No Staff Travel for GF

[mali]

Whats going on?

:*

[Frozen Turtle]

What are you talking about???

I just received my ID50J tickets from GF Staff Travel..... :confused:

[PayRaisePlease]

HR VP is killing the moral of the troops. First he cancelled first class upgrades. Now it is a ban on subload travel and ID50 for employees on the 2 busiest seasons. The reason is to leave as much seat available for revenue passengers????????????????????????????????????

Hey, wake up, Water!!!!! Sulbload means when seats are empty!

And what about when the other airlines find we are refusing their employees on ID90 and ID50? They will cancell their agreement with us. We don't all come from London or Paris. We have to rely on other airlines to get home. Have you thought for 2 minutes how expensive it is gonna be for Gulfair to buy full fare tickets for annual leave for employees who doesnt come from Paris or London??? Other airlines will quickly terminate the ID50 agreement with us when they hear about what you did. Do you have a calculator in your office?

Why are we working in this industry?

1- Money
2- Days OFF to enjoy ourselves
3- Cheap travel

Listen to me HR guy, you just removed from Gulfair the last reason why I still work here. Now ask yourself why you are so short of pilots and have your training department congested and costly.

Give me back my only way out BAH please. I feel clostrophobic now.

[inflames]

This is outrageous. I think the management have lost the plot. This is an insult to an already injured and demorolized workforce!
I have to get out of here every few weeks just to keep my sanity. In fact, I will probably be medically unfit to continue working much after this embargo. I will go and convalesce somewhere suitable to my recovery. I suggest the same remedy to others.

[chrispatrickGA]

Hi guys,
I really dont know if Mr W......... had the time to evaluate the consequences of that kind of decision among GFemployees.
I know people just employed by the company , less than 6 months at least, who get their family ready to go back to europe in summer and avoid the heat: their unique possibility was to get an ID50...

Another thing I want to enhance is that the management gives us here the proof they can change our contract at any time since it is stipulated in those contracts that we are entitled with getting ID90 and a certain numbers of ID50 per years.

How can we keep on like that if our contracts dont have any real value?

[6_DoF]

Memo I recieved from HR stated 'Friends and Family tickets', these are the 6 additional Q class tickets Per Annum. Not Staff and direct family members tickets.

[BahrainLad]

Gosh, I wonder why they're cracking down on those......

;)

[boeingdriverx]

Lets start an "union", and all call sick for 2 weeks in the middle of the summer...

GF HR: you should be very carefull, there are plenty of jobs now available in europe (at least in UK)...

Next time I get a call, I will think twice.

[ironbutt57]

Seems a bit strange to limit ID90's not too sure I fully understand the gist of the publication...so the seat goes empty?....ID 50's understandeable, because they are technically "firm", but ID90?

[millerscourt]

Ironbutts

There is no logic in restricting ID 90 and 75's as they are all subload.

In SQ we are limited to 4 ID90 pa until 10 years service and SQ Cargo only get ID75 .Certain people in Management just hate to think you are getting something for nothing despite the ID's costing quite a lot and contributing greatly to the Airlines bottom line.

[ironbutt57]

millerscourt I am aware '75s and 90s are spave available...ID 50's are "firm" provided they are booked in advance..but you are still subject to offload, if no other pax are travelling subload, and the seats are all full fare pax....

[scanscanscan]

I would agree with Millerscourt.....In 1985 I was told by a GF accountant a Brit. that the staff travel department had made a 3 million dinars profit for Gulf Air and he had received a bonus based on this.
He also said Gulf Air was saving a fortune by having terminated the expat pilots provident fund in 1976 and not having now to attempt to administer this pension fund or contribute to it as the company expanded.
He advised me to save like hell for myown retirement as the Arab pilots were being provided with a projected BD20,000.00 p.a. pension after 20years service and were covered and I certainly was not.
He feared for the future stability of the company as Arab pilots had to resign to trigger their pensions.
Then they would be free to fly for competitors and to also qualify for a second pension.
He said it was all a huge waste of training cost and said it had cost GF a million US$ per national cadet trained over 5 years to feed any competition airline a steady stream of experianced pilot staff in 15years time. He was not wrong!
Cheers scanscanscan

[BN2]

I don't know what's going on here, limiting the ID90 even for crew ! GF rather want to have their seat empty than having their own people travelling on it !
So now to go back to Europe we'll have to fly Qatar or Emirates on ID90! this is crazy.
Hope HR will change their mind.
Cheers.

[RevMan Plan]

Can someone copy-and-paste the memo so that we all can understand what is says.

I am at BA, on some routes at certain times of the year, there is a ban on ID90 travel. This is to stop staff (usually famlies) turning up when flights are expected to go full for a number of days.
Example is tryng to go to SYD at XMAS, returning to the UK during the last week of August from the Caribbean just before the schools start, or the first 2 weeks of Jan India-UK.

A targeted ban on ID90 helps our airport staff focus their efforts on the paying customer (we all know and heard of some staff and their demands) and gives staff a realistic view of whether they will get to where they want to go - I have witness families stuck for 3 - 4 days trying to get on and I can tell you its very stressful on them, esp. the kids.

[Frozen Turtle]

As requested ......the 2 mails from VPHRS

-----------------------------------------------


Due to expected high customer demand in the busy months ahead it is
only proper that Gulf Air protect as many seats as possible for our
revenue paying passengers.

Therefore with immediate effect :

No further 'Friends and Family' tickets are permitted to be purchased
for travel on all routes across the Gulf Air network during the periods
15th June to 15th September 2005 and 11th December 2005 to
11th January 2006.

Any tickets already paid for and ticketed prior to this policy amendment
will be honoured.

Friends and Family tickets may continue to be purchased for travel
outside the embargo periods mentioned above.



------------------------------------------------

Due to expected high customer demand in the busy months ahead it is only

proper that Gulf Air protects as many seats as possible for our revenue

passengers.

Therefore with immediate effect :

* No Industry Discount (ID) or Agency Discount (AD) rebate travel of any

level will be permitted for travel between Gulf - London / Paris /

Beirut / Cairo - Gulf during the periods 15th June - 15th September 2005.

* No Industry Discount (ID) or Agency Discount (AD) rebate travel of any

level will be permitted for travel between Gulf - London / Paris /

Beirut / Cairo / Sydney - Gulf during the period 11th December 2005

to 11th January 2006.

* The above embargoes apply to confirmed and subload travel in all discount

category types e.g. ID50 / ID75 / ID90 tickets.

* In addition any requests for rebate travel in the First Class cabins from any

non Gulf Air employee must be submitted to the PCE office for approval

in future.

[Ray Darr]

*FLASH* *FLASH* *FLASH*

Latest news... the embargo is ONLY ON FIRST CLASS ID90's. It's still a p.o. (ID90's ARE space available, after all....)

This time, it turns out the secretaries did their usual wonderful job of "he said this, therefor it meant this...". As usual it got stuffed up going from A > B > C and the memo ended up quite a hot potato (justifiably!) once the masses read it.

It's nowhere near as bad as once thought, thankfully!

[/ruffled feathers] <-- a haha for those of you that know HTML.
:p

(edited once the facts were known)

[vfenext]

Just read the memo and can understand the inconvenence it will cause. Not good to have to cough up full fare for family at a time when you most want them to travel. However hardly a resigning matter since GF has one of the most generous ID policies of any airline. Unlimited ID90's is not the industry norm (ask Singapore) and if you go somewhere else because of this it's cutting off your nose to spite your face. Most big carriers do this kind of thing at busy periods. Try one of the LCC's and see what it's like to have NO interline agreements. Also important to remember that GF ticket prices are often cheaper if you pay full fare instead of ID50 since ID tickets are always based on the highest fare. So many cheap offers there are bound to be bargains. Not much consolation but the cup should always be half full.

[boiler]

I have been told by a GF friend that the ID90 email actually had a subject line that says "Embargo on First Class Rebated Tickets". So, the ID90 limitation applies only to those particular routes and only to ID90 First class. Still, it is weird to stop GF employees buying ID90's when the basic idea behind it is that you cannot get the seat until after the flight has closed and only if a seat is indeed available.

[vfenext]

If you have a First Class ID 90 the ground staff will almost always check you in Y class and you upgrade at the gate,subload of course. The number of times you get bumped on a First class ID are few. In 5 years only happened to me once. This embargo is only for a limited period and only relates to a few routes,hardly a soap opera drama as infered by some here. Definitely a pain but nobody died.

[Left Coaster]

Embargo's are a common issue at many airlines and personally, I have no problems understanding that principle. It has been going on for years. What I might have a headache over is the suddenness (?) of the edict from "Inhuman" Resources. Some warning should have been issued to help those who use the tickets to plan their escape. Once again it proves those who keep saying it: the wrong guy is in the job...

[ironbutt57]

The embargo on id90 economy just tells me they would rather have the seat go empty, as opposed to an employee having the opportunity to utilize it, as the seat is always available to a fare paying passenger up to closure of the flight check in....makes no sense...oh well....no mention of annual leave tickets status....:(

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently I,m confused (go figure!!) it is not applicable to economy..just first.....:O

[vfenext]

Ok latest e mail says no friends and family tickets across the network for 2 months of summer and christmas. So your leave tickets and ID90/50's are untouched. You just have to travel alone!! How many more e mails will it take to get this right, 3 so far and counting.

[ironbutt57]

Still..embargoes are generally imposed to avoid customers claiming air miles seats (usually id50's) that are "confirmed" so to speak, or other cut-rate tickets..a subload is just that...if the seat is available just as check-in closes, it seems strange not to make it available to a subload passenger, as is normally the case anyway...but anyway...:confused: :confused:

[lifeb4767]

Oh me oh my all these amendments, yes there is #3 what about #2 as follows

Therefore with immediate effect :

No Industry Discount (ID) or Agency Discount (AD) rebate travel of any
level will be permitted for travel between Gulf - London / Paris /

Beirut / Cairo - Gulf during the periods 15th June - 15th September 2005.

No Industry Discount (ID) or Agency Discount (AD) rebate travel of any
level will be permitted for travel between Gulf - London / Paris /

Beirut / Cairo / Sydney - Gulf during the period 11th December 2005

to 11th January 2006.

The above embargoes apply to confirmed and subload travel in all discount
category types e.g. ID50 / ID75 / ID90 tickets.

In addition any requests for rebate travel in the First Class cabins from any
non Gulf Air employee must be submitted to the PCE office for approval

in future.




Ian Waterhouse

Vice President

I am a bit surprised he has time to personally review the friends and family tickets, oh but wait he cancelled them.

[ironbutt57]

All the above applies to travel in the first class cabin, or at least it is the body of an email titled first class travel...

[vfenext]

lifeb4767 your e mail is 3 days old, the latest one from this morning is the amendment which clearly says only friends and family tickets affected.

Quote
"To all GF employees,

Due to expected high customer demand in the busy months ahead it is

only proper that Gulf Air protect as many seats as possible for our

revenue paying passengers.

Therefore with immediate effect :

No further 'Friends and Family' tickets are permitted to be purchased for travel on all routes across

the Gulf Air network during the periods 15th June to 15th September 2005 and 11th December 2005

to 11th January 2006.

Any tickets already paid for and ticketed prior to this policy amendment will be honoured" End Quote

Since this is aimed at keeping you and your family in pocket money for the foreseeable future even you would have to agree it is a small price to pay. There is still a culture of crew selling their ID tickets to people on the street and this costs the company a small fortune. You can thank your fellow employees for this contribution to your loss of benefit. Anyway you will be too busy during summer to travel anywhere!

[ironbutt57]

id's in first are restricted on certain routes as well...a different e-mail under a different title...Capt Pprune...we need a GF forum pleeeeeese

[vfenext]

That gets my vote too.

[mogley]

What to do??? Nobody is quite sure of what our entitlements are now but I supose the good news is that at least our genius Mr W will be leaving us in 2 weeks. Then we might get a new memo clarifying this mess.:ok:

[ruby tuesday]

No doubt he will turn up at QR who seem to get all the HR Managers that loose the plot - RM from EK a good example. Show me the money and I will be your puppet Akbar! Don't worry about the staff - leave them to me - I will drive them away...

[Left Coaster]

Say that again? There is going to be a vacancy at the top of HR? Well bust my britches!!! There is a bright spot in this after all!!!:E

[vfenext]

I think we can all relax on this embargo thing. The latest e mail, (that's 4 now) says it ONLY relates to First Class friends and family tickets. I take this to mean that Y and J are unaffected, at least until the next e mail. What a load of nonsense that nobody can get this right. If communication is the oil in the cog then we are about to seize up!!!

[RevMan Plan]

Can someone enlighten me on what the staff benefits at GF are - ID90 in F-class sounds a dream.

BA provides unlimited ID90 in Y class - if you are lucky and the flight is full you may get J.
No chance of standing by in J (let alone F) unless you have been here for years and years and are using your long service ticket (this is firm anyway) or are a manager (again firm).

[boiler]

vfenext,

According to the latest posts that I have read in this forum, I think u are confused. The first class embargo seems to apply to non-GF employees only (GF staff are not affected). However, the friends and family tickets embargo (ID50's) still apply.

[Zones]

Just an observation from a non-GF ppruner:

I once heard a justification from a manager in an airline as to why they refused ID subloads in First Class, as opposed to allowing them in J/Y.

It was based on the fact that very often there would be more staff in F than fare paying pax, and it was these fare paying pax that took offence when they were paying mega bucks for supposed exclusivity, only to be surrounded by the local airline club...

Now I'm not advocating this, just stating what I heard once as a justification.

Obviously wouldn't apply to Y and not really applicable to J either, but one can see some, rpt some, sense in restricting F class when it annoys the fare paying punters...

Personally, I disagree, and it then comes down to making sure that staff behave when in F so as to not cause offence to full fare. But as we all will know, it only takes a few to spoil it for the rest...

[vfenext]

I am quite sure the airline manager you heard this from was only too happy to travel in First Class himself when the opportunity arose. What they really mean is they only want themselves getting the upgrade and don't want the plebs spoiling it for them. Anyway this GF thing is out of all proportion, it's not that bad and only affects ID50 in First for family and friends, all other classes are ok. There is no problem giving a seat to staff if it's going to be empty anyway. I think the idea is to stop confirmed seats (ID50) preventing full fare pax getting a seat. Sounds like good business sense to me.

[Panama Jack]

Agree with both observations Zones and vfenext. At a previous employer we had a boss who didn't like the idea of his staff riding anywhere other than coach-- for him it was an issue of offering an exclusive environment for the premium passengers. Ammunition was only provided to him when non-revenue and deadheading staff (sometimes in uniform) would end up "talking shop" in the aisles or across the aisles, talking about their pass privledges or tieing up the time of their on-duty colleagues or friends from attending the revenue passengers. Cooler heads in our management published a memo asking employees to mind their etiquette. "Fitting in" when non-reving is important.

Failure to conform to the norms has it's high costs. We had a few types who abused the company's established buddy pass system by selling or bartering tickets. Although this was against the rules and the perpetrators could have been fired or disciplined (which is what should have been done), the Company simply took the broader (and easier) approach of taking that part of the system away from everyone.

[zagloud]

Come on guys is anyone really suprised by any of the managements decisions?? ?? As long as the airline looks good on the outside and the management get richer, we should be honoured to be giving all our sweat and hours to such a prestigious airline !!:8 :ouch:

[TAF Oscar]

From the Gulf Daily News, June 8:

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/arc_Articles.asp?Article=114059&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=28080

Executives appointed by airline

MANAMA: Gulf Air yesterday announced three executive appointments.

Tariq Sultan was named as vice-president of human resources, Ali Murtada as vice-president of business units and Danny Barranger as acting vice-president of marketing and sales.

"These carefully considered appointments are indicative of the fact that we are moving into a new phase of restructuring, which will require specific skills to drive and ensure its momentum and success," said Gulf Air president and chief executive James Hogan.

Mr Sultan has 30 years experience in the IT and services industries, while Mr Murtada is a 30-year veteran of Gulf Air who started his career in the reservations department.

Mr Barranger's new position has worldwide responsibilities covering reservations, sales and marketing and a portfolio including, branding, e-business, loyalty programmes, advertising and promotions.

He has held the position of head of sales at Gulf Air since July 2003.