) looking at aaportal i saw total customers at say 90,000 there might actually be only 60,000 but 30,000 are connecting so there's the TSA numbers as connecting passengers dont go through TSA again.In my defense that 60,000 is still double a few weeks ago.

 

[ALUS78]

i believe he's trying to say that statement isn't about the virus. it's about one side believing it has discovered that it has the moral authority to crash the economy to get 'their' candidate in the white house to appoint 'their' supreme court justices and elect 'their' candidates to congress.

I believe there is some truth to his statement. Will it turn out to be the hail Mary pass they hope it will be.?? They tried everything else

 

[Kev3188]

Total traffic broke the 200K barrier on Friday. Roughly 8% of last year's same day total, but a ~25% increase week over week.

 

[swamt]

mothers' day..

3 flights ord-lax, all basically full. 3 flights, ord-phx, all basically full. 6 flights, ord-dfw..all 70-90 pax, except 1st flight, i believe only 49. ord-bos, 2 flights, about half full..60-80 pax for each. i didn't check, but was told that ord-mia and ord-tpa were full, not sure how many flights each.

really picking up the past week or so.

Do you have any idea if AA is leaving middle seats open? I don't remember them saying they would. I do remember Delta, United and Southwest promising. Below is a full 737 United flight with NO distancing whatsoever.

Total traffic broke the 200K barrier on Friday. Roughly 8% of last year's same day total, but a ~25% increase week over week.

How bout Delta Kev., are they distancing the middle seats empty? I hope so, otherwise it will be harder to get passengers back on board sooner. I understand it will not last forever, but for now while the crisis is strong and still going on I would think ALL the airlines better follow the "empty middle seats" otherwise the passengers will not fly those airlines (like UNITED) that does not practice what they preached (promised)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/packed-united-flight-leaves-passengers-012744599.html

 

[Kev3188]

How bout Delta Kev., are they distancing the middle seats empty?

Yes. All middle seats are blocked from sale, as well as some window/aisle seats on A/C with 1x2, 2x2, and 2x3 seating. LF's are also capped at 50% upfront and 60% in the back.

 

[jimntx]

Yes. All middle seats are blocked from sale, as well as some window/aisle seats on A/C with 1x2, 2x2, and 2x3 seating. LF's are also capped at 50% upfront and 60% in the back.

And, as was noted on another thread, how is Delta or any other airline supposed to survive with these restricted load factors?

At AA such load factors would mean that on a 737(800), the company workhorse until the MAX receives its wings, at least 6 F/C seats, 18 Main cabin Extra seats, and 46 coach seats will be empty on every flight. Anyone believe that can be maintained? Especially since it's already been noted on another thread that some passengers are already writing complaint letters about the "packed" airplanes and no compliance to social distancing requirements.

 

[Kev3188]

Exactly!

They can't. Not without a massive increase in ticket costs or being subsidized...

 

[eolesen]

I haven't heard about anyone capping sales to only 60% of the cabin (which is what you'd need to do in order to "block middles from sale". Especially in an environment where change fees don't currently exist.

If the Feds want to subsidize 50% load factors, perhaps that might be feasible, but nobody's talking about that right now. I'd heard the opposite -- there might be a stimulus to increase ticket sales and the Fed would subsidize up to 50% of the ticket price...

 

[V.O. Reason]

mothers' day..

3 flights ord-lax, all basically full. 3 flights, ord-phx, all basically full. 6 flights, ord-dfw..all 70-90 pax, except 1st flight, i believe only 49. ord-bos, 2 flights, about half full..60-80 pax for each. i didn't check, but was told that ord-mia and ord-tpa were full, not sure how many flights each.

really picking up the past week or so.

And the media stories are already complaining about it how is it that anyone can social distancing with full planes.
We are all doomed

 

[V.O. Reason]

I haven't heard about anyone capping sales to only 60% of the cabin (which is what you'd need to do in order to "block middles from sale". Especially in an environment where change fees don't currently exist.

If the Feds want to subsidize 50% load factors, perhaps that might be feasible, but nobody's talking about that right now. I'd heard the opposite -- there might be a stimulus to increase ticket sales and the Fed would subsidize up to 50% of the ticket price...

I doubt this will happen but more power to them if they can pull it off

 

[eolesen]

It's a good thing more and more people are tuning out to media hysteria over COVID. Nobody was denied a ventilator, and hospitals met the demand without turning people away. Weeks later, we see nurses and doctors being laid off because of lack of need, and death rates about 20x lower than what the headlines were screaming two months ago.

Yeah, I'm sure there will be a few people scared by this, but they're the ones letting Amazon, DoorDash and InstaCart people "risk their lives" to bring them supplies so that they can stay safe at home.

The rest of us have to work. Dangerous freedom is better than safe slavery to the government.