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Astraeus for the summer? opinions please

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Astraeus for the summer? opinions please

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Old 1st Jun 2004, 20:57
  #21 (permalink)  
 
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Sammy knows nowt!

Regards

Mike
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Old 2nd Jun 2004, 06:29
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AEUlad,

I do! having worked there when we used to do LGW-BJL and LGW SSH and TCP roundtrips!

But I hope you have a good season anyway, Im not slagging them off really, I just think the Bond is a bit cheeky.

There good as a starter airline for new crew.
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Old 2nd Jun 2004, 07:51
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Sammy nobody denies that BJL, SSH & TCP roundtrips are long, however you've failed to point out the following points:[list=1][*]They maximise duty pay ( earning power versus commutes the airport )[*]They generate the best in-flight-sales commission payments - by quite a wide margin.[*]BJL & SSH have special rules attached to them, i.e. a level II variation to CAP371 / FTL's.[/list=1]The company agree to give you a job, train you & pay you, and for that they need some assurance that time-wasters and ne’er-do-wells are discouraged. There is a commitment required on both sides and I’m afraid to report that many’s the time that cabin crew have failed to honour their side of the arrangement – hence the bond. Remember also that you only pay the bond if you decide to leave in advance of the natural end of your contract ( i.e. see previous sentences ).

Aside - Airlines regularly attach a bond w.r.t. type-rating a pilot. The deal there is typically that the pilot is either 1) on a reduced salary for a certain period of time (years), or 2). a bond period (years) wherein the pilot pays back the cost of the type-rating prorate on length of service, or 3) some combination of 1 & 2.
The initial figures for that can be in the region of £20,000+ where, in much the same vein, airlines can’t afford to train people only to have them bugger off at the first sign of hard work or the offer of another job.

It's all there in the contract, if you care to read it.
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Old 2nd Jun 2004, 11:00
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AEU!

Hi Guys!

I think that having a bond is a good idea, as stated before it takes alot of time and money to train up cabin crew, get uniforms etc. Its does stop people from "using airlines and I personally think it takes a good 6+ months to find out whether you really like flying anyway! I remember going to an Airtours interview years ago and they have a bond very similar and it was £400. In those does that was quite alot!!!!

With regard to having long days, yep there are a few but I worked for a large scheduled airline and then we used to do long days, ie four or five sectors a day, min rest night stops etc that all make you tired! I would rather say hello and goodbye to only 2 sets of pax rather than 4 or 5 sets of pax!

AEU isnt for everyone, but the crew there are really nice, we have a laugh and work hard but play hard as well!

Enjoy the summer flying you guys!!!

FMB xxx
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Old 25th Jun 2004, 13:36
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Hello all at aeu. Markkent in agreement to what somebody else said, why ask for opinions on aeu and then not take them on board. The summer is picking up. I've got 12 flights on my current roster and one of them is a 4 day trip. I think you've missed a good opportunity to join an up and coming airline.

Jalite I shall firstly correct myself the flight duty pay has been increased to £2.22 an hour and the reason i know this is because i'm cabin crew rep and sat in a pay review meeting with the consultative council.
When it comes to the bond aeu don't try and hide the fact that they bond you. I've been with the company 18 mths and fortunatley am not bonded anymore. We are not the only company that do it.
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Old 25th Jun 2004, 17:48
  #26 (permalink)  
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I'm sorry

I'm sorry if I offended anyone.

I'm sure Astraeus suits some people and not others. I looked into things and I have been offered a job with BA at LHR So i'm taking it.

Good luck however to everyone

BA HERE A COME...
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Old 27th Jun 2004, 12:36
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You've done the right thing markkent-2004. You'll be much happier working for a schedule airline like BA, no comparison!

I know Astraeus have a good reputation in the industry and their commissions on bars are really high (up to 60£/day on a good flight) but there are several things that I do not find fair at all:

1. If I ever pay money for my training, it would be for a Cabin Crew Licence, issued by the BAA, not by Astraeus. Unfortunately in the U.K. there is no such thing, which means you have to retrain from scratch every time you change airline, no matter if you have been working on that same aircraft type for 10 years.

2. Any company asking me to count the content of all the bars and bond bags before every flight can go and fekk themselves! That's not my job.
OK with checking the catering, dry stores and restocking toilets but I'm not there to check if Bond do their job properly: for that they can hire someone else.

3. Their uniform sucks, they only get 1 and their voucher system is ridiculous.

4. Sorry I don't train on the top floor of a pasta manufacturer building... where is the glamour gone uh? Oh c'mon! How cheap is that???

5. What night stops guys? I lived with an Astraeus employee for a while: 2 nights away (one being xmas) over 6 months roster, in an ugly hotel in BJV!!

6. No long-haul

7. No airline benefits

8. And finally... their 757 are the oldest, crapest, cheapest ones available in the UK!

...but I'm sure the people are great... and due to the turnaround and expansion, a promotion to senior is quite likely...

Not me cup of tea...

FJ
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Old 27th Jun 2004, 13:57
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Floaty

You are obviously very bitter and twisted. Grow up.

If you are going to slag someone off, get your facts right before you start.

Have you ever worked for AEU?

Yes there are some things that a not perfect but I have never worked for someone who has been perfect. There are alot of good things about the company. It is still a new airline and it is growing rapidly.

I don't want to get into an argument with you but I disagree with the majority of what you have written above.

Yes the bar comission is good, (don't think there is anything else I agree with!).

If anyone is considdering joining Astraeus drop me a PM and I'll let you know a bit about the company, I work for them, I am happy with them, the people are great and the future is very bright.

Don't worry Floaty, you're point of view has been noted, considdered and dismissed, however, thank you for your contribution.

It is nice to see Pprune caters for all types of people.

LJ
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Old 27th Jun 2004, 14:54
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Counting bars??!?!

Hi guys!

Just thought I would put my 2p worth in!

Yes I agree that working for Astraeus is not everyone's cup of tea, but then nor is working for BA or Easyjet etc! Everyone is different and, thank god! It would be awful if everyone looked like people at BA!

With regard to counting the bars and bond bars "before" every flight, thats rubbish! Yes we do count the bars after take off, but all the airlines I have worked for, I have always had too! The guys at the bonded warehouse make mistakes like cabin crew make mistakes at times! Why "cross check" each others doors then?

I partially agree with Floaty about having a license, but I can't see that happening for a while. Anyway, you would have to do some sort of training if you did have a license as each company's SOPs and SEPs are different, and when crew are training, I think it makes people bond together and make new friends etc.

Sorry that your opinion on Astraeus isn't very good but during my time there I was happy and got to fly to some destinations and stop there that I would have never have dreamed off going too! I hear that the 757 they have is going very shortly and another one is going to replace it!

Happy landing and take off's to you all!

FMB xxxx
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 10:29
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Floaty – You’ve been doing a cabin crew job for, oh, let me see now.... your initial training began on 3rd march 2003 ( as per your post 14th Feb 2000 ) wherein your experience working in the airline business amounts to.... approx one year - all spent at FCA, which you decided to leave because of, ( paraphrasing ) as you put it, being "too good for your employer". Ho hum.

So, taking each of your previous points in turn:

1) Paying for training versus ‘bonds’ – Nobody is forced to join an airline and wherein the Terms & Conditions are laid out in the contract for all to see and digest prior to making any commitment. As such you don’t have to join but, if you do, it’s expected that you will honour your contract - that's not too much to ask, is it !?

Accordingly a bond does not pay for training; it is merely a financial instrument to help offset training costs if somebody decides to renege on their contract, wherein it also perhaps helps ‘to focus the mind’.

I.e. inefficient airlines ( like BA, supposedly ) have lots of staff that they’re able to chuck at crewing problems, e.g. if people don’t turn up for work they can call in any number of standby crew, whereas small / new’ish airlines don’t have that same luxury wherein, if enough people fail to turn-up for work ( e.g. they can’t be bothered, good party down the road, etc ), this can potentially lead to a flight being cancelled ( i.e. insufficient crew ), the disruption and costs of which are eye watering and cause serious impact to a fledgling company’s bottom line and the staff employed therein !

Putting it into perspective, an exception to this ( i.e. paying for training ) are pilots when they’re trying to obtain their initial professional license and / or type-rating, i.e. they won’t get much change out of £60k+ for the former and, furthermore, the ‘bond’ that many pilots have attached for their type-rating ( if it was paid for by an airline ) is often £20,000 or more, (typically) reducing prorate over 3 years; and you're worried about £600 ( that can be offset in extenuating circumstances ) which might come into play only if you fail to honour your initial six month contract ?!

2) Counting bars – As a member of the company one has responsibility to ensure that it ( the company ) is not getting short-measures from its suppliers and ( I’m afraid to say ) some staff.
From your time with FCA, you will be well aware that the ‘bar carts’ are sealed before they leave the Bonded Warehouse and that they are not opened until the aircraft is airborne; so just when and who is supposed to check that the contents are as stated & expected ?!

3) Uniform – A subjective matter, though I do prefer the newer version.

4a) Training facilities - For a company that’s only been going for just over two years ( i.e. first flight in April 2002 ) imho it’s quite an amazing achievement to have totally out grown the facilities at HQ and gone from a handful of staff to over 400 this summer.
Perhaps one day Astraeus too will have a nice glitzy training facility like, say, FCA ( Air2k ) at LGW and / or Bmed & BA at LHR - but in the mean time let’s concentrate on making money ( so ensuring that staff are paid their salary’s ) and continue to gain market share.

4b) Glamour in the airline business. – Err, we’re not living in 1954. If you want glamour then get a job on a corporate jet or the catwalk ( wherein these too have their pitfalls ) !

5) Nightstops – Uhm, we do do our share of these ( more typically in the shoulder periods around summer and winter ), albeit maybe not as many as we used to, but that is a function of the commercial flying program, i.e. the raison d’etre for an airline.
In any event, I’ve had layovers in: Aberdeen, Athens, Banjul, Bristol, Cardiff, Deer Lake (Canada), Dublin, Glasgow, Isle de Jerba, Keflavik, Larnaka, Lisbon, Madrid, Palma, Prague, Rome, Sharm el Sheik, Free Town, St.Petersburg, Taba, Tel Aviv, etc, etc, to name but some, and the list continues to grow – and good fun they’ve been too.

6) No long-haul – well thank gawd for that !

7) No airline benefits – I’m sorry, but you’re wrong ! Astraeus do get airline ‘benefits’, e.g. sub-load on our own airline, plus Interline with other carries, plus AirPerx, plus discounted holidays ( e.g. with various companies whose passengers we fly – and might I say the Taba deal is particularly good ! ), plus discounted car hire, cheap(er) hotels, etc. and this list is growing as Astraeus becomes more established.

8) B757 being oldest and crappest – That particular aircraft is borrowed from another airline and is very soon (weeks) to be returned to them – but wherein it helped Astraeus out of a short term need - and will imminently be replaced with a much nicer / newer one.

Reading between the lines what you’re seemingly after is a glamorous job, with international long-haul travel, sleeping in hotels, that pays good money, were you can practise your touchy feely people skills and that comes with lots of 'perks' – I think I know the very thing !

Nb. Edited due typo's, syntax, and remembering of yet more layover destinations.

Last edited by Puritan; 28th Jun 2004 at 16:36.
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 10:38
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AEU

Puritan,

Your last paragraph is funny!

"what you’re after is a glamorous job with international long-haul travel, sleeping around in hotels, that pays good money, where you can practise your touchy feely people skills and with lots of perks"

Because that kind of glitzy glam lifestyle is exactly what I have. (apart from I dont "sleep around" in hotels - LOL!)

I started off with AEU, and was so dissappointed, with the money, lifestyle, aircraft, routes, uniform, everything.

Im now with MYT, and have never been so happy.

I do long and short haul, on nice aircraft, get to stay in lovely hotels, in tropical places, wear a great uniform, make great friends and make great money.

And before you start on the "at least were not bust" mantra, We are not going under, things are looking very good for us, finally, this year.

I love my job and my lifestyle, am proud of what I do and who iI work for. My job now is every bit like I think we all think it will be.

I never ever could say any of those things when I was with AEU.

And guess what! I dont have to pay a bond back!
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 10:57
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Sammy, good for you... glad you like it at MYT ( make the most of it ).

That said, what I do not care for are people who do not tell it as it actually is, i.e. saying things which are not factually correct and / or patently untrue.
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 11:04
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Few more notes, then I leave this topic as I happen not to give a toss about Astraeus...

1. Londonjets, Puritan, I happen to be expressing my opinion, which is neither bitter nor twisted.
In every industry and in every airline you will find workers with different points of view. Mine is that some of the people at Astraeus are great ('coz I happen to know a few) but things could be done quite differently to satisfy the crew a little more!

2. Puritan, if you ran a search on my person you obviously know I've stated things that are CANS OF WORMS at Astraeus, otherwise you wouldn't spend so much of your time trying to defend YOUR company by attempting to slag someone off.
Btw, may I remind you that PPruNe is not there to take it on individuals. What did you think you would achieve? You're out of track matey. In fact, just FYI, some of your employees have approached me on PM to let me know they are "scared" to state the truth on this website for the fear of being recognized and sacked! THAT says it all...

3. I never had to count bars, unless there were no computers on board and huge discrepancies. I think this practice only represents extra work for the crew, i.e. it is not fair on you guys, that's all! If management takes the liberty to DEDUCT bar discrepancies from the crew' WAGES, there is a PROBLEM!
Easy to state that the bars cannot be unsealed before take-off as an excuse for overloading the crew with extra work! Get someone from management to come onboard and check the bars then!! Or is it too much work for you??

Crew already do seat pockets before each flight and on turnaround, clean the aircraft on certain flights, follow a very strict order of service, P.A.s cannot be adapted with personal touches (someone got sacked recently for doing that - oh great!)... It's a pretty tough life for your employees, don't you think so?

May I suggest you run a survey for your employees and check the job satisfaction and motivation of your crew (possibly anonimous)?

But of course, when managers/owners need to use PPruNe to defend the image of their airline... there is obviously a problem...

I let PPruNers decide for themselves, I'm outta here! Geez!

FJ

p.s. Flying Colours? ... Can't remember such a thing
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 11:26
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Floaty, w.r.t. 'expressing my opinion' - you're perfectly entitled to do that, however what you wrote previously could not be described as 'opinion' but more akin to 'statements' and which, for the most part, are wrong / factually incorrect.

I was mearly correcting you on these ( wherein I am privy to the facts first hand ) as well as pointing out that you have only been in the airline business for one year, with one company, and so might not be quite as 'knowledgable' about the business as one might hope.

In any event could you do us all a favour and, prior to posting, get your facts straight.

Good luck with BA.

Ps. I'm not going to bother getting into a debate with you w.r.t. the other crap you've come out with - as life's too short to explain it to you.
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 11:32
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AEU

The new routes AEU operate are so inviting!

Freeown?! Isnt that in Sierra Leone? Nice!

AEU has certainly captured a niche market Puritan...because no one else will go there!

I thought the Malabo's were bad!

LOL!
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 11:47
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Actually, Freetown has better beaches than Banjul, some great bars, and the hotel's quite good too ( indeed miles better than Malabo 'apartments', which I'll admit wouldn't be hard to beat ), plus the crews get several days as a layover; It's generally nothing like as bad as some would paint it ( but don't tell the management I said that ) .... and the rumour mill has it that some far more 'exotic' places are in the offing.

You might not know this but the original business plan was Astraeus to do just that, i.e. 'niche market' stuff - looks like the plan's working !
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 11:58
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Niche market.....

Yes I did know the niche plan! And yes it is working!

I wouldnt like to go to those dodgy places tho....i appreciate they may not be as bad as they sound but they dont really sound good to your family and friends!

I like the new scarf and skirt you have now, I used to hate the old policewoman uniform, so uncomfortable and scratchy.
Quite a few people from my course at AEU are with MYT now, in fact I flew with one of them the other day, which was a nice suprise!


I think that AEU does serve a purpose; it starts you off in the industry, and in the opposite end of the spectrum gives older people the chance to fly, and also the retired BA hosties!
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 12:04
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sammy, you might have a point about BA... i.e. we've seemingly now got dozens of BA ( retired at 55 ) pilots working for us as well as a smattering of their cabin crew too; Perhaps the best bit is that they seem to love it with us - what more can I say !
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 12:07
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LOL Puritan!

On the BA note, I notice that the entire welcome/introduction part of your pre-course manual "A Flying Start" is completely copied from the BA Intro hanbook?!

I did a season wIth BA, and couldnt believe it when I was re-reading it!

Surely it is copyrighted?
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Old 28th Jun 2004, 12:49
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Wouldn’t know about that as I didn’t do that intro course and I am not familiar with what BA ( / CityFlyer, as was ) / Astreaus teach to their cabin crew.

However it’s common knowledge that all airlines plagiarise each others stuff ( indeed they often do this with knowing agreement ), e.g. the GoFly’s manuals were part BA's and other airlines; the City Flyer manuals were part Connectair, part Air Europe, part BA’s; British World Airlines manuals were part Go Fly’s and others; First Choice’s manual are part Air Europe's ( think about Air 2000 and the history there ) and others; as such, given all the lineage, one could imagine that Astreaus’ are probably a mixture of BA's, CityFlyers, GoFly, BWA, Air2000/FirstChoice, BMed, Inter European, Eastern, Qatar, MyTravel/Airtours, etc - it's a very incestuous business, particularly when you think of all the players involved, e.g. I’ve still got Air Europe manuals from nearly 20 years ago and they still read very similarly to those I’ve seen via friends at MyTravel ( Airtours, as was ) – just where does one begin ?!

Last edited by Puritan; 28th Jun 2004 at 14:46.
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