Reserve Flight Attendants need to quit your #*^@$ing!

[Lucifer]

You better make sure the AED is fully charged....LOL

 

[Twicebaked]

........I'll tell them just the one for the f/a commuting to PIT. Now be a dear and pull up your support hose or is that really your skin?

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[WCT]

WRONG. Usually we do stay together and go to the same hotel as a crew. If the FAs have a shorter layover than the pilots (which happens from time to time) then the cabin crew might go to the short layover hotel and pilots to the long layover hotel (or vice-versa). We are not segregated based upon work groups like your post implies.

We do seperate on layovers a lot. Our pilots stay in the same hotels, and same rooms on layovers. There are some hotels that do give the pilots a seperate floor, or room, if they are nicer, I don't care?! But yes, we do change crews a lot. Sometimes we have no idea if the pilots are with us on the van, and that is scheduling's problem. If you fly the 757 blocks/pairings frequently, the pilots are usually on the same schedule, and trips.

 

[Richard]

This is getting a little off topic. The galley humor belongs in its own thread.

This one is one step away from being closed.

 

[flightattend21]

Am I to understand this "safety volunteer" person is telling us to stop complaining as he is complaining that we are complaining...
First and foremost I don't know anyone who has stated "I hate b/h" We as reserves hate what is going on. What I find strange is if we are not allowed to vent or try to make a difference or ask for a reasonable quality of life then why have a union? for that matter why do we need a safety rep? or maybe the safety rep is only for b/h? then why do we have to pay the union? What do you think we are asking for? NO ONE here said take something away from you.. what we would like to see is something that would be fair to look at other MAJOR airlines and see what can be worked out. A rotating system not for 40 year f/a but where the sometime b/h sometime reserve 15 year. each base would determine the seniority. would it be better to hold a block 7 months out of the year and be on reserve 3-4 months or be on reserve 3 days a month? what is being taken away from you? what is it that you want? if we all quit 18 years and under. Would not some of those 25 year people then be reserve? would that make you feel better? You cant help when you were hired? well some cant help when they were born. some can't help having had other jobs and then being laid off and starting over again (TWA) how many times do I have to start over? When you come here with a cold attitude is when you get attacked, not for having an opinion. You show no empathy towards your reserve f/a then get upset because someone called you fat?? that is what you are upset about?? We can't see our families, pay our bills and yet you want to shut us up. YOU of all people should be ashamed of yourself. When b/h state they can't quit because they have no retirement or medical do I say oh well go on food stamps and Medicare. So don't tell us to quit or NOT do anything about the current system. Since you worked for the union did you not work to change the system if a f/a got hurt or there was a safety issue and the company tried to get around the problem? sounds like an oxymoron a union rep and telling people not to complain

 

[Travelpro72]

Well I must say, "VERY well put".

 

[lildutchgrl]

All we want as reserves is a better system. Why is it that some of our f/a's don't realized that we have the worst reserve system in the industry. We are the only reserves on duty 24 hrs a day. I get up at 6 am and I am number 3 for daily and number 4 for quick call so I get myself ready. Then I get called at 1 pm to fly transatlantic. It is not fair. Personally I bid domestic because I get tired of flying transatlantic.
I was in the crew room last month and a f/a came up to me and said she was going on reserve next month in CLT and she wanted to know where she could get the reserve contract. Note to everyone, reserve contract is in the same book as yours!
I don't hate blockholders, I wish I was one!

 

[flightattend21]

All we want as reserves is a better system. Why is it that some of our f/a's don't realized that we have the worst reserve system in the industry. We are the only reserves on duty 24 hrs a day. I get up at 6 am and I am number 3 for daily and number 4 for quick call so I get myself ready. Then I get called at 1 pm to fly transatlantic. It is not fair. Personally I bid domestic because I get tired of flying transatlantic.
I was in the crew room last month and a f/a came up to me and said she was going on reserve next month in CLT and she wanted to know where she could get the reserve contract. Note to everyone, reserve contract is in the same book as yours!
I don't hate blockholders, I wish I was one!

We might as well have a "reserve contract" from the way we are treated. What does that tell you on how we are dealt with? we are sub-species who are at their beck and call

 

[Bear96]

All we want as reserves is a better system. Why is it that some of our f/a's don't realized that we have the worst reserve system in the industry. We are the only reserves on duty 24 hrs a day.

Not true. UA F/As are subject to call 24 hours per day on ready reserve. I thought other airlines were too but I only know about UA first hand.

Some of this whining is amusing. All airlines' reserves think they have it worse than anyone else and that all other airlines have a better reserve system. Face it, reserve sucks; the unpredictability and inconvenience is what reserve is about. Always has been, always will be. (This is not to say there might not be some ways to make it less suck-y. But the essential nature of being a reserve is inherently unpleasant.)

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> All airlines' reserves think they have it worse than anyone else and that all other airlines have a better reserve system.

Imagine going from being a 15 year blockholder back to a RSV system where your seniority means absolutely nothing. What makes the current systems so bad is that Pref Bid was never implemented.

Prior to the current system, US had what was probably the best RSV system in the industry. In fact, being a senior RSV was often viewed as being better than a junior blockholder.

How does the rotating RSV system work at UA?

 

[Travelpro72]

What burns me up is through two bankruptcies we reserves had our world turned upside down as far as the contract goes. The burn felt by the blockholders was minimal. I'm sorry we all lost vacation and pay but this system implemented is dreadful. When we took this job, so happy and ready to sling those meals we agreed we'd work weekends, holidays and crappy trips. I didn't hear the interview say under their breath though that it would be F-O-R-E-V-E-R. MOST of what blockholders had the integrity of the contract was kept intact. What WAS altered for the blockholder ways around the changes were found through other avenues. The reserves have been seriously screwed and NOT represented well by the AFA here. I don't care WHO you vote in the damage is so bad that it will take AGES and a miracle to fix. As for all this nonsense of 24 hours on duty....If I'm tired I'm not going and I don't care if the int'l trip leave on schedule. If I'm up at 5am and I'm close to being called, I'm NOT going to sit all day chained to this computer waiting to see where and when I'm flying only to sit ALL DAY AWAKE. Then and THEN you are called to do T/A and be up until the next morning? FIRE MY A$$ cause I'm not going. BuBye....

 

[Bear96]

How does the rotating RSV system work at UA?

Straight reserve for five years, then reserve every other month (until you can hold a line, or block in USAirways-speak). Top 25% of each base is exempt from reserve completely.

The catch with any type of roration sytem is that it pushes the rotation up to much more senior people who would not have to be on reserve at all under a straight reserve system, since the overall burden of being on reserve is being shared by more people. That is, maybe you could hold a line after six years if there was a straight reserve system, but because of the rotation you will have to continue rotating for ten years to give the more junior people a line every other month. In some bases, notably HNL and to a lesser extent SEA, people may rotate almost until they retire, in some situations.

 

[EMBFA]

Straight reserve for five years, then reserve every other month (until you can hold a line, or block in USAirways-speak). Top 25% of each base is exempt from reserve completely.

Works for me, I'll take it, and the four hour call-out time.

I wonder how it would be implemented though, since pre-merger US has no F/As with under 5 years of service. The only base with straight reserve would be PHX. Even if they made it ten years and under, every US East F/A will be exempt from straight reserve less than two years from now.

As far as rotating reserve reaching higher up in the ranks, that would be negated by the fact that the bizarre system we have now forces a similar or possibly higher reserve status- and that's straight reserve. Who ever heard of an airline with 20 year F/As on reserve? The bid sheet is being eliminated, full stop, which will create more lines. It's wasted energy by east AFA to fight for such an outdated and costly system. They need to stop tinkering with the dinosaur contract and start over from the ground up.

 

[Bear96]

Works for me, I'll take it, and the four hour call-out time.

Of course it works for you, if you are currently on straight reserve. Unfortunately, a union has to think of the (sometimes unintended) impact on all F/As as a whole, not just EMBFA.

The question is will it work for people who served their time on straight reserve and are now blockholders, but would be bumped back to being on reserve every other month by switching to a UA-type system. That's not really fair to them.

Who ever heard of an airline with 20 year F/As on reserve?

As I alluded to, UA has bases where people with 20 years are still on reserve every other month. (And they think the UA reserve system sucks because the rotation pushes reserve up to ridiculous levels.)

All in all, I think the UA system balances competing interests pretty fairly, all things considered. I am just trying to point out some of the downside.

As others on this thread have pointed out, one of the main problems at LCC/East making reserve go up to 20 years is the stagnation from lack of hiring and furloughs. Changing reserve systems will not change the underlying problem that you need growth and hiring to truly "solve the problem" and get people off reserve in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[Travelpro72]

At least with our old reserve system (not asking for the same exact thing back) a reserve was able to eat. This is a joke.