December 9, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today United Airlines signed a Flight Attendant Reciprocal Cabin Seat Agreement with American Airlines effective January 5, 2009.  We will post the full agreement in our Reciprocal Cabin Seat Agreement section as soon as it is available.  This is another incremental improvement as we continue to advocate for improvements to world-wide travel benefits for Flight Attendants.

The agreement guidelines for using open cabin seats on American will soon be posted on our website.  In summary, the agreement provides:

1. United Flight Attendants with a crew badge will have access to free, space available economy seating on American flights within the United States and U.S. Virgin Islands effective January 5, 2009.
2. American Flight Attendants with a crew badge will have similar benefits on United effective January 5, 2009.
3. Priority on flights will first be given by each carrier to its own NRSA passengers (employees, retirees, buddy pass holders, ID 90, etc.)
4. Next, crewmembers participating in Reciprocal Agreements will be awarded space available seats on a "first come, first served" basis.

Cabin seat agreements are commonplace across the industry, and this agreement brings United Airlines closer to providing comparable benefits with its competitors.  More improvements are needed still if our airline is to provide comparable commuting options for United Flight Attendants.  We can count this positive step forward as we continue our advocacy for improved world-wide travel benefits.

We encourage all Flight Attendants to thoroughly review the Reciprocal Cabin Seat Agreements with American, Southwest, Delta, US Airways and JetBlue to ensure you are able to fully benefit.

In Solidarity,

Greg Davidowitch, President
United Master Executive Council