Most Junior F/a

[Light Years]

There are two more MAA recall classes starting, with the most junior F/A eight places from the bottom of the last ever US Airways class of 6/01. That means that every furloughed F/A has had an opportunity to go to MAA. They had the option of going, passing temporarily, or permanently passing. Including the two classes, there are about 400 F/As in the MAA division, which means about half of the furloughees returned.

If the need arose for more F/As, they would go through the list again to people who passed and offer them again. For the most part, I'd assume everyone who wanted to come back is back.

So what happens if, as expected, there is another recall to mainline? The company would be in a position to hire new F/As for the first time in four years. These new F/As would fly in the 170 division only (with conditional flow-through rights to mainline). The 170s are on the US Airways certificate, as we all know there is no such thing as MidAtlantic. The FAA requires F/As to be qualified on all aircraft that thier airline flies, and all of the information in thier manual. Since all of the MAA F/As had already worked for mainline, this was no problem. Training was just two days of recurrent on the Boeing and Airbus aircraft and one day of new training for the E170 (people who were gone required one more additional day of requal or something as well). Any new "MAA" F/A would be required to go through the entire training program despite only working on the 170. Oh yeah, and make $14 an hour, which is year one MAA pay (the mainline people go in at thier mainline year of pay).

I don't think the company was prepared for MAA to still be a part of mainline at this point, they probably assumed it would have it's own certificate by now or something like the Republic thing. They also didn't anticipate anyone ever getting recalled to mainline at all, and now 50 have gone back and there may very well be a larger number soon. It will be interesting to see how they handle it.

When AFA hammered out the final language regarding MAA, there was a flow-through/flow-back part where a certain number of active mainline F/As could bid into MAA, and in a hiring situation wholly owned Express F/As (Piedmont and PSA) would be offered those positions first, with flow-through rights to mainline. Since thay have still never printed an actual contract a year into it, I can't say for sure. Anyone hear anything about it?

 

[BoeingBoy]

LY,

Just a couple of questions for my own education:

Is it possible some furloughed F/A's are bypassing MAA till they can hold a block?

I understand MAA F/A's are qualified on "mainline" planes, but are "mainline" F/A's qualified on the 170's - I'd understood not. (we've gotta come up with something better than this "sorta mainline/sorta express/MDA/MAA/whatever" - unless the 170's are sold, then it'll be moot)

Jim

 

[Light Years]

When the aircraft were still coming, most F/As were on reserve no longer than a month or two, as each month brought two aircraft, and 50 F/As filing back in mostly in seniority order. Now there are people on eternal reserve as there is little movement aside from the few that went back to mainline.

A few people did wait out a few months before coming back for whatever reason, possibly hoping for a block (easily held in DCA unless seniority date is late 2001), or being based in PIT (if not there already, likely never will be), or a CLT base (Ha!). But after the classes stopped for awhile and then resumed in smaller numbers, it seems people came back. I think people realized they should come back while they have the opportunity, or they may not have the chance for a very long time.

Despite the predictions on here- No one will come back to those contracts, They'll all get better paying F/A jobs, They'll all quit, There will be huge turnover- half of the eligible F/As came back, and very few were interested in returning to "big mainline" until the Republic foolishness was announced. At this point, it seems everyone who wanted to be there is there, and there probably aren't any waiting on the sidelines.

The aircraft qualification thing is confusing. All US Airways F/As (mainline and MAA) carry the US Airways Flight Attendant Emergency Manual. It's interesting to note that while there are references to the "Embraer 170 division" and "Embraer 170 division flight attendants", the word "MidAtlantic" does not appear once. The MidAtlantic "name" is only used in correspondence with employees, but never, ever, on anything the FAA might see.

The manual has the E170 chapter in it, clearly marked with a fashionable pink tab. It's fun to point this out to mainline F/As who try to deny jumpseats to thier younger and prettier counterparts. It's also a little worrying that they would be unaware of an aircraft type in thier manual, and the circumstances surrounding it.

(One MAA F/A had to pull out manual pages and make phone calls to inflight to prove to a crew she was eligible for the jumpseat on a 737, even though she had her jumpseat card. When they finally let her on, the F/A started showing her how to arm the door. The MAA F/A politely advised her that as a US Airways F/A, she's pretty familiar with the door on a 737-300. The ML F/A's face lit up and she said "Oh! Did you used to work for us?" Gorillas in the mist...)

I'm not sure to what extent mainline F/As are responsible for the 170. I've spoken to some who say they didn't do it in recurrent, and some who swear they did and can tell you how to operate the door etc (of course, they could just be *shock* reading thier manual). I'm thinking when it first arrived they were showing it to mainline people in recurrent because of the jumpseat languague. Mainline F/As can jumpseat on MAA aircraft... except US Airways made a point of ordering it without the third jumpseat. In theory, to be able to jumpseat, they should be familiar with the door operation, but since they can't literally jumpseat who knows.

There were (are?) F/As who are also not qualified on the A330. I'm not sure how it works, or how they pick and choose what you have to be current on and what satisfies the feds. If they had thier way, they would not choose to spend extra time and money keeping MAA people current.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Thanks, LY.

Jim

 

[Furloughd4now]

Hey, well I permanently passed MAA. I'm flying regional now for a "profitable" company. I felt no need to to leave. I'm awaiting Mainline recall. I'm 01/01 seniority. It will remain interesting to see what will happen down the road!

Alot of my friends from my group are 1. at MAA, 2. moved on 3. awaiting mainline. It's all mixed.

However, there are quite a few folks who are waiting Mainline recall for the same reasons I posted.

 

[Light Years]

With 01/01 seniority, mainline pay is only about a dollar more than MAA, but four hours less of a guarantee for reserves, so you'd likely make more at MAA than mainline even as a reserve (which you wouldn't be with 01/01, at least in DC).

 

[IORFA]

I work for AA and am NOT qualified on most aircraft. There isn't any FAA rule that says you need to be.

 

[IORFA]

It is also they company's choice who rides in the jumpseat. Jetblue lets other airline crew ride their jumpseats, and we, AA, don't fly A320's. Also Southwest lests any employee ie. agents, ride their jumpseats.

 

[Light Years]

Well, the company acted all put out that they "had" to keep returning F/As qualified on all of the aircraft for certificate reasons.

 

[Bear96]

Not all UA F/As are qualified on all UA aircraft either. Some senior folk still haven't qualified on the 747.

 

[Furloughd4now]

With 01/01 seniority, mainline pay is only about a dollar more than MAA, but four hours less of a guarantee for reserves, so you'd likely make more at MAA than mainline even as a reserve (which you wouldn't be with 01/01, at least in DC).

I'm still making more at my current company. Where I'm at right now, Trips *bite* to put it mildly, but, for right now it is a "secure" paycheck. That is why I passed on MAA. I'd be a fool to leave a proifitable company (I'd made my choice back in July 04) However, if things work out right with U/AWA merger, I'll seriously consider my options.

I am fully aware of reserve at Mainline. I'm just "hangin by the sidelines" to see what happens.

I'm one of the crazy ones, I prefer to work reserve right now in order to get "reasonable" trips.

Thanks!

 

[Light Years]

With 01/01 seniority, mainline pay is only about a dollar more than MAA, but four hours less of a guarantee for reserves, so you'd likely make more at MAA than mainline even as a reserve (which you wouldn't be with 01/01, at least in DC).

I'm still making more at my current company. Where I'm at right now, Trips *bite* to put it mildly, but, for right now it is a "secure" paycheck. That is why I passed on MAA. I'd be a fool to leave a proifitable company (I'd made my choice back in July 04) However, if things work out right with U/AWA merger, I'll seriously consider my options.

I am fully aware of reserve at Mainline. I'm just "hangin by the sidelines" to see what happens.

I'm one of the crazy ones, I prefer to work reserve right now in order to get "reasonable" trips.

Thanks!

[post="270253"][/post]​

You're smart to stay put then... but at least you know you have a reserved seat on the US roller coaster when you need it!

 

[Crzipilot]

so does anyone know if such a flow through exists for WO f/as to goto MDA...yhen mainline and/or skip MDA and end up at mainline???

 

[Light Years]

Apparently it does, there was a letter, but there's no contract published.

As I understood it, before hiring happens off the street the positions would be offered, no interview, to W/O F/As. However, the unfair part of it is that they would not bring any pay longevity as the W/O pilots did. (The mainline F/As bring both longevity and seniority). So if you were a 10 year PDT F/A, you would start at year one MAA pay. It would really only be a good deal for a W/O F/A with one or two years of seniority. Upon joining MAA, they would be added to the bottom of the mainline recall list and flow through when the time comes. New hire MAA F/As that had no time at mainline or a W/O would have conditional flow through, meaning they could be denied it if they were in bad standing at MAA. As I read it, one could not flow directly from a W/O to mainline, they would have to have joined in the MAA division.

 

[heyray]

FAA does not mandate that US f/a's be qualified on all eqp. And not all f/a's ARE qualified on all equipment. DCA f/a's are not qualified on A330's