A malfunction by an American Airlines bidding system program provided at least 200 legacy US Airways flight attendants with December schedules –including holiday schedules — they don’t want to fly, provoking an angry outcry on social media.
American is sufficiently concerned that it is offering incentives including 150% pay for every trip that legacy US Airways flight attendants fly between Dec. 15 and Dec. 31; 300% pay for flight attendants who agree to work the mistakenly assigned trips and pay protection for flight attendants who do not fly them.
Normally, a preferential bidding system allows flight attendants to bid for the flights they want to fly, with the most senior bidders most likely to be awarded the flights they choose.
American and US Airways merged in 2013. Legacy American flight attendants have a different bidding system and are not impacted by the glitch, which some legacy US Airways flight attendants are calling “the glitch that stole Christmas.”
“It’s horrific,” said a legacy US Airways flight attendant who asked not to be named. “We are up in arms. The new system awarded people from all seniorities crazy schedules.
“Some from 1989 and junior are scheduled from {Dec. 15th to Dec. 31st} with no days off or one day off in between. They are also assigning trips to senior people that should have been assigned to junior people and they are making people work days off they would have held.
“The company won’t rerun the bids because they said the vendor can’t guarantee the same thing won’t happen,” the flight attendant said.
While American said about 200 flight attendants were directly impacted, the impact is magnified because other flight attendants lower on the seniority list were awarded trips after more senior flight attendants were assigned trips they did not want.
Forbes
Hard times ahead at Air France
Air France is set to slash thousands of jobs and scale back long-haul flights as part of a vast cost-cutting programme after it failed to reach an agreement with its pilots over an increase of their working hours, its board announced Thursday.
The cutbacks will include “a reduction of activity by Air France in 2016 and 2017, in order to guarantee the economic objectives and the company’s future”, the board said in a statement, with the full details to be presented to the airline’s central committee Monday.
The airline, part of the Franco-Dutch Air France-KLM group, has previously said it may have to scrap 10 percent of its long-haul network by 2017 as part of the cost-cutting exercise, something unions have estimated will see around 4,000 jobs axed.
The decision by Air France to enact its “Plan B” restructuring programme followed months of fraught negotiations between the airline and its pilots, who last year waged the longest strike in the company’s history.
Under Air France’s initial restructuring plan, designed to make the airline more competitive in the face of increasing international competition, pilots would have been required to spend between 15 and 20 percent more time in the sky but for the same salaries.
Unions have said this is the equivalent to six weeks’ extra work without pay.
But talks to reach an agreement with pilots over the proposals broke down on Wednesday.
“The many hours of talks and negotiations, closely followed by the chairman and CEO of Air France, could not yield, within a reasonable timetable, an agreement insuring the growth and competitiveness of the company,” the airline said.
Air France-KLM is looking to boost its competitive edge against its main European rivals, Lufthansa and British Airways-Iberia.
The company has been struggling financially for some time, showing losses of 619 million euros in the first half of 2015 with an overall debt of around 5.4 billion euros.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Thursday encouraged both sides to return to the negotiating table, while calling on the pilots to show more flexibility.
“Air France is a national company that bears the colours of France and it is facing a challenge to its competitiveness,” he said.
”Everyone must make an effort and of course that starts with the pilots.”
France 24
F/A makes 1M$ extra via the “Mile High Club”
A stewardess was caught with a passenger inside the lavatory of an aircraft owned by a Middle East carrier during flight.
The airlines immediately sacked the hostess after she admitted to seducing with other passengers during flight to make money, newspapers said, adding that the unnamed stewardess had made more than $1 million (Dh3.7 million) over two years.
The papers, citing airline sources, said the passenger admitted that she seduced him into the lavatory for $2,000 (Dh7,400).
“She admitted that she had sex with many other passengers during flight and that she preferred long distance flights between the Gulf and the United States,” the Saudi Arabic language daily ‘Sada’ said.
The paper did not name the airline but said it immediately sacked and deported the stewardess, who had made $2,000 almost on every flight.
Emirates 24/7