Lots of comments from both sides of the coin here...agree with some from both sides. if i may give a view of the situation from a different department. You can't compare salaries with different jobs...everyone gets paid according to the job they do...pilots gets the most....some say they are paid way to much....some say they take a lot more responsibilities than anyone else as they are in charge of the plane, but only while it is in the air.....don't forget all the people behind the scenes that take a legal responsibility for the plane i.e. the qualified engineers, both in the office based jobs, in the hangars and on the ramp. These staff have studied far more, and for longer (approx 7 years to be qualified!)(how long for cabin crew ?!!), take a lot of responsibility but are paid far less than flt crew. Supply and demand forces at work here.. Now the pay rises for nearly everyone else in the airline (but not flt crew !) have been basically the same as cc. The difference is that VS wish to change your terms/rostering/standbys etc. My understanding is that one of the biggest problems VS has with CC is the level of sickness/no shows for flights by CC. If CC think the working conditions are that bad then leave. Supply and demand would force VS to pay more/improve conditions etc if the turnover got to high. If no one went sick, then the large amount of standbys would be reduced. Yes working conditions at VS have gone downhill in recent years, however you know where the door is......As to levels of service in the cabin....they have definetly got worse in all cabins. Some of this is due to the cutbacks in food, drinks, amenities kits etc, which does make CC jobs harder. However, everyones job is now harder, I personally believe it is the crew that make the difference on the flight. In my experience VS Y has never been very good, its OK but there are many airlines especially from Asia that provide far superior service in al classes. I recently took a company business trip to LAX in J. the outbound flight although late in leaving due to baggage problems, was excellent. Food was average but crew were excellent. The return was the opposite. CC continually heard complaining about lack of sleep, hangovers, hardly had the initial service finished, the numbers of CC suddenly diminished...I wonder where to..! Yes you guessed it from this post that I am not a fan of moaning CC, if you don't like it leave.