Making Ends Meet

[Skymess]

I am not seeing a shortage. I have some South America on HIBOARD to drop. I was on MU a couple days this month and they called with plenty of trips open to pick from. What is the complaint, that not as many 7 year FA's are able to drop their 5 hour turns and pick up a NRT?

Living with in our means and having to fly what our seniority holds is the reality some FA's have to face up to. There are those times when we have all the choices in the world, and thee are times when things are a bit tighter. Thats life folks.

um.......the OP was asking if anyone was having as much trouble as he/she was at their base and their base doesn't have NRT.

Guess the whole topic is pointless to you because it doesn't concern you since you are at a base with a lot of flying and your means must be higher than a guarantee check at an 8-10 year pay scale. Ever think about applying for a management position? You'd be a shoo in.

BTW~ I did a quick check of your HIBOARD and have to wonder if you really are based at IMA? The only stuff to pick up at IMA is 5-7 hour turns and some 3 day 737 trips. Most of the stuff dropping is either purser or speaker. I'd say for the month there are only about 25-30 trips total. I also checked SLT and there are 10 for the month.

 

[FA Mikey]

um.......the OP was asking if anyone was having as much trouble as he/she was at their base and their base doesn't have NRT.

The topic was about lack of flying, being unable to make guarantee. Most of us understand that just because you dont have trips to fly, doesnt mean you lose your guarantee. I brought up NRT after you brought JFK into the topic. Sorry to have confused you.

BTW~ I did a quick check of your HIBOARD and have to wonder if you really are based at IMA? The only stuff to pick up at IMA is 5-7 hour turns and some 3 day 737 trips. Most of the stuff dropping is either purser or speaker. I'd say for the month there are only about 25-30 trips total. I also checked SLT and there are 10 for the month.

Sorry the 5-7 hour turns and the 3 day 737 trips dont meet your expectations. They are actually trips, and if you want to make money, then thats what you fly. Goes back to my statement earlier, too many FA's want only the most senior trips. When they cannot find those. Then there is just nothing to pick up. Miami is a base that uses several TT services. Find out what kind of flying they still have to drop. Just because HIBOARD doesnt have what you want doesnt mean the services dont.

 

[fliboi78]

I know at JFK, the bottom 20 or 30 non-speakers got avbl. I bid the whole bid sheet and got avbl. But a meager paycheck is better than no paycheck!!! I agree that it will be a bad month for those who want to fly hi-time via the company, ie, no MU or II. I know the first 2 or 3 days bids were final the usual hiboard got the trips and now they are gone. Also, (assuming that we are all flight attendants) weren't we all hired because we were so friendly and got along with anyone?? What happened to that?

 

[jimntx]

Mike, ok you can leave the guarantee business alone. What he meant was that we can't even cover guarantee, much less fly the high time that so many f/as need to do in order to make ends meet. So, he phrased it badly. Give it a rest.

You must not make the mistake of thinking that just because IMA is growing and there are lots of trips around that the same is true in other bases. There are many days in SLT when there is not a single trip in OT during the hours that AVBL f/as can self-plot. And, of course, the sick list is of no use whatsover to people on availability. The trips are not released until too late for an availability person to even get them assigned by Crew Schedule. They all go to MU or RSV.

As I posted earlier, I don't know about other bases but at SLT we have way more f/as than bid positions. As recently as May of this year I was holding a line in SLT most months. For October there are 33 people senior to me on availability, and everyone in the base junior to me is either on reserve or on availability for October. When you add the RL people--most of whom have at least some AVBL days on their schedule, there is just not enough flying to go around.

A friend of mine at SLT who has a side business decided to just see what would happen in September if she didn't plot anything for herself and waited for Crew Schedule to call and assign her trips. She ended the month with her 70 hour guarantee intact, but she flew less than 40 hours.

I haven't heard of a RSV in SLT coming anywhere close to covering their guarantee in months. On RSV in July, I flew about 40 hours.

 

[FA Mikey]

I really don't base my whole outlook on just what Miami is doing. For one of the first times this base is not the one being screwed over and having outr best trips sent to IOR of IDF. This a interesting time for us all. With the cut backs in flying on top of the season drop offs, who can even guess at how it will all fall out. SJU has been cut to the bone but even there some of the flight are returning in the coming months. Miami fared pretty well and we are getting a couple new flights to Brazil and the caribbean. We also have a 150 new people coming to IMA in November.

As you know I drop my schedule and pick up some stuff on the weekends here and there. I havent had a problem finding something on HIBOARD or MU.

I remember when I first came to Miami, and we had such an overage of FA's. I had a month of reserve where I flew the first and second and then not again until the last three days if the month.

There are always ways to work the system. Its how ingenious you are at working the system. My friends and I always had Christmas off as a new hires, we got days off we needed by picking trips that were minutes away from going illegal, and they always did. We talked up the schedulers when and where we could and learned by trial and error, what worked and what didn't. Now days there is the internet and cell phones and ways to check open time like never before. You can network between people on the web. So when I see something I can't so but I know you can, I get you on the phone and help you out. All I am hearing here is Boo Hoo I cant get what I want high time, low time, time off ETC. I have little sympathy for people who don't due there due diligence.


As a commuter I know you have a few tricks to make it all work for you.

 

[czerny]

Mike, ok you can leave the guarantee business alone. What he meant was that we can't even cover guarantee, much less fly the high time that so many f/as need to do in order to make ends meet. So, he phrased it badly. Give it a rest.

It isn't just getting the guarantee at the end of the month. If we don't fly, we dont' get per diem which can be a couple hundred a month if you are used to flying at least 80. Still, it's better than being furloughed and having _no_ paycheck.

 

[Skymess]

Hmmm. Wow, I agree with you. Who'd have ever guessed this day would come? :blink:

 

[FWAAA]

It isn't just getting the guarantee at the end of the month. If we don't fly, we dont' get per diem which can be a couple hundred a month if you are used to flying at least 80. Still, it's better than being furloughed and having _no_ paycheck.

Not according to the OP, who would rather be furloughed:

I would rather be furloughed knowing my co-workers are at least able to fly their schedules.

I would have guessed that flying a mere 40 hours and being paid for 70 would be better than furlough, but what do I know?

 

[Flyboy4u]

Not according to the OP, who would rather be furloughed:



I would have guessed that flying a mere 40 hours and being paid for 70 would be better than furlough, but what do I know?

What I meant by being furloughed knowing my fellow co-workers could make ends meet is the mere fact is there doesn't seem to be enough trips for those on makeup, availability, and reserve to pay there own bills...Let's face it ,since we took concessions most of us who do this job for a living rely on perdiem, and more than 75 hours. If my being furloughed would allow those senior to me able to pay there rent by flying the trips I would have normally flown, then so be it. It's funny how posters on this board like to twist other individuals posts around making them seem to be what they are not. All I was doing was trying to get simple information from other F/A's around the system on what is happening at their individual base? Sorry for all of the confusion. I will find other means to the answer.

 

[AAflygirl]

I'm all about supporting my fellow FA's, but I don't think it's come to the point of "I would rather be furloughed knowing my co-workers are at least able to fly their schedules."

I'm not having any trouble meeting requirements in my part of the world, nor have I heard of anyone... hope that holds up for the rest of you.

 

[Flyboy4u]

I'm all about supporting my fellow FA's, but I don't think it's come to the point of "I would rather be furloughed knowing my co-workers are at least able to fly their schedules."

I'm not having any trouble meeting requirements in my part of the world, nor have I heard of anyone... hope that holds up for the rest of you.

I sure am glad flying is great for you AAflygirl in your part of the world..Keep up the great effort , and don't forget to smile..Things are so pretty in other parts...BTW...What part of the world is that? Let me guess? DFW?

 

[Skymess]

I'm not having any trouble meeting requirements in my part of the world, nor have I heard of anyone... hope that holds up for the rest of you.

The only reason I'M not having trouble is because I am all over it like a dog with a bone. I've had countless conversations with people at JFK, including the trip traders, bemoaning the lack of trips in the system.
I put some really cruddy trips in hiboard for people in the last few days and they sailed out of there in minutes.