Looking forward to an integration

[WorldTraveler]

R you sure, Jim?
DL FAs have been able to bid into each others bases for almost a year - shortly after the final labor ruling (I think it has been just a year). I have flown on flights that had mixed DTW and ATL crews.

The pilots began integrating sooner.. there are posters on various pilot forums who are flying equipment that came "from the other side."

I believe the fences on the 744s and 777s for pilots come down next year; it was a 5 year fence.

It is good to see the desire of so many of you to want to make it work even if not everyone got what they wanted.

All the best to each of you.

 

[CactUS4Ever]

Agreed. i will put my 100% in everyday and I want to grow with the new company....God Bless

 

[wings396]

It's nice to see some positive comments all around for a change. I think that most people from both sides fully realize that this is our last chance to make a go of it by pulling together in order to have a great airline that we can be proud of. I know that hasn't been the case for most of us for a long time now due to the morale beatings that we have endured.

 

[Toothy Grin]

Yup! I agree too. Time to loose the grouchy shark avatar.....

I hope we flight attendants get to keep Hector Adler. I wasn't sure about him at first, but I like the way he really seeks out our input...and have we made some bad choices and/or choices that didn't make sense, yes! But they were listened to and corrected. I also like how he really tampered down what was once an endless war between flight attendants and supervisors too.

My only concern flight crew wise is that US fas are by and large way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more laid back than the AA crews.

Ex. conv. btwn 2 us fas...

fa 1: Hey you're not wearing your complete uniform today!
fa 2: Yeah, I didn't feel like it.
fa 1: mmkay! Let's go!

Best thoughts to everyone and looking forward to working with all of you soon!

Can't wait until we can all share in the Crew News sessions, if management keeps them.

 

[ChrisUS]

Though none of us had a say in the merger of American Airlines and USAirways, it has never the less happened. Some folks on both sides are excited about this merger, and some not so much. As a 34 year employee of USAirways I want whatever is best for the company. Apparently those of a higher pay grade felt that the merger is the way to go. I look forward to working side by side with my new coworkers. Hopefully there wont be any "We always did it this way" (I know it's a pipe dream). We need to embrace change and try new ways of doing things. Maybe the new ways wont be better, but we have to atleast give them a try. If we go back to whoevers old ways, then so be it....but we have to explore change. Please don't judge all employees of USAirways based on a handful of malcontents who post on these sites. As you see, maybe 10 out of 34000 (give or take) actually post negatively on this board. 10 may be a little low of a guess, but not by much. While I am sad to say goodbye to Allegheny, USAir, and USAirways, it is only from a sentimental point of view. I look forward to being an employee of American Airlines and will be proud to say I work for American Airlines. Wishing us all the very best.....Hula

PERFECTLY STATED! I agree completely ! I am very excited about the merger and its prospects. As a 40 year veteran of Allegheny, USAir and USAirways, I look forward to joining my new family at AA. Actually, AA IS a part of my family. My cousin is a retired mechanic in DFW.

 

[jimntx]

R you sure, Jim?
DL FAs have been able to bid into each others bases for almost a year - shortly after the final labor ruling (I think it has been just a year). I have flown on flights that had mixed DTW and ATL crews.

WT, I find it hard to believe that a mixed base crew is anywhere close to commonplace at DL. First off, who deadheads to the start of the sequence/block/whatever DL calls it? If the trip begins in ATL then the company has to deadhead the DTW portion of the crew to ATL pos space or the plane can't leave. Same is true if the trip starts in DTW, the ATL portion of the crew will have to be deadheaded. And, if the start of the trip is an early morning sign-in then the deadheading portion of the crew would have to be deadheaded in the day before and provided hotel rooms for the night.

What is more likely is that you flew on an airplane that had a (let's say for the sake of argument) crew based in ATL. At some point during the trip the crew passed through DTW where one of the ATL f/as became ill. Crew Scheduling assigned a DTW reserve flight attendant who was sitting airport standby (some airlines call it ready reserve) to work the rest of the trip. That flight attendant must be returned to his/her home base at the end of the trip. Deadheading costs money because a seat is being occupied by a non-paying employee and in some cases results in a revenue passenger being bumped from the flight. It would be a serious waste of money to do this on any basis other than last minute substitution to avoid cancelling the next leg.

For instance, I just got back from such a trip. I am on reserve this month. A flight attendant crew from DFW was laying over in MIA. One of the flight attendants became ill. Because they had enough warning, I was deadheaded to MIA to meet the rest of the crew and work the rest of the trip. At the end of the trip which was past 2100 in DFW, we all went home. If they had put a MIA reserve on the trip, not only would they have to deadhead him/her back to MIA at the end of the trip, they would first have to pay for a hotel room in DFW because the last flight of the day to MIA had already departed.

Bidding into a base is not a regular occurrence, and all it means is that if I am in DTW and there is an opening in ATL and I have the seniority to hold it, I get to transfer to ATL. However, I am now an ATL flight attendant. I am no longer a DTW flight attendant. I never said that the flight attendants didn't have a combined seniority list.

And, if you mean by mixed ATL/DTW crews, you mean an ATL cockpit and a DTW cabin crew, that proves nothing. Very few airlines co-pair cockpit and flight attendant crews any more. U.S. Airways is one that does co-pair. However, it costs money because pilots have federally-mandated rest periods/layovers/duty days that the Feds do NOT require for flight attendants. However, if you copair they get those additional rest periods, etc by default. I just flew a trip late in January that was a 3-day trip, 3 legs the first day, 2 the second, and 3 the last day. Not only did we have a different cockpit for every leg of the trip, only two of the cockpit crews were DFW-based. AA schedules pilots and flight attendants totally separate. It is pure coincidence that you have the same cockpit for more than one day of a trip. And, don't DL flight attendants have preferential bidding. That would be a nightmare to try to copair because the flight attendants probably don't even have the same trips for the entire month.

 

[WorldTraveler]

no, the flight I referred to (one of several) was a 757-300 which requires 5 FA's and 2 were ATL based and 3 DTW based or vice versa. I have been on several flights that have had crews from PMNW and PMDL bases.
I don't know the specifics of FA scheduling but DL has always worked from the philosophy that all FAs are trained on all aircraft; it is not uncommon for a narrowbody crew to have a widebody or 753 flight thrown in either on a scheduled or unscheduled basis such that the original crew has to be supplemented with additional FAs from other bases. That practice happened even before the merger. DL is able to match up the augmented portion of the crew w/ another flight such that there are split crews on a flight and little to any deadhead is required for any of them.

I am very certain that DL FAs are fully integrated and are free to bid each other's bases based on common seniority lists and the removal of all separations between the workgroups. DTW was a PMNW crew base while ATL was a PMDL base; FAs could not move between those bases until there was a common seniority list and full integration. There are no more PMDL or PMNW FAs; they are one workgroup. The original gist of your message was that DL was not fully integrated from a labor perspective and that is not true.

There are no fences of any kind that I know of between any PMDL and PMNW workgroups except for the 777 and 744 pilot crews which was part of the seniority integration agreement.

The DL/NW merger has been completed except for the large widebody fences which will come down within the next 12-18 months (not sure of the exact month).

 

[Kev3188]

I hope we flight attendants get to keep Hector Adler.

FWIW, there are still some PMNW F/A's I talk to that miss having him here...