CX ZED

[v1r8]

Gents, (and ladies of course)

If I buy a zed ticket on you guys, show up in business casual or uniform if I just got of a trip that day, is it allowed for you guys to upgrade offline pilots / zed employees to business / first if there are empty seats after I said hi and bring chocolates for the girls or is this a big no no?

Thinking of buying zed AMS-HKG or LAX/SFO - HKG on CX. I think it's about $110/$140 but we have a mutual economy zed only agreement.. That's a long sit..

I can make sure you get first class on us if you pop your head in and say hi, we just can't take you on the jump within the U.S. ( you rather be in first anyway) as we only allow CASS airlines in the flight deck as I am sure most of you are aware..

Sincerely,
V1

[Subwoofer]

V1,

It sure would be nice if we could do that for you, but the culture at CX doesn't really permit that. Cockpit crew don't hold much (any?) sway in the cabin, and even if the chief flight attendant were to upgrade someone unilaterally, even he/she may be tattled on to the company by a lower ranking cabin crew. CX protects its premium cabins for those who pay, and would prefer to leave the seats empty rather than upgrade an industry insider. On behalf of the CX pilots, sorry we can't help.

SW

[SloppyJoe]

Yeah why should a company that you don't work for upgrade you at absolutely no cost to them?

I guess if they did and in the future you hear a CX aircraft asking for a climb but your blocking them all the way to the US you would help out and climb as appreciated the upgrade on one of our flights.

Will you do that after dealing with our disgracefully rude and unhelpful staff travel in HKG, I very much doubt it.

As there is no statistical way to calculate the value of good will it will never be something that CX buys into. Crazy when it is a no cost item that would have a real effect on their bottom line.

[v1r8]

Sub,

No worries brother it is what it is. It's not much greener over here but for the most part we go out of our way to at least get you on, if not upgraded.. We're not leaving the gate with empty seats knowing there are pilots waiting for stby seats.. Zed or cass doesn't matter for seats in the back. I almost always look around in the gate area for offline crew members its a small world.. Thankfully our fa's don't mind upgrading pilots from other companies if we ask them too.. You're always welcome on us.

Fly safe boys.

[flapsupdown]

I do wish the culture was different as well....what an embarassment

[Arfur Dent]

BN must know about the unhelpful and aggressive attitude of our Staff Travel staff at HKIA. Routinely they delay staff and issue boarding passes at the very last minute causing a mad rush to the aircraft. On arrival at the gate you receive a dressing down from the gate staff for being late! What ever happened to the much more orderly ( and efficient) 'Gate Standby'? Confirmed FOC's are unilaterally disregarded and many people just opt to pay the normal fare in order to de-stress the whole event (ie family holidays). This would appear to be exactly what CX has told BN that it wants otherwise any Manager in his situation would have fired many of those miserable rejects years ago.
Shame on you and yes, it's embarassing when you see how helpful other Airlines can be.:mad:

[crwkunt roll]

We're not leaving the gate with empty seats knowing there are pilots waiting for stby seats..
We are routinely lied to by check-in staff and traffic loading staff when trying to uplift standby pax. It won't be fixed with the current policies that seem to be immovable.

[SeldomFixit]

Tell 'im 'es dreamin :rolleyes:

[treboryelk]

Tell "Im" that if he works for United, "sorry" that we cant give you the same fantastic service that my wife and I were given last year when trying to fly from San Francisco to Denver!

[VR-HFX]

I have never ever had a problem with staff travel at HKIA. I ask and they advise what can be done. In the last 30 years I have never had anything other than total respect. Respect given respect received me thinks.

[Arfur Dent]

You can be as respectful as you like but that doesn't lessen the distance between the Staff travel counter and the Departure gate. Everybody I have ever seen is respectful to the point of obsequiousness to the Staff. Culturally, they seem to be unhelpful in my experience (albeit, only 28 years). Well done to you VR for having such a nice time. Most, I suspect, would beg to differ - respectfully, of course.

[bm330]

v1r8

Not sure if you are travelling to or from HKG.

Outport staff tend to quite different than their counterparts in HKG. The whole feeling that somehow the counter staff is doing a personal favour in granting you your staff travel benefits is typically replaced with a genuinely helpful approach to getting you on your way.

[VR-HFX]

Arfur

I hear your point of view and it seems to be in the majority. Personally I am not sure why I have never had a problem but I always call ahead and Cantonese fluency helps I am guessing.

Kung Hei Fat Choy

[Arfur Dent]

VR.
Cantonese fluency would make an enormous difference I would think. More fool me for being so lazy I guess. I did try (but not very hard I must admit) so good for you.:ok:

[spannersatcx]

Cantonese fluency would make an enormous difference I would think.
It certainly does, travelling with 2 of my collegues, both Chinese, they both got on a flt in J I got come back in 2 hours! They say they never stitched me up honest. :sad:

[LongTimeInCX]

Well Spanners, it's a fair bet that you would know if their Doj was before/after yours, and if you were traveling on the same type of ticket and you know you were dudded, I'd be quietly pointing out to the staff anti-travel supervisor said fact, and making it known to them that if a wrong was not righted, that you'd be beating BN's door down, with names of the airport staff involved.

Only had this once, the conflicting hopeful traveller was one of our very nice local FOP's ground staff, and despite believing her Doj was after mine, she was clearly being given a J boarding pass. A different counter staff confirmed my flight not being called, so a not so subtle shuffle up to the other counter allowed a sneak peek at her paper coupon which revealed same 26B priority.
They had already come out with the, if buis full will you accept ey, to which I'd said yes.
End result, a quick and quiet second chat with supvr, who was not happy with my sticking my western nose in, resulted in me obtaining the last buis seat, and our more junior FOP lady being given ey boarding pass at the gate, as she'd nicked off pretty quickly when she realised there was a quiet dispute going on next door!

But we are told everything is done according to ticket priority and Doj - right?
A more transparent system at check-in would help prevent such shenanigans that BN must know occur, generally to our detriment.

As to the original thread, apologies to our colonial friend that we are not as user friendly as the US experience he is used to. However, on a point of procedure, I am entitled to upgrade anyone I see fit, I just have to justify it. It has been done, however, in this touchy feely PC age, I have always run it past the ISM first (to forestall any complaints), and generally been met with two comments - yes they are fine as I would 'take the rap' by my noting details on CAR, and pax to be made aware there may only have ey meals. But in reality, this seldom occurs.

[Hellenic aviator]

However, on a point of procedure, I am entitled to upgrade anyone I see fit, I just have to justify it. It has been done, however, in this touchy feely PC age, I have always run it past the ISM first (to forestall any complaints), and generally been met with two comments - yes they are fine as I would 'take the rap' by my noting details on CAR, and pax to be made aware there may only have ey meals. But in reality, this seldom occurs.

I too have had opportunities to upgrade staff (CX as well as other airlines) but as always, running it past the ISM first. I normally mention this during my crew briefs so everyone becomes aware since the cabincrew have been encouraged to report on everything. To date, unless the cabin has been completely full, I have been successful in helping colleagues (crew/ground staff/families/other airline staff) without the requirement to make a 1-800-CHIEFPILOT phonecall.
I encourage open communication to my crew whereby if anyone is not happy with what I am doing, to speak up before I go ahead with helping others out. So far I have not had anyone complain.

BN does know shenanigans exist as I personally have given him a copy of the PIL whereby retired staff on a lower priority code have been upgraded into J class over active employees holding 26F have been placed into Y class. At first he refused to believe it, until I asked him to take a closer look and explain how this could happen.
Since I have personally found him useless I now refer to any shenanigans, to NP, the MLO. At least I get a response of what is being done with a copy provided. I don't waste my time nor breathe with BN.

Out of curiosity, is there anyone higher than BN? Who is his boss?

[AnAmusedReader]

Albert Wong GM Personnel and his boss is William Chau Director Personnel.

Won't get anything out of them.

[positionalpor]

Travelled to ATL few months ago on DL on sby zed.Flight full. Skipper personally walked to greet me in the waiting lounge while gate agent handed me a business class ticket (which I was not entitled to of course).All was done in a very relaxed matter with the CN orchestrating the game. Nice 12 hrs trip........