Amenity Kits!!!!

[Fenwicksgirl]

Oh my god!!!! ID pax not allowed to accept amenity kits in F/C class, due to the spiralling fuel costs!!! Revenue still going well and above forecast even in the current fuel "crisis" and we get this...first we cant take more than one overnight bag, now this, where will it stop?????

[Sleeve_of_Wizard]

Haha........ And what about all the Adverts in Hong Kong at the moment.......... In these days of blaming fuel price for everything bad, someone should have thought of a different advertising slogan than " CATHAY PACIFIC.... FLY FASTER"........ !!!!!!

Also, to ensure that there is no distinction between ID and Revenue passenger, how about cabin crew treating us the same???? Ha???

[buggaluggs]

Just another of the many examples of CX staff being seen by management as just another revenue stream!! :yuk:

[junior_man]

Might be nice if they offered us the OPTION to help out by refusing ammenities kits.
We pay more to ride on CX than employees of other airlines. AA employees can ride on CX for less than CX employees, does that seem right?
What is next, no meals?
Maybe they could get rid of the paper tickets like everybody else did 10 or 15 years ago to save costs?

[sjj]

The question that begs asking is this...

Who thinks NR or his mates will be following suit and not receiving amenities kits???

And this used to be the best airline in the world...

[HotDog]

Does that mean we don't have to pay the fuel surcharge if we decline the kit?:suspect:

[The Wraith]

NR and his mates cost the company 60 million USD and are still here....that's impressive! That deserves your own amenity kit and a bottle of champagne!
Just don't do something REALLY heinous like a low flypast, that will get you bread and water, and maybe 67E.:E

[Sqwak7700]

Do you honestly think that the 60 mil they have to pay made the illeagal business conduct un-profitable??

I think Cathay weighed their options and knew exactly what they were doing. Publicly, they'll say how sorry they are and how an "inverstigation" will be carried out. In all reality, who knows how many millions they raked in and they will be patting themselves in the back for many years to come.

It really is a win-win situation for them, purchased at a measely 60 mil. :hmm:

[lotto]

With the cost that this airline charges us for staff travel not only am I going to take the amenity kit, I am also going to try a glass of whatever wine isn't opened thanks.

Get real, they make enough money off us!

[Fenwicksgirl]

We should also ask the question, "How much do these kits cost Cathay??"
From the rumours doing the rounds, the products are provided free of charge, so just goes to the bagging of such items, which i would hardly imagine would cost much in this region of the world!!!
Just another case of cutting our conditions, oh well, gear down flap 20 at 2700' from now on....

[404 Titan]

Fenwicksgirl

My wife use to be a sales manager for Dermalogica® in the US. While the products weren’t free lets just say Cathay got a very good deal.:ok:

[geh065]

I actually thought this had always been the case...

Does anyone remember a few years ago they told us all not to collect the kits, and they have never told us otherwise so one assumes the directive is still active!....not that I follow it!

[Left Wing]

Watermark (http://www.watermarkgroup.co.uk/overseas.html)

these are the guys who been making the kits and yrs for CX and other leading airlines......

[Fenwicksgirl]

So i guess the point is here, is that, for such a low cost item why would these idiotic managers drag moral down further by taking them away from us!! I would imagine that none of us would be utterly dissapointed by not getting them but considering other cut backs aimed at staff, a $60M stuff up by incompetent managers and the fact the company is still in reasonable profit during these hard times, why oh why do they keep going down this path????
They will continue to ask us to help out during this difficult time but then in the next notice, expect us to give up more!!!
If they are going to use the green excuse, then why dont they ask all pax to not accept them???
As pilots we can do alot to save fuel and hence money on every flight, money that would make these sort of cuts look silly, however, when morale is down and we are pi55ed off, the motivation is not there, just human nature thats all!!! They just dont get it!!!

[Busbert]

There is a pattern.

When 'times are hard' the company takes stuff away temporarily.
When the good times come back... well you know the story.

What ever happened to:
Holiday houses
Junks
Free use of the swimming pool
etc...
It seems that CX is very good at taking things away as soon as there is an excuse, but no good at reinstating things when business picks up.
Shame on you CX Personnel.

[Kitsune]

Wonder whether the chaps upstairs in Wormwood Scrubs need to save money 'cos of the knock on effect of

Airlines pay £100m to cheated passengers | Business | The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/16/theairlineindustry.britishairwaysbusiness?CMP=KNC-ecsearch&HBX_PK=news-BA-refunds&HBX_OU=50)

After all, there's bound to be a class action litigation over the fuel surcharge fiasco........:cool:

[cpdude]

ID pax not allowed to accept amenity kits in F/C class, due to the spiralling fuel costs!!!

Sorry, I must be the village idiot but how does refusing the amenity kits save fuel when they are still carried on board?:ugh:

[HotDog]

Why not just refuse to carry passengers, full fare or ID? That would save heaps in fuel costs.:sad:

[psy clops]

Excellent plan! Actually, double saving as there is no need to carry amenity kits either! Win / win.

[HotDog]

When I retired, I was eligible to 6 F/C ID 90 trips a year, which was according to my conditions of service, in force at the time. As we all know, this was subsequently reduced to one F/C ID 90 a year. As I'm rather partial to travel in comfort, the company has done themselves out of five potential ID 90 F/C fare revenues or more, if I count my dependent's rights as well. As ID90 travel is sub load anyhow, I fail to see the logic of this move; nor that of the Amenity Kits.:sad:

[Guru]

Better yet, charge ID passengers for the kits! Come to think of it, why not charge us for the peanuts and OJ, too? This can easily be done discreetly to protect the company's 'image', just get us to sign a payroll deduction form at the check-in counter! This will give the accountants and managers the wet dream they are always hoping for AND the public won't have to find out that this company doesn't actually give a rat's ar$e about its employees!

Come (;)) the next vote for best employer in hong kong, the public who don't know any better would still pick cx and management would go home to explain to their children that their daddies earned their fat bonus by being decent people - everyone's happy! But what about the employees some might ask, refer to the bit above regarding rodine posterior.

[AnAmusedReader]

Might be nice if they offered us the OPTION to help out by refusing ammenities kits.



Had you taken the time to actually read what was said, you would have seen these words in the company announcement:

So that there will be no distinction between ID passengers and full-fare customers, our cabin crew will continue to offer the amenity items to each passenger seated in First or Business Class. However, from 1 August - and until further notice - we ask that our staff, retirees and their nominees, whether on duty or leisure travel - politely decline the offer of the kits and pyjamas as appropriate.

So now that you know you do in fact have the option, will you have the b@lls to decline? Or do you think that the word 'ask' means 'you will not'?

And as for you 777300ER and your

It has also recently become standard practice to not load Business / First class meals for staff even if they are listed well in advance for the flight. On my last few flights in Business, I have been told rather harshly that I'll be having an economy meal.

It must be you coz I have never been spoken to so harshly, or not given the proper meal and asking around neither have any of my mates.

Still, I mustn't whinge about all you whingers or else you will think i am a mate of the Management and I most certainly am not but can't most of you get a life and stop your constant moaning?

[HotDog]

Dear Amused Reader, you've got it all wrong. Myself and my contemporarys who joined Cathay in the sixties on Electras and CV880s and had no compunctions of being called out for duty during a midnight tryst, to operate a flight in the early hours of the morning, which was supposed to be your day of rest on the roster; if you could call it that in those days. We didn't whinge or whine. We were rewarded with an invitation to the Swire penthouse for cocktails , lunch or dinner where the chairman would shake your hand and enquire about the health of your family, correctly naming all your offspring and wife. Our life was Cathay and we shared happiness and grief, like the destruction of VR-HFZ, blown out of the sky by a bomb in the cabin over Pleiku on June 15, 1972 with the loss of 81 lives, ten crew and 71 passengers. Our efforts in those days have shaped Cathay to what it is today, so don't tell me we are whingeing and whining Amused Reader, for the loss of little comforts that cost the company zilch.

[ALPHA FLOOR]

Same team, Same dream - hey Hotdog?

AFL

[MAX]

I have twice recently been 'skipped' on the meal service only to eventually be offered an economy meal while traveliing ID/C.

Needless to say, both times I pocketed the amenity kit. I now purposely use one as my work 'toothbrush bag' to remind me of the love I feel from CX.:yuk:

MAX:cool:

[XFR8]

Will you please work on a day off? No Thank you very much
Will you please exercise Cdrs Discretion?? No thank you very much
Will you please carry less fuel?? No thank you very much
Would you like an amenity kit and PJ's? No thank you very much

Don't get mad, get even, and enjoy life!
Health and family first!:ok:

[Saturn]

I found out that those kits are free for CX provided by the vendor for sales of their products. This came from someone in the department that handles them!!! I think it is a ruse to make it seem either like we are saving money as I originally said, too just punish us needlessly. Always something to just keep us at bay.

[404 Titan]

Saturn

While I agree with you regarding the saving money bs from the company, Dermalogica were paid for the contents of the amenities kits. Dermalogica has never been sold on CX aircraft as it is only available from selected spas.

[BusyB]

Interesting if CX has paid for them because I found over a period of time that the tubes were usually empty and reported it to IFS. I never got any further feedback though.:}

[Fenwicksgirl]

Trying to figure out what SCPM is..thats what!!

Oh thats right its a pilots rumour network........

[Hellenic aviator]

So first it's the amenities kits, what's next ?

Could this be our future as well ?

US Airways pilots: We're pressured to cut fuel - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/pilots_fuel;_ylt=AihMyuaVvajK6IixDWIb9ObCw5R4)

[arse]

In doing my bit for the company, I no longer take my hat to work, and in doing so, save the fuel it costs to carry it! :ok:

Anyone care to do the maths on that?

[VR-HFX]

Sadly this is not about amenity kits but about silo-driven penny-pinching point-making...in the best Geoff Dixon tradition. The unforeseen consquences are the further erosion of morale (if that's possible) and ultimately brand destruction. Staff and retirees can be a great source of sales power for the company and yet management fails to appreciate this.

Big picture thinking is sadly lacking....although I do like the idea of no-hats:ok:

Try turning the CX/KA pax fleets into silver bullets. They would look better and burn USD10-12m less gas a year.

That's a lot of amenity kits.

[Ex Douglas Driver]

To drop in a well-worn cliche...:

"They know the cost of everything, and the value of nothing"

[Fenwicksgirl]

HFX, unfortunately the whole silver bullet thing hasnt been working out. Apparantly now costing money as they have to keep cleaning more often and they get very dirty very quickly!!!!
Interesting to see in that bastion of great journalism news, the SCMP, China Southern have cut management pays by 10% to counter the problems they are facing with the fuel costs!!! Good one!!

[Traffic]

For a Fenwiscksgirl I would say cleanliness must be next to Godliness.

Whoever/whomever/whatever thought of painting KA a/c white should have his swag burned. Neither the KA nor CX livery is suited for the cr?p they have to live in.