April 13, 2007

AFA and the company have agreed to implement a Reserve co-terminal preference system.  Under the parameters of the Flight Attendant Bidding System Letter of Agreement, this concept is now a Contractual part of the Reserve scheduling parameters.  However, the process by which this is accomplished must be developed and tested to determine the method that best provides opportunity for a Reserve to preference co-terminal flying.  In the month of May, we will begin a test of one potential preference process.  The test will be conducted for assignment at the BWI co-terminal only. 

The BWI co-terminal was easily identified by the company and the Union as the initial testing site due to a high level of Flight Attendant and scheduler dissatisfaction.  Reserve co-terminal preference will soon be applied at Contractual co-terminals system-wide.  This includes active co-terminals BUR, BWI, DCA, LGA, and OAK along with MDW and SNA should the company later activate these co-terminals.  

During this process test, Flight Attendants serving Reserve in DCA will have the opportunity to preference assignment of trips in BWI.

Setting Your Preference

The Unimatic screen, REQCOT, will provide you with the ability to add a co-terminal preference or delete a co-terminal preference at any time.  In the example below, Mary Mainliner is a DCA Reserve who prefers BWI flying.  She has registered her preference by indicating her domicile first ? DCA ? and her preferred co-terminal (STA) ? BWI. 

If Mary wants to delete this preference at any time, she would visit the REQCOT screen again and simply type over the "DCA" and "BWI" with the space bar, and then hit "enter."

Schedule Process for First Test

Co-terminal preferencing will change the Reserve order of assignment to some degree.
CLLR Assignment Process (1900 Local Domicile Time)

1. BWI open assignments assigned to CLLR Reserves who have preferenced the BWI co-terminal.
2. All remaining IDs will be assigned in the Contractual CLLR assignment process.  

Ready RSV Assignment Process

1. Ready Reserves who have preferenced BWI may be assigned any remaining open BWI trips.

Co-Terminal Preference May Not Adversely Impact Overall Reserve Coverage

Overall Reserve coverage will be considered in the assignment process.  Co-terminal preference will be honored assuming it does not adversely impact overall reserve coverage. 

For Example:
There are 4 DCA CLLR Reserves available for assignment at 1900. 

Flight Attendants:

• Mary Mainliner, 3 days availability and BWI preference
• Sandra Day, 1 day availability and BWI preference
• Ricky Jones, 2 days availability and no preference
• Thomas Jefferson, 1 day availability and no preference

The open trip file contains:

• 2 day BWI, ID 1111
• 1 day BWI ID 2222
• 3 day IAD ID 3333
• 1 day DCA ID 4444

Assignments:
Mary Mainliner has preferenced BWI, but there is no one else available to cover the 3 day IAD trip, so she is assigned ID 3333.  Sandra Day is assigned her BWI preference, ID 2222.  Ricky Jones is assigned the 2 day BWI, ID 1111.  Thomas Jefferson is assigned the 1 day DCA, ID 4444.

Monitoring Co-terminal Reserve Preference

Unimatic has been programmed to read and display the co-terminal preference during the Reserve assignment process.  Use RSVSKD to access a list of Reserve availability.  In order to identify all Reserves with a BWI preference, enter "BWI" under "STA."

Feedback

Flight Attendant feedback will be important throughout the development and testing process.  Please provide feedback to your Local Council.