AA F/A Greed at its Best...Watch the law suits now!

[jimntx]

Jim....

I understand what u are saying and I respect that, but I have heard from the "Horses" mouth. They know F/A's who will NEVER take any leave knowing they can drop ALL trips on their schedule ( VERY EASY TODAY} so their "Friend/s who holds a line" put their schedule on their's", and then go to makeup pickup Extra Hours being on makeup...Last check of my contract stated I am "Guarneteed 70 hrs a month" . Yes, I am paid 70 hrs a month whether I fly that or not.....However, I Was guarnteed Under My contract to "FLY" 70 hrs. I want to "FLY" 70 hours Every Month! not just be paid for it!!

Well Ed, the "Horse" is misinformed. What you are describing as happening is not possible. I don't care what horse told you. You can only sign up for MU flying up to 5 days in advance. And, only for days which you were scheduled to be off. If it's an AVBL day or a RSV day, you are AVBL or RSV. You can not be on MU (well, you can put your name on MU list, you will not be called). And, you keep ignoring the fact that there are no trips in open time in SLT to give to a person on MU. So what is this alleged person loading up their schedule with?

This morning 7 trips dropped into open time about 0800. By 0815, all but one had been pre-plotted by people on AVBL. Scheduling can do nothing with the other that trip until 1200 because people on AVBL have first dibs on it until then. And, if that trip has not been picked up by 1200, it is 99% certain that scheduling will assign it to someone on AVBL who is trying not to pick up trips and just collect their guarantee. That will leave exactly nothing for the people on the MU list. There are not even any trips on the sick list. This is a typical day in SLT. Those are the facts. The Horse, whoever that may be, needs to pay attention to the facts instead of trying to guess at what is going on.

I understand the frustration with f/as bidding the best lines, then dropping all their trips and parking on MU "just in case something comes along I want to fly." However, you can't pick up trips on MU and hold onto a full schedule at the same time. It's a violation of the contract that the other people on MU would be onto in a second. After all the MU list displays your projected hours. Over a certain number of hours, scheduling can not give you a MU trip even if you are the only person left on the MU list.

As far as parking your trips on someone else's schedule in order to pick up a MU trip, it's been done since time immemorial. But, it is not possible to pick up more than one trip at a time. I don't care what the horse told you. It can not be done.

BTW, your contract says no such thing. Your contract says that you are guaranteed 70 hours of flight pay (75 on reserve). Whether you actually fly those hours or not is immaterial. Trust me the company would like nothing better than to pay you only for hours flown. I would have made 40.27 in December and 35 and change in January. But being guaranteed 70 hours of flight pay does NOT mean the same as being guaranteed 70 hours of flying. If your lawyer is telling you they are the same, you need a new lawyer.

So far, you have not described a thing that rises to the level of illegal under the law or the contract. Even if it were illegal under the contract, it's been going on so long that the courts would rule it "shop practice." If a contract violation on either side, company or union, is allowed to persist without challenge by the other side for some time, it becomes "shop practice"--i.e., doesn't matter what the contract says, the two sides have agreed that this is what will be done.

 

[FWAAA]

Last check of my contract stated I am "Guarneteed 70 hrs a month" . Yes, I am paid 70 hrs a month whether I fly that or not.....However, I Was guarnteed Under My contract to "FLY" 70 hrs. I want to "FLY" 70 hours Every Month! not just be paid for it!!

Why on earth would someone be mad that they're being paid not to work? It boggles the mind.

As Jim pointed out, your contract doesn't guarantee you any work. It merely guarantees you a certain minimum level of pay.

You want to fly 70 hours a month? This will ruffle a lot of feathers, but that will happen more quickly when even more of the senior FAs decide that working just ain't worth it. Further reductions in pay might do the trick. Reduce the pay far enough, and it won't be viewed as a lifelong career.

Young people don't generally complain that senior dishwashers, busboys and waitstaff are impeding their foodservice career progress the way young flight attendants (and the rare older exception, like jimntx) complain about their industry.

But of course, you don't want to fly longhaul trips for min wage; you want to fly the glam trips (maybe 100-120 hours a month) at the high rates of pay the old-timers get. See the problem? The old-timers like making north of $50/flight hour for those trips.

 

[BigBangTheory]

Anyone..Want to drop a trip?....My lawyer want's to know

Your lawyer can't do anything about it. Since you're a union member; you must exhaust all of your union options, before you can file a lawsuit.

Get over it!

 

[jersey777]

Why on earth would someone be mad that they're being paid not to work? It boggles the mind.

As Jim pointed out, your contract doesn't guarantee you any work. It merely guarantees you a certain minimum level of pay.

You want to fly 70 hours a month? This will ruffle a lot of feathers, but that will happen more quickly when even more of the senior FAs decide that working just ain't worth it. Further reductions in pay might do the trick. Reduce the pay far enough, and it won't be viewed as a lifelong career.

Young people don't generally complain that senior dishwashers, busboys and waitstaff are impeding their foodservice career progress the way young flight attendants (and the rare older exception, like jimntx) complain about their industry.

But of course, you don't want to fly longhaul trips for min wage; you want to fly the glam trips (maybe 100-120 hours a month) at the high rates of pay the old-timers get. See the problem? The old-timers like making north of $50/flight hour for those trips.

One big reason people want to actually fly trips is due to the expense money. Having an average of 200 hrs of expense money domestic adds $350.00 of non-taxable income to the end of the month check...enough to make a car payment. Plus, we get a HUGE tax write off for expense money. I flew 6 months domestic and 6 months intl in 2008. According to the per diem rates the government allows...I have $20,500 in per diem write offs minus the $5250 the company paid me so a net write off of $15,250, which 80% or $12,200 is deductable. So not only do I not pay taxes on the expense money I got, I get a large added deduction. It truly pays to go to work! Does that boggle your mind?

 

[AAStew]

Jim....

I understand what u are saying and I respect that, but I have heard from the "Horses" mouth. They know F/A's who will NEVER take any leave knowing they can drop ALL trips on their schedule ( VERY EASY TODAY} so their "Friend/s who holds a line" put their schedule on their's", and then go to makeup pickup Extra Hours being on makeup...Last check of my contract stated I am "Guarneteed 70 hrs a month" . Yes, I am paid 70 hrs a month whether I fly that or not.....However, I Was guarnteed Under My contract to "FLY" 70 hrs. I want to "FLY" 70 hours Every Month! not just be paid for it!!

We have mental health counseling available.
Obviously, you are just bored and need something to bi tch about.

 

[s80dude]

Given the lack of trips at my base (HIBOARD drought), senior people are OE'ing their trips back to themselves, giving them 0.0 hours in the SPROJ, and then going on MU to 90. They can end the month with 160 hours since they will get the high time international trips.

 

[Royal Ambassador]

According to the per diem rates the government allows...I have $20,500 in per diem write offs minus the $5250 the company paid me so a net write off of $15,250, which 80% or $12,200 is deductable. So not only do I not pay taxes on the expense money I got, I get a large added deduction. It truly pays to go to work! Does that boggle your mind?

Do your $20,500 per diem write offs include lodging or food only?

 

[Skymess]

Do your $20,500 per diem write offs include lodging or food only?

The company pays for lodging.

 

[Royal Ambassador]

The company pays for lodging.

I know that. I was wondering if jersey777 is writing off more than allowed by the IRS. $20,500 seems excessive for just meals and incidental expenses.

 

[butchord45]

I know that. I was wondering if jersey777 is writing off more than allowed by the IRS. $20,500 seems excessive for just meals and incidental expenses.

I could be wrong, I have been before.....but I was under the impression you can only write off up to the amount that you were paid in perdiem. For instance if you were paid 5000 in TAFB. then you can write off up to 5000 ............not 20,500 on 5000 worth of TAFB.

but who knows.....

 

[kirkpatrick]

.....but I was under the impression you can only write off up to the amount that you were paid in perdiem.

Here's how it works: the IRS will accept certain amounts without requiring receipts or documentation of what you actually spent. Check out this site for international rates:

http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem.asp

and this site for domestic:

http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentVi...contentId=17943

In my case, I'm going to IAH tomorrow. My sequence shows three "half days" in IAH. IAH is a $59 per day city, so I am allowed $88.50 for meals and incidentals. My time away from base (TAFB) will reimburse me $46.50, so I declare the difference ($42) as business expenses. For 2008 I was able to declare $2980 in additional expenses, above and beyond what I was reimbursed. It's perfectly legal and they can't make you provide receipts as long as you stay within the allowed amounts.

International rates are considerably higher (Brussels is $156 per day) so it can really add up.

MK

 

[kirkpatrick]

Let me add an example for international. CDG is a $167 per day city. Flt 44 out of JFK shows a half day count of five and TAFB of 45.5. This means you're reimbursed $79.63 in expense money when the amount allowable is $417.50. So you declare $337.87 additional expenses per trip. Do this four or five times a month for a year and you can easily surpass the 20k mentioned earlier.

I did this for years when I flew international at TWA (although the daily rates were substantially less). I was never audited and I saved thousands.

MK

 

[eolesen]

I know that. I was wondering if jersey777 is writing off more than allowed by the IRS. $20,500 seems excessive for just meals and incidental expenses.

Maybe he got his tax advice from Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner or Nancy Killefer...

 

[kirkpatrick]

Maybe he got his tax advice from Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner or Nancy Killefer...

The intitial part of this thread was pure BS (all that crap about lawsuits and all) but the tax stuff is absolutely true. Not only is it true, it's perfectly legal and they can't touch you even if they audit you. All you have to do is show your HI1's (monthly schedules with the tax information included) showing you actually flew the trips. I've done it for years (and just finished doing it for domestic for 2008).

 

[eolesen]

So I can provide my ticket receipts for 2008, subtract what I was reimbursed for meals/incidentals, and claim the remainder?

Cool... I spent 61 days abroad last year. The difference between what I was able to expense for meals vs. the federal rates is easily $50-100/day. That just might be enough to push me underneath the threshold for alternative minimum tax...