LHR with J1 Confirmed on the 747 heading back to HK and holding and ID90 J Class ticket.
Was made to wait until 45 mins before departure before I got a boarding card, despite having J1. Got to boarding gate to be given an economy seat. I pointed out to the ticket lady I had J1 and would prefer that seat, she looked and me and told me that I must take the economy seat and not J1 as that is the rules and I should know better than to ask.
Its a total mess, I am currently waiting 8 weeks for ticket refunds on J class tickets where only economy seats were available, 8 weeks !
The staff at the staff travel counter in HKG are rude, there is no clear system on seat availability, its a total mess at the counter every night, and dare you if you speak out of turn as they love nothing better than to report you, and the management love nothing better to bash the expat flight crew who should know better to speak to the local check in staff like that.
Look at the BA system in LHR, fantastic, e-ticket, self check in, SMS to confirm. I even travelled on my friends FlyBe staff travel recently, once they realized I was staff it was free tea and sandwich, on a low cost airline !
In May I travelled with friends to PMI from MAN on BMI Baby, the cabin crew heard us chatting and realized we were all flight crew, they even gave us free tea/coffee and biscuits, again a low cost airline who charge for this.
It will never change here, they would turn in their grave if they though we were all getting something close to good service on a staff ticket.
I echo the comment regarding EK in HKG on the phone, I was trying to jump on late BKK flight with family. Called EK in HKG to list, they could not have been more helpful, she even took out ticket number and names and checked us in over the phone, got to the airport and it was as if they were expecting us, they were lovely, got on board, economy. and they gave us a wine list from business and told us to pick what we wanted.
Its not hard to look after each other, we would all do the same, but CX staff travel is the worst I have ever encountered.
As for Asia Miles...... Don't get me started..... Have you ever went to the Asia Miles desk to enquire about an Asia Miles Upgrade to your full fare economy ticket in uniform, they treat you like crap, I told her last week, I am standing here as an Asia Miles customer not as a pilot, made no difference.
As for FOC tickets, now there is a joke, FOC my arse, confirmed my arse