Frontier Airlines is reorganizing its schedules so that planes do more out-and-back trips, instead of flying all over their system. That way, when a plane breaks down or there’s bad weather in a city, the effect is localized instead of creating delays and cancellations for them all over the country.
More than 90% of the time a plane will return to base at night under this plan, which is also great for overnight maintenance.
Last year was the second-worst U.S. airline for on-time operations so they need to do something, and this makes sense. But their flight attendants are furious about the change.
Normally you hear about grueling trips, where flight attendants complain they’re gone for too long. You might think not having to overnight in a hotel in a different city each day would be great – returning home at night and sleeping in your own bed.
However Frontier Airlines flight attendants are complaining about this.
- They give up tax-free per diems when they’re on the road (per diems on one-day trips are tax-reportable because they aren’t traveling overnight away from home)
- If they don’t actually live in the city where they’re “based” they’re stuck with having responsibility for lodging in that city. Instead of, say, commuting to Denver and being on the company dime from the moment they arrive to when they fly to their actual home they need to pay for lodging in Denver
- And they have to commute to work (the airport) and back each day on their own dime, instead of commutes being on shuttles to and from a hotel arranged by their employer.
In other words, the problem for flight attendants is they’re being asked to transition to a job that’s more like what most other people have – live in the city where they report to work, and commute each day.
This makes sense for the airline but it’s a shift in lifestyle for flight attendants. The move will save the airline money not just from a more reliable operation but also on meals and lodging when they don’t have to put up their flight crews on the road. (It should also be good for pilot rest and therefore safety to have pilots spending the night in their own beds.)
Flight attendants union head Sara Nelson explains AFA-CWA’s formal complaint under the Railway Labor Act. The union says that “[t]he contract provides for a ‘variety of trips in each base'” although it doesn’t explain why different routings and destinations (rather than one day and multi-day) doesn’t accomplish that, and why reducing but not eliminating multi-day trips doesn’t either.
“This is a gross example of corporate greed,” said Sara Nelson, AFA International President. “Management’s turn plan is shifting corporate costs including hotel and transportation directly onto individual Flight Attendants. If Frontier wants to make these changes, they MUST negotiate to reflect the completely new business model.”
According to Frontier Airlines,
We are committed to safety and reliability. Last year we had excessive cancellations primarily as a result of air traffic control delays. In such instances, more passengers are negatively affected by delays and cancellations when aircraft are routed on multi-day trips versus out and back flying which significantly decreases downline impacts.
To better serve our customers we have reduced multi-day trips although we are still operating some for those crew members who prefer them. For the first two months of the year, we are number one in completion for the industry suggesting early results are encouraging.
None of this should be surprising to flight attendants who went to training at a truck stop off the freeway in Wyoming because it’s cheaper than Denver.
(HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)
Oh Gary, who in upper management @ F9 paid you to write this bullshit?!
Sit the hell down & brush up on your grammar next time you write garbage you are ill informed about. It’s the least you can do, sweetie.
This model works great for Avelo. Budget airlines need this to survive..
So all of you who keep saying find a new job or just think of us as coke machines?? Sit down, shut up, do some homework on what trying FAs go through and maybe then you’ll think differently. This article is absolutely disgusting, disrespectful, and despicable. I’m going to wager Uncle B had something to do with this awful article. Nobody asked us FAs how this would effect us and we were ALL hired under the impression we are still getting layovers. This is NOT what we signed up for. I’m sorry Gary, but you don’t know the job in and out like you claim to. The turn model is greatly effecting our paychecks and our livelihood, oh and our mental status. But go on Gary on how you think we should just go find another job because it’s THAT easy. What a jerk.
Awwwww. Poor widdle cokey machines are upset. Get a real job.
My love-hate relationship with Frontier results in my feeling a certain satisfaction from knowing that the stewardesses are being subjected to the same inconveniences that the passengers are from Frontier’s cost-cutting measures. I hope that the awful gate clerk in San Diego that forced me to pay $100 to check my personal item that somehow made the cut on the flight out is especially inconvenienced by this measure.
Wow Gary, even for you, that last comment is quite harsh.
Is this why our flight was delayed 7 hours in Denver? The management was rude and told 4 different reason why it was delayed. We should have went with Southwest but my uncle wanted to save some money. Which we didn’t after all the fees it costed the same as a straight flight. All I wanted to do was make memories with my favorite uncle.
gary is just the messenger here
all of the comments so far are attacking the messenger
and for any drivebys without a dog in the hunt, the F9 training center is indeed at a truck stop in Cheyenne WY at the Little America Hotel and Resort, adjacent to a Little America Travel Center, which is, based on the satellite imagery, indeed, a truck stop, albeit with a 9-hole course and a pool
wrt to losing per-diems on layovers, that’s one thing; the real argument is the disruption to living arrangements for FAs wherever they are based; many probably just took a 25% hit to their takehome pay
united sure could make use of that airbus fleet based in denver…….
period to satisfy the accommodations and personal obligations the FA’s will face. Negotiate hourly rates since the per diem won’t exist and drive to work and pack a lunch. This industry is one of the few that have per diem and it’s not uncommon for the individuals to consider that as their income when actually it can be eliminated saving the company money that can be better well spent on safety. I think FA’s should be upgraded to passing a physical including firearm training and have a bottle of water in each seat pocket and no beverage cart!
Just get me there safe.
I just need to know if this is true as I’m flying out tomorrow to become an FA ? Because I will not be able to travel to Orlando and back for work.
Hey now, Cheyenne, Wyoming is home to Taco John’s. Good eating and those potato oles served in the greasy little cups are a hungover pilot’s elixir. They (TJ’s) may be hiring, too if @F9 FA needs a lead.
@F9 FA I don’t just think of some members of your profession as ‘Coke machines’. Some among your profession behave like they’re ‘coke-addled’.
Clearly this “author” is ignorant of how things work for flight crew. Are you aware we’re not paid except until the boarding door is closed and we push back from the gate? Pay stops when that door opens. Are you aware it’s common to have 13 hour duty days? That does not include any commuting time, driving or flying in. None of us would have signed up for this without the layovers. Short or long, we need rest too. Imagine your employer taking away the one good thing about your job with no input from employees.
As a non-commuting flight attendant I’m tired of the airlines pandering to commuters. They get their first 3 (or 4, I forget) missed trips excused and the company builds trips to accommodate them. Meaning late trips on the first day and extremely early get ups on the last day so they can make their flight home. I’m a night person. I can’t even find trips that are consistent all 3 days – meaning if you sign in late on the first day that the second and third day of your trips will also start late. Having the first day start late and the arrival day early is bad for your body. The airline shouldn’t build schedules to accommodate commuters. They choose to commute. The airline can’t build the job around someone’s lifestyle. You have to build your lifestyle around the airline’s business plan. As for the person that said poor widdle coke machines. Find a real job, up yours!
Commuting started in the 60s when the 25ish airlines had multiple bases for Pilots and FAs. Sometimes the roots you put down at Base X were compromised by family life events or shifts in the employer’s basing and line origination, or mergers, or fleet changes, etc.etc.etc.. But it was never seen as a permanent thing until one had 20ish years of seniority and living not near your base became a regular thing required to hold lines on larger metal.
F9 has 13 pilot bases. There are no juicy international lines. The fleet is homogeneous. Many of these cities have costs of living far lower than Denver.
F9 should take half the cost savings and roll it in to a base increase for all F9 FAs.
@nancy – you funny girl – we not know no ACARS round here – nnooooo – not us