1) Pass Travel improvements
2) Changes to Pass Travel Tax Reporting for Retirees
3) Update your contact information NOW
4) Savvy Traveling: United app, KTN
5) More flights!
6) Discounts; cars, cruises, hotels
7) RAFA website

It may be easier to read this UPDATE on our website: http://www.rafa-cwa.org/page-1836169

1) Pass Travel Improvements

As promised, United recently contacted the retiree groups via a conference call, responding to the groups’ Pass Travel improvement suggestions from the April retiree summit in Chicago. Laura Motelet, Managing Director of the Employee Travel Center & HR Administration, gave us the good news:

“We are excited to announce that beginning in 2018, instead of only being able to change enrolled friend(s) once per year, retirees will have the opportunity to change their enrolled friend(s) twice: midyear and during year-end open enrollment. Retirees will continue to have up to two active enrolled friends at one time, but this change will allow retirees to register up to four enrolled friends during different time periods within a calendar year. This enhanced pass travel privilege applies to retirees only; all other aspects of the Enrolled Friend program remain unchanged”.

Note: Open enrollment in December 2017 (Dec. 1 – Dec. 28 until 7:00 p.m. CT) will remain the same as usual. In June 2018 (Jun.1 – Jun. 28 until 7:00 p.m. CT) a second open enrollment will take place only for retirees to either change or keep their Enrolled Friends for the remainder of the year (July-December). Full details are coming soon on Flying Together > Travel > Pass Riders (left column) > Retirees.

The ETC will announce three improvements to the myUAdiscount program in mid-October: (1) unaccompanied minor fees will be waived, (2) pet in-cabin fees waived and (3) we’ll be boarded in Group 3 (even when paying Basic Economy fares)! More information will be posted on Flying Together > Travel > myUAdiscount Program.

In a previous conference call we learned of three other Pass Travel improvements:

(1) better access to the ETC
(2) 24/7 online support via USAW and
(3) a new, improved employeeRES coming in 2018.

For the FULL STORY, read the News article on our website:

http://www.rafa-cwa.org/Retiree-Pass-Travel-Improvements

2) Changes to Pass Travel Tax Reporting for Retirees

Imputed Taxes on Pass Travel are changing. For pass travel on or after November 1, 2017, any taxable imputed income will be reported to you on Form W-2 and will no longer be reported to you on Form 1099. As a result of this change, starting on November 1, 2017, United will begin to collect any federal and state withholding taxes that apply to your taxable pass travel income via quarterly invoice. The first invoice will be sent in March 2018 for any travel from November 1, 2017, to January 31, 2018, and invoices will be sent every three months thereafter. The invoices will be mailed via U.S. mail and they are payable by check or money order.

Despite the adjustment in reporting, there is no change to how pass travel is taxed. Pass travel for retirees and their spouses, parents and dependent children under age 26 is still not taxable. Pass travel for a retiree’s domestic partner and enrolled friends are taxable.

Note: In January of 2018, you will receive a Form 1099 reporting your taxable pass travel income for travel Nov. 1, 2016 to Oct. 31, 2017, if your taxable pass riders accrued $600 of imputed taxes (pass tax value) or more in that period. Go to Flying Together > Travel > Pass Travel Report (blue tile) to check on the total “Pass Tax Values” accumulated. No withholding taxes will be collected for travel prior to Nov. 1, 2017.

Read more important W-2 Pass Travel Tax Reporting information on Flying Together here. Or go to Flying Together > Travel > W-2 Pass Travel Tax Reporting (in left column).

Note: The online chart shows “Extended Family Buddies” and “Buddies” are subject to tax; this only applies to employees who recently retired in the last 30 days.

3) Update your contact info NOW!

The ETC sent retirees information via email and U.S. mail about #1 and #2 above, did you receive it? NO? It’s important to update your contact information in 3 places:

1) The “Saved employeeRES information” box on your “Employee Travel Profile” in the “Quick Links” tab in “employeeRES” (“Book a Flight” on Flying Together >Travel).

2) In “Personal Information” in “Your Profile” (in top menu bar) in “YBR” (Your Benefits Resources) on Flying Together > Employee Services or go to www.ybr.com/united.

3) In our RAFA database by contacting your council President here.

United will be contacting retirees soon about open enrollment for health care Oct. 30 – Nov. 10, 2017. Make sure your phone number, email and postal mailing addresses are all up to date in YBR (and RAFA!). Stay in touch; update employeeRES with your latest email address and phone number.

4) Savvy Traveling: Use the United app! Get a KTN! Use the United app for easy booking and flying for both space available and myUAdiscount travel. To learn more, go to Flying Together > Travel > United app & Pass Travel tab (in the left column). Or click this RAFA page link for more info: Use the United app and link with Mileage Plus.

KTN: Join a Trusted Traveler Program to obtain a “Known Traveler Number” to be eligible for TSA PreCheck and expedited customs/immigration entry. Visit Flying Together > Travel > “Preparing for Travel” (left column) > “Trusted Traveler Programs”. Links on that page will take you directly to sign up on the GOES system. There are various programs with different pricing.

Once signed up online, you will apply for an interview (the first available interview for me was 4 months later!). Revisit the webpage often to try and move up your interview date. Some locations have drop-in wait lists for interviews. Take a good book, you may have to wait awhile!

4) IMPORTANT! After you pass the in-person interview you MUST input your “KTN” (Known Traveler Number) in two places:

1) For space available travel go to employeeRES > Quick Links > Employee Travel Profile (click “Add/edit Secure Flight and Travel Contact Information” in the “Saved employeeRES Info” box). If you have more than one Secure Flight Document (i.e. one for passport, one for driver’s license) enter your KTN in BOTH documents.

Select row, click little pencil icon, input your KTN in the field that says “Global Entry/Known Traveler”, then hit “submit”.

2) For revenue travel (including use of myUAdiscount) go to your MileagePlus account (united.com > MileagePlus > My Account >Profile > Edit Traveler Details > Known Traveler Number) For both space-available and revenue (myUAdiscount) travel: use the United app linked with your Mileage Plus number AND join a Trusted Traveler Program; you will fly like the wind!

5) More flights! Enhance your Pass Riding bucket list

Starting October 2017:

Daily LAX-SIN (Singapore)
Daily EWR-EZE (Buenos Aires)

More frequency begins December 20th to Hawaii:

DEN-KOA, DEN-LIH and DEN-OGG will become daily, year round.
LAX-ITO will increase to daily. LAX-KOA & LAX LIH increase to 2x daily.
LAX-OGG increases to 3x daily.
ORD-OGG will increase to daily (except Tue/Wed)
SFO-KOA increases to 3x daily. SFO-LIH to 2x daily. SFO-OGG to 5x daily.
Current flights to HNL will continue from DEN & ORD (daily), LAX & SFO (5x daily).
UA also connects to HNL daily from IAH, EWR, IAD, GUM & NRT.

Starting January 2018 (subject to govt approval):

Daily IAH-SYD (Sydney)

New flights to Europe for summer 2018:

Daily EWR-OPO (Oporto) 757 May 4th -Oct 4th
Daily EWR-KEF (Reykjavik) 757 May 23rd – Oct 4th
Daily SFO-ZRH (Zurich) 787-8 Jun 7th – Oct 27th
Daily IAH-EDI (Edinburgh) 757 May 23rd – Oct 4th

6) Discounts on cars, cruises, hotels

The ID90Travel.com website offers discounts for employees and retirees on hotels, cruises, resorts, and rental cars when you travel for leisure. It’s easy to book and to save as much as 60 percent off! Simply click on the ID90 Travel banner in employeeRES (you may have already noticed it under ‘My ePass Balances’) when you make your space available travel plans to see what discounts are available at your destination or search for exclusive rates at more than 380,000 destinations worldwide.

7) “Recent News” on Flying Together>News Click the dark blue “Recent News” link above to see other stories.

Here are some you might like:

06/19: MERGED CMS for Flight Attendants October 2018
06/29: Mileage Plus changes
06/30: History of United at SFO Museum
07/06: Diversity in London
07/11: Oscar stands with United Flight Attendants
07/20: John Slater to become Inflight SVP
07/26: Non-stop DEN-LHR in March 2018
08/08: New flights to ski resorts this winter
08/17: No more early-outs! But there’s insurance if you retire
09/01: Hurricane Harvey relief
09/11: Oscar: We will never forget
09/12: More ways to get to Europe next summer
09/18: Farewell Flight for 747: SFO-HNL
09/20: Safety is Global III new inflight video
10/02: Oscar: Compassion for Las Vegas victims
10/02: Pax can name their price to change oversold flight

Here’s a 7/18/2017 Airwise article about $10 billion renovation of JFK: http://news.airwise.com/story/jfk-airport-on-track-for-10-billion-dollar-renovation

8) Have you seen our RAFA website?

Check out the Travel Benefits tab here: http://www.rafa-cwa.org

Read the Pass Travel Program Summary, helpful links, phone numbers & more.

For other Pass Travel Topics: Previous Travel UPDATES

Compiled by Kirk Moore, RAFA Travel Benefits Committee October 3, 2017

Thank you Kirk for sharing with RUPA!

 

September 29, 2017

RUPA MEMBERS:  SFO RETIREE PARKING!

Bob, Pat, Cort, Phyllis, When I flew to Las Vegas the other day I parked at the MOC and was handed a flyer that said:

Effective October 1, 2017, Retiree Parking will be limited to individuals who retired from the Maintenance Base.  SFO Maintenance Base will no longer be able to offer parking for SFO Airport Ops Employees and Retirees from other stations.  This is due to SFIA constructing the extension of the AirTrain to the Long Term Parking Structure and the loss of 700 parking spaces in our West Parking lot.

I was told the AirTrain project may take one or two years to complete. At that time we MIGHT be able to park there again. This closure will affect all RAFA and RUPA members who park at the MOC. If you signed up for wristbands and received a parking pass for Family Day on October 8th, that one-day pass will still be valid. Kirk Moore Chairperson, RAFA Travel Benefits Committee

 

September 26, 2017

RUPA Members:  Update from RUPA and RAFA!

Special Joint Announcement for RUPA and RAFA members:

The Retired United Pilots Association (RUPA) and The Retiree Association of Flight Attendants (RAFA),  and other retiree groups have worked hard over the last year to advocate for improvements to our pass benefits. Today the Company agreed to one of our suggestions.

Effective with the open enrollment this winter, retired employees will be able to change their Enrolled Friends twice per year; the first effective on January 1, the second effective on July 1.  All other aspects of the Enrolled Friend benefit remain unchanged.

Outgoing RUPA President Cort DePeyster and RAFA’s Kirk Moore deserve much credit for this improvement, which arose when the various retiree groups met with senior management at the April 2017 Retiree Summit in Chicago.

While this is good news, we were unsuccessful in obtaining other improvements such as:

Improvements to boarding priority and/or vacation passes for retirees.  

The Company stated, barring a change in management, they will not be changing this part of our pass benefits.  UA President Scott Kirby emphasized that United Airlines is focusing on repairing their relationship with employees and they believe changes to our boarding priority and vacation passes would be counterproductive to that effort.

“Primary” Enrolled Friends for retirees.

Again, they felt that this would negatively impact the employees at a time when they are focusing on repairing their relationship with the employees.

Enabling Enrolled Friends of widows and widowers to continue past the 90 days following the death of the employee  

 The company felt this would add complexity to the logistics of administering this benefit as they would have to track who remarried and who didn’t. Plus they did not want to extend more pass benefits to individuals who have never worked for United. 

Increasing the discount on the myUAdiscount positive space benefit. 

The company said if they increased the discount above 20% it would then become a taxable benefit and they didn’t want to go there.

The Company also informed us that the IRS will soon be requiring withholding, just like with employees, for imputed income taxes from travel by Enrolled Friends and certain other eligibles.  

Initially each retiree will receive a paper bill for the tax in the mail each quarter which we will have to pay to the company   Starting in January, 2018 no 1099s will be issued but instead we will be receiving W-2s that will show the imputed income received and the imputed tax we have paid to the company.  As a result the previous practice of not having to pay imputed income tax for annual imputed income under $600 per year is now out the window.  We will have to pay the tax on all imputed income.  The only exception will be for trips flown where the imputed income for that leg is less that $25.

Note: As mentioned in the RUPA Magazine, effective January 2017, United now calculates imputed income for each segment using the ZED medium fare instead of 10% of the Y fare; which has been a big savings to Retirees and employees.

That’s the quick and dirty initial plan designed to comply with the new IRS requirements.  Eventually the company plans to automate this on the company web site where we can, for example, have automatic deductions from a credit card, and be able to adjust our withholding amount, just like employees do.

Additional news:  Besides the improved Enrolled Friends program

and a new IRS required method of collecting Imputed Taxes, we learned of three upcoming improvements to Pass Travel.  

1)  Availability for contacting the ETC by phone has significantly increased from 8 hours a day M-F to 12 hours per day, 7 days a week. Although these calls are outsourced, there has been more call operator training.

Additionally there is a survey we can take at the end of each call and if your input is negative, you will be contacted by a US-based ETC employee to get more detail about your concern and find out how the issue you experienced can be improved.  This is a very welcome improvement!

2)  24/7 support for Pass Travel and other retiree questions (name changes, health insurance, etc) is available online via the “United Service Anywhere” portal on Flying Together > Employee Services.

3) Coming next year: An updated, mobile version of employeeRES! This will make accessing pass travel even easier from your mobile devices.  We will be briefed more on this in our next meeting with management. 

We appreciate that the Company took the time and resources to sit down with us face-to-face, hear our pass travel requests and act on them. While our lack of success in some areas is disappointing, we give the Company credit for initiating regular meetings with the retiree groups during the last year for the first time in our memory.  That in itself is a welcome change and we look forward to addressing other retiree issues in the coming years with this new relationship.

Already the Company has said they will evaluate two other requests:  

The cost and quality of Retiree ID cards, and the absence of our file numbers on them.   The annual fee for a MileagePlus Explorer credit card is discounted for employees but not for retirees.  We hope to hear back about these items on the next conference call.

Captain Pat Palazzolo

RUPA Pass Travel Representative

Kirk Moore

Chairperson, RAFA Travel Benefits Committee

 

August 31st, 2017

 

RUPA Members:

 

Today is President Cort’s last day as your RUPA President.  He has served his two year term with professionalism, intergrity, and humor – which you need as a volunteer for an organization like ours!  Thank you Cort for all those earlier years of service which lead up to your term as President!  That is true dedication to our pilot group and we certainly benefitted and appreciate your time and sincere interest!

 

President Cort’s Goodbye Message:

 

The RUPA Board of Directors would like to present the new RUPA Executive Committee for the 2017-19 term. The Board of Directors, by acclamation, has unanimously elected the following per our bylaws:

President Capt. Bob Engelman, Florida Vice President Capt. John Gorczyca, California

Secretary Treasurer Capt. John Rains, Vermont

 

All of you are familiar with Bob Engelman and John Rains who continue on the executive committee. Our new V.P. John Gorczyca came to us with a most impressive resume including a Masters Degree, retired Lt. Colonel USAF serving in Vietnam and later as an Air Force One support pilot, and a member of the Order of Daedaleons. John retired from UAL in 2014 and immediately became involved with RUPA answering the call to form a new RUPA group east of Sacramento, now called the “Goldwingers”. It is arguably one of the most active RUPA groups. John brings to RUPA high energy, volunteer spirit, respect and leadership skills that will assure our continued success into the future. Welcome aboard John!

 

 My term as RUPA President is coming to an end Sept 01 (tomorrow)  and the organization is left in the able hands of the three fine gentlemen above. It has been a true honor,  privilege and pleasure to have manned the helm of RUPA the past 2 years and hopefully it has been left in as good a shape as when it was inherited from predecessor Jon Rowbottom.

 

Thank you all for being loyal RUPA members. You are the lifeblood of our wonderful organization.

 

If you are on this email list and not a member, we encourage you to join at the link below:  www.rupa.org

 

The executive board has asked me to continue as the RUPA Facebook moderator, which was gladly accepted.

 

Hope to see some of you passing in the terminal sometime. Until then, all the best.

 

Warm regards,

Cort Francis V de Peyster

President

Retired United Airlines Pilots Assn.

WWW.RUPA.ORG

 

August 29, 2017

 

RUPA Members:  Harvey Donation Information

From UAL CEO Oscar Munoz:

 

Posted August 27, 2017

 

Dear United family,

 

Since my last note to you yesterday, the impact of Tropical Storm Harvey has continued to devastate communities throughout the Gulf region, especially those around our Houston hub.

 

First, our thoughts and prayers are with everyone threatened and affected.  Specifically, I want every single member of the United family who has been affected to know you are not alone in your time of need.

 

So many of our colleagues across the system have reached out with a simple question: “What can I do?” First, I encourage everyone who is able to donate to our employee relief fund, United We Care. We are all in this together, which is why I will personally match your contributions dollar-for-dollar up to $1 million. So, let’s come together to make sure our friends and colleagues truly feel that the entire United family is behind them.

 

Secondly, peace of mind is just as valuable a resource in times like these. I don’t want any employee worrying about whether his or her family budget will be impacted by the irregular operations. That’s why, given the extended nature and time period of the flooding, we are ensuring that pay will be provided for every scheduled work day that your work facility remains closed as a result of the storm via a modification of the “Adverse Weather Facility Closed” policy.

 

Third, we intend to leverage the full reach and resources of the United network to bring vital relief to affected communities.

 

At this very moment, we are coordinating with the FAA to continue to allow us to operate humanitarian flights into the area in order to deliver essential supplies, including food, water and first aid. We are conducting two humanitarian missions today, which will deliver bottled water and shelf-stable food. With the exception of humanitarian and relief flights, all commercial flights are canceled until noon on August 31.

 

The good news is that the IAH station reports our staff is currently doing well on supplies, however the food and water we’re sending from IAD and ORD will continue throughout the crisis. We are also working with Walgreens and Americares to provide supplementary items, such as medical supplies as well as United amenity kits, blankets, snack items and water.

 

We are also working closely with the Houston Mayor’s office and Emergency Operations to understand how we can be supportive of their efforts to convert the George R. Brown Convention Center into a shelter.

 

All our efforts are being coordinated by a special Harvey response team that we’ve assembled at the NOC Emergency Operations Center in order to concentrate our humanitarian response and recovery plans.

 

We know the crisis is far from over. We will be there every step of the way going forward. And we will remain committed long after the skies clear and the waters recede in order to help our communities rebuild, stronger than ever.

 

Gratefully,

Oscar