F/A SCHEDULING

[Travelpro72]

This is very true but at the expense of the more junior reserves. The reason there were less blocks for August and it went backwards from July of 98 to January is that the flexibility was reduced for blockholders. Meaning less "open time". So now reserves who were barely making their time have more f/a's being thrown back into the pool. The system at east while beautiful if worked properly is a horrible system at best.

 

[flytchick]

You are right - the 2 different operations are pretty far apart. Don't you at east have to pick up the same exact days if you drop something and it touches a weekend? If you can get in early enough in DPU, you can drop weekend trips or days for any other day(s) in the month. That usually doesn't last very long as the month usually ends up critically staffed pretty quickly. Also, we at west have the ability to auto (drop through the computer) an entire trip if staffing permits. Can you drop to just your vacation credit in your vacation months? That is something we at west do not want to give up. It really helps with flexability. We get a lot of people (especially junior ones) who pick up time through personal trades. The quality of trips is better than in open time and they fly those trips when on golden days on reserve. I have to say from talking to a lot of west f/a's - with the exception of our reserve scheduling - for all practical purposes we don't really have a problem with the majority of our scheduling section. Prior to the merger, we had successfully negotiated a split trip section where we could post a portion of our trip into personal trades. We are really hoping to keep that as that will increase flexability. It will be interesting to see how this all ends up. Even your "lingo" at east is different than ours.

 

[USCREW]

Don't you at east have to pick up the same exact days if you drop something and it touches a weekend? If you can get in early enough in DPU, you can drop weekend trips or days for any other day(s) in the month. That usually doesn't last very long as the month usually ends up critically staffed pretty quickly.

Week-end trips must be touched unless scheduling has enough staffing.

we at west have the ability to auto (drop through the computer) an entire trip if staffing permits. Can you drop to just your vacation credit in your vacation months? That is something we at west do not want to give up.

We can drop trips without pay through scheduling if staffing permits.
Vacation automatically cancels out trips affected. You can flyback vacation if available or you can fly over vacation with ETB.

We get a lot of people (especially junior ones) who pick up time through personal trades. The quality of trips is better than in open time and they fly those trips when on golden days on reserve.

The ETB IMO is fantastic but there is a grievance concerning reserves picking up trips and getting paid for them above and beyond their minimum guarantee. Reserves could get say 150 hours and only fly 80, for example. Block holders earn every single minute, and this is where there is a little problem.

Note: We don't have any "hot" reserves, they're all "cold"...heeheehee, we call them ready reserves, or on-premise reserves, OPRs. They have days off, or INV, inviolables.

 

[Travelpro72]

The ETB IMO is fantastic but there is a grievance concerning reserves picking up trips and getting paid for them above and beyond their minimum guarantee. Reserves could get say 150 hours and only fly 80, for example. Block holders earn every single minute, and this is where there is a little problem.
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The problem with that is if reserves were able to fly their minimum guarantee we would have the perdiem to match. Most reserves don't break guarantee due to the system. To offset the system where reserves are at a SERIOUS financial disadvanage the ETB goes above guarantee. Reserves sit beholden to the company for every day scheduled on duty. All that so called "extra" time picked up from the ETB is on all the reserves days off. The time earned through guarantee though not always flying everyday of it is earned due to the fact that you can't go anywhere when fear of not knowing when you are going to be called. You are at the companies disposal while on duty. It's not free money earned.

 

[USCREW]

Agreed. The RSVs should be compensated for living at the airport. I don't think that they are getting away with anything for free.

 

[TheNewLowFare]

I've heard that US East have "SPLIT TRIPS" and the ability to trade trips with someone 1 hour prior to departure.

It would be nice to see some relief for reserves. I hope the union gives the reserves the ability to drop their reserve days just like Southwest.

By the way, the west system needs some improvement. I'm sure the east have a "CARTEL GROUP", we have them in the west too. They park their butts at the airport all day during hightime and take all the best trips like hawaii, cancun, costa rica, day turns etc. The cartel and their friends hog all the computers and they park their trips on each others lines and they trade among themselves. Some of them are vicious dogs! I got yelled at by one of those goons cause I was trying to check-in one time and used one of their computers.

 

[N109UW]

If you "get it"...the east system currently is BEAUTIFUL. Maximum flexibility.

I wouldn't exactly say it is beautiful over here. It might be for BH's, but for RSV's, it pretty much sucks. Not getting our schedule until the 24th of the month is sad, especially when BH's get theirs 2 months out. Having to put a filler day in a month where you don't even know your days off is pathetic. Only getting 45 hours a month on our days on duty sucks, however, we can give up our precious days off to fly an ETB trip that would go above min. guarantee. Still, at 17 years, we should be able to fly on our "on duty" days. This list could go on, but I'll just leave it these. You don't want our RSV system, but our BH's have it pretty good. Our union has seen to that.

 

[N109UW]

The ETB IMO is fantastic but there is a grievance concerning reserves picking up trips and getting paid for them above and beyond their minimum guarantee. Reserves could get say 150 hours and only fly 80, for example. Block holders earn every single minute, and this is where there is a little problem.

The only reason RSV ETB time is above min. guarantee was so that a RSV could pick up a trip that a BH wanted to drop. Our ETB was created so that BH could drop down to 50 hours( once we got rid of our lower flying options). They had to find a way for our old folks to get down to that lower level. Had they made the ETB "pay credit" for RSV's, no one would pick up trips off the ETB. Why would we. The compnay doesn't fly us on our "on duty" days, so it would be stupid to give up days for "pay credit". It would just be eating into our free money. I love to fly with BH's who say "RSV's have it so easy". Idiots. If we have so good, bid your sorry butt RSV and find out. We have senior BH's(27 years) bidding RSV due to the fact they only fly 40 hours and get 73 min. guarantee. Our ETB was put in place to help BH's drop time and RSV's getting this time above min. guarantee was a way to make it happen. If RSV's didn't use the ETB for one month, it would be funny, due to the fact the BH's would have to fly 80-85 hours.

 

[USCREW]

Our ETB was put in place to help BH's drop time and RSV's getting this time above min. guarantee was a way to make it happen. If RSV's didn't use the ETB for one month, it would be funny, due to the fact the BH's would have to fly 80-85 hours.

Not all B/Hs are married to sugar-daddies and DO fly 80-85 plus hours.

 

[Travelpro72]

Oh yeah, it's so wonderful that the blocks for August in PHL actually went backwards. Why did they cut somewhere around 49 secondary blocks? Because the Primary blockholders lost flexibility. Sooooo the reserves YET AGAIN have to suffer. THAT is the ABSOLUTE reason it happened. Now add those folks that got secondary blocks for July back to the reserve pool with the others that already are not making their time. Who is responsible for making sure that happened? Hmmmmm???? Oh yeah, as for the "cartel"....how nice is it that you get assigned OPR (on premise reserve) for 4 hours and get paid 3+30 and a transatlantic trip opens....bam gone to a blockholder before you can hit the enter key twice...LOL. Honestly the system here IS good for blockholders regardless of some that will tell you the hardship they suffer. If anyone feels it is ok then by all means bid it and let reserves have a block. You won't get much of a fight to stop ya...that's for sure.

 

[PHX-F/A]

It's my understanding that east does not have trip guarantees. Out west if any portion of your trip cancels and no-ops, you are guaranteed the time.

 

[USCREW]

It's my understanding that east does not have trip guarantees. Out west if any portion of your trip cancels and no-ops, you are guaranteed the time.

We have guarantee for the last trip of the month, and if someone else flies a part of your trip due to irregular ops. We also have a show-no-go pay.

 

[USCREW]

I've heard that US East have "SPLIT TRIPS" and the ability to trade trips with someone 1 hour prior to departure.

We have splits but they are usually exact flight time and may not be worth picking up (say if they are worth less than 5 hours).

We can trade up until boarding time, providing both F/As are legal. Trading is done a lot on trans-atlantic since the briefing rooms are next to each other in the international area and people have positions and destinations that they really prefer.

 

[USCREW]

How does "tagging" affect your duty rest?

 

[hp_fa]

How does "tagging" affect your duty rest?

Tagging only occurs after the last leg of the reserve FA's pairing and extends the duty day that reserve is already working. The tag must conform to all FAR and contractual requirements regarding duty day requirements. Usually the tag is just a turn, however they have also tagged extra days onto trips.

The really bad scenario for tagging is when you are on a 16+ hour layover and you don't know whether to go to bed at a normal time, or stay up and sleep late in case you get tagged when you get back. If you do the former you risk getting tagged and being exhausted if it happens (especially if you get tagged to a redeye to the east coast). If you do the latter then you sleep late, fly a few hours, get released and it is time to go to bed again when you get home and you are not tired.