The reprinted post below is full of inaccuracies. Just to set the record straight for those of you who think flight attendants make a bundle of money at AA: I am a 17 year f/a at AA and I''m topped out (that''s MAXED out) on the pay chart. If I do not fly overtime by picking up extra trips from my colleagues I make $41,000 a year. That is it. We do not make $63,000 as I have seen printed in some newspaper articles. If a f/a makes that much money he/she is working a lot of overtime in the air.
To correct the erroneous information in this post:
1) Indeed, we are away from home. We are often in London or New York or Tulsa or Raleigh. Not every trip is in a glamourous city. We have plenty of trips where we are in Houston or Oklahoma City for 30 hours at a time receiving a whopping $1.90 an hour...that''s it! That is our per diem. Our hotels historically have been nice but we also stay in many less desirable hotels on par with Holiday Inn or Best Western (nothing wrong with these hotels, but I wanted to clear up the misconception that we are living it up at the Plaza Athenee). As a cost cutting measure, the company is systematically relocating crews to cheaper airport locations to save on transportation (i.e vans) to and from the airport. The company does NOT pay for any cabs for crew members as the poster asserts. Where does he get this stuff from?
2) Pilots do receive meals on most legs. I see this as a waste and I imagine their union is retrenching this provision. I do not suggest the pilots have all meals cut. There are many times when it is simply not possible for a crew member to purchase food when on the fly. I think most pilots would agree that their crew meals could be brought more in line with the flight attendants. Flight attendants are only provided meals on duty days of 8 hours or more that have two or more legs with less than 2 hours of ground time. This provides f/as with one meal during the duty day (if it is a 14 hour duty day, we get one meal). On long haul flights, such as Paris-Miami, f/as are provided with one meal and pilots receive two. On a transcon flight from say, Miami to Seattle, fight attendants receive nothing because there is only one leg in the duty day. This is why you always see f/as lugging around their food containers with their luggage. By any analysis, this is a dead issue as this provision will undoubtedly be eliminated in the concession package that we''ll receive in the next couple of days.
3)No pilot or f/a receives a confirmed seat to commute to and from work. That is silly. These commuters must rely on regular stand-by passes to get to work and home.
4) Yes, our meal allowance is often more than $20 a day, but not much more. Have you ever tried to eat in Paris or Rome or Dallas on $20 a day when you are there for 26 hours? We often arrive at hotels late at night when no restaurants are open and we must order room service which costs an arm and a leg.
Yesterday at the gym the tvs were on in front of the stairmasters and the guy on the treadmill next to me said, "Damn unions" as a report aired about AA''s imminent bankruptcy. I guess this guy does not know about the massive cuts we are all taking on the chin. I imagine he thinks it is great that airline CEOs continue to receive huge perquisites while laying off thousands of employees. Even John McCain is voicing his disgust with these CEOs. I think it is sad that fellow union employees are turning against each other spreading false information such as this poster did; it''s bad enough the public thinks we are to blame for the airlines'' mad rush to bankrupcty court. It would behoove us all to stay united and work toward the common goal of saving this sinking company. The TWU, APA, and APFA are feverishly working to get concession packages ratified by their membership. Most of the issues I cleared up here are soon to be dead on arrival anyway once these packages are ratified and we enter bankruptcy. Why is this guy carping on things he knows nothing about?
Art Tang
MIA
his text:
I know pilots and f/as are away from home but they also get to stay in nicer hotels than MOTEL 6. The FAs also get free meals on board. If they have some turn arounnd time its not a bad way to see London or New York and AA pays for hotel and cab fare. Is there also a meal allowance? I''ll bet its more than $20 a day.
As far as getting paid for actual work on an aircraft the AMT or FSC doesn''t get paid at the rate of $150/hr.
Also AMT or FSC doesn''t get paid travel time to and from work either. I wouldn''t mind living in one city and working in another where I would also have a confirmed seat on a flight to from work.
To correct the erroneous information in this post:
1) Indeed, we are away from home. We are often in London or New York or Tulsa or Raleigh. Not every trip is in a glamourous city. We have plenty of trips where we are in Houston or Oklahoma City for 30 hours at a time receiving a whopping $1.90 an hour...that''s it! That is our per diem. Our hotels historically have been nice but we also stay in many less desirable hotels on par with Holiday Inn or Best Western (nothing wrong with these hotels, but I wanted to clear up the misconception that we are living it up at the Plaza Athenee). As a cost cutting measure, the company is systematically relocating crews to cheaper airport locations to save on transportation (i.e vans) to and from the airport. The company does NOT pay for any cabs for crew members as the poster asserts. Where does he get this stuff from?
2) Pilots do receive meals on most legs. I see this as a waste and I imagine their union is retrenching this provision. I do not suggest the pilots have all meals cut. There are many times when it is simply not possible for a crew member to purchase food when on the fly. I think most pilots would agree that their crew meals could be brought more in line with the flight attendants. Flight attendants are only provided meals on duty days of 8 hours or more that have two or more legs with less than 2 hours of ground time. This provides f/as with one meal during the duty day (if it is a 14 hour duty day, we get one meal). On long haul flights, such as Paris-Miami, f/as are provided with one meal and pilots receive two. On a transcon flight from say, Miami to Seattle, fight attendants receive nothing because there is only one leg in the duty day. This is why you always see f/as lugging around their food containers with their luggage. By any analysis, this is a dead issue as this provision will undoubtedly be eliminated in the concession package that we''ll receive in the next couple of days.
3)No pilot or f/a receives a confirmed seat to commute to and from work. That is silly. These commuters must rely on regular stand-by passes to get to work and home.
4) Yes, our meal allowance is often more than $20 a day, but not much more. Have you ever tried to eat in Paris or Rome or Dallas on $20 a day when you are there for 26 hours? We often arrive at hotels late at night when no restaurants are open and we must order room service which costs an arm and a leg.
Yesterday at the gym the tvs were on in front of the stairmasters and the guy on the treadmill next to me said, "Damn unions" as a report aired about AA''s imminent bankruptcy. I guess this guy does not know about the massive cuts we are all taking on the chin. I imagine he thinks it is great that airline CEOs continue to receive huge perquisites while laying off thousands of employees. Even John McCain is voicing his disgust with these CEOs. I think it is sad that fellow union employees are turning against each other spreading false information such as this poster did; it''s bad enough the public thinks we are to blame for the airlines'' mad rush to bankrupcty court. It would behoove us all to stay united and work toward the common goal of saving this sinking company. The TWU, APA, and APFA are feverishly working to get concession packages ratified by their membership. Most of the issues I cleared up here are soon to be dead on arrival anyway once these packages are ratified and we enter bankruptcy. Why is this guy carping on things he knows nothing about?
Art Tang
MIA
his text:
I know pilots and f/as are away from home but they also get to stay in nicer hotels than MOTEL 6. The FAs also get free meals on board. If they have some turn arounnd time its not a bad way to see London or New York and AA pays for hotel and cab fare. Is there also a meal allowance? I''ll bet its more than $20 a day.
As far as getting paid for actual work on an aircraft the AMT or FSC doesn''t get paid at the rate of $150/hr.
Also AMT or FSC doesn''t get paid travel time to and from work either. I wouldn''t mind living in one city and working in another where I would also have a confirmed seat on a flight to from work.
15 PM Buck wrote: 
