Source: Elines

We continue to receive questions concerning the circumstances under which a Reserve can be senior opted from her/his position as well as when the Purser (A position) can be senior opted among crew members. As outlined in the language of our JCBA, Section 7.O.7, Reserve Flight Attendants may be senior opted out of a position under the following circumstances: 

• At the airport only the open position that was assigned to a Reserve is available for senior option. 
• When a more senior Flight Attendant “senior opts” a Reserve from her/his position, the Reserve Flight Attendant assumes the position that was vacated by the more senior Flight Attendant. 
  
  The Reserve may only be opted out of a position once, and the seniority option can only occur at the beginning of a pairing and before preflight duties have begun. 
• Reserve Flight Attendants assigned to a position having a different pairing number cannot be opted out of the position unless the pairings contains identical flight segments.
• Language qualified (LQ) Reserve Flight Attendants may only be senior opted by senior LQ Flight Attendants having the same primary language qualification and who are also in the language base for the month.
• However, Reserve Flight Attendants assigned to an LQ position who are not qualified in the designated language may be opted by a more senior Flight Attendant who is also not language qualified. 
• Reserve International Purser Flight Attendants may only be senior opted by a more senior International Purser Flight Attendant. It is important to note, an International Purser Qualified Flight Attendant (who may be on the flight in an alternate position having picked up out of base) shall have priority over a non-International Purser qualified Flight Attendant who has been assigned to an open International Purser bid position.

Additionally, if the Purser (“A” position) is picked up from open time, seniority option, regardless of line status, Reserve or Lineholder, shall be permitted among all of the Flight Attendants on the same pairing. Additional information can be found in Section 7.O.7 of our JCBA or from your Local Council.