Its was all quite on the long haul v short haul battle, now the Perth base closure is announced and its all on once again.
As other short haulers and I have pointed out in the past the regional flying was sold to us as a shared arrangement on the A330, this was a new aircraft which wasnt covered by the divisional flying agreement.
We were certainly not told this would result in the closure of long haul bases or this was the companies long term intentions and as much as I disagree with a lot of decisions made by our union I highly doubt they even knew this would be the case.
The regional flying we do out of Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane is nothing in the big scheme of things. Long Haul flight attendants have given away more flying through their own hand and with the assistance of your own union than we could ever dream of, such as the LHR, Bangkok and Auckland bases. I wonder if you still had access to all of the flying undertaken by these off-shore bases which you willingly agreed to be established would you care about the Hong Kong flying we do from the east coast.
You are correct speedbirdhouse the flying has been transferred to another group within Qantas is this any different from transferring your flying as long haulers like to call it to Australian Australians which was established with the support and assistance of your own union on salaries and conditions well below your own. Should short haulers be knocking on the door of Jetstar and Jetconnect for taking our flying? No because we are realistic enough to know we dont own the flying.
You also state speedbirdhouse that the sooner both the International FAAA and short haul FAAA get together the better off we will all be. Well if I am not mistaken we were all together but as noted on a previous thread Qantas long haul crew didnt like the fact that Ansett Flight Attendants were making decisions about their life and future therefore it was split into the unions we now see today. If long haul remained united with short haul way back than we wouldnt be seeing short haul doing your flying right now and we would have all been better off as you say I agree 100%.
Simon Templar you are correct it was your flying, long haul firstly gave this away to Bangkok and Auckland and now London. How can you claim ownership to flying that you give away. If you are prepared to give up your flying why shouldnt other divisions of the company gain access to this when new aircraft are introduced such as the A330.
You are wrong a lot of crew enjoy flying up and down the east coast and to Perth and after Ansett a lot of our money trips for junior crew were removed and replaced by the 747. Clearly we were unhappy at the loss of income but respected we didnt own the flying, there was a major down turn internationally due to Sept 11 and a lot of long haul positions were at risk. However when we wanted additional tasman flying after things picked up again to make up for long haul undertaking 747 domestically under the divisional flying agreement your union went off to the IR commission because Qantas allocated us some of your Auckland trips. Therefore I really dont think you respected our circumstances and flying at all. I firmly believe a lot of courtesy has been extended to long haul especially during 2001/02 when a significant number of long haul crew were transferred to short haul to avoid them loosing their job.
I am not going to get into petty disputes about who can and cannot operate internationally better. I see no difference in a long haul and short haul CSM operating an A330 up to Asia. Clearly I cant comment on the 747 as I have never operated that aircraft.
Westozflyer I do feel for you and all the crew in Perth but at least you were given options it could have been a whole lot worse if you were given nothing except the thanks and here's your cheque letter.
I generally have the greatest respect for all my fellow crew but to continually blame short haul for taking some Hong Kong's out of the east coast and for the closure of the Perth long haul base is way off the mark when you take into consideration what your own division has done to itself.