December, Bid 328 – Pairing Construction Notes

December Bid 328 – Pairing Construction Notes

AFA had an extremely difficult build this month. The software that we use to build the trips (Jeppesen) did not want to build three or four-day trips in MFR. It also did not want to build one or two-day trips in SEA. We presented a solution that would solve for some of this but it was Management’s opinion that SEA based FAs may fill their lines with trips from PAE if they want to fly two-day trips and that they were not going to consider any resolve to the MFR pairing issues. All in all, the solution that Management chose did not have the quality of life that we at AFA were hoping to achieve. Management chose the one that aligned with their cost and budget expectations for this bid. As a side note, the solution they chose was less than $10,000 different than our preferred solution.

A little bit of background on the pairings built for the December bid, we immediately noticed costs and productivity levels in the file were dramatically higher than normal and alerted management late Sunday evening. We were notified on Monday that the company was running a new file and had to re-enter all of our runs. Typically we would spend the first few days submitting runs and the last couple of days we would spend analyzing and working with the company to find solutions to some of the error codes. Unfortunately, this was not the case again this month. It is becoming a pattern that the company has to re-run their file and this has begun to greatly impact our ability to build pairings and analyze in time to course correct if necessary (which is not acceptable to AFA as it reduces our ability to build pairings that flight attendants want). We hope to spend the next thirty days coming up with a plan to combat the company’s inefficiencies and poor communication in the pairing build process, as well as some ways to communicate your dissatisfaction with all of the issues that have developed since mixed pairings started in April.

We did not receive a lot of feedback from your scheduling reps for this build. Please let your base representatives know what you want in your trips so they are able to communicate any changes you would like to see.

Parameters for the Pairing Solution

The only improvements that AFA was able to achieve for December pairings:

  • We were able to at least get 11.2% day trips into SEA versus 0.0%. 
  • We reduced the two-day trips from 84.2% to 76.5% in MFR.

The parameters that were included from previous months include:

  • Turn time in PDX was lowered from 70 minutes to 60 minutes.
  • Rest may not be shorter than the duty days either before or after said rest. So, however long your duty hours are for the day, your rest will have to match your duty or exceed it and vice versa. However long your rest is the previous night is how long your scheduled duty is the next day (so, if you work 12 hours during the day you will get at least 12 hours of scheduled rest that night and would not be scheduled for more than 12 hours the next day). 
  • A max of five (5) scheduled flight legs/day, which includes any DHs (of course there can be less flight legs).
  • 11-hour minimum rest. 
  • 3:00 max sit times in PDX and SEA with 2:00 max sit times at all other airports. SNA set to 2:40 to avoid any double DH situations.
  • Forced away the late-night SEA-MFR (landing after midnight) 
  • Increased PAE flying by 500 credit hours for a total of 3500 credit hours again in this bid.

December:  There are a total of 1367 trips between all bases.  Of those, 345 are pure E175 flying and 306 are pure Q400 flying. 716 are mixed trips. That’s 52.3% mixed, 25.2% trips are pure E175, and 22.4% are pure Q400 trips. 

Break down by base: 

  • BOI has 123 total trips; 0 E175 trips; 91 Q400 trips; and 32 mixed (26.0% mixed) 
  • GEG has 218 total trips; 33 E175 trips; 44 Q400 trips; and 141 mixed  (64.7% mixed)
  • MFR has 51 total trips; 0 E175 trips; 25 Q400 trips; and 26 mixed (51.0% mixed)
  • PDX has 368 total trips; 73 E175 trips; 69 Q400 trips; and 226 mixed (61.4% mixed)
  • SEA has 394 total trips; 49 E175 trips; 76 Q400 trips; and 269 mixed (68.3% mixed and this doesn’t include PAE flying) 
  • PAE has 213 total trips; 190 E175 trips; 0 Q400 trips; and 23 mixed (10.8% mixed) 


Percentage of trips/day:
 

Base 1-Day 2-Day 3-Day 4-Day 5-Day
BOI 33.3 28.5 30.1 8.1 N/A
GEG 5.0 43.6 31.2 15.1 5.0
MFR 13.6 76.5 5.9 5.9 N/A
PDX 13.6 10.9 35.9 39.7 N/A
SEA 11.2 1.3 27.7 59.9 N/A
PAE 39.4 49.0 16 5.6 N/A

Credit per base: 

BOI 2542:42 6.9%
GEG 5730:17 15.6%
MFR 1063:38 2.9%
PDX 11099:34 30.3%
SEA 12687:10 34.6%
PAE 3499:06 9.6%
SEA (total) 16186:16 44.2%

Credit Time/Duty: 

BOI:     4:51

GEG:   5:06

MFR:   5:03

PDX:    5:00 

SEA:    5:02 

PAE:    5:04

We will continue to advocate for improvements for our members each month during pairing development process. Our schedule makes a huge difference in determining our work-life balance as well as our overall pay. Again, if you have any comments or suggestions, please advise your base scheduling reps.

In solidarity,

Cyndy Mathison
MEC Crew Scheduling Liaison 

Peter Oxentenko
Council 17 Scheduling Chair (PDX/MFR)

Jolene Vallelunga-Heller and Sherry Busch
Council 17 Scheduling Reps (PDX)

Jana Gray
Council 17 Scheduling Rep (MFR)

Kenneth Cantu and Nicole Lajuett
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (SEA)

Heather Coleman
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (PAE)

Jennifer Turnbow
Council 16 Scheduling Rep (GEG)

Miria Davis Council 16 Scheduling Rep (BOI)