Yikes: American Airlines Didn’t Schedule Pilots For 15,000+ Holiday Flights

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: November 29, 2017

47 comments

Well, this is a pretty major glitch. The Allied Pilots Association (APA) is the union representing American’s pilots, and they’ve just revealed a major issue that management reported to them. Apparently due to a computer glitch, virtually all pilots got the holidays off, meaning that 15,000+ flights don’t have pilots scheduled yet.

Apparently this impacts flights between December 17 and 31, 2017. Per Reuters, here’s what representatives for the union and American had to say:

“Basically there’s a crisis at American for manning the cockpits,” said Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.

“We are working through this to make sure we take care of our pilots and get our customers where they need to go over the holiday,” American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said on Wednesday.

“I‘m watching a ‘Grinch that stole Christmas’ thing happening. And we don’t want to see that happening for our passengers,” Tajer said.

American is trying to solve this issue by offering 150% pay for holiday flights that don’t presently have pilots rostered, though the union isn’t happy about that, as this has been done without consulting them. Per the APA, management has “unilaterally invoked a solution for crewing affected flights,” which the union claims is in direct violation of the pilot contract.

Because management’s actions are unilateral, the union claims that “the APA nor the contract can guarantee the promised payment of the premium being offered.” Then the union adds this note:

By not including APA in developing collaborative solutions to this critical holiday scheduling failure, management’s actions contrast with their handling of previous scheduling failures involving other work groups. This stands in direct opposition to the company mantra of “Validating the Trust” and the stated goal of making culture a competitive advantage. Management’s actions likewise jeopardize any collaborative effort to ensure our passengers have a pilot crew to take them to their important holiday events.

On the plus side, at least they’re realizing this more than a couple of weeks in advance, so presumably they’ll be able to come up with a solution at some cost. However, what a major oversight…

(Tip of the hat to @aheeger)

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Anastasia Member

December 2, 2017, 2:18 pm

I would bet quite a bit of money that if Conor's boss required him to work when he had taken time off, planned a trip, and paid non-refundable money for that trip, with the threat of termination if he doesn't show up to work, he'd throw a fit. He's entitled to that time off, you see! The pilots flying him to his destination and the people cleaning his hotel room, though? Nope. They need to be there to serve HIM, or they get fired. what entitlement. I am so gratified to see that most of the commenters here do, in fact, see the value of unions. I guess we like our laws against child labor and for safety protocols when working dangerous jobs.

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Bob New Member

November 30, 2017, 3:09 pm

Conor, AA screwed up, not the pilots. You can't just order people in randomly to perform labor, especially when you are at fault. Perhaps in your fantasy world you can, but not in the reality that the rest of us inhabit. Unless the contract says that one can be called in to work, and both parties signed it, you just normally can't do it. Now, toss in state and federal labor law protections, plus the contract itself, and AA shot itself in the foot. I'm sure the union wants more money for its pilots to come in over this period. Heck, who wouldn't? If a pilot legitimately scheduled a vacation, spent his or her personal money, booked his own tickets and hotels, shouldn't he be allowed to enjoy it? And, if AA wants him to break that vacation, losing money in the process, shouldn't AA consult with the union on a fair way to do so? Of course, it should. This really isn't a pure management versus union fight per se. It's about AA finding the correct procedure to remedy it's massive screw up within the labor contract that it willingly signed. It was AA that essentially involved the APA by ignoring the contract that AA signed with the APA.

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Bill Guest

November 30, 2017, 11:21 am

They are offering extra pay to people who should not have been allowed to take off anyway yet somehow the union has a problem with that and is throwing mud. What a shock.

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Donna Diamond

November 30, 2017, 1:42 am

@Suzie Alcatraz The Reuters link in the article states that 150% is the maximum the contract allows.

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Robert Guest

November 29, 2017, 11:30 pm

@Bryan T Trip insurance covers the costs incurred, nothing more. Sure, perhaps my credit card will cover my buying a last minute ticket with a connection on a competing airline (vs AA non-stop), which would be minimally acceptable assuming one is even available for same day travel. Holiday travel is a time when people are less concerned with cost and more concerned with getting where they need to be, when they need to be there. If AA has to cancel flights, they better do it plenty in advance. Holiday flying is bad enough.

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