American, Southwest crews say lodging woes lead to fatigue

American Airlines and Southwest flight crews say they’re having problems securing hotel rooms, transportation and meals at the end of workdays, leaving them fatigued and threatening to delay flights. The problems have reached “unprecedented, unacceptable levels,” Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, told union members at American. Flight attendants have slept in airports or outside baggage-claim areas and spent hours on hold awaiting help from American’s hotel desk. Pilots at both carriers have had to search out and pay for their own rooms and meals after arriving in cities and finding that accommodations required under their contracts haven’t been secured. Their troubles are revealing stress within the US aviation system as domestic travel roars back faster than most airlines expected. Carriers are trying to fill thousands of jobs, ranging from pilots and flight attendants to workers loading bags or handling wheelchairs in airports. Some consumers are spending hours on hold to get help with reservations, and not all restaurants and stores have reopened at packed airports. “We’ve never seen the type of abuse to which they are being subjected right now,” Paul Hartshorn, a spokesman for the flight attendants union, said Wednesday. A three- or four-hour wait to get a hotel room delays the start of guaranteed minimum rest hours, potentially preventing flight attendants from being able to make an early flight the next day. “That’s affecting the whole operation,” Hartshorn said.<br/>