Your Benefits and Potentially Seniority Will Be Affected

United has announced a system-wide bid for Special Leaves of Absence for the three-month period of September / October / November 2011.

Should you choose to bid for this leave it is important to carefully review the company's Special Leave of Absence information, particularly as it pertains to insurance, pass travel, vacation and sick leave accrual. Special leave status will affect each of these benefits and could also affect seniority accrual if on special leave status for more than 180 days in a 12 month period, as outlined in Section 23.B. of the Contract.

Flight Attendants awarded special leaves totaling 180 days or more within a 12 month period will not accrue seniority for each of the days in excess of 180 days on special leave status.

Advocacy for Other Schedule Flexibility

We continue to advocate management carefully reviews the schedule prior to awarding any Special Leaves, especially as other schedule options remain available such as 30-day and daily ANP. These schedule options in and of themselves would not interfere with your benefits. The exceptions to this would be the award of 30-day ANP directly touching another 30-day ANP or a single day of ANP without at least one day off in between. Also, 30-day ANP in conjunction with a Special Leave of Absence extends the period of the Special Leave. This circumstance would trigger a change of status to a Personal Leave of Absence, which would also affect benefits. Information regarding 30-day ANP may be found on DIS*27241 and 27242.

Bidding for the Special Leave of Absence

After carefully reviewing all of the information about a Special Leave of Absence, bidding for the September/October/November leave may be accomplished through your LOAREQ screen starting today, August 2 through Monday August 15, 2011 at 0830 Central Time. The special leave TYPE on the bid screen is indicated by the abbreviation "SP" and the dates of the leave should be listed as schedule month dates: 08/31/11 - 11/30/11. These are the start and end dates of the September – November Flight Attendant schedule months, respectively. Awards will be posted by 1730 Chicago Time on Monday, August 15, 2011.

Whether you intend to bid or not, every Flight Attendant should check their individual LOAREQ screen to ensure there is not a request on file that is no longer wanted. This is especially important since your benefits could be affected with the award of a Special Leave of Absence.