New Non-Rev Policies

[F/A Betty]

Source: theHub

Space Available Boarding
Effective May 1, 2003, US Airways is making changes to the space available boarding priority for employees of US Airways and US Airways Express wholly owned carriers. Active employees and retired employees with 20 or more years of service with the company (and eligible family members and domestic partners) will now board at an S3 boarding priority. Retired employees with fewer than 20 years and employees on leave will continue to travel at an S4 boarding priority.

Registered companions and those traveling on companion passes, will board at S3 when accompanying the employee and will board at S7 when traveling without the employee. Also, registered companions traveling alone will be subject to the same embargo that applies to companion pass travelers, which prohibits traveling alone to Europe from May 1 to Nov. 1 each year.

The improved boarding priority for active employees recognizes their greater need for timely space available travel, said Jerry Glass, senior vice president of Employee Relations. We also want to recognize those retirees who provided extensive service to the company. While we would like nothing better than to have kept all boarding priorities the same, the downsizing of the airline and the reduction in time off for our active employees has necessitated a revision in our policy. We must do all we can to maximize the ability of our active employees to board our flights with the limited time off that is available to them, he said.

 

[sdavis29]

----------------
On 5/1/2003 11:44:45 AM flynomore wrote:

Active employees and retired employees with 20 or more years of service with the company (and eligible family members and domestic partners) will now board at an S3 boarding priority. Retired employees with fewer than 20 years and employees on leave will continue to travel at an S4 boarding priority.

Just another slap in the face at long time employees by our short time managers. It will not end unless we say so. So, what would you tell your mom were she bumped?


----------------​

seems that boarding is by seniority already....so some one with 20 years would board first s4 or s3....are not all us employees s4....
what am i missing?

 

[flynomore]

Active employees and retired employees with 20 or more years of service with the company (and eligible family members and domestic partners) will now board at an S3 boarding priority. Retired employees with fewer than 20 years and employees on leave will continue to travel at an S4 boarding priority.

Just another slap in the face at long time employees by our short time managers. It will not end unless we say so. So, what would you tell your mom were she bumped?

 

[whatkindoffreshhell]

----------------
On 5/1/2003 11:44:45 AM flynomore wrote:

Just another slap in the face at long time employees by our short time managers. It will not end unless we say so. So, what would you tell your mom were she bumped?


----------------​

"Buy a ticket!"

 

[N305AS]

----------------
On 5/1/2003 11:44:45 AM flynomore wrote:

Active employees and retired employees with 20 or more years of service with the company (and eligible family members and domestic partners) will now board at an S3 boarding priority. Retired employees with fewer than 20 years and employees on leave will continue to travel at an S4 boarding priority.

Just another slap in the face at long time employees by our short time managers. It will not end unless we say so. So, what would you tell your mom were she bumped?


----------------​

Please explain to me how this is a slap in the face to long-time employees. The policy, if I''m reading it correctly, permits ACTIVE employees and retirees with more than 20 years of service to board before INACTIVE employees and retirees with less than 20 years'' service.

It seems to me that this policy rewards high-seniority retirees, along with recognizing that it''s more imperative for an active-duty employee or dependent to be boarded before a low-seniority retiree.

The policy makes perfect sense to me. If you''re retired and had high time with the company, you get on earlier than someone with less time. If you''re active, you get on before retirees.

Where''s the perceived slap in the face?

 

[tadjr]

If you have 17 years and retire, you would go on as an S4, below a current active employee who might only have a couple of years, but who is still active. Part of the plan was to enable those who are still working and dont have the "luxury" of waiting for another flight, to get on and out.
Everyone still boards in seniority order, some just in a different category now.
Was a mess this morning, luckily the flights werent full. Since this came out just a couple of days ago, there were a lot of people who were unaware of it and some who thought the computer would automatically put people on with the right code (which it doesnt). It now requires everyone to look up the term pass (which we were supposed to have been doing, but could get around that before) to see what code they are for boarding. It also lists the Express carriers (contract) as an S5 now so there is no wondering which Express carrier goes as 3 and which one goes as 5.

It could be worse. Something like AA that goes by checkin time regardless of seniority and has up to 11 or 12 priority codes. What fun that would be.

 

[night_ice]

SO, if a mainline employee flies any express carriers, they are an s-5? what if an express carrier employee flies on mainline..are they below those in a S-4 mainliners? this is confusing. Flying out of CLT, there was an ID-90''er flying..it came down to where we were the last 2 to board. I was going to get furious if she got on before me..interliners are still what, s-6 or s-7? how many prioroties are there and what are they?

 

[tadjr]

----------------
On 5/2/2003 111 PM night_ice wrote:

SO, if a mainline employee flies any express carriers, they are an s-5? what if an express carrier employee flies on mainline..are they below those in a S-4 mainliners?
----------------​

Express (wholly owned) go on with the same codes as Mainline (S3 or S4 depending on active status and retirement time) regardless if they are flying on Mainline or Express flights (wholly owned or contract).
Mainline go on with S3 or S4 (depending on active status and retirement time) regardless of if they are flying on Mainline or Express flights (wholly owned or contract).
All Express (contract) go on all flights as S5, regardless of the flight being Mainline, Express (Wholly Owned or Contract). They used to have a different code when they traveled on their carrier, but all go on all flights now with the same code S5.
In the employee data base now it lists what code is to be used for each employee.
S6 is for other airlines company business space available.
Companion passes and other airline vacation passes (ID90s, free passes, etc) are S7.

I understand that eventually UA employees will be able to board with a higher code than the current S7 code before the end of the year and we will have the same agreement with them.

 

[jetstewus]

I am an inoluntarily furloughed mainline flight attendant. While I''m grateful to still have my passes at all, I want to be clear on a few things.

1.) Active mainline and wholly owned express employees board at the same priority? i.e. An Allegheny employee with 1998 seniority would board a mainline flight to Europe before a mainline employee with 1999 seniority.

2.) Active employees will board before furloughees, regardless of seniority? Granted, there probably aren''t alot of active mainline newhires, but if #1 is true, does that mean an active newhire at PSA will get on the flight before a furloughed, more senior, mainline person?

3.) I now use "MI" as my airline code instead of "US" when listing. Is this something special that allows me to be prioritized as if I were still active? I thought our contract (I know, I know) provided that we kept our seniority and boarding priority for non-rev travel.

Part of the reason I''m asking is that I''m considering applying with Piedmont and Allegheny. If successful I want to know if I''m better off using my mainline pass riding seniority (which I get to keep) or if I''ll fare better using the express seniority since I''ll be active there.

Hopefully one of you savvy agents can give me the 4-1-1. Thanks and good luck!

 

[night_ice]

So if I am furloughed or on any kind of leave (military, medical, education, etcand I fly mainline (as a mainline employee-S4 with x yrs of service) and a wholly-owned express employee walks up who is active but has less time in than i do, he/she will get the seat before me?! As an S4, and retirees are on the list, does it still go by seniority? (my x yrs of service vs their yrs of service at retirement) Jeststewus said: "I thought our contract (I know, I know) provided that we kept our seniority and boarding priority for non-rev travel." That's what I thought...

 

[tadjr]

----------------
On 5/2/2003 5:30:04 PM jetstewus wrote:


I am an inoluntarily furloughed mainline flight attendant.  While I''m grateful to still have my passes at all, I want to be clear on a few things.  

1.) Active mainline and wholly owned express employees board at the same priority? i.e. An Allegheny employee with 1998 seniority would board a mainline flight to Europe before a mainline employee with 1999 seniority.

Correct. All mainline/Piedmont/Allegheny/PSA active employees go on as an S3 in seniority order since all carriers are owned by USAirways Group. All contract Express are S5.

2.)  Active employees will board before furloughees, regardless of seniority?  Granted, there probably aren''t alot of active mainline newhires, but if #1 is true, does that mean an active newhire at PSA will get on the flight before a furloughed, more senior, mainline person?

Correct. Active employees are S3 while furlough/leave employees are S4 (with seniority order within each category.)

3.)  I now use "MI" as my airline code instead of "US" when listing.  Is this something special that allows me to be prioritized as if I were still active?  I thought our contract (I know, I know) provided that we kept our seniority and boarding priority for non-rev travel. 

Not sure. I think the MI just means you are not an active employee. If you want to PM me your number I will check it out at work on Tues and let you know what code you show. I think it would be an S4. Not sure what the contract wording is.

Part of the reason I''m asking is that I''m considering applying with Piedmont and Allegheny.  If successful I want to know if I''m better off using my mainline pass riding seniority (which I get to keep) or if I''ll fare better using the express seniority since I''ll be active there.

Hopefully one of you savvy agents can give me the 4-1-1.  Thanks and good luck!



----------------​

 

[av8orwife]

I''m a little confused over all of this. I (our family) only travels non-rev once or twice a year. I am not familiar with priority borading. I thought it was by date of hire, ours being in June 1986.

What is an s-1 or s-4? What do I need to know or tell the agent if I am traveling non-rev from PIT to Chicago?

Thanks in advance for any assistance one can provide.

KJB

 

[Seatacus]

Just where would a furloughed 30 year employee go on the boarding priority list? According to above statements they would be S4. Sounds like a slap in the face to me.

 

[tadjr]

All you need to give them is the travel card info and the boarding code is now located in the database. Everyone is making it seem so hard, but the changes are pretty simple and easy. Its just a matter of figuring out what category you fit in to for boarding code and thats now showing in the database. You still board in seniority order by category.
I was told by a trainer that by the end of the year, they should have it automatically put you on the standby list in the correct boarding priority from the database so there will be no guessing (or funny business). Another one of those, we have all the info there in place for you, just no way for Sabre to do it automatically like it should.

 

[av8orwife]

Thanks for the basic information, but I still have never heard of an S1 or and S4. What does that mean? I think I have missed something.

So what I am hearing is that it goes by date-of-hire but only sort-of? For example my husband is an active employee with 17 years. What code would that give me (as a spouse)?

So a retired employee with 20 years go before me, nothings changed, I assume I would then be listed before a 18 year employee on leave or who has been laid off?

What happened to the Keep it simple rule?? Simple date of hire. Did it get lost in all of this?

When I list on the 1-800- number for a filght it only confirms I have listed for a seat. I get nothing else until I go to the ticket counter for a boarding pass to go though security. So how would I know wheather I''m an S1 (which I assume is good) opposed to an S4 which must be bad.

Thanks for your assistance on this.

KJB