Everything You Need To Know About: RIGs

Our work rules include pay protections to ensure we are paid for all of our time on duty and away from home. With these work rules and pay protections, including Ratio-in-Guarantee (RIG) in our Contract, United Flight Attendants, both Reserves and Lineholders, are paid a minimum of five (5) hours flight time pay and credit per day are paid a minimum of five (5) hours flight time pay and credit per day for multiple duty periods unless the actual is greater.

So a two-day trip with a layover would result in at least ten (10) hours of pay. Duty RIGs encourage management to respect our time by scheduling in a productive way and are a valuable component in maximizing our pay. There are two (2) different work rules that help pay us for all our time on duty and away from home; they consist of Duty RIGs and Trip RIGs.

Our RIGs have been in place for many years and are an integral aspect of our Contract. Much of our current scheduled IDs are built with very little credit time, however on the occasion that you arrive early, we would receive the greater of minimum average pay per duty day, or the scheduled value of the trip or when operational and weather irregularities occur the greater of the actual trip time or RIGs.

What are the differences between Duty RIG and Trip RIG?

A Duty RIG is pay credit based on the amount of time that we spend on duty.  A Trip RIG is pay credit based on time away from domicile.  Both a Duty and Trip RIG are used to calculate the value of an ID and determine how much time a trip is worth based on these RIGs.

Duty RIG

Under our current United AFA Contract (Section 8) we have three duty RIG provisions:

• A minimum of one (1) hour flight time pay and credit for each two (2) hours of duty time, prorated.
• A minimum of five (5) hours flight time pay and credit for a one (1) duty period ID.
• And a minimum average pay and credit of five (5) hours per day for IDs with multiple duty periods. (5/10/15/20)

These three criteria are compared against the scheduled or actual flight time of a trip.  We are always paid the greater.

Take for example an ORD-CLE turn in a single duty period as an ID.  The flight and credit time for this ID would be less than the five (5) hour guarantee for a single duty period, and we would be paid five (5) hours for an ID that contained ORD-CLE, CLE-ORD; where in fact the flight time would be much less.

Trip RIG

A Trip RIG is used to calculate time away from home.  Our United AFA Contract states that when we are scheduled to report for duty or actually report for duty, whichever is later, we will receive a minimum of one (1) hour’s pay and flight time credit for each three and one-half (3 1/2) hours elapsed time, prorated, until the return to the blocks at our domicile and release from duty.

Take for example if an ID were scheduled to fly from DCA-DEN-SNA and layover for 36 hours, and return SNA-SFO-DCA. Our Trip RIG credit would kick in and the pay and credit for the trip would be higher than the actual hours flown because our time away from our home domicile would result in a Trip RIG consideration.

In the below example we would be paid 15 hours 31 minutes pay and flight time credit, when the actual flown is scheduled to be 12 hours 02 minutes.

FRQ     D   EQP FLT# DPTARV DPTR ARVL   L/O  TTL  ACM  DTM  ERR
.....F.     57Q  895:BOSORD 0903 1050   224  247  24
20B  570 ORDCLE 1314 1525    40  111  358
20B   46 CLEORD 1605 1630   139  125  523
19J  246 ORDBUF 1809 2040  3320  131  654    1252
20V  216 BUFORD 0600 0652   156  152  152
57Q  382*ORDIAD 0848 1135    50  147  339
57Q  424 IADBOS 1225 1354    00  129  508 Â   909
T/D  3 BID  1531 TTL 1202 TMA  5421 M/$  81.53

Here are some additional examples of RIGs.

1. Five (5) hour minimum for a single duty period trip.

XXXDSL 1006 EFF 04/05/11 THRU 04/05/11 DOM BOS EQP REG CAT S 3
CREW: FS M N
FRQ D EQP FLT# DPTARV DPTR ARVL L/O TTL ACM DTM ERR
..T...20U 205  BOSIAD 0716 0854 327 138 138
      57Q 424  IADBOS 1221 1347 00  126 304 801
T/D 1 BID 500 TTL 304 TMA 801 M/$ 12.03

2. One (1) hour pay for every two (2) hours on duty. In this example: The Flight Attendant flew 5 hours 49 minutes, paid for 6 hours 9 minutes for a 12 hour and 18 minute duty period. With this RIG you are getting paid for your sit time and it gives management incentive to fly you more efficiently with less sit.

3. One (1) hour pay for every 3 and 1/2 hours away from home. This is a RIG that ensures you get paid for your time away from home.

XXXDSL 1182 EFF 04/01/11 THRU 04/01/11 DOM BOS EQP REG CAT S 3
CREW: FS M N
FRQ D EQP FLT# DPTARV DPTR ARVL L/O TTL ACM DTM ERR
...F  57X 897  BOSIAD 0935 1117 108 142 142
      20D 517  IADDEN 1225 1424 319 359 541
      20B 784  DENMCI 1743 2019 3531 136 717 1259
      20B 686  MCIORD 0750 0918 142 128 128
      19J 442: ORDDCA 1100 1350 45  150 318 F
      19J 751: DCAORD 1435 1536 138 201 519
      20U 896: ORDBOS 1714 2030 00  216 735 1255
      T/D 3 BID 1715 TTL 1452 TMA 6025 M/$ 90.63

4. This one goes along with example #1 except it is a two duty period example. Two duty periods equals 10 hours.

XXXDSL 1292 EFF 04/29/11 THRU 04/29/11 DOM BOS EQP REG CAT S 1
CREW: M
FRQ D EQP FLT# DPTARV DPTR ARVL L/O TTL ACM DTM ERR
.....F. 57Q 339 BOSDEN 0659 0939 317 440 440
57X 908 DENORD 1256 1617 1423 221 701 1133
57Q 524:ORDBOS 0640 0948 00 208 208 323
T/D 2 BID 1000 TTL 909 TMA 2819 M/$ 42.48

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