Senior Opting (Section 7.O.7.)

Date: November 15, 2022

Reserve Flight Attendants who have questions regarding the application of the language in Section 7.O. of our Contract are encouraged to review the circumstances under which a Reserve can be senior opted from their position.

As outlined in the Contract, Reserve Flight Attendants may be senior opted out of a position under the following circumstances: 

• At the airport, only the open position that was assigned to a Reserve is available for senior option. If a more senior Flight Attendant senior opts the Reserve from their position, the Reserve Flight Attendant assumes the position that was vacated by the more senior Flight Attendant. The Reserve may only be opted out of a position once, and the seniority option can occur only at the beginning of a pairing and before preflight duties have begun. 
• Reserve Flight Attendants assigned to a position having a different pairing number cannot be opted out of the position unless the pairings contain identical flight segments. Language qualified (LQ) Reserve Flight Attendants may only be senior opted by senior LQ Flight Attendants having the same primary language qualification and in the language base.

Note: Reserve Flight Attendants assigned to an LQ position who are not qualified in the designated language may be opted by a more senior Flight Attendant

• Reserve International Purser qualified Flight Attendants may only be senior opted by a more senior International Purser Flight Attendant. An International Purser Qualified Flight Attendant shall have priority over a non-International Purser Flight Attendant who has been assigned to an open International Purser bid position.

Exception:  If the Purser (“A” position) is picked up from open time, seniority option shall be permitted among all of the Flight Attendants on the same pairing even if the position is occupied by a lineholder.