tom911

Is that something UA management is asking for in the FA contract? I'd be surprised if they're making that big of a leap, along with the costs of implementing a performance based program for assignments, so soon after the merger with all the other contract issues in play.

Xyzzy

Seniority-based route assignments are the nrm in the airline industry, at least for US carriers. I wouldn't expect that to change.

SPLITTERZ

I'd have to agree with the other poster. Purser, is more to the point. ISM/FSC is too drawn out. I hope that's the lingo the joint contract follows, "Purser."

kettle1

This it the key word SIDE.

Employees of the NEW United Airlines now work for United Continental Holdings, Inc. (UAL) There is no SIDE - you are now a team. A team works together!

Employees of this NEW company need to get over it and realize there is no more UA or CO - it is a new company.

Love it or leave it (your choice). If unhappy = Leave.

mymiles2go

Well, don't let facts get in the way or anything of a good bold-typed post...

There is a side, and that's what Jose was pointing out (explaining rather helpfully). They're two separate contracts and the official term used is as he noted it.

The entire point of this thread (see title) was to allow folks to explain how the "FA Integration" was going to work. The mere word integration implies two separate components being merged. It's sorta difficult to talk about two separate contract components being merged if we have to pretend two separate components don't exist.

kettle1

The bold is to show that there is no more UA or CO. This is only what has been going on this past year: (chart for UAL / DAL). I don't care about UA or DL, but if I owned stocks (I do by the way), I would choose DAL on this one (and that is the one I still "hold") DAL.

PLEASE READ THIS CHART (1YEAR):

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=U...rce=undefined;

If the Union FA's would think about who employees them, maybe they would cut the crap and work as a team. DL figured this out and they took a vote Union or Non-Union, guess who won. Non Union.

Lately, former NW FA's on DL seem pretty happy, in fact very customer friendly, except one flt I had a former union rep FA I had on a DL flt .....ing between MSP and LAS) about how she "has to work".

I could give a crap about what airline, UA, DL, AA, US, WN etc. Let me fly without hearing the UA/CO FA crying about the union contracts, etc. on a 5 hour flt. Again if you don't like it - leave.

nerdbirdsjc

That's not true, so why the bolding? The flight attendants, res agents, ticket counter/gate/lounge agents, rampers, mechanics, etc. all work under legacy CO
OR legacy UA contracts or workrules.

When the groups get joint agreements covering them like they're one airline, they'll begin to act like one airline.

edcho

Agreed -- they even have different systems (scheduling software, etc) that they work with. If you visit Willis Tower, they have "North" systems which are pmUA and "South" systems which are pmCO. Everything (behind the scenes minus the PSS) is pretty much still pmUA and pmCO.

JOSECONLSCREW28

Agreed. If you went on United.com and went to the careers section and was searching for job and read the job description you'll often see :

"This position will be hired under the subsidiary Continental Airlines collective bargaining agreement or divisional work rules until a joint agreement or combined divisional work rules are obtained"

"This position will be hired under the subsidiary United Airlines collective bargaining agreement or divisional work rules until a joint agreement or combined divisional work rules are obtained".

dbaker

Like most designations in aviation (e.g., captain), it is actually a marine term that probably existed for hundreds of years prior to the first flight & is used more consistently on ships than planes.

Indeed the sCO names are long, but they actually describe the role, especially now that UA is cashless.

Baze

Whenever I see the title Purser I always think of Fred Grandy who played Gopher on the Love Boat, he was the Purser.

FLYMSY

How about cashier, then? Or, ICCSP - international credit card scanner person?

Driving by DCA

As others have said Purser is in no way unique to aviation. In fact it is a title "borrowed" from maritime operations, I'd guess by Pan Am since they also brought us the "naval style" pilot uniform and other marketing details back in the day when airplanes competed with ocean liners.

Purser may be shorter, but unless you understand the maritime roots of the term or just fly a lot on an airline that uses it, it conveys little or nothing about what the job is.

Just doing a quick survey of other major airlines, it also seems that a lot of airlines use something other than "purser." Here is just a smattering (see this thread if you want to read a lot about the topic).

• QANTAS uses Customer Service Manager.
• BA uses Cabin Services Director
• CX uses Inflight Service Manager
• AF uses Chef de Cabin Principal, because of course they do

Of course, if you flew pmUA much or fly sUA much today, you know that the flight attendants are primarily there for our safety. So shouldn't the position be called Cabin Safety Director?

CO777DAL

That is not entirely true. Like other pointed out United Airlines is operated as if it were two airlines. There is a sUA and a sCO.

See this post is correct.


You can see for yourself how UA operates. The video below is the NOC at United Continental Holdings Headquarters in the Willis Tower and there are two systems. This video in particular, they talk about flight attendants scheduling and a lady who worked on both sUA and sCO was asked which one she prefers. All over UA NOC all the departments are sUA and sCO. It is the same as running two different airlines.

HD Part 2B United Airlines NOC In-Flight Crew Scheduling Flight Attendants Network Operations Center
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJcMOHjR5mc
There are many more videos with different departments and you can see all have sUA and sCO.

kettle1

And when they begin to act like one airline will they correct this:

UA - DL over the past year.

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=U...rce=undefined;

UA has many GREAT employees! Some bad, like any company. If UA would have looked at DL before and during the merger - they would have figured out how to do it right.

Now who suffers me - the kettle in 37J.

Kidding. I'm in 3B with my g&t. Have a great weekend!