AFA E-LINE

[DCAflyer]

May 9, 2007

-- 65 POINT PLAN OFFER TO FURLOUGHED EMPLOYEES
-- Accessing The Hub
-- AFA Local Numbers

Dear James,

65 POINT PLAN OFFER TO FURLOUGHED EMPLOYEES
The Company sent a letter to all furloughed employees last week
offering the furloughed employee the chance to participate, if
eligible, in the Company?s 65 Point Plan Retiree Benefit
program.

The letter states, "after careful consideration the decision has
been made to allow pre-merger US Airways Employees who were in
furlough post September 27, 2005, and who qualify for the 65
Point Plan Retiree Travel Benefit (age plus years of service
equal or exceed 65 years, with a minimum of 10 years of
service), to be eligible to take part in this plan, even if they
are retiring from a furlough."

The terms of the plan currently include four guest (buddy)
passes and two SA1 passes (top level non-revenue boarding
priority). Those benefits are current Company policy and are
subject to change.

The boarding priority for those participating in the 65 Point
Plan is one level below that of active employees- S4.- In order
to participate in the 65 Point Plan a furloughed employee must
sever their relationship with the Company. Although the letter
states retire, if a Flight Attendant does not meet the age and
years of service requirement to retire she/he must resign from
the Company. The Company will classify a participant who resigns
and participates in the plan as retired for travel
purposes-meaning the participant is eligible for interline
travel in accordance with current interline agreements.
The decision to take part in the plan is an individual one as
everyone's situation and/or travel needs are different. Flight
Attendants who have already attained the 25/45 "Gold Pass"
status already have earned the ability to use interline travel
and travel as if an active status at an active (S3) boarding
priority.

The Voluntary Furlough (VF) and Voluntary Furlough with Limited
Recall (VFLR) provisions allow participants with more than
twenty (20) years of service travel at an S3 boarding priority
but do not provide for interline travel.

The key point is that if a Flight Attendant on any type of
furlough wishes to participate in the 65 Point Plan such Flight
Attendant either has to retire or resign from the Company thus
ending the employment relationship with the Company and
forfeiting all rights to recall.

There is no deadline to participate in the 65 Point Plan. The
plan is Company policy and the Company made the decision to make
the plan available retroactively to anyone who was on furlough
as of September 27, 2005 (the day the financial merger between
US Airway and America West was finalized).

Please assess your travel needs and personal circumstances
carefully before making the decision to participate in the 65
Point Plan. Feel free to contact your local office or the
Company contact, Jennie Lemon, at 480-693-8678.

Am I reading this correctly? Can any invol paticipate in this? This is truly an amazing offer if so.

 

[EMBFA]

On first read it seems only VFR and VFLR... I'd be very surprised if invols are included, but it does say all furloughees. Here's the thing though, I don't think any invol furloughee would have hte required amount of service plus age or however the formula is done.

If it reads correctly though, even without the age/service, you can keep some form of travel if you resign and surrender your recall rights.

This is part of the the "shaking the dead leaves off the tree" the company has mentioned. This is a very rare and odd situation in the industry where there are more inactive employees of a group than active. The current active US F/As make up under half of the complete east seniority list! Another crazy statistic is that there are more US F/As ON FURLOUGH than there are America West F/As, period.

This makes sense for the company and many of the furloughees. I'd assume as majority of the voluntary furloughees have no intention of returning to active status. The VFLRs obviously don't, the 'Limited Return' part is for paperwork purposes. They continue to hold a place just for travel, here's an opportunity for them to keep that but sever ties with the seniority list.

It makes sense for invol furloughees who have moved on too. Its a sweet deal for them actually if its available to them. Never have to worry about returning leters etc but have the travel bennies. That would be great for someone commuting while working at another airline or with a regular 9-5, weekends off job. I'm kinda wishing I could leave and keep the travel!

The company wants a solid, active, more accurate seniority list to bring to the merger. Its a good idea if we're reading it right. Now if they will just tally up the number of interested invol furloughees, then offer a buyout to the actives of an equal number, it would be beneficial to everyone.

 

[singh4us]

On first read it seems only VFR and VFLR... I'd be very surprised if invols are included, but it does say all furloughees. Here's the thing though, I don't think any invol furloughee would have hte required amount of service plus age or however the formula is done.

If it reads correctly though, even without the age/service, you can keep some form of travel if you resign and surrender your recall rights.

This is part of the the "shaking the dead leaves off the tree" the company has mentioned. This is a very rare and odd situation in the industry where there are more inactive employees of a group than active. The current active US F/As make up under half of the complete east seniority list! Another crazy statistic is that there are more US F/As ON FURLOUGH than there are America West F/As, period.

This makes sense for the company and many of the furloughees. I'd assume as majority of the voluntary furloughees have no intention of returning to active status. The VFLRs obviously don't, the 'Limited Return' part is for paperwork purposes. They continue to hold a place just for travel, here's an opportunity for them to keep that but sever ties with the seniority list.

It makes sense for invol furloughees who have moved on too. Its a sweet deal for them actually if its available to them. Never have to worry about returning leters etc but have the travel bennies. That would be great for someone commuting while working at another airline or with a regular 9-5, weekends off job. I'm kinda wishing I could leave and keep the travel!

The company wants a solid, active, more accurate seniority list to bring to the merger. Its a good idea if we're reading it right. Now if they will just tally up the number of interested invol furloughees, then offer a buyout to the actives of an equal number, it would be beneficial to everyone.

The only "buyout" that DP will and has offered is the 65 point plan; there will not be a monetary buyout as the previous buyout offer was pre-merger. It is what it is.

 

[PITbull]

The "65 point plan" is a retirement term-pass plan that was from the West, but is now offered to the East furloughees who have at LEAST 10 years of service (not meaning seniority, but active service before furlough).

The reason why this became an E-line is because I received the letter in the mail. The letter was very vague and misleading which caused much confusion to the folks who e-mailed me. Being I wrote the VFLR and much of the VFs, the 65-point plan offers to the VFLR and VF folks 4 buddy passes per year and 2 SA1 priority board statis along with a plastic card indicating this statis, which the current agreement does not provide. The VFLR already fly as "active statis" employees, so the only benefit are the buddy passes and SA1. The negative part of accepting this "retirement travel pass" is you get your priority boarding lower than "active". The folks that qualify for the 25/45 interline retirment passes that took the VFLR already recieve the 4 buddy passes and "active statis boarding" so they need not respond to the letter that was sent to the furloughees.

These are the reasons why I called the company to ensure it was made very clear and not confusing or misleading the furloughee to sign for something they 1. either already had, or 2. didn't have but would give up "active status" boarding in exchange for 4 buddy passes and 2 SA1 priority boarding.

The letter that will come out from the company will be made more clear than Mike Flores wrote out.

EMBFA,

The VFLR participants have "unlimited travel, active status" whether they return upon recall or never. I made sure of that piece. The 1200 plus that took this type of furlough saved the company millions and as planned allowed for INVOLS to come back sooner to mainline.