From: www.unitedafa.org

The company also issued an Inflight Services Safety Alert today advising that the FAOM Revision #5 updates a preflight safety check to include checking the FAA minimum crew placard at the 1L jumpseat.  These placards are currently being installed on all s-United aircraft and the preflight check is required only when the placard is installed.  This placard is not required for dispatch of the aircraft and if missing need not be reported. 

The purpose in installing the placard is to insure the FAA minimum Crew is onboard the aircraft for dispatch.  However these placards do not contemplate augmented staffing requirements for scheduled duty periods in excess of 14 hours.  

Augmented staffing is an additional number of Flight Attendants above the FAA minimum, which are required when any Flight Attendant on the crew is schedule over a specific duty time limitation.  A duty period that extends past scheduled duty time does not require additional staffing. 

In most instances augmented staffing is required for International flights because our Contract does not provide for the scheduling of Domestic duty periods in excess of 13 hours.

Flight Attendants in the International operation should be mindful of the limitation of this new methodology if they are on an ID with a scheduled duty period of 14 hours or more and should consult page 2.46 of the FAOM to ensure proper FAA minimum staffing is onboard the aircraft for dispatch.