Summer T/A Thus Far

[SparrowHawk]

What's the Sharon Stone Seat?

on the HP 737's with 8 F seats there is no blukhead between the first row of F and the Jumpseats. So if you have a female F/A in a skirt or dress, well it's very difficult to be modest ala Sharon Stone in the famous scene from her movie with Michael Douglas

 

[Furloughd4now]

I don't do BOI/LAS/PHX/SNA... we've been doing the CLT/PHL-SAN/SFO/SEA turns lately. We have a 40 hour 4 day now. With 11 hours RON each day. It's no greener over here folks... don't buy into the hype.

I wish all I had to do is PHX-BOI/LAS/SNA... lol 🙂

I don't besmirch the length of the day or the difficulty of flying TA... I do, however, besmirch it as an excuse for bad service. And my replies were directly posted to folks who used them as an excuse as to why some folks' service was less than stellar.

To those of you who do your absolute best despite the circumstances, this post isn't for you. You have a heartfelt thank you instead.

You're getting semantical here, I was referring to just the fact that domestic is subjected to more brutal trips (east or west) with the west even more so because they don't fly with their pilots. Some east FAs would welcome a 40 hr 4-day. I think its insane! You know it always goes junior because the Sr. mammas want the high-time turn or HNL.

And you are right. You are there to do a job to the best of your ability. Its not the pax fault that whatever happened in you day made you a nasty sky-wench. You make do with what you have.

BOT, I do know that out of CLT they have been flying TA short-staffed as they did not have enough FAs to cover the trips..... especially over this past weekend.

 

[VAflyGal]

I don't do BOI/LAS/PHX/SNA... we've been doing the CLT/PHL-SAN/SFO/SEA turns lately. We have a 40 hour 4 day now. With 11 hours RON each day. It's no greener over here folks... don't buy into the hype.

I wish all I had to do is PHX-BOI/LAS/SNA... lol 🙂

I don't besmirch the length of the day or the difficulty of flying TA... I do, however, besmirch it as an excuse for bad service. And my replies were directly posted to folks who used them as an excuse as to why some folks' service was less than stellar.

To those of you who do your absolute best despite the circumstances, this post isn't for you. You have a heartfelt thank you instead.

Do you guys out West have the opportunity to "time out?" - That is, when you reach a certain point of time you can call out of time and be off the rest of the month?

We used to have time options - that is, if you flew your obligation you could call "out of time" -

Regarding the 40 hour 4 day.... we can call "me too" at 30 hours in 7 days - totally illegal @ 35 in 7....

Honestly, which would you, as a whole, prefer?

(I'm skeeeeredddd!!!!)

 

[HP2USFA]

We only have the ability to refuse to work over 90 in a month. There is no limit to how quickly or slowly we get to those 90 hours. Our only recourse if you will is the FAA mandated limitations of a calendar day in 7 days of flying. We've had folks work 16 days in a row because they waived their calendar day option (you can utilize 25+ hour layovers as the FAA Calendar day if you choose the option). I'm regretting choosing that option this month as it's being abused. In the past we chose it so that it opened up more flexibility for picking up trips without violating the calendar day/25 hour rule.

As for the 40 hour 4 day... I'd rather stab myself in the eye. The trips went very senior as it's like back to back turn days. The 'cartel' that normally hogs the turn days have allowed those to go a bit more junior this month... though only a few lol.

It's my absolute hope that we get those protections of yours back in our merged contract. As well as holiday pay to help offset the absolute nightmare that has become holidays on the West. Folks will actually want to work their holiday trips if they were getting time and a half again.

The sad thing is that the airline I got furloughed from has completely changed. I was lucky not to really experience any abuse by scheduling prior to the furlough... but now... I actually cried on the 2nd when the phone rang with the call from scheduling. I was just so damn tired. But wouldn't you know I had a great crew and we had an amazing trip. Best fun I've had in a while!

I really wish our FA's would take a swift lesson in solidarity from our East brothers and sisters. I know some of you have said before that you don't think you're very united... but even your worst day beats ours hands down. We're so fractured and it's allowed the company to drive a shiv so far up our collective rears sometimes I fear we'll never get it out.

And I'm done with my hijack - honest! 🙂

 

[galley princess]

The original query on this thread is how the Summer T/A season is going.

I threw in my 2 cents.

It is my belief that US T/A and increasingly domestic is understaffed. Draconian cuts that were made post 9/11 were linked with significant pull downs in domestic and International service. Meals disappeared, services were cut and three F/as on a full 737-400 were valid and six on a 767 seemed acceptable. Nine on an A330-300 was never acceptable to me. It is now 2010 and we have buy on board, snacks on board and what I will call "service leaps" going on. Has anyone taken a look at the increased service requirements that Mr. Adler is putting out? Nevermind that most aren't doing the actual service, my concern lies with the fact that at some point they may find a way to enforce these requirements and no one is bringing up the subject of staffing. What is so different about buy on board versus a the original genie tray services on the 737-400 that we used to get an extra for? Oh, yeah, now we have to stop and use the HHDs instead of just smiling through the cabin handing out meals. The new 330 coach service has F/As basically living in the aisles because that plane is too big for only 9 F/As. The lights stay on too long and it ticks off the customers. No airline staffs an international flight this poorly.

BTW, at no time did I defend lousy service due to fatigue. I happen to believe that a happy employee group does make a difference when it comes to service, however that doesn not mean I am inferring that US F/As provide anything less than a professional polite service.

By all means continue with your useless and increasingly mallignant rants against those senior to you, who are basically just trying to do the best with what they have, their seniority. Rudimentary math provides the reason that the senior fly T/A trips. I find this kind of ageist jealousy nonsense intellectually vacant and highly embarassing to the F/A group.

Congratulations, there are some very happy Tempe people who love reading this kind of divisive discourse.

 

[Furloughd4now]

The original query on this thread is how the Summer T/A season is going.

I threw in my 2 cents.

BTW, at no time did I defend lousy service due to fatigue. I happen to believe that a happy employee group does make a difference when it comes to service, however that doesn not mean I am inferring that US F/As provide anything less than a professional polite service.

By all means continue with your useless and increasingly mallignant rants against those senior to you, who are basically just trying to do the best with what they have, their seniority. Rudimentary math provides the reason that the senior fly T/A trips. I find this kind of ageist jealousy nonsense intellectually vacant and highly embarassing to the F/A group.

Congratulations, there are some very happy Tempe people who love reading this kind of divisive discourse.

Galley but you said they were "overworked" which equals fatigued. Simple "rudimentary math" shows TA gives higher time trips with less days on-duty. I hear you. They work 6 TAs a month (maybe more with ETB). What kills these FAs is their commute, but that is another subject in which I will not delve into.

You also conveniently overlooked that I previously said many TAs went out short-staffed because Many FAs both junior and Senior called off the holiday weekend. You think the trip is tough with 9 FAs, try 8! TA trips are going out this week fully staffed (well still understaffed, but you know what I mean), because FAs decided their "holiday" was over. This included the "overworked seniors" and the "truly" overworked Juniors.

If these TAs are so hard to work during normal and under new operating procedures why is it impossible to pick it up on ETB? Why isn't it going into Open Time for the RSVs?

If anyone is starting anything it is you my dear Princess. Yes, you have your seniority and I am not jealous about it so please, do not twist my words into a jealous rant. The Reserves are here to save the company's assets and not kiss yours.

That being said, I'm done here.

 

[HP2USFA]

Ageist jealousy?

That's a first. Why would I be jealous of someone who started this job before I was even born? As if I had any reasonable expectation to maintain their level of lifestyle in a seniority based system?

If I'm jealous of anything it's that you have the option to work those flights... not that you're old enough to do it.

And I think the company loves the bitching about service and public displays of company bashing much more than 'ageist jealousy'. I mean cause their just so much more professional!

 

[desertgal]

Which are the A/C with the Envoy Suites and what are their routes?

 

[AstroLounge]

Which are the A/C with the Envoy Suites and what are their routes?

Suites are on the A330-200 series. Routes are PHL-TLV, PHL-CDG, PHL-LHR and CLT-CDG. Not sure about Domestic/Caribbean. The aircraft is quite Nice.........not perfect but certainly an improvement over the A330-300 ala Armistead (The Slave Ship). Team Tempe 'trashed' that plane with sardine seating that generates a lot of p*ssing and moaning from Economy on e-v-e-r-y flight. Leg Room is one thing- now the seats are sooooooo close, many suffer from circulation issues. )I'd like to see Parker sit in Coach, Middle Seat on a 10hour flight.

 

[SS255]

Suites are on the A330-200 series. Routes are PHL-TLV, PHL-CDG, PHL-LHR and CLT-CDG. Not sure about Domestic/Caribbean. The aircraft is quite Nice.........not perfect but certainly an improvement over the A330-300 ala Armistead (The Slave Ship). Team Tempe 'trashed' that plane with sardine seating that generates a lot of p*ssing and moaning from Economy on e-v-e-r-y flight. Leg Room is one thing- now the seats are sooooooo close, many suffer from circulation issues. )I'd like to see Parker sit in Coach, Middle Seat on a 10hour flight.

Supposedly he does fly in Y, at least domestically. (We've had some Doug Parker sightings reported on Flyertalk.) And I believe that right after the A330's were re-configured from 33"=34" in Y to 30"-31", he did fly in one in Y, and remarked "the pitch is a little tight back there."

My guess is that he survived it, and figured that others would, too. (Just not me. )

It's really too bad that US doesn't have E+ in the first few rows of Y on their international fleet. I'd bet they'd make money on it, especially with the high cost of mileage upgrade co-pays and the $500 GoEnvoy charge. A lot of people would pay an extra $100 or so for a few extra inches of legroom, but when you get into the $300-$500 range in each direction......not so much.

 

[AstroLounge]

Another issue with the Suites is that there really are NOT enough of them on the A330-200 (only 20) and who knows how many they will install on the larger -300 series. Prior to the Day when "Tempe Came to Town", Envoy had 42 seats . When the a/c first debuted it also had 6 Int'l FIRST. The current A330-300 fleet is anything but comfortable. Envoy okay, but Coach needs an overhaul. Video System on the -300 is the Biggest Embarassment in Aviation Entertainment. Dud/Crap/Garbage by SONY/Rockwell Collins/Panasonic..........an abortion of a system.

 

[SS255]

Video System on the -300 is the Biggest Embarassment in Aviation Entertainment. Dud/Crap/Garbage by SONY/Rockwell Collins/Panasonic..........an abortion of a system.

That's because it's a very old system which dates back to AVOD's infancy. The technology has vastly improved since the Rockwell P@ssport system was installed.

 

[jerseyfinn]

JerseyFinn,
I definitely do not disagree with your point, I was speaking to what I have observed, not what I practice, but I also realize that I am not in their shoes. I don't work six trips a month and therefore I do not presume to judge their fatigue. It's easy for me to have a good attitude and not let the nonsense get to me, but I will tell you, if there's an odd month where I do fly more than usual, the constant non-functional equipment, the lack of supplies and the "set up for failure" reality does start to grate and then I know it's time to not add that extra trip. . .

Thanks for your response as I picked up your vibe and certainly was not trying to assail you personally. But I gotta be honest when I say we've been on TA flights when one can definitely see folks going through the motion and it does not go down good from the pax point of view . . . but then again, I bring my own perspective. That said, we had a good flight out to MAD ( still here in Spain as a matter of fact ) and the FAs did a very sincere job. Our plane has had a bit of a refurb and everything was in working order. Also had a nice chat with the FAs about equipment/ovens etc. and the differences on the A330s and B767s. You could perceive that these folks have been around and have some wisdom and philosphy to sustain them through good times or bad.

I can definitely relate to one remark you make as I'm a per diem guy who rotates around to several different clinical locations and some of them suck and it does weigh you down as the mediocrity around you sets in. What keeps me afloat is knowing that I'm not in this location every day. I guess above all things, when I rotate to those crummy locations, one thing which sustains me is looking at those workers who have slipped into mediocre routines/practices is not letting that stuff into my head or practice. That said, we all have an occassional bad day and when it happens to me, the folks around me definitely remember it.

We've got a return flight ( Envoy ) on the horizon and are looking forward to it. Hopefully the FAs are old farts like my wife and I and we all have a good ride home.

Barry