Originally Posted by
QuarterInchSocket
"His" airline? Get real!
He SHOULD not have a seat to begin with and wait in line with all the others on staff travel; those folks paying for his lavish lifestyle SHOULD have the highest of all priority, in all cases, excepting defined exceptional circumstances.
Joyce is nothing more than a recipient of the spoils earnt by many hard working people. He is not singularly responsible for its success, either.
Should his position, or any other like it, allow priority passage over the common man paying his "less than A380 Captain's" wage?
In my view, an emphatic no!
Years ago at Ansett, Rod Eddington turned up late at the gate in SYD, traffic I think... anyway, being used to 'special treatment' given to execs the gate staff member said "Sorry Mr Eddington, the flight is closed but I'll get it open for you" and then said to her college, "...we'll need to downgrade the staffy in 3A (for example) to upgrade Mr Eddington". Rod Eddington said straight away... "Hold on, no, please don't do that, that's not fair, I was late, I knew I was late, I rushed to the gate in the hope I might be on time but I wasn't so please, DO NOT, re-open the flight and certainly do NOT displace someone who WAS here on time and just put me on the next flight to MEL, it's not THAT urgent". The gate agent said "Are you sure" to which Rod replied "Yes, I'm the ******** that turned up late so I should go on the next flight with a seat available for me". That conversation was all over the network at every airport by midday AND the response was "We really like this guy". A few years before at Qantas, a staff member was severely bullied and abused by a person claiming to be a personal friend of the Chairman (the now late Jim Leslie, at the time). This person threatened the staff member with his/her job. This got back to Jim and he issued a memo worldwide to all staff saying "Recently, blah, blah, blah, etc....... (outlining the incident). THEN: "This communication is to assure all staff worldwide that in the normal performance of their duties they have nothing to fear from any friends of the Chairman and no special treatment whatsoever, waiving of rules, special accommodations, etc. are to be made for ANYONE claiming to be so... Ladies and Gentlemen, as far as the day to running of the airline is concerned the Chairman has NO friends!!!" Additionally he asked that copies of the memo be kept at Service Desks and Sales Offices and given to any customer so claiming. Similarly, people were bowled over by this and respected him for it immensely. He was also approachable enough to be more than mildly amused when he learned that his (affectionate) 'nick name' amongst the staff was "the man with no friends"