How is a deadhead paid?
You get full pay and credit for the greater of scheduled block time or actual flight time, and all premiums apply to the deadhead. § 16.A You are entitled to per diem as Section 4 sets out. § 16.B The same pay and credit rule applies if the company uses off-line air transportation, which must be on a FAR Part 121 scheduled air carrier. § 16.D
What are the travel conditions?
You are given positive space authorization on both scheduled and unscheduled deadheads. § 16.C For an unscheduled deadhead to cover a flying assignment you are booked on the next scheduled flight on American or a carrier whose inventory the company controls. On the last leg of your sequence, it’s the next flight for which seats are available. § 16.C.1 § 16.C.2 You must be in uniform or in the normal non-revenue attire for the class of service, but not shorts, undershirts or t-shirts with slogans. § 16.E
On an international deadhead you are given a coach seat unless you are upgraded to First or Business. § 16.F You are eligible for a space-available upgrade if you are in uniform or in the dress code for First or Business non-revenue travel, and you can’t have a lower boarding priority than other flight crew. § 16.J.5
When trips are published the company must book scheduled deadheads in aisle and window seats if available, and not in non-reclining seats unless nothing else is available. § 16.J.2 You can pre-board if the minimum working crew is on board. § 16.J.4
Can you skip a deadhead on the first leg?
A lineholder scheduled to deadhead on the first leg of a sequence can choose to be released and join the trip at the first live leg. You must notify Crew Scheduling at least two hours before the deadhead’s scheduled departure. § 16.G § 16.G.1 You must be ready to receive passengers on the first live leg under Section 11.M. § 16.G.5 You’re paid and credited, and given per diem and duty rig, as if you had flown the deadhead. § 16.G.6 § 16.G.7
There are strings attached. If the deadhead was to a layover city, you arrange your own transportation to the hotel and pay any extra hotel charges for early arrival. § 16.G.4 You also waive any required legal rest for that layover city. § 16.G.13 Once Crew Scheduling approves the waiver, you can’t trade or drop that sequence. § 16.G.14 The provision doesn’t apply to probationary flight attendants. § 16.G.16 Reserves who have been released under Section 12 can use it too. § 16.G.9
Can you skip a deadhead on the last leg?
A lineholder scheduled to deadhead on the last leg may choose not to take it, notifying Crew Scheduling after the last live leg debrief. § 16.H A reserve needs Crew Scheduling’s consent and must be available for their next reserve assignment. § 16.H.1 If you skip it, you are still paid and credited as if you had flown it, and per diem and duty rig as well. § 16.H.2
You can also book an alternative deadhead, for example to a different co-terminal, to your crew base earlier the same day, or to your commuter city. In most cases you can self-book up to 60 minutes before the requested departure. § 16.H.4.a § 16.H.4.b § 16.H.4.d Your legalities continue to be based on the scheduled deadhead, and if you take an earlier one home you can ask Crew Scheduling to start your rest from the actual deadhead. § 16.H.3
What if you are needed to work the flight?
After report and before release on the last working leg, a deadheading flight attendant can be rescheduled to work instead if the flight attendant scheduled to work is unavailable. You get the protections of Section 10.J.10. Volunteers are offered it in seniority order, and if there aren’t enough, assignments are made in inverse seniority. § 16.L
What about surface transportation?
A surface deadhead is company-required ground transportation between two airports without an intervening layover, between a hotel and an airport more than 50 AAA miles apart, or between a hotel and an airport when you fly into one airport and out of another. § 16.I.1.a § 16.I.1.b § 16.I.1.c When the company requires you to surface deadhead, you receive pay and credit for travel time, worked out by dividing the AAA miles between the airports by 40, and never less than a pilot gets for the same airports. § 16.I.1 For airports on the Ground Transportation Chart, the chart’s times apply. § 16.I.2 All premiums and per diem apply. § 16.I.4 You will not be required to drive, and only when alternate transportation isn’t available can you be required to surface deadhead with passengers. § 16.I.5
Who do you contact about repeated problems?
If flight attendants experience repeated difficulties with deadheading or surface transportation, APFA can ask the Vice President of Inflight to convene an ad hoc Deadheading Committee. § 16.M
Are these rules in effect yet?
Not all of them at once. Provisions of the 2024 agreement take effect on the first day of the bid month after ratification unless the Implementation Timeline Letter of Agreement (L1) gives them a later date, and until a delayed provision is implemented the matching provision of the prior agreement stays in effect. § L1.A § L1.E
L1’s Attachment A targets the alternative deadhead options on the last leg (16.H.3 and 16.H.4) and the pay protection when a deadheading flight attendant is rescheduled to work (16.L) at six months after signing. [[L1.AttA@2]]
“A Flight Attendant required by the Company to deadhead shall receive full pay and credit based on scheduled block time or actual flight time, whichever is greater.”
“A Flight Attendant will not be required to drive a vehicle when surface deadheading.”
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