Top 10 Scheduling Questions

1. Why doesn't United offer unlimited trip trades with open flying?

Many flight attendants responding to the Flight Attendant Scheduling and Support (FASS) survey on SkyNet have asked, “Why aren't unlimited trip trades with open flying permitted?”

The simple response is: reserve coverage. In conjunction with the AFA, Scheduling creates reserve patterns to meet the demand of potential open trips throughout the month. Since reserves are available only 19-20 days per month, those days are strategically placed to best meet the projected demand for open trips and support the operation.

Historically, weekends (Friday through Monday) are the most popular days out of which to trade. Since reserves are a limited resource, it is not possible to have all reserves available every weekend without further reducing coverage mid-week and at the beginning and end of the month.

Those are the times when reserve utilization is high. Scheduling plans for high reserve availability at the beginning of the month due to month-end legality drops and also at the end of the month because high-time reserves are unable to fly. Although it might seem that by trading out of a weekend, there would be fewer mid-week trips for reserves to fly, that's not the case. There is still an operational need to maintain a minimum level of reserve availability to cover no-shows, last minute sick calls, illegalities, misconnects and irregular operations.

Although some other carriers may offer unlimited trip trades, their contracts allow them the flexibility to move reserve days toaccommodate their liability and react to shortages. Our Agreement does not permit this, so it is not operationally feasible to offer unlimited trip trades with open flying. However, the daily trip trade allocations at all locations have been increased from three to four percent, per the new Agreement. It also is important to note that recent flight attendant furloughs and retirements have reduced domicile populations and affected the number of available allocations. For example, a domicile with 800 active flight attendants would have 24 slots at three percent. That same domicile, reduced to 500 flight attendants, would have only 20 slots, despite the increase to four percent.

Your schedule flexibility is important, and Flight Attendant Scheduling and Support will continually evaluate reserve coverage to increase allocations, where possible. They are also evaluating automation that will allow them to more precisely forecast daily reserve needs.

2.  At a minimum, why not offer unlimited same day trades?

Historical data indicates that the vast majority of same-day trades result in trading out of an early morning trip for a later departure. In this case, while Crew Operations may have reserve numbers available to support the operation overall, many are not legal for early morning departures. Therefore, increasing same day trades under this scenario would increase our reserve liability as well as increase our potential for understaffing. Recognizing recent revisions to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, perhaps this history is no longer valid. Because of this, Crew Operations is currently in the process of determining if, in fact, this historical trend is still valid. Once further information is gathered, tests to increase same day trades may be conducted at several domicile locations. In summary, the FASS organization is working hard to identify ways to improve schedule flexibility beyond contractual limitations without compromising our operational integrity.

3.  Wouldn't unlimited trip trades with open flying or unlimited same day trades reduce flight attendant sick leave?

In 2002, Crew Operations conducted three tests on the effects of increased trip trade allocations against sick leave performance. The results indicated that domicile sick leave was unchanged during the test periods. In fact, sick leave usage actually increased during two of the three tests. It's also important to note that daily trip trade allocations at all locations were increased from 3% to 4% per the new Agreement. In addition, since March 2002, Crew Operations has regularly increased trip trade allocations whenever possible because we know how important this issue is for flight attendants. For September 2003, trip trade allocations with open flying have been increased (above the 4% contractual requirement) by an average of 33% system-wide.

4.  Why does the Crew Desk convert flight attendants to work versus deadhead on trips with light customer loads?

Why does the Crew Desk convert flight attendants to work versus deadhead on trips with light customer loads? This action is based on Division policy, not Crew Desk prerogative. Scheduling personnel are following procedures as outlined in the Flight Attendant Handbook (Section 4.10.2.). North America (N.A.) flights can be staffed up to the N.A. maximum staffing called for in category 3 of an airplane's N.A. staffing chart (Section 4.30.). However, domicile management or a Purser can still request staffing above the N.A. maximum staffing in unusual circumstances such as a large number of special meals or a group of customers requiring special handling.

International Enhanced Staffing - Again, based on Division policy, an international flight can be enhanced staffed above the international maximum to provide our customers enhanced service by scheduling flight attendants to work versus deadheading. Enhanced staffing levels for each airplane type can occur regardless of customer load or assigned service level.

Since many questions were raised about reserves, Crew Operations developed an in-depth overview about the reserve planning and assignment process. Detailed responses to questions 5 and 6 are included in this summary.

5.  How are reserve assignments made?

"How are reserve assignments made?" Per Section 10.C.2., at the beginning of each month, in order to establish the reserve availability lists, reserves in each list shall be placed in FIFO (First-in/First-out) order based on the scheduled arrival time of their last ID. In the case of the same scheduled arrival time, inverse seniority is used as the tiebreaker with the junior reserve placed at the top of the list.

Once the initial FIFO ordering is established, reserves are assigned in "time accrued" (TMAC) order from within their day(s) of availability. Therefore, prior to assigning IDs, Scheduling must establish reserve availability lists by days of availability and by TMAC order within the day lists. In locations with a combined reserve pool (both international and North America flying), reserves available for less than 4-days are placed in 1-day, 2-day or 3-day availability lists in TMAC order. Reserves available for 4+ (or more) days are placed in the 4+day list in TMAC order. For international-only locations (HNL, CDG, LHR, FRA, HKG, NRT), the 1- through 3-day availability lists are created, but the 4+day list is further split into separate 4-day, 5-day, 6-day, etc. availability lists.

Remember, while the initial FIFO ordering establishes a "relative" position based on scheduled arrival of the last ID, lineholders may bring time into the new month. Thus, they will already have time accrued in the new month placing them lower on the availability lists than those flight attendants without an overlap trip.

Similar to the reserve availability lists, open positions (IDs and ONSB) are sorted by 1-, 2-, 3-, 4+ day (and for international locations, 5-, 6-day, etc.) categories by earliest-to-latest report time.

On a daily basis, after open flying requests have been processed and per Sections 10.C.3., 4., 5., 8. and 12.V.1. and 4. of the Agreement, the reserve assignment process begins by assigning the earliest 1-day trip to the first available, legal and qualified 1-day reserve. So how does it happen that the first reserve on the 4+day list winds up with a 1-day 0500 check-in? The key words are "available, legal and qualified." If all reserves on the 1-, 2- and 3-day lists arrived from flight assignments the previous day after 1700, none of them are available to take a 0500 check-in since the 12-hours at home rest would prohibit such an assignment. Similarly, a reserve list may show a flight attendant available for duty at 0500 but, in fact, his/her previous assignment resulted in 7:58 of actual time. Unless the first departure is a deadhead, he or she would not likely be able to receive an assignment due to the 8-in-24 provision of the Agreement.

One-day trips will normally be assigned first. Those assignments could, however, go to reserves on other than the 1-day availability list due to situations similar to those discussed above. Once the 1-day reserve list has been exhausted, any remaining 1-day trips are "merged" with 2-day trips in check-in time order. The earliest merged 1- and 2- day open IDs are then assigned to the first available, legal and qualified reserves on the 2-day availability list until either all trips are covered or all 2-day reserves are exhausted. Any remaining 1-day or 2-day open trips are then merged into the 3-day open trip list in check-in time order. The assignment is made to the first available, legal and qualified reserve on the 3-day availability list until all trips are covered or all 3-day reserves are exhausted. Again, any remaining open trips (1-, 2-, or 3-day) are merged with the 4+day trips (ONSB is normally assigned to reserves on the 4+day list) and the assignment process continues until either all trips are covered or all available reserves are exhausted. For international locations, the process is expanded to cover any remaining merged 5-, 6+ day trips. Remember, assignments within a call-in reserve's line of flying are not "official" until 1900 local time (Section 10.C.7.a.).

Deviations to the process occur periodically and usually do occur during the last few days of the month. Such deviations are permitted under Section 10.C.13.a., b., c., and d. Towards the end of the month, reserves will accrue flight time to the extent he/she may be on the 4-day availability list, but has only 7 hours of time remaining to reach maximum hours. Per Section 10.C.13.d., this reserve may be assigned a 1-day trip prior to assigning it to a reserve on a lesser day of availability list in order to more effectively cover all open trips. Most deviations occur when it is necessary to match the bid value of open trips with the remaining time of available reserves. Again, this normally occurs in situations when a high percentage of a domicile's reserve population has little time remaining to reach maximum hours.

"As a call-in reserve, I never/always get released."  The number of call-in reserves who are either converted to ready reserve or released is directly related to the needs of the operation. There may be times when there are only a handful of trips that remain open after the call-in reserve assignments are made and sufficient ready reserves are available to cover those trips. Please remember that at 1900 on the day before the operation begins, there are additional "forecasted" needs that may not yet be presented in the open trip file. Some of the forecasted needs include potential weather irregularities, irregularities currently in progress which will affect tomorrow's coverage, additional XSC/XIT liability, etc. Another factor to consider is that while your location may have sufficient reserve coverage, which might normally permit releasing call-in reserves, other locations may be experiencing reserve shortages or high time, which may require the assistance of reserves from your domicile. During periods where a high percentage of reserves are close to maximum hours, Scheduling may elect to selectively understaff trips and release as many reserves as the operation permits in order to conserve reserve hours to ensure sufficient reserves are available for month-end.

6.  Why can't I preference which co-terminal I would like to be assigned from as a reserve?

Neither the old nor new Agreement has a provision for reserves to preference which co-terminal they prefer to depart from. On the surface, it may seem like a non-issue, but because assignments must be made in TMAC order from the appropriate availability lists, TMAC order could be compromised. For example, let's look at three different open 3-day trips: one 15-hour BWI trip departing at 0800, a 12-hour DCA trip departing at 0900 and a 13-hour IAD trip departing at 1000. There are three available 3-day reserves. The first with 32 hours TMAC, the second with 33 hours TMAC and the third, who has a BWI preference, with 34 hours TMAC. Bypassing the first two reserves who have no preference to assign the BWI trip to the reserve who preferenced a BWI departure, in essence, results in not only compromising the TMAC provision, but also sub-optimizing reserve utilization. What happens here is that the reserve with the most time accrued receives the highest value trip available while reserves with less time accrued are assigned the lesser valued DCA and IAD trips.

7.  When will we start to see transfers awarded again?

The FASS organization recognizes that transfers are very important to flight attendants. As we balance our manpower requirements, we continue to look for opportunities to offer this quality of life enhancement. Over 280 transfers were recently awarded to DCA, DEN, JFK, LAS, ORD, PHL, SEA, and SFO effective 9/30. An additional 107 transfers were awarded to DCA, DEN, JFK, LAS, ORD, PHL, and SFO effective 10/30. We plan to continue evaluating our needs and awarding transfers as needed through the month of October with report dates through 10/30. Transfers will not be awarded in November or December, but will be available again in 2004. On a separate note, many flight attendants have outdated transfer requests on file. We encourage you to review these and delete any transfer request that you no longer intend to accept.

8.  Why are there so many long sits?

Over the past year, Advance Schedule Planning (ASP) has been working to minimize long sit-times. The percent of sits greater than 3-hours in the domestic DSL has been reduced from 10.0% in October 2002 to 2.4% in October 2003. Individual statistics by domicile can be found in the monthly Domestic DSL characteristics developed by ASP.

9.  Why are there so many one-day IDs?

Why are there so many one-day IDs? From an economic standpoint, it would benefit United if all IDs could be flown as one-day trips since annual flight attendant hotel expenses typically exceed $100 million. Since this is not possible, Advance Schedule Planning (ASP) continually works to find ways to improve the schedule in the most cost-effective manner. On average, 30% of the 2003 domestic DSL (year-to-date through October) is made up of one-day trips compared to 23% in 2002. It's also important to note that many flight attendants prefer to work one-day trips. Individual statistics by domicile can be found in the monthly Domestic DSL characteristics developed by ASP.

10.  Why don't crews stay with planes more often?

Why don't crews stay with planes more often? Advance Schedule Planning strives to keep crews with the aircraft as much as possible. Due to our hub and spoke system, multiple aircraft types, and our complex work-rules, this is not always possible. In addition, the real problem is that pilots are restricted to one equipment while flight attendants can work on any aircraft. On a monthly average, domestic flight attendants follow the aircraft approximately 30% of the time. Programming efforts are underway to increase this ratio.

Since many questions were raised about the DSL, Advance Schedule Planning developed an in-depth overview of the DSL process.

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