Originally Posted by
nomad420
I realize that this is coming from basically all second hand sources but the FA state they are NOW able to work directly out of CLE and now they don't have to travel to a hub (ie. ORD) to start work. This has already begun and supposedly, at least for the UA employees, this is a big deal.
Of course this is a bit of a game of speculation but the CLE-based FAs/pilots have, with few exceptions, always started/ended trips in Cleveland -- but the bases (maybe FA only) have been 'closed' for years -- meaning no one could transfer in to the base and FAs that transferred out weren't being replaced. There was some speculation among (non-CLE based) FA friends that the company was trying to close the base through attrition to both get rid of the base and avoid having to pay moving costs if they just cut the base and forced FAs to relocate to other bases.
What I'm guessing was the root of what you heard (and this is a bit of speculation on my part) is that now that the base is open again and the pmCO/pmUA FA ranks have been integrated... pmUA FAs -- of which there seem to be quite a few in the CLE area and many commute to ORD specifically -- can now transfer to or pick up trips from the CLE base, skipping the commute.