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Greetings, Flight Attendant Full Trip Automation to start on March 3, 2009 When the American Eagle Flight Attendants ratified the current contract in 2005 it included the development of an Automated full trip computer system. On the eve of beginning the negotiations for our next contract this will finally become a reality. The date for automated full trip system to go live has been set for Mar. 3, 2009 at 12 noon. The system will only work for full trips. The system can process full trip pickups, full trip drops, and full trip trades with Open Time. All of these transactions will be instantaneous, with no RF messages to swap and drops. The system is for line holders only and cannot be used by Reserve Flight Attendants. The trips must be free standing. It will not handle partial transactions of any kind or blending or merging of trips. You can still place requests for partial trip drops and partial trip pickups but they will need to be processed using the RF 200 messages sent to Swaps and Drops. Reserves will also be able to make request through Swaps and Drops. In addition to Automation, the system will now have a new feature called HIPOST. HIPOST gives you the ability to post a trip you want to drop in the N4D open time display when the day is RED. This will be explained in more depth in the user guide but works in a similar fashion to HIBOARD with the exception that no direct communication between the F/As involved is required. It will basically be a means of posting trips that would otherwise not be able to be dropped into the system allowing someone else to pick it up. These trips will not be guaranteed at 100% - but can still greatly benefit both parties. HIBOARD will remain unchanged, as well as the F/A to F/A trades. All of the LEC Presidents polled their respective bases on the various options available to us for implementing Automation. The MEC agreed to negotiate with the Company to give up the 72 hour window in order for the system to function effectively. The company agreed to drop the limits on partial drops. It also agreed to create a new Automated TTOT 24 hour window that will open up after the Transition Resolution but before the Relief Lines are built. This window will be similar to what the pilots have agreed to and will allow Line Holding F/As to make full trip trades with Open Time for a period of 24 hours. After this window, the remaining Open Time will be used to create Relief Lines over a 48 hour period. Then the bid awards will be final and Full Trip Automation will again open at noon with full functionality. The company also agreed that all manual transactions will be processed continuously by Swaps and Drops during their normal business hours instead of being held till noon of each day and then processed. The programming for this new 24 hour window has not been fully developed because it was a last negotiated item. As soon as the company has the programming ready we will send out the information. Until then, you will have full automation when bids are final on the 25th for the next month. AS A REMINDER: If you fly over 100 hours, you will need to set your option to yes during the bidding process in HIB. Please don?t forget to do this, since the automated system will not allow you to go over 100 hours without the indicator on. For the month of March a Flight Service Manager can change your indicator as this was not possible during this month due to the implementation occurring in the beginning of the month. The new system is relatively easy to use and similar to what we presently use for trades between Flight Attendants. A group of Flight Attendant volunteers were chosen to participate in a work shop in DFW in order to be able to assist their co-workers when Automation goes live. There will be F/A Trainers in each of the crew lounges throughout the system for the first 3 days, at a minimum. We have worked with the Company to produce a FA TTOT User Guide which is at the printers and will be distributed to all Flight Attendants starting on March 2, 2009. The guide will also be available on Jetnet. This same group of Trainers will also be in the crew lounges later in the month when the Automated system becomes available for the new month. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Company and AFA was prepared and agreed upon to set up the ground work for a side letter. At the recent MEC meeting, this document was used to draft a side letter that was presented to and accepted by the MEC. It has been presented to the Company for final approval. While agreed on it in principle, the actual language is still being worked on and you will receive a copy when a finalized version is approved by the MEC. Eric Brahm MEC Scheduling Chair AFA-CWA |
