Contractual Holiday Pay (Section 2.Q. and 5.L.)

Our Contract provides for additional pay for Flight Attendants on flight assignments during designated holidays, specified by country of domicile location and the Flight Attendant’s birthday. Section 2.Q. of our Contract specifies that each Flight Attendant is eligible to be paid for up to 5 holidays per year and Section 5.L. outlines the formula for holiday pay.

United States	United Kingdom	Hong Kong
New Year’s Day Independence Day Thanksgiving Day Christmas Day Flight Attendant’s Birthday	New Year’s Day Easter Monday August Bank Holiday Christmas Day Flight Attendant’s Birthday	Chinese New Year Handover Day Christmas Day National Day Flight Attendant’s Birthday
Germany	Japan
New Year’s Day Easter Unification Day Christmas Day Flight Attendant’s Birthday	New Year’s Day National Founding Day Greenery Day Emperor’s Birthday Flight Attendant’s Birthday

Section 2.Q.2. limits the number of holidays paid regardless of the list of holidays honored in a Flight Attendant’s domicile. 

Holiday Pay Parameters as a Reserve

Holiday pay is a separate and distinct pay factor; it cannot be used as an offset to the monthly guarantee.

A Flight Attendant on Ready Reserve status who is not given an assignment on the holiday will receive holiday pay for the value of the reserve day (4:27 hours in a 30-day month or 4:13 hours in a 31-day month). 

Flight Attendants on Call-in Reserve status may be released from duty on a holiday and, if released, will not receive any holiday pay.  The company may not release a Ready Reserve on a holiday except under the very limited circumstances when the Flight Attendant is a high time reserve and not eligible for an overlap assignment on the last day of the month or has reached a point in the month where she/he is no longer legal for any further assignment.  In both of these circumstances, the Flight Attendant must be advised before being released.  Further, the Company may not release a Flight Attendant on a holiday, (with the exception of a Flight Attendant’s birthday), for the purpose of providing one day off in seven days.

A month end trip assignment to a Reserve which results in dropping a holiday trip in the new Lineholder month does not qualify for holiday pay.

Holiday Pay Parameters as a Lineholder

A Lineholder or Reserve who reports for duty on a holiday and whose trip subsequently cancels and no reassignment is made involving that day, will receive holiday pay based on the number of hours from report to release (minimum of 2 hours).  This equates to double time pay for the time on duty.  Since there is no flight time to generate an automatic pay file, a Flight Attendant must submit a paper FAC to the Company for this holiday pay and any additional pay factors pertinent to the activity of the duty period. 

In the event of a Flight Attendant utilizing en route sick leave in the middle of a holiday trip, holiday pay is calculated on whichever is less between the scheduled time away on the holiday or the actual time away on the holiday.

Other Holiday Pay Parameters

If a Flight Attendant is authorized to deviate or deadhead home early, holiday pay is the lesser of the scheduled or actual time away from home (TMA) and hours away on the holiday.

A Flight Attendant who is drafted from an ID, which includes time on a holiday to an ID that does not will be pay, protected for the scheduled time on the holiday of the original ID.  The scheduled holiday pay must be converted to its flight hour equivalent and added to the flight hour value of the ID in which it occurs.  This total flight hour value must be compared with the value of the drafting ID, and the Flight Attendant is paid the greater of the two values.

In addition to compensation provided under Section 15, Flight Attendants who are scheduled by the Company to attend any training or meeting on a holiday will receive an additional nine dollars ($9.00) per hour, prorated.

In addition to all other compensation, a working Flight Attendant shall be paid at double her/his hourly rate of pay as states in Section 5.A.1., 5.A.2., and the “A” Scale Protection letter of agreement. The amount of holiday pay dues shall be calculated as follows:

Calculating Your Holiday Pay

Holiday Pay is calculated using a formula that takes into account the number of credited hours flown during the holiday ID and how much time away from home the ID has. Premium pay is not used when computing holiday pay. A Flight Attendant’s hours away from home begins at the ID check-in time and ends at the conclusion of the scheduled debriefing time upon the return to the home domicile.

Lineholder

A Lineholder will be paid their hourly rate of pay times the credited flight time for the ID, divided by the number of hours away from home, times the number of hours away from home falling within the holiday

For example:
A Flight Attendant making $43.05 per hour flies an ID which produces 17 hours of credited flight time and keeps the Flight Attendant away from home (check-in to check-out) for 48 hours of which 24 hours fall on the holiday:

$43.05 x 17 hours of credited flight time = $731.85
$731.85 / 48 hours away from home = $15.25
$15.25 x 24 = $366.00
Holiday Pay = $366.00

Reserve

1. If you are a Call-in Reserve (CLLR) and released on the holiday, you would not receive holiday pay.
2. If you are on Ready Reserve (RSV) and do not fly you will receive 4:20 hours (30 day month) or 4:07 (31 day month) times your Reserve hourly rate.
3. If you are on CLLR or RSV and fly an ID, you would either receive statement “b” above or your holiday pay will be calculated as it is for a Lineholder, whichever is greater.
   

There are many factors when you are a Reserve on a holiday that determine your holiday pay:

A Flight Attendant who receives either two (2) hour call-out pay or five (5) hour stand-by reserve pay shall receive double pay for those hours if they fall within the holiday period.

Examples of Holiday Pay Calculations

Example 1:

Mary Mainliner bid to work ID 3610 on her birthday, July 10. In 2012, Mary is in her 13th year of flying and she earns $43.05 per hour for a domestic assignment. She wants to know how much holiday pay she will receive if the actual assignment is flown as scheduled. Using the holiday pay formula from Section 5.L.1. of our Contract, Mary determines that she will earn $334.40 in holiday pay for this trip.

Hourly rate of pay = $43.05
Credited flight time (TTL) = 8:00
Hours away from home (TMA) = 12:00
Hours away on holiday = 12:00

$43.05 x 8:00 TTL = $344.40
$344.40 / 12:00 TMA = $28.70
$28.70 x 12:00 hours away on holiday = $344.40
Holiday Pay = $334.40

Example 2, Part 1:
ORD based Flight Attendant Reserve Hawk Black, was assigned ID 5058 over the July 4th holiday.  In 2012, Hawk is in his 6th year of flying and he earns $38.96 per hour at an international rate of pay.  Hawk wants to determine how much he has earned for working over the holiday.  Using the holiday pay formula from Section 5.L.1. of our Contract, Hawk determined that he has earned $374.40 in holiday pay for this trip.

Hourly rate of pay = $38.96
Credited flight time = 16:20 (16.33, converted from minutes to minutes as decimals*)
Hours away from home= 44:30 (44.50, converted from minutes to minutes as decimals*)
Hours away on holiday = 24:00

$38.96 x 16.33 credited flight time = $631.81
$631.81 / 40.50 hour away from home = $15.60
$15.60 x 24:00 hours away on holiday = $374.40
Holiday Pay = $374.40

Example 2, Part 2:
Hawk also wants to check his calculation of holiday pay against his DFAP, which now says that he is credited 9:40 hours of holiday pay for ID 5058/03.  To determine this, Hawk divides the total holiday pay dollar amount by his international hourly rate of pay.

$374.40 / $38.96 = 9.61 (9:36, converted from minutes as decimals to minutes**)

The DFAP entry is correct.  The listed flight hours are equivalent to the calculated holiday pay of $184.74.

*minutes to decimals conversion
Formula = Minutes / 60
Example:  8 hours and 48 minutes = 8.80 hours
48 / 60 = .80

**decimals to minutes conversion
Formula = minutes as decimals X 60 
Example:  4.75 hours = 4 hours and 45 minutes
.75 x 60 = 45

***In this Contract Education piece, equations are rounded to the nearest hundredth.