A pilot friend and I were just talking about this. I apologize in advance for the essay. 😛
We're talking about flight attendants hired between 1999 and 2001. Heres my theories:
*Many were young or new to the airline industry, and dusted themselves off and took thier wings elsewhere, not bothered about giving up a recall to a failing dinosaur airline.
*Others simply got jobs outside the industry because they knew it would never be the same again.
*US Airways was still considered a big-time, major airline when these folks were hired, and many were hired after the United merger was announced. Alot of these flight attendants (shock!) were not from Pennsylvania or North Carolina. US recruited all over the country, and rather heavily on the West Coast. United stopped hiring before US did, and many thought they would be based out west or in Chicago eventually or at least have options for commuting to other parts of the country once the airlines merged.
They also hired alot of language speakers as at that time they wanted to be a worlwide airline. F/As who commuted or did the crash pad lifestyle may have been fine with it when they were on reserve working trips to Los Angeles, St. Maarten and Munich, but arent keen on the idea of picking up and heading back to "The Burgh" to live on Ramen noodles and wait for the call to go to Buffalo.
*Not all of them hang out on USAviation to get news. Again, alot of them live outside of USAirland and may not hear much about US Airways at all (we're not front page news in say, Seattle), and they may not keep in touch with friends that are in the know. The company has been horrible about keeping these people informed. Many dont know they even have travel benefits. Originally we were going to lose them three months after our furlough, and then they changed thier minds and let us keep them. I met a F/A at an interview who had been furloughed for a year and had no idea she was still allowed to non-rev.
Many dont even know what MidAtlantic is... how would they? The company has not sent any information about it AT ALL. They are sending the interest letter, you have a few days to reply, and then they send you training materials. I know someone who got a week's notice. Furthermore, since it is US Airways Express, a lot of them are picturing a tiny RJ or a prop... theres no aircraft information given. I know some people who were concerned about thier height, thinking it was a small RJ.
*A few hundred of these flight attendants were terminated, not furloughed. They were still in thier 7-month probationary period when the company can terminate them without cause. Many were met on the jetway after a flight and stripped of thier wings, ID's and manuals on the spot and escorted off airport property like a criminal. This was two months after September 11th, these were the very same F/As who were on reserve and returned to work after 9/11. Later the union got them added back onto the furlough list, but again some of them dont even know that. Some are very bitter and angry about it, as you can imagine. I have a friend who loved his job but has sworn off the airlines after that. I dont know that I'd still feel any loyalty to the company had I been one of them. 🙁
*Many of them just dont open thier mail. 🙄
*Philly was a very junior base (also the "hippest" if you ask some 😛 ), and LGA was REALLY junior. Alot of people dont want to commute to, much less move to PIT, the only current base.
*Alot of people would rather pass on MAA, but will go to mainline when they call back as is our option. Of course, the moon will fall out of the sky before that happens, but to each his own.
*Many probably do feel its too little too late. Some of these people have been gone for two and a half years, and just NOW they're offering Express jobs? All of the Express carriers were hiring after 9/11, where was the soft landing then? Alot of mainline flight attendants have been turned down by other Express carriers.
And everyone knows that they are being called back to do what they did before for lower pay. Most of these folks only made between 20-27K a year, depending on how much they flew. They worked thier butts off, sitting reserve and trying to get thier hours in. Now the company is offering the same type of job they did before on the F100, DC9, MD80, and 737, but for $16 or $17 an hour (which works out to about 15k a year!), but more work, less time off and a copy of the worst contract in the industry- many of the US Express affiliates make more to work on turboprops.
So alot will tell them to put thier MAA where the sun don't shine. My bet is that they'll get about 300-400 former mainline flight attendants (out of nearly 2000 I think) and then find new people dumb enough to fly the largest "Express" plane in the industry fot the lowest wage in the industry... new hire MidAtlantic f/as will make $12 an hour... to put that in perspective wholly owned PSA makes $14, affiliate Shuttle America makes $18.
