SWISS - The decline of a flag carrier

[Floaty]

On the 27th of July, I flew with SWISS from LHR to ZHR on the A321, then on CIRRUS' Dash8 (for SWISS) between ZHR and LUGANO.

I chose SWISS over EZY and BA although both competitors were offering better deals. EZY was quoting £147 and BA around £156 return. I chose SWISS for the comfort of landing in LUGANO instead of MILAN (which, despite the 2 sectors, saves me the hour drive around Milan to reach the border) and to check out whaz goin' on with the SWISS bunch... for that I paid £172 return.

I had flown SWISS on long-haul from Bangkok about 2 years ago and I used to be an occasional customer of ex-CROSSAIR on their faaaaab Saab2000 which I enjoyed immensely for the very high level of customer service and catering (champagne, salmon croissants, choccies... you name it!). Nice uniform too!

Well well... how things change...

Following all the problems since the collapse of the old SWISSAIR (I guess), SWISS have decided to cut off all the service they once had! They now offer a payable (and terribly slow) bar and no meal. Call it worse than an overbooked charter flight!!
On a sector of abt 1.5 hours, I was not even offered a glass of water, unless I paid for it! :}
On the Dash8, I was offered a chocolate... :hmm:

Would someone be so kind to tell me why, after all the money that has been invested by both government and foreign companies, SWISS can't meet BA prices and/or give me that fe@@ing bag of peanuts and a tomato juice instead of showing me the finger??

Having to reduce the full service of a respected flag carrier to the one of a low-cost must have been a painful process... oh yeah... especially for passengers!

I posted on the cabin crew forum because I'd like to see what cabin crew employed with SWISS think about this and what the morale is in the company.

Thanks.

FJ :mad:

[crewmeal]

I agree with you 100% floaty. I had an awful experience with Swiss last year. I flew from BHX to ZRH and we were 2 hours late departing becausethe Capt forgot to order fuel the night before. This meant I missed my connection at ZRH for IST. We had to pay for the food and drinks - yes even 2 euros for a glass of water!! When I got to ZRH I was transferred to a Turkish Airlines flight and had one of the best services I have ever had in 20+ years of flying. Oh yes and Swiss lost my bags and couldn't even transfer them with a 4 hour turnround in ZRH!!!

The return was no better - a nice brand new A321 but the crew were so cold it was untrue. I even told the cabin chief and she said the crew were having a bad day!!!

Never again!!!!

[apaddyinuk]

Floaty and Crewmeal...

I AM ABSOLUTLY SHOCKED with the two of you. You are both experienced airline people from what I can tell from your previous posts so you should know better then most the s@*t Swiss has been through in recent years and its a bleedin miracle that they are still in the skies even now....they may be heavily invested but they are still bleeding cash and well, staff too. If anything you should be greatful that the once wonderful crew that were proud to be Swissair or Crossair are still employed even if they are unable to shine like they once did. When Swiss rose form the ashes of Swissair they did operate a high level of service but it didnt do them any justice and if anything it almost spelled out the reason Swissair went belly up. Swiss are batteling to survive and they must change just like almost every other state carrier has had to. You got you Lugano safe and sound, I dont see how a glass of champagne could make any difference to that.
Aer Lingus and Iberia are charging but only cos they want to, Swiss i dont think has a choice.
Shame on you both! :mad:

[captcat]

Well apaddyinuk, with that kind of attitude and customer care I suppose they are helping finishing to sink the company then.

[redfred]

I used to work for SR in LON then LX for a long time and left a while after things started to go wrong, ive sinced worked for BA but have never had such a great time and worked with some great people as when I did with SR and everybody loved to work for the company as they were a good company to work for.
Unfortunately now things wont ever be what they used to be and a lot of the employees just think back to the old days and they are bitter but so would you if you have been treated as badly as they are now and you see all your friends going lefy right and centre, its just a shame a once great company is now going down the pan

[ettore]

Yep, as mentionned elsewhere on pprune, Swiss doesn't spell anymore as "So What? It's Still Swissair?" but as "Sorry, Widows. I Sank the Ship..."

[RaverFlaver]

Because the airline is a struggling airline does not give the staff the right of providing bad customer service.
If anything the staff should be happy that the passenger chose to spend their money and fly with them in the first place - so in essence the passenger is actually doing the staff a favour by trying to keep them in a job, and yet the satff provide bad service........doesn't make any sense......

I find that a poor excuse.

I worked for Ansett Australia, til the last day and I can tell you that not once did my service levels change because I was loosing my job. The fact that I was loosing my job was not my customers fault. So why should loosing my job be taken out on them......it's not fair.

Just my thoughts.

Raver :)

[crewmeal]

apaddyinuk - .If anything you should be greatful that the once wonderful crew that were proud to be Swissair or Crossair are still employed even if they are unable to shine like they once did. So I should be grateful for service they used to do??? - great - at £278 I would expect any crew to be at least civil to me. Swiss have invested in new Aibuses with the state of the art technoloy - wonderful - but if the crew are having a bad day it does not make up for new a/c.

BA do not charge for drinks on the route and I get a brilliant service everytime. Look at what's happened to them over the years, but they still come through with profeits. Need I go on!!!!

[ettore]

posted 9th August 2004 07:59 ___ _ _ __ _
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Because the airline is a struggling airline does not give the staff the right of providing bad customer service.

Absolutely right, even more when you have to pay more to fly Swiss. It's not an excuse but the fact that the airline is struggling is the very explanation for some cabin crew members getting rough or unpolite : in the course of the last two years, they were submitted to so many cuts and received so many orders and counter-orders as to what service to provide to the pax, what routes will be flown and how often (and so on), from a less than reliable management that they are now slowly but surely running out of patience. They don't even know if their carrier will make it over next winter, lived and worked with the same anxiety for more than a year! (The "Chapter 11" words spread already in August '03). Can't expect much smiling and motivation under those circumstances.

The latest Swiss trafic figures show that the long-haul did very well, while the continental network took a big deep. Insiders (and cabin crew) know that Swiss sold its South-Asian Tickets three months ago for a bargain, leading to the actual follwing results:
- longhaul planes are full, which makes the job even more demanding than ever,
- the very same fully booked planes bring no reasonable earnings to the company in comparaison to the concurrence, which knew (as every one did) that South Asia would pick up in sommer and adjusted their prices to take advantage of it,
- feeding trafic to Zurich over the continental network falls because many holidayers travelled to Zurich with LCCs or cheap offers from rival FSCs.
-last minute travellers find no more place available on the long-haul routes and have therefore no reason to travel over ZRH
(remember: despite it's huge capacity reduction, Swiss is still having an average of 50 to 60% pax in transit !!!)

In the business segment, Swiss is not competitive anymore. ZRH-FRA-to the US West coast costs around 2000 Swiss Francs (1500 euros) more compared to Lufthansa and there is no such difference in service, frequencies, destinations whatsoever to explain such a gap (on the contrary). No wonder if even high-yield customers start their journey rigth away from Zurich with another airline...

To make a long story short: Are you still expecting crew members to smile, knowing their bosses are killing their job?

[AJ]

Absolutely right, even more when you have to pay more to fly Swiss. It's not an excuse but the fact that the airline is struggling is the very explanation for some cabin crew members getting rough or unpolite : in the course of the last two years, they were submitted to so many cuts and received so many orders and counter-orders as to what service to provide to the pax, what routes will be flown and how often (and so on), from a less than reliable management that they are now slowly but surely running out of patience.

No one is forcing LX crew to stay in such a badly managed company. Rather then treat passengers and groundstaff like trash, leave LX and join a company that is going places and that has some sort of future, if this is what is really affecting morale aboard.

There is simply NO excuse for treating fare-paying passengers like trash.

The days of Champagne & hot croissants on short hops accross Europe are simply over. It's a shame, I agree, but it's a reality - obviously some people haven't realised this yet.

I hate to say this, but it looks like Europe is moving towards American-style domestic service...

[RaverFlaver]

ettore -

I totally understand where you are coming from, and to answer your question....

To make a long story short: Are you still expecting crew members to smile, knowing their bosses are killing their job?

Yes.

Whilst I know how difficult changes like that can be, and how hard it must be for the crew to adjust to such a reversed environment, I would be asking the question, why are they still there?

Unfortunatley I think in that situation there are only 2 options. Either grin and bear it. Or leave.
Personally if I was in that postion I think I would choose the second option as a happy work place with high morale is important to me.

I think the decision comes down to each individual and what it is that they value in a job.

Have a great night.

Raver :)

[Floaty]

My opinion is that under the new management SWISS is now officially a low-cost airline and as such, they should not advertise themselves as a "flag carrier" anymore. A low-cost airline does not reppresent the type of service you receive in Switzerland and foreign passengers (wether in transit or not) should not be fooled when buying their tickets: SWISS is a LOW-COST, same as EASYJET or RYANAIR. What you pay extra is NOT deserved.

If only they could learn to advertise themselves for what they are, people would not be so disappointed... or maybe they wouldn't fly with them at all!!

BTW since when do passengers have to rescue airlines?? :confused:
SWISS, if you ain't capable of budgetting properly and reducing costs and CEO's income, you shouldn't be flying at all!! What do you expect? Your customers to pay the bill? Get lost!

Oh! And how is it most (if not all) ex-CROSSAIR pilots have been sacked?? Is it true they've kept so many captains from ex-SWISSAIR they now crew their planes with two Captains most of the time? That must cost a fortune!! Surely more than a glass a water per paying passenger!

And as far as customer service is concerned... well, there ain't much... but somehow I feel for the crew, it must be hell up there!
I wish the crew well with another airline, when they'll finally find the strenght to move on! :hmm:

FJ

[flybywire]

Floaty maybe you should have a word with Mr Soddu of Volare Group SpA. He would be able to enlighten you :yuk: :yuk: :yuk:
There's more crap behind all of this, Believe me!
:yuk: :yuk: :yuk:


SWISS low-cost airline? yes, just the price of their tickets isn't.