Our current Contract provides valuable scheduling flexibility through two important provisions: Personal Drops (PD) and guaranteed Personal Time Off (PTO). These options, outlined in Section 7, are designed to help Flight Attendants maintain a healthy balance between their work and personal lives.
Personal Drops allow Flight Attendants to request time off without pay by dropping a scheduled pairing, subject to operational approval. This benefit offers protected time off granted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Personal Drop - Section 7.M.
- Flight Attendants may personal drop a trip pairing subject to operational requirements. Requests will only be accepted the day before report time of the trip pairing and will be granted on a first come, first served basis.
- Flight attendants may drop a portion/portions of a trip when it transits the Base the day of the trip, if staffing allows. The original value of the pairing shall be reduced by the scheduled flight time of the segments dropped.
The portion of the trip placed into open time shall be credited with the greater of the scheduled or actual flight time for the segments. A partial trip drop transaction, in and of itself, shall not generate a rig or hotel room. If the portion of the trip is subsequently assigned to a Reserve, the Reserve will receive rigs and hotel rooms attributable to the trip.
Personal Time Off (PTO), on the other hand, is a contractual benefit that offers protected time off without pay, granted on a seniority basis with allotments per day, guaranteed to each base.
Personal Time Off - Section 7.AA.
- Guaranteed PTO time will be made available to Flight Attendants on a daily basis regardless of White Flag. Guaranteed PTO will consist of one percent (1%) of a Domicile’s active Flight Attendant population on any day. Such PTO will be granted on a seniority basis a day at a time to Flight Attendants; however, to ensure equitable distribution, Flight Attendants may use the guaranteed PTO for eight (8) days a year. The daily percentage will be allocated in two (2) equal parts (any fraction will be allocated to the fifteen [15] day-in-advance portion). The first part will be awarded fifteen (15) days in advance. Any unused PTO will be allocated to the corresponding five (5) day-in-advance portion. A one (1) day notice will be required to qualify for the remaining guaranteed PTO time. If the needs of the service permit, however, any unused slots may continue to be available until 0001 of the requested day. Such requests will have priority over personal drops.
- PTO shall not be awarded to a Flight Attendant who is on duty and unavailable to utilize such PTO.
- Flight time lost due to Personal Time Off may be made up during the month taken if authorized by Inflight Scheduling.
- If a PTO day will cause a Reserve to be unable to be assigned on her/his remaining days of availability, the Reserve will be placed on PTO for the day requested and CNF for the subsequent days on in the reserve block if the next block of days off are Set days.
Together, these tools give us greater control over our schedules, enabling us to manage personal commitments, rest, and recovery, while still meeting the demands of our job. Understanding and using these provisions effectively empowers us to take care of ourselves both on and off duty.