Anyone got any updates on their recruitment process? Seems like a bit of a drought lately. :ooh:

I'm attending VBRD on 4/9.

Rumours
 

Anyone heard any interesting rumours lately about what might be coming up for us at DJ? Have heard from CC Management that there will be quite a few changes happening in the cabin in the coming months...whatever that means? Any ideas? I know the rumour of a business class premium seating has been floating around...something which I think DJ would benefit from greatly, especially with our recent move to the corporate market, I think business class seating would help accomodate these passengers more...with the move away from a LCC, I think some product changes are definately required, ie newspapers on weekday morning flights... gosh lets go all out and serve complimentary tea and coffee on these flights also! Oh and an amenities kit on red eye services is something which I'm always being asked for. We definately need to continue to smarten things up...lets hope our product department are onto things!

:ok:

With the introduction of the 3 tier velocity program, guest I believe e.g GOLD status, can swipe their Velocity Card in the Live2Air and recieve it free. Or flash their card and recieve a menu items.

More details will be coming out soon.... Just gotta wait.... DJ is getting better at not divulging to much until the right time.

Rumours
 

Interesting...sounds believeable! Anymore rumours? hehe :D

Whats going on folks. This thread has gone a bit quiet lately. Are you posting somewhere else or are you all working to hard.
No galley goss from me.

Hi everyone! :)

I couldn't find a "wannabees" thread for Virgin Blue, so I figured this is the closest thing to it? Send me packing if there actually is one! lol.

I received an email from DJ about a week ago inviting me to a Melbourne VRD on the 27th of September, which I'm very excited about and have already bought a suit and started preparing for.

I have a truckload of questions of course and am open to ANY advice or tips any person from the industry or just "in-the-know" can give me, but as a starting point - I'm wondering just how many people roughly would be attending this recruitment day and by the end of the day what number of applicants do they generally have still standing to proceed to the next step?

And also, I did my senior first aid through St John's last October (2006) and the senior first aid as a whole doesn't expire til 2009 but the CPR component (only having a 12 month life on it) will expire next month. Is it satisfactory that my CPR is still valid at the time of the recruitment day or do Virgin like close to a full 12 month life remaining on the CPR? Therefore should I book in for a refresher in the coming weeks? :confused:

Thanks guys!!

Hey Want2fly,

You will need at least 6 months on your CPR, so it's best you apply to do it very soon, the people checking the dates of issue at Virgin will be satisfied if you are booked to attend and have a receipt to show them that St John mail you within a week, just to prove you are keeping updated.

It seems to be roughly 30 or so people at the recruitment days and in both my experiences [been for DJ twice] it was roughly half of the people left at the end of the day, I think you'll find it seems to be the common amount. :)

There's actually a really informative post I was looking at and contributing to along with a stack of other people last year that is still very in tune with the recruitment process [bar maybe a different role play scenario etc] which you can find here: Virgin Blue Recruitment (Merged)

You can't post on it as it's a locked thread but you will find a wealth of information throughout it! Hope that helps. Any more questions, post away! :ok:

Good Luck!

hey

i too just recieved an invite to a VRD on the 3rd October in Melbourne. I am in the same boat as you want2fly as my cpr is about to expire so i booked myself in to renew it next week.

I am a little unsure about the invitation and the confirmation emails. After i applied for the VRD, i recieved an email shortly after stating:
Thank you for applying for the position of 8. Melbourne CC VRD 3 OCT 2007. We have received your application and placed your details on file within our recruitment database. Is this the confrimation email? Nowhere does it state we will see you on the day or anything like that. Maybe i am over looking things?

Any advice would be great.

No, the confirmation one will be a more detailed e-mail that you should get a lot closer to the recruitment day. It will have all the info, dates, times, location and some general info on it.

Thanks Sylphie!! :ok: That thread is a gold-mine of information about the VRD process. I've been reading every post word-for-word, making sure to take in everything, and I'm only up to the 8th page so far!

If I still have some unanswered questions after getting through it all, which I probably will, I'll be sure to ask. :}

And I'll be booking in for my CPR refresher at St John, only one session available before the day of my VRD, and it's the night before - I'm hoping it won't be too much of a brain-clutter - if anything, socialising and getting chatty with the people in the class might get me in the right state of mind or mood for the next day with Virgin.

Ta!

Can someone provide a copy & paste of the most recent EBA update from the Union? Thanks :}

VirginBlue CC ML based roster.
 

Just wondering if somone can idea on a Melbourne based roster. How many flight and duty hours on a typical roster? What the breakdown between overnights and day trips? Do you overnight more frequently in some ports more than others? Days worked per week on average? Are there short days or are they all long days etc. Any help would be appreciated.

Easy way to get the latest information from the FAAA on the EBA. Join and contribute to the collective.

MEL base roster will be something like 10 RDO's, 4 available days, 2 airport reserve days, leaving about 14-15 flying days with around 110-120 duty hours and about 7-8 overnights.
Hope that helps.

PS Sinala: there is no latest EBA. we are still waiting for the new one so the old one is the 2002-2005 plus amendments which you can find at wagenet.

Wirgin: I know that, I have been with the company a very long time :}

I was after the Eba Update # 33 thats on the FAAA website

From the FAAA website

"Virgin Blue EBA Update 33

This is a Members only News Article, click to find out more ..."

Join and pay your way, easy.

uz32 I have my reasons for no longer being a member - very valid reasons - however I am still bound by decisions the FAAA make, hence my interest in the EBA update - but thanks for your input to this discussion, its been most helpful :hmm:

I agree uz32

Sinala, not many of us are big fans of the union, especially after the way the EBA was handled earlier on in the year, however many of us have kept our memberships. It does seem a little cheeky that you dont want to pay the fees, but want all of the information they provide.

A bit like the crew member who cant be bothered getting off the aircraft to get Red Rooster chips, but will then devour the chips that the other crew members buy!

My two cents worth.

Its not a case of wanting the information they provide for the sake of it - its a case of, as I quite clearly said, wanting information regarding decisions the FAAA makes that even as a non-member I am bound by. I was a member, and paid large amounts of money over the years in fees. As I said, there are very valid reasons as to my non-membership - not that its even relevant to this discussion.

And for the record - if I am going to red rooster, I always take orders from everyone else.

That is why we pay our fees. So we are in the loop with decisions that are made on our behalf. And if you want to know what is happening, pay your fees too and and then you wont have to scrounge for information elsewhere!

Have a good weekend.

You are bound by a collective agreement voted and agreed by all Virgin Blue crew. If a collective agreement does not suit you, maybe one of John's AWA's will suit you better. Check out Jetstar Int Cabin Crew AWA to see how well Flight Attendants do on individual contracts.

$11 per week, tax deductible - Less than 2 Latte's!!!

Thanks Wirgin blew. :O

I am not going to bother continuing this discussion, neither of you have taken any notice to the points I have been making. I suggest instead of jumping up on your soapbox, you take into consideration the information given and attempt to understand the point of view I come from. :ugh:

Excited!! / nervous!!
 

My VRD is only 5 days away now! :eek: (Thurs 27th) And I'm sooo excited, but the nervousness is starting to creep over me. Fortunately for me, I tend to talk a lot more and try to cover any nerves, rather than go all shy and quiet. But I really wish the day would arrive already! I can't stand waiting for it, lol.

I have my suit, tie and shoes organised. I've opted for a purple, thick striped tie, hoping to stand-out just slightly from the other blue or red-tie wearing guys. It'll be the purple tie on white business shirt under a plain black suit. It took me forever to decide on the tie - had to get the opinions of just about everyone I knew, hehe. :}

I've also been in touch with a DJ Cabin Supervisor that I was introduced to by a workmate and she has already given me some good tips and advice on the recruitment day process and what to expect. But she's been a bit busy of late, and trying to get through to her is a bit hard - I really want to rehearse the common interview questions with her and get her to evaluate my responses.

It's mainly the questions where they ask you to describe customer service situations I've dealt with including an angry or disgruntled customer, etc. I've noted down a few that I recalled and am trying to go over and over them in my head but I'm paranoid that I might go into far too much detail about them and wander off the main point, or I may try to summarise too much. :ugh:

Plus that all-important 'why do you want to work for Virgin Blue?' question I can just see myself saying so many irrelevant things. My response would be along the lines of; "I'd love to continue doing what I have a real passion for and that's working with the general public in a face-to-face customer service environment, constantly meeting new people, working in a fast-paced team environment which can really challenge and stimulate me, and doing so with Virgin Blue would be perfect because my outgoing, bubbly and hard-working personality is very well-suited to the style of service I receive from cabin crew on your flights."

How would you guys rate a response like that? Is that too wordy or have I left out some big brownie-points kind of things?

I was also advised to brush up majorly on what I know about Virgin Blue including their history, their ownership, management team, fleet size, number of destinations, inflight product, and future plans such as the Embraer jets and V Australia. I already know a great detail about all those things but I'll be making sure I do some more research there. :ok:

Any advice or help you can give in these areas would be awesome guys! And yes I have already read through the entire thread on Virgin Blue recruitment (the one from last year which is now locked) and followed the journeys of those guys from VRD to online flying - quite a great read. :cool:

What does everyone think about the changes to the modified leave and attendance policy.
Please call ops by 2000 the night before and in extreme circumstances call 2 hours before. I would have thought that 2 hours was in the EBA and that was the end of that. I understand they have an airline to run but by writing this rubbish it just encourages the disenfranchised to call at 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Also the roster publish has been pushed back by a couple of days. Does this mean that we get paid extra because we didnt get our roster 7 days in advance?

Virgin Blue Discount
 

Hi All,
I Just recently got a job as Guest Services at Sydney, and I am so excited. My training starts in 2 weeks and I wanted to know if anyone could tell me who the discounts work? Is Virgin Atlantic included in the discount? Thanks Heaps xx

Head to the Virgin Blue intranet while at work - All offers are under the staff travel section

Discounts of Virgin atlantic only apply to Vb emoployed staff. If you are contracted to weststaff of AA unfortunatly these dont apply..... Good luck with SYD GS. There are many challenges in such a busy port, but some great people there too! Have fun!

Thanks for all the information on the discounts, i havent actually started yet so i cant look at the virgin intranet, i am employed by Virgin Blue so i am so excited about the virgin atlantic discount!! can someone tell me how much the discount is?

Virgin Blue Sky Girls
 

Do you have to be really good looking to work as Sky Girl with Virgin Blue?

I have only seen beautiful girls and handsome guys working there?

Is this an un-written rule when hiring? There seems to be a huge preference towards blonde sky girls for some reason? Do they employ people that not white Australian to work as Sky Girls and Sky Men?

TINTIN25 WTF is a Sky girl ???

Sky girls (sky Men) are the special ones that bring me my drinks in flight? I think the modern generation prefer to call them Flight Attendants! I just like calling them Sky Girls! ;)

Skygirls? Skymen?

What the?

Please get into the new century! - I am a Flight Attendant and I am a part of the Cabin Crew. I, personally, take offence to being called a "Skyman" or as "somebody who brings my drinks".

Flight Attendants of this modern generation are safety and service professionals - we are not employed because anybody 'thinks we are nice to look at'. We are employed based on a number of different behavioural competencies - Safety Orientation, Customer Service Orientation, Integrity and Team Working - just to name a few.

We are not 'Barbie Dolls' and 'Pretty Boys' - we are trained to; evacuate aircraft in the unlikely event of an emergency, to fight fires, perform CPR, deal with the death of passengers whilst in the air, to care for women that suffer miscarriages, to deal with people that faint, throw up and have numerous other medical conditions in the air - heart attacks, strokes etc. - there are many crew online with my airline - including myself that have dealt with many of the situations Ive mentioned.

No airline in Australia would employ crew merely for what they look like and they all employ crew from various cultural backgrounds and we come in all different sizes!

Yes, I will admit - grooming pays a part in our general presentation - but the uniform and grooming is a way of uniting your crew and making us proud to do the job that we do.

But to even suggest - that we are only employed on looks is an insult.

:=

groundcrewdude,

thats awfully nice of you to recognise. Thanks!

DJ_fly_boi... ignore tintin... he was rejected by his friends in dunuda and looking for new turf where he can leave his scent and stir the pot... he is either young and naieve or been around for too long and secretly disliked by everyone he meets (essentially old and naieve).

That said, I will take what he says as a compliment - although secretly suspect he certainly has not been on one of my flights!!!

Good to see TINTIN25 got banned. No doubt he/she will be back under another name at some stage.
Any news or gossip for me. It appears that the EBA will go unresolved for another year. Looking forward to 2008, not like the CC Dept didnt have enough to do with EMB, 777, SYD base and + the EBA. I wonder if it will be the EBA 2006-2008 or if it will just be from whenever it gets agreed upon +3-5 years.
:rolleyes::hmm::bored::sad::ugh:

After trying for over a year and a half I finally got offerred a position as MEL CC with Virgin Blue TODAY! Just had to burst out here. I'm very happy. I've always come here to receive the most awesome advice and info from everyone here. So I wanted to say thanks, as although I feel I did it, I did it with everyone's help.

Eeeee!

:ok::ok:

Thats awesome Sylphie, congratulations on a job well done :)

Welcome Aboard :ok:

Congratulations
 

Sylphie CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

Great news to hear that your dream has finally come true. I just finished my training and had my wings night last night, what an absolute blast (my head is pounding now!!!!!!!!!!!)... Be prepared for a hard 5 weeks but it is all worth it. The Melbourne trainers are great, they will definately look after you.. See you online after your training...

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