Originally Posted by
dualinput
I think SPA ALPA’s position is you have to stay at the airport until you time out or make contact with crew scheduling, and if you go to a hotel a fatigue report is due.
So begs the question: let’s say you fly one short leg from say ORD to MCI and discover your next leg from MCI to LAX is cancelled but no change to your schedule and no way to contact scheduling and get VM with the CPO. You’ve only been on duty 2 hours and let’s say you are good for 12 more and are well rested from the night prior. At what point do you decide you aren’t going to wait on hold any longer and then what point do you decide to get your own hotel? Remember you have no changes on your schedule and haven’t been able to reach scheduling for a change or even a SIT code. You also have 12 more hours of usable duty.
Now if I’m at the scheduled layover and there is no hotel yes I’m just going to handle it myself. Also if I’m there in MCI and my schedule is blank after that I’m probably going to a hotel after a “reasonable” amount of time. I probably won’t wait on hold, I’ll probably wait for them to call me.
Or enjoy making SIT pay at the airport if they don’t contact you. Once you bail to a hotel, either by you or scheduling, SIT ends. And you are correct, you are to stay at the airport for your duty period, and when they do finally call you, a SIT code needs to be placed at the leg for the entire time until you are released to rest. So your example above having 12 hours duty left, you technically have to stay at the airport up to 12 hours before getting your room unless you’re fatigued, like you said. But you’ll be entitled to 5 hours of extra pay if you do.
With that pay, I might hit the airport hotel and get a room while still “being at the airport” and not on rest yet. And if they never contact me with my hotel, im already at a hotel and will expense that airport hotel.