• Procedures for using Southwest (.pdf)
• General Guidelines (.pdf)

From: Alex Marren, United Airlines

New Cabin Jumpseat Agreement - Southwest Airlines

I am also pleased to announce that effective October 1, 2008 we will be implementing a Reciprocal Cabin Agreement with Southwest Airlines.  As a result, our flight attendants will have another travel option, in addition to the recent agreements with US Airways, Delta and Jet Blue. The Southwest agreement provides for space available travel on any Southwest flight in the US on a first come first serve basis. Southwest flight attendants will be able to utilize similar options on United flights as well. Full details are available on the onboard service home page.

Meanwhile, focus continues on improving our product and service. Reliability has improved significantly this month, as a result of added ground time, spares, and coordinated focus on execution. Cabin condition and workability customer ratings are showing positive trends as our colleagues in maintenance have reduced the cabin deferred items and increased heavy cleans across the fleets. While we still have much work to do, we are making progress.

In addition, while the "Your Ideas Count" program has concluded, with over 700 ideas submitted, we continue to solicit your suggestions and input through many channels including DIS*123, our pursers, and via the leadership team. Your Onboard leadership is committed to an open door policy and we welcome any emails or calls with feedback you'd like to share. Based on your feedback and that of our customers, we will continue to refine our product and service offerings over the next several months. Please check at your domicile and Onboard Updates for details on the October 1 catering changes.

From: www.unitedafa.org

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today United Airlines signed a Flight Attendant Reciprocal Cabin Seat Agreement with Southwest Airlines effective October 1, 2008.  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 Southwest 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 Southwest flights within the United States and U.S. Virgin Islands effective October 1.
2. Southwest Flight Attendants with a crew badge will have similar benefits on United effective October 1.
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.  United Airlines needs join its competitors in offering comparable benefits and commuting options for United Flight Attendants.  This is another positive step, but we have further to go before we have travel options for United Flight Attendants in line with the rest of the industry.

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

In Solidarity,

Greg Davidowitch, President
United Master Executive Council