As described by @xJonNYC, American Airlines is accusing some of its flight attendants of hoping to revenue off of rolling delays, and is contacting it theft. I’m certain this will ruffle some feathers among the flight attendants, specially given the tense agreement negotiations likely on.
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How American flight attendants are profiting off of delayed flights
Flight attendants have a advanced process as a result of which they can bid on excursions, dependent on a assortment of factors, and that establishes their schedules. In addition to their regular every month bidding, flight attendants can select up excursions at the last moment for more fork out, assuming it does not interfere with any visits they currently have on their program. They often need to have a minimum amount of relaxation among sequences, typically at minimum 10 hrs.
American is accusing flight attendants of intentionally buying up outings that they have no intention of flying, in purchase to get much more pay out, and the firm is contacting it theft. According to American:
- Flight attendants are bidding at the previous moment to operate flights that have rolling delays, whereby the flight attendants now know that a flight is delayed it’s common for there to be past minute visits accessible, considering that it could be that a crew timed out when there’s a major delay
- Flight attendants are intentionally bidding on these flights when they have another journey in their program in the in the vicinity of long term, so that they’d hardly have ample relaxation (but based mostly on the scheduled departure time as of the time they bid on the excursion, they do have ample relaxation)
- In scenarios exactly where the delay proceeds to be extended, flight attendants then can’t perform their following vacation, but they nevertheless get paid out for it, considering that the deal consists of a pay safety for that
Just to give an illustration (I’m totally making this up), let us say that a flight attendant is scheduled to get the job done a trip commencing at 6AM tomorrow, from Miami to Los Angeles. Flight attendants want at least 10 several hours of relaxation among flights. So let us say a flight attendant picks up a fast Miami to Tampa to Miami convert at the last moment for this night, but it is very clear that the flight will be delayed (due to the fact the inbound aircraft is several hours late, or there is a maintenance issue, or there’s a thunderstorm).
If they picked up that trip and flew it but returned right after 8PM (10 several hours prior to 6AM), they would not be ready to fly the journey the adhering to day, but they’d nevertheless get paid out for equally excursions.
American threatens flight attendants for this behavior
American states that crew scheduling seniors are now inspecting every and each and every previous minute excursion select up that has resulted in pay back defense, to decide irrespective of whether flight attendants intentionally manufactured an “illegal” sequence in buy to get pay for the excursion.
The firm will analyze when the journey was picked up by the flight attendant, when the delay started, and what the crew realized and when. The company’s place is that just due to the fact the hold off has not been updated, does not necessarily mean the crew was unaware of the inescapable. The company considers this to be theft, and is threatening to get absent pay out, simply call flight attendants into their manager’s office environment, and possibly choose other disciplinary motion.
The business is encouraging flight attendants to only pick up outings that they’re self-assured that they can legally fly, and flight attendants will have to justify their decision with “factual data” if they get pay defense.
This is really a threat versus flight attendants…
A lot of of us travellers can attest to how aggravating American’s rolling flight delays are, and what a lousy work the airline typically does with preserving persons up to date with delays. So in some way, I have to respect the hustle of some flight attendants for having advantage of American’s bad communication for the duration of delays.
Now, I can not assistance but imagine that this is more of an vacant menace than something else, even though I certainly could be erroneous:
- Is this actually this sort of a common trouble that it is value addressing in this way? Is this happening amongst tens of individuals, or hundreds of people, or…?
- It seems type of tough for American to show intent here
- If this is these kinds of a huge difficulty, why doesn’t American update its software program to not enable flight attendants bid on these kinds of excursions? It appears to be like American should really be choosing how real looking it is for a flight attendant to bid on a trip without lacking their next journey, alternatively than leaving it to the individual flight attendant
- Flight attendant morale at American is at an all-time low, as flight attendants are continue to waiting around on a new agreement (which they should have) is the airline striving to make labor relations even even worse?
I suspect this is principally about seeking to make flight attendants worried about this conduct heading ahead, but I guess we’ll see. If the firm does consider disciplinary action against flight attendants, I imagine the union will have a lot to say.
Bottom line
American is accusing some flight attendants of theft, after bidding on very last minute excursions with rolling delays. The airline promises that some flight attendants have intentionally picked up final minute outings shortly ahead of other visits, in scenarios where by they knew the flight would be delayed. This brought on pay out security, indicating flight attendants would be paid out for equally excursions.
What do you make of American’s danger to flight attendants?