A question: (not emotional; just a simple quest for knowledge). Do the female EK pilots have a hat, blue, ridiculous issued to them as part of their uniform, and if so, is it the same hat, blue, ridiculous as we mere males wear (or, in many cases, don't)?
...and are they issued with the same shoes, black, ridiculous as we male crew?
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Second - sorry, third - question (to prove my total immersion into Old Fartdom): is there anyone out there among the EK pilot group who really thinks walking through an airport terminal in a uniform, double-breasted, blue, ridiculous with the coat unbottoned and billowing is a "good look" and one likely to engender feelings of awe and reassurance among the travelling public?
A gaping uniform jacket and a "fifteen thousand hour bash" in the hat (some examples of which that I've seen must involve three kilos of fencing wire) is a fashion statement worthy of a teenage Melbourne tram conductor (back in the days when there were such creatures).
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In closing, I think everyone, from beancounters to the line pilots, would benefit from a change of policy that dropped the hat.
Some (few) will have been around long enough at EK to remember the days when the stewards also wore hats... and that utterly DREADFUL grey uniform with the unspeakable red tie we all wore. At least we can be thankful that awful grey uniform is gone.