United Airlines Cracks Down on Reserve Flight Attendants Absent from Base During Duty Period
United Airlines is targeting new-hire flight attendants who have allegedly gone AWOL while on reserve duty, doling out disciplinary action, including termination, to crew members who have been accused of what the Chicago-based carrier describes as ‘being out of position.’ Junior flight attendants at United Airlines generally spend their first two to three years on reserve duty, which means they don’t have fixed flights in their roster but are on reserve for last-minute callouts for flights that don’t have enough assigned crew members due to sickness or unexpected changes. Reserve flight attendants normally have several to get to their assigned base if they are called from home reserve, but many new-hire crew members don’t live in their base city because United’s hub airports are located in some of the most expensive metro areas in the United States, with a very high cost of living. It appears that some flight attendants are taking a risk by not being physically present at their assigned base at the exact time their reserve period is due to begin. Instead, they are on a commuting flight to their assigned base at this time, knowing that even if they were called for a duty, they would still arrive within the callout window. In other cases, though, some flight attendants are believed to be taking a calculated risk and not even bothering to travel to the same city as their assigned base. In these cases, the flight attendants can see where their name appears on the reserve callout list and figure that the chance of them getting called out isn’t worth their effort to commute to their base. Since February, however, United has been clamping down on this behavior, with the airline taking the position that reserve flight attendants must be physically present at their assigned base or within a three-hour travel time from the moment the reserve period starts. While the airline isn’t tracking flight attendants using company-issued smartphones, the airline is able to scour flight bookings to determine whether a crew member is ‘out of position’ at the time their reserve duty starts. For example, if a crew member has booked a standby flight from the city in which they live to their base, and it’s not set to depart until after their reserve duty starts, then this is a good indication that the flight is ‘out of position.’ Likewise, if a flight attendant has traveled on a flight from their base to the city in which they live but hasn’t booked a flight to return to base on the day their next reserve duty starts, then this also indicates that the crew member was hoping they just wouldn’t be called out. It’s United’s stated position that reserve flight attendants must be in their base city by 11 pm the night before their reserve duty starts. The reserve duty then starts at one minute past midnight, and the first time they are expected to start is at 4 am. The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) is challenging United’s clampdown, saying that their contract explicitly states that reserve crew members are only required to be available to accept an assignment and then timely report for that assignment as given at the stated times. In other words, as long as the flight attendant accepts the assignment and turns up at base at the required time, it shouldn’t matter where they were before that point. The union has filed a grievance in an attempt to get United to ease off, but while the grievance works its way through the legal process, AFA has warned its members that the airline could continue to discipline flight attendants that is has deemed as being ‘out of position.’ In 2022, American Airlines terminated more than 50 flight attendants in just six months over similar allegations. The airline started terminating crew members after it became so frustrated with reserve flight attendants failing to turn up for flights they had been assigned. Reserve life for new-hire flight attendants is not for the faint-hearted and is frequently cited as one of the most stressful aspects of the job for junior crew members. With few days off and little holiday time, it’s probably no surprise that some flight attendants are trying to maximize the amount of time they get to spend at home.
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