As United moves through the phases of their merger, we will continue to see the “redeployment” or movement of flying between the subsidiaries in the domestic and international operations as management attempts to place aircraft in markets to match the demand of passengers and maximize revenue opportunities. Because this isn’t necessarily an exact science, change is a constant. With the expansion of flying assigned at Newark to the JFK domicile combined with the opening of a new United Flight Attendant domicile in Houston and several new Continental Flight Attendant satellite bases, the reassignment of flying between the subsidiaries is evident. As a result of these changes, some domiciles/bases will see an increase in size, while others may see a modest decrease in flying.

United’s recently announced additional anticipated changes to international flying, that will be effective during the summer of 2013, is a result of these redeployment initiatives. There remains an outstanding number of questions about how the company will manage these changes in flying and how these will impact Flight Attendant schedules. Our Contract has a number of built in job security and income protections as well as provisions the company can use to manage these changes.

The Scope provisions of our Contract ensure that United Flight Attendants work on United Aircraft while the Transition and Process Agreement ensures maintenance of the flying ratios that existed between the two subsidiaries as of the date of the merger until a combined Contract is ratified.

Management has the ability to operate a number of “levers” in meeting all of the Contract requirements. This includes adjusting line averages, changing where flying is assigned through the ID construction process and including all staffing in the pre-scheduled flying in the bid package. In addition, additional schedule flexibility is available to Flight Attendants through the use of 30-day ANP and increased daily ANP which includes opportunities for the use of Day at a time (DAT) vacation.

At the same time, our Reserve Rotation system ensures that Flight Attendants who have reached their fifth anniversary will be guaranteed to hold a line of flying at minimum every other month. This requirement ensures that flying is assigned to each location to meet the company’s Lineholder obligation for the Flight Attendants at the location. Should you have additional questions, please contact your Local Council office.