MEC Central Schedule & Reserve Committee SWLOF Report

Date: October 10, 2008

Line Review

Line Review (SWLOF) for the November 2008 line recommendations was held October 6-8, 2008. Beatrice, Cory, Jean and Sandy attended.

As we expected, line averages are higher for November (80:00 to 84:00) although we were surprised at the number of locations where utilization was set closer to 80:00. This helped ease line construction issues, especially with the multiple changes in trip IDs around the Thanksgiving holiday. Most locals were able to perform their own fixes. In discussions with the Company they have told us to expect all locations to return to 84:00 by the January 2009 schedule month.

As a large portion of the domestic build period fell over a weekend (Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5), we noted some issues where Local Schedule Committee members assumed the Company would have Schedule Planners in the office on either Saturday or Sunday. We were unaware of any plan put in place by the Company to have personnel available nor are we aware of any request by an LSC to have a Schedule Planner available.

We remind all Locals the Company is responsible for contacting each Local Schedule Committee Chairperson with the timeline information for the upcoming build. At some point between release of the upcoming timeline and transmission of the DSL, there should be communication between the Local Schedule Committee Chairperson and the Schedule Planner as to which Schedule Planner(s) will be available during the build period. We encourage these conversations to not wait until the day the DSL is transmitted (or after) if there is an expectation of Schedule Planners being available on weekends.

All of us on Central Schedule Committee recognize the difficulties associated with the condensed timeline. Our experience has shown that good communication before the build period begins results in a smoother process for all involved. To be clear, if any LSC’s have proactively asked for a Schedule Planner to be available on a weekend day and the Company has refused, please contact CSC immediately. While your particular Schedule Planner may not be available, a different Schedule Planner may be.

Reserve LOFs

If you are contacted by your Schedule Planner about a deficiency in meeting a target, we strongly encourage you to count the targets and compare the output you receive from the Company to that which was originally requested in the reserve parameters. Often there are problems with the data once it has been entered into RESPLAN. Sometimes in can be the result of a keying error while other times it is a problem with “phantom” changes made by the computer program to the requirements after input.

If you find you are having difficulty meeting the targets set by the Company, please contact a member of CSC so that we can verify the targets you are being sent are attainable. Alternatively, we are available to offer suggestions on alternate ways to meet the targets using patterns we have historically submitted.

Transmission / Timeline

We remind all Local Schedule Committees the Company is obligated to always provide not only the DSL, but the pair editors and distribution summaries for all crew complements. If you are not receiving all of these tools, please contact a member of Central Schedule Committee immediately. Even if you do not use all of these tools in your particular builds, for consistency we expect the Company to consistently provide these every month to all locations.

When submitting your recommendations, please confirm that your Schedule Planner has received them. The Company continues to experience problems with Schedule Planners not receiving email recommendations. During the build for the November schedule month, the Company experienced many difficulties as their email system ‘slowed-down’ significantly. There were instances where email delivery was delayed for several hours – (perhaps taking a cue from other aspects of the Company’s operation).

If you do transmit electronically, please include CSC (csc@unitedafa.org) as an additional addressee on the e-mail. If you fax, arrange for your Schedule Planner to confirm receipt of your recommendations. Always keep a copy and, if you won’t be available after you’ve submitted your recommendations, be sure your Local Schedule Committee Chairperson has or knows how to obtain a copy of your work.

Provide your Schedule Planner with specific information about your availability to complete fixes to your recommendations. If you are unable to fix your recommendations, CSC is always available to provide support and assistance - please let us know of your plans.

Contract Compliance

During the August DSL review of the October 2008 flying, CSC noted the Company planned to operate flight 895 ORD-HKG as a 747-OB. The DSL transmitted to both Council 8 and Council 26 Local Schedule Committee’s indicated the flight would also operate as a 747-OB. To dispatch the 747OB, the FAA minimum is 8 Flight Attendants – however, the duty period for flight 895 ORD-HKG exceeds 18 hours, and the augmented staffing requirement of FAR121.467 kicks in to require a minimum of 11 Flight Attendants to be on the aircraft for dispatch. The staffing levels we reviewed in August supported this requirement.

At some time between DSL transmission to the Local Schedule Committees and printing of the October 2008 Key Pages, the Company changed the equipment from a 747OB to an OC. The FAA minimum on the 747OC is 10 Flight Attendants, and the augmented staffing requirement of the ORD-HKG segments requires an additional 3 Flight Attendants for a total of 13. As this staffing was known and required, it should have been included in the October Lines of Flying as required by the language in Sections 9.A.1. and 9.C.1. of the Contract.

At no point did the Company notify either CSC or the Local Schedule Committee’s of Councils 8 and 26 of the change to the aircraft schedule. Additional staffing was not published for bid in the October Lines of Flying – in violation of the language of Section 9.A.1. and 9.C.1 of the Contract. Mark reviewed this situation with Jason Doetsch to discuss how this oversight occurred and what steps the Company will take to prevent this in the future.

Additional positions have been added during October on flight 895 ORD-HKG via 8000/9000 trip IDs in the operation to support the augmented staffing requirement and cure the staffing deficiency.

We remind all Local Schedule Committees that CSC does not review the weekend, transition or exception pairings. Please review all of the pairings in your DSL for Contractual compliance. With the increase in the number of trip IDs, especially in the domestic operation, we are experiencing more problematic IDs that have not been caught by the Company’s quality-control processes. Please continue to scrutinize your DSL and notify CSC of any questionable trip IDs.

CSC asks all locals to review the relief lines of flying published by the Company as soon as possible to ensure that they are indeed contractually compliant and represent the recommendations of your Local Schedule Committee. Local Schedule Committees are responsible for ensuring the relief award complies with the language of Section 9.A.2 and 9.A.3 of the Contract.

It is incumbent on Local Schedule Committee Chairpersons to ensure that recommendations for the construction of relief and reserve move-up lines of flying are submitted to the Company as required by the Contract. We recently received information from the Company advising us of a change in how the Company would like to see the Relief and Reserve move-up letter sent to the Company. Please send these recommendations via e-mail to Sue Cleverly at Susan.Cleverly@united.com, and copy in Dave Windall at Dave.Windall@united.com and Craig Lister at Craig.Lister@united.com. Additionally, please copy in csc@unitedafa.org.

As an additional point of clarification, please continue to include your schedule planner as an addressee on the e-mail. Advance Schedule Planning maintains the responsibility for the construction of relief lines of flying. The Flight Attendant Service Center, at the direction of OPB Crew Scheduling – has the responsibility of building the reserve move-up lines of flying.

CSC reminds all locals of the application of Section 12.K. of the Contract (the international 1-in-7 rule) in the construction of line recommendations. While 1-in-7 can be satisfied as, ‘One (1) 24-hour period free from duty at an away from domicile point’ it has been the long-standing practice of the Association to ensure, unless mathematically impossible, that all line recommendations include at least 1 calendar day at home in seven days. Please do not back-up trips that eliminate the possibility of 1 calendar day free from duty at home (in seven days). If you find it impossible to do so, please contact a member of CSC immediately so we can work out an alternate solution.

Relief lines should also be constructed observing 1 calendar day off in seven at home – please continue to review your relief lines for compliance. In addition, relief lines of flying should be built using all flying that becomes open after the award of primary schedules – including any language qualified flying. Please monitor your relief lines to ensure language relief lines are being constructed consistent with the requirements of the Contract.

We want to remind all Local Schedule Committee Chairpersons about the language of Section 3.N.2.b of the Contract. As soon as possible after reviewing the DSL, when you submit Line of Flying recommendations, the Local Schedule Committee should make recommendations to the Company as to the sequencing of trips for relief and reserve move-up lines. These recommendations are to be considered in the construction of lines. Please copy CSC in on these recommendation letters.

It is incumbent on Local Schedule Committee Chairpersons to ensure that recommendations for the construction of relief and reserve move-up lines of flying are submitted to the Company as required by the Contract. If you have any questions, please contact a member of Central Schedule Committee.

We continue to dispute the Company’s arbitrary restriction on line values to less than 100 hours. Please continue to submit patterned lines even if the value of the line exceeds 100 hours. Contact Central Schedule Committee should you have questions or concerns.

Please continue to submit lines pure and in pattern as required by the Contract. We remind Local Schedule Committees of the Contractual parameters requiring the segregation of qualified flying in lines containing qualified flying. Consideration should be given to the value of the trip pairing as well as to the utilization average, as set by the Company, in determining the pattern used in making your legal recommendations. Please contact a member of Central Schedule Committee if you have questions or membership concerns specific to your domicile.

Committee Activities

During October 7-9, 2008 Mark attended the Fall 2008 UAL MEC Meeting in Chicago.

During the Fall 2008 UAL MEC Meeting, Theresa Carter, Council 10 Local Schedule Committee was successfully elected to Central Schedule Committee. Her term will commence on January 1, 2009 and run through December 31, 2010. We welcome Theresa to CSC and look forward to working with her.

Transfers

Please review any transfer request(s) you may have on file and delete those for which you no longer have an interest. Transfers awarded and not subsequently accepted will restrict additional transfer opportunities for individual Flight Attendants for a period of three (3) months as provided in Section 22.A.2. of our Contract.

Future Dates

Please contact your Schedule Planner to arrange for transmission of the DSL. Federal Express is available when necessary. We remind you, the Contract provides for a FULL three days for completing international and domestic recommendations. We encourage you to use the time available to consider all possibilities before submitting these recommendations to the Company. Please contact a member of CSC if you have questions or are looking to consider alternate possibilities in the sequencing of trips to meet the needs of your membership.

Timeline Information for Building the December 2008 Schedule:

The Company’s scheduled guests for the upcoming DSL meetings are:

October -SFO November – DCA December - ORD