The SWAPA Ride Report: Scheduling Implementation, Contract Q&A, and the new SWAPA App

The latest episode of the SWAPA Ride Report is now available!

In this week’s edition, Matt McCants from the Communications Committee goes over the multiple scheduling touches that are on deck in the next several quarters. He also speaks to the Joint Implementation Committee’s progress on Side Letter 2. The Contract Administration Q&A also covers several popular scheduling topics like the 12-hour RAP, short notice open time (SNOT) awards, and the mysterious vacation week disappearances some members have seen in CWA. He also plugs the new SWAPA App, which became available on Wednesday and is already being used by over a third of the Pilots.

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Transcript

Welcome back to the SWAPA Ride Report for Friday, November 22nd , 2024.   

The SWAPA Ride Report is your source for headlines, updates, and answers to frequently asked questions regarding your new Collective Bargaining Agreement.   

I’m your host, Matt McCants with SWAPA Communications.

The popular topic of scheduling implementation changes leads the news this week as the Scheduling and Analytics Committee has been hard at work on several major implementation projects planned for 2025. These include the Reserve Release Until Check-in feature – Q1 of 2025, the Reserve Proffer Process – Q2 of 2025, and updates to ELITT functionality for direct drop and pickup also in Q2 of next year—all crucial gains that will enhance pilot scheduling flexibility.  

Weekly meetings with Southwest IT and Scheduling continue to refine these systems, ensuring they’reready for rollout, and while the company reports an 89% implementation completion of line items by year’s end, the SAC and company IT are tackling some of the most complex and impactful projects that are still ahead.  

In addition to these developments, negotiations within the joint implementation committee are ongoing, including Side Letter 2 preparation and discussions around contract interpretations. Recent topics include minimum connection times, inbound reserve utilization, and duty day limits during diversions. Expect further comm on these topics as they get finalized.   

More on the tech front, the Pay Audit tool has been updated to account for Market Timing Adjustments,and has already helped pilots resolve several pay discrepancies. The SAC and Contract Admin teams arealso working with some new AI tools to improve contract interpretations and cross checking those against some of the other in house processes.   

Stay tuned for more details on all these efforts, as we’ll likely host a SWAPA number podcast with the SAC in the near future to break down all the nuances with the upcoming scheduling implementation items in the next several quarters.  

Let’s move on to our contract Q&A this week, which has some more scheduling centric items of note. Let’s start with a question about the 12 hour RAP and what can be assigned.  

My RAP shows 12 hours on my board, but scheduling assigned me a pairing that ends past this time. Can they do that?  

Yes, that is legal. The 12-hour RAP that is shown on your board is your contactability period- when the company can contact you and when you must answer your phone if scheduling calls. Now you are still assignable up to 15 hours according to 13.B.2 of the CBA…but if you have not been contacted in the 12 hours of your RAP, you are no longer on the hook to answer your phone.  

Now a couple folks have seen this happen so let’s address it: 

My vacation block was showing on my board next month and now it is not. Can the company remove it without my knowledge?  

So there is a known programming issue that can cause vacation weeks to appear and disappear on your board. If it disappears, it will reappear when your line award is loaded. You can check your planned absences under Displays...Crew Member Assignments and click on the small book icon with a rednumber 1 and number 2. If you see your vacation week there, there have been no changes to it, and 3rdparty bidding software will still recognize it too.  

Moving on, a pilot writes:  

I was awarded a SNOT trip with less than 2 hours to check-in. The company still must give me 2 hours, right?  

OK - Per 11.M.8 in the CBA, if you have less than 2 hours to check-in on a SNOT (or short notice open time) award, you are expected to report as soon as possible. This is different from a reserve having a 2 hour call out, as you would be able to see the report when you bid on the open time and can make the determination if it is something you can make. It goes without saying, but safety first here, folks. Set yourself up for success, and arrive safely at the airport.  

Well it’s flu season and some might be wondering – if I just tested positive for Covid, will the company still pull my assignment as company paid?  

And the answer is unfortunately, no. CBA 6.O.1 states that if a company policy requires a pilot to quarantine, duties missed will be paid by company convenience (or CC pull). The company bases that off of the Center for Disease Control recommendations and currently, there is no required quarantine around Covid-19.  

Here's a clipboard at the gate question for you:  

I was asked to take a random drug/alcohol test after my last flight. Should I get additional pay for that?  

So it may result in additional pay. A pilot selected for drug or alcohol testing after flights at the end of a duty period can contact scheduling to extend his duty day an additional 30 minutes, or more if it long it took longer. This could result in additional pay if the duty period is paying DHR.  

And as an assist to your hard working folks on in contract admin, this is a friendly reminder to please avoid sending multiple emails to the staff regarding a singular issue and please do not email individual Contract Admin members- It can take a week to 10 days to get an issue resolved, especially if research needs to be done. And of course, we can only go as fast as the Company.  

On a final note, the new SWAPA App was released on Wednesday. If you haven’t done so already, getting the new version is as simple as opening up the old app and following the update prompts. We had some additional comm on this on Wednesday, so check your email and you can also view the link that contains a bit of a user guide that shows you around the new features. There’s also a feedback link on the bottom of the navigation menu if you encounter any issues. We had several cases of “first use” issues that are fixed by logging out and then logging back in. Between the release on Wednesday and now, we’ve had the tech teams collecting all the data and feedback so that the first patch addresses what we’re seeing at scale. This is just the beginning of what we have planned for later versions, but we hope this is a step in the right direction to bringing more user friendly SWAPA materials to you in the mobile world.   

That wraps up the headlines and Q&A for this week. As always, if there’s something you want to hear more about on the show, please send us an email at comm@swapa.org.  The next episode will drop on December 6th, and if you missed anything, this transcript will be on the Podcast Page under the Communications tab on the SWAPA website.   

Fly safe, fly informed.