RESERVE PREFERENCING

RESERVE PREFERENCING – First Day of Bid Month

The following explanation will apply to the first day of each bid month only. When awarding assignments, all reserves who have submitted an assignment preference will have their preference awarded in seniority order, provided they are legal and available for the preference and the assignment preferenced has not been awarded to a more senior reserve.

Example: On day one of a bid period, there are fifteen reserves available and the following reserve assignments:

4 Airport Reserve

3 Trip Sequences

Leaving a balance of 8 reserves to be assigned RAPs

RAPs may be preferenced; Crew Scheduling will determine at the time of assignment how many reserves will be on each RAP.

Starting at the top of the list in seniority order, Crew Scheduling will award trips in accordance with the preferences (provided the flight attendant is legal and available for the trip preferenced), then assigns airport reserve and RAPs in the order they are preferenced.

Anything not preferenced will be assigned in inverse seniority order; assigning trips first, airport reserves (if any) second and assigning RAPs to the remaining reserves, if any. Following the awarding of preferenced assignments, any remaining open trips and airport reserve assignments, will, in inverse seniority order, be assigned to the most junior legal and available flight attendant(s) who had previously not been assigned to a trip or airport reserve.

Remember, RAPs and Airport Reserve have no credit value for time balancing purposes. Therefore, if no trip assignment is given to the flight attendant on a RAP or Airport Reserve, she/he finishes the day with 0:00 credited hours for time balancing purposes. This greatly increases the chance she/he will receive a trip assignment on the following day.

RESERVE PREFERENCING – Remainder of Bid Month

The following explanation will apply to the second and each subsequent day of each bid month. When awarding assignments, Crew Scheduling will use its best efforts to honor the preference of all reserves who have submitted an assignment preference. This will be done in order of time accrued to date – least to most, provided they are legal and available for the preference and provided that a reserve with less time accrued has not already been awarded the assignment.

Understanding the method by which reserves are assigned and making the system work for you becomes more complicated because time balancing now becomes a relevant factor. The two concepts - time balancing and assignment preferencing - contradict each other. Pure Time Balancing depends only upon the amount of time a reserve flight attendant has accrued. Pure preferencing depends only on the preference submitted by the reserve. The American Eagle Reserve Assignment system is a combination of the two. Unlike on day one, each reserve will have accrued a different amount of time.

Applying this system, it is necessary to understand the order in which Crew Scheduling covers open assignments. Very broadly speaking, Crew Scheduling assigns in the order in which it is necessary to keep the airline running. That means that assignments are made in following order: (1) all trips must be covered first, (2) all Airport Reserve positions and RAPs in any order.

Therefore, the responsibility will be on the individual reserve to submit sufficient preferences. A reserve with less time accrued to date relative to the other reserves available for the day will more likely than not be assigned a trip because uncovered trips are assigned first. For the same reason, a reserve with more time accrued relative to the other reserves available for the day will more likely receive an assignment without “credited time” (such as Airport Reserve or a RAP). Which assignments reserves with accrued hours placing them in the middle of the list will receive will depend on what assignments and how many reserves are available on a given day.

Example: On day ten of a bid period, there are eight reserves available. In order of seniority, Armandito has the least time accrued relative to the other reserves available that day. Herbie has the most time accrued relative to the other reserves available that day. The available reserves with their accrual and days of availability on this example day are as follows:

Reserve Armandito: 6 hours accrued

6 days of availability prior to days off

Reserve Bernice: 7 hours accrued

1 day of availability prior to days off

Reserve Carlotta: 8 hours accrued

5 days of availability prior to days off

Reserve Donna: 9 hours accrued

5 days of availability prior to days off

Reserve Edwin: 10 hours accrued

4 days of availability prior to days off

Reserve Francesca: 11 hours accrued

3 days of availability prior to days off

Reserve George: 12 hours accrued

2 days of availability prior to days off

Reserve Herbie: 13 hours accrued

1 day of availability prior to days off

The following seven assignments are available (plus RAPS):

Sequence #1: 1 day trip worth 5:00

Sequence #2: 2 day trip worth 8:00

Sequence #3: 2 day trip worth 8:30

Sequence #4 : 3 day trip worth 11:15

Sequence #5: 4 day trip worth 13:30

RAP-1 and 2 No credit time unless assigned a trip

(number of positions to be determined)

Airport Reserve: No credit time unless assigned a

A.M. (one position) trip

Airport Reserve: No credit time unless assigned a

P.M. (one position) trip

The flight attendants submit the following preferences:

Armandito preferences P.M. Airport Reserve

Bernice preferences A.M. Airport Reserve

Carlotta preferences RAP-1

Donna preferences RAP-2

Edwin preferences Sequence 4

Francesca preferences Sequence 3

George submits preferences in the following order: (1) Sequence 2; (2) A.M. Airport Reserve; (3) RAP-2

Herbie preferences Sequence 1

How will Crew Scheduling make the assignments?

Crew Scheduling will first determine which reserves are legal and available to fly. The reserve flight attendants legal and available for assignment on a given day will be placed in order from flight attendant with least accrued time to flight attendant with most accrued time. That will produce the following list of flight attendants for the order in which they will be assigned:

(1) Armandito

(2) Bernice

(3) Carlotta

(4) Donna

(5) Edwin

(6) Francesca

(7) George

(8) Herbie

Once the group of reserve flight attendants who are legal and available for assignment on a given day has been created, it is then necessary to determine which flight attendants on the list will be assigned a trip (as opposed to an assignment without credit time – Airport Reserve or RAP). The five flight attendants who have the least amount of accrued time and therefore will be assigned a trip are:

(1) Armandito

(2) Bernice

(3) Carlotta

(4) Donna

(5) Edwin

Once the group of those reserves who are legal and available has been created, trips are then assigned before any assignment which does not have a “credit time” attached to it (like airport reserve or RAPs). A reserve with the lowest accrued time who has submitted a preference for a trip will be awarded that preference, provided the reserve is legal and available for the trip, and, provided, that Crew Scheduling will be able to cover all open trips within that group of low accrued time flight attendants who will fly some trip while honoring preferences. If a reserve with low accrued time is legal and available to fly and has not submitted a preference for an assignment with “credit time” attached to it (i.e. a trip sequence), she/he will still be assigned a trip if there is a trip not yet awarded. The trip will be either one which was not preferenced or a trip preferenced by a reserve with high time accrued. Conversely, a flight attendant with high time accrued who submits a preference for a trip will probably be awarded a non-credit assignment, such as Airport Reserve or a RAP. That will produce the following order to assign:

(1) All trips will be assigned to flight attendants in the order of flight attendant with the least accrued time to most accrued time

(2) There are five trips to assign, therefore the five legal and available reserve flight attendants with the least amount of accrued time will be assigned some trip

(3) This means that Armandito, Bernice, Carlotta, Donna and Edwin will be assigned some trip, whether or not they preferenced for a trip, preferenced for a non-credit assignment (Airport Reserve or RAP) or submitted no preference.

(4) After trips are assigned, Crew Scheduling will use its best efforts to honor preferences of the remaining reserves in the least time accrued to most time accrued order, considering legalities, availability and time balancing.

(5) All remaining reserves will be awarded Airport Reserve or a RAP in the least time accrued to most time accrued order, considering legalities, availability and time balancing.

Following the assignment of trips, the reserves with the highest accrued time who will receive non-credited time assignments are:

(1) Francesca

(2) George

(3) Herbie

So, the assigning process works as follows:

(1) 5 trips are open. 5 flight attendants have been identified who will be assigned some trip (as stated in paragraph “B” above). Of those five, Edwin was the only one who preferenced a trip, and is available for 4 days. He is in the group that is legal and available for trip assignment and will be assigned some trip. He submitted a preference for Sequence #4. That trip is open and he is legal and available for the assignment. He is assigned to Sequence #4, a three day trip.

(2) Trips 1, 2, 3 and 5 remain open. Crew Scheduling will assign these trips to Armandito, Bernice, Carlotta and Donna under Section 9.C.–4.–c. of the Agreement, which states: “A Reserve Flight Attendant who does not express any preferences, or who cannot be awarded any of her/his preferences, will be assigned flying, Airport Reserve or RAP at the Company’s discretion.”

(3) Because Bernice is only legal and available for one day, she is awarded Sequence # 1 – the only uncovered one-day trip.

(4) This leaves Trips 2, 3 and 5 open. Because Armandito, Carlotta and Donna are all legal and available for any of these trips, and because none of these flight attendants preferenced these trips, Crew Scheduling may use its discretion to assign any of these trips to any of these flight attendants. Because all trips have now been assigned, Francesca, George and Herbie will be awarded non-credit assignments (i.e. Airport Reserve, RAP).

(5) George is the only flight attendant who submitted preferences for a non-credit assignment (1) A.M. Airport Reserve; (2) RAP-2. Because A.M. Airport Reserve is uncovered, George is awarded this assignment.

(6) Neither Francesca nor Herbie submitted preferences for non-credit assignments. Therefore, Crew Scheduling may award any uncovered non-credit assignments to these reserves. Either flight attendant may be assigned to a RAP or Airport Reserve at Crew Scheduling’s Discretion.

NOTE: Herbie could not be assigned to P.M. Airport Reserve. Reserves available for only one day (like Herbie) are NOT assigned to P.M. Airport Reserve, unless there are no other reserves available. The reason is because if they are assigned any trip(s) off of P.M. Airport Reserve, they may then fly into their day(s) off, creating a draft (See Sideletter “BB” of the CBA)