September schedule changes for Helena (HLN) and Great Falls (GTF)

QX AFA began receiving reports that GTF and HLN overnights had been removed from September trips, and FAs were being prompted to self-notify the changes in eCrew. On Monday, August 19th, the MEC Scheduling Chair reached out to Crew Scheduling to ask about the details of these cancellations, the scope of impact, and how the trips would be repaired. Per Crew Scheduling, the following flights were canceled between Sep 3rd and Sep 30th:

• QX2185 SEA-HLN
• QX2182 HLN-SEA
• QX2164 SEA-GTF
• QX2095 GTF-SEA

Crew Scheduling informed the MEC Scheduling Chair that they had received the cancellation notice on August 3rd but failed to notify AFA at that time. Because pairings had already been finalized and bidding had begun, they were forced to wait to make changes to the pairings until after finals were published on August 16th. All affected flights were flagged on August 18th, and trip changes were made on the same day. No communication was sent from Crew Scheduling or Inflight Management except for a memo in eCrew attached to the altered trips.

Crew Scheduling confirmed that these trips were pay-protected and that they would be following the CBA language that allowed FAs to request a hotel in base if their scheduled overnight was canceled. Because these flights were SEA turns, impacted SEA FAs were released in base while other FAs were deadheaded back to their domicile. We confirmed that FAs who had already called in to request an in-base hotel room were approved.

On Tuesday, we received reports that FAs from bases other than SEA who requested to drop their deadheads and overnight in SEA were denied. After inquiring about these requests, AFA was informed that Crew Scheduling’s goal in a cancel scenario is always to return the FA to base, even if it was a scheduled overnight. The MEC Scheduling Chair escalated this issue to the MEC. 

The MEC confirmed that Crew Scheduling would repair the trips to keep the scheduled overnights in SEA for those requesting them. We also requested that they send out the necessary information to the impacted FAs, including the background, so all can make an informed decision on their trip. 

We want to thank those FAs who contacted their local scheduling reps so we could intervene and correct this issue.