AA/US Seniority Bid Fiasco...
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.
