So's your English! :=

Latest I have heard
Locally born and bred LEPs doing hordes of gdays and laughing about it
Please do the right thing and report to the AOA so if ( probabaly never) they have any sense they will be on the banned from joining list
Hahahaha in my wildest dreams
The AOA would bever do such would they

CX251? 21-08-2015
 

Waiting at gate 32 for my full CX251 (HKG-LHR) flight to board. They have told us to sit down as the crew hasn't shown up yet. It's 23:40 and Flightaware is still showing a 23:55 departure time.

Is this CC at work?

Wow.. Original post 23:40, crew shows up at 23:44--whew. By the way, 3 person crew, 1 old dude, 1 middle aged dude, and one slightly attractive female.

Hope it goes well for y'all. T&C's are going down in all industries--but the impact is really felt when you fight back.

Update: I didn't realise the captain was not with the first three. It's 00:00 now he just showed up looking very pensive. Salt & pepper hair, about 5'9", posture of a blogger. About 8 cabin crew showed up with him, every one including El Capitan had Starbucks with them.

Quite an operation going on tonight! Until this is resolved, I'll book Virgin for LHR flights going forward I think.

One other note, the gang working the counter kept looking out the window. It seemed their expectation was that the crew would show up by bus to the plane, not strolling in from Starbucks with pumpkin spice chai iced lattes...

Nice work, azhkman!

BTW, they were SOY pumpkin spice chai iced lattes...

Hope you got there $afely.

:ok:

Not Cool ...
 

Regardless of CC, turning up at the gate to a delayed flight carrying any sort of drink prepared by a barista is not cool.
It's unprofessional and disrespectful to our paying passengers.
If you are walking through the terminal to your flight that has been delayed, at least attempt look like you care about the pax.
If you need to delay your arrival at the A/C to comply with CC recommendations, do so before immigration where nobody knows what flight you are operating.

What do you suggest, a six pack of red bull?

Most likely the aircraft wasn't there yet and was being towed. That's the only time I've ever even gone up to the terminal in HKG for a flight I was working. The agents were probably looking out the window for the airplane not the crew.

Well, if I am thirsty, I can buy a drink if I want.
Coffee / tea / food on the plane is crap and generally not edible.:uhoh:
If I am late, it's probably not because I am being unprofessional, it's probably because I WAS being professional in ensuring I stick to the rules, trying to show up properly rested etc.
The fact that I am late is most likely due to some non pilot operational muppet who can't do there jobs properly:mad:

Whats not cool is uniformed pilots having to find a bench to nap on in the terminal because that self same non pilot operation muppet is too tight to spring for a hotel room.:ugh::ugh:

You're missing my point Eagle, showing up late is fine, just do it like you mean business when you do get to the gate.
Pax don't give a hoot about CC so trying to impress them by showing you are in CC is pointless.
CC is about complying with your contract. Deliberately causing further delay in full view of pax is not CC.
But that's just my opinion, yours is obviously different, keep doing what you do and see how it works out for you .
As someone else said, it could have been that the A/C was not yet on the bay.
Same thing applies, at least look like you mean business when you arrive at the gate to a DELAYED flight ...

Sorry, give me a few more hours to respond. Cant stop the laughter. Must breath! Haven't laughed so much over a post in a long time! Well done.

Landed safely only 15 minutes late
 

Good flight in the end! I took some amazing sunrise city photos during the landing at Heathrow.

Just one thought, because everything seemed so scattered at boarding time, and since pushback was 1:10 late but landing was only 0:15 late. Could the departure have been delayed by atc, to try to land at the correct time? Hence the crew had time to kill, but no one informed the gate staff. The gate people were behaving as if the flight was to pushback on time.

Or could they pull the crew from another flight since CX251 was full, and try to resolve the crew situation for a different flight? Hence the crew was in the terminal.

The gate announcement said only cockpit crew was late, but that was not true as at least 10 FAs came the same way.

All the best, I'm going to enjoy the holiday in London & Brussels.

no, I think you have!!

Since when does showing up at the gate with a beverage crafted by a barista imply that I might be unprofessional or don't mean business.
Nor does it mean I have deliberately delayed the flight cos we are in CC.

All it means is I was thirsty since, its probably a weird start time, the room service was not available or the fact that I wasn't afforded descent accommodation for my 4-5 hour stop in the terminal.

We all are 'the business', we all mean business, thats why we tend to expect our 'leaders' to act the same, they don't.

Its got F@x all to do with the coffee!

Lets not forget the pristine potable water!

The company allows us to have $90 worth of refreshments for a delayed flight, so effectively they are endorsing buying food and drink.

I'm working on my "look like I mean business look" , but it's difficult to disguise the utterly buggered due to 5 roster changes "look"

Any tips Dan?

Bad day for CX yesterday. Keep it up boys and girls, the price of good will is becoming all too apparent.

Just put your phone to your ear, look angry and keep shaking your head.

Latest nugget.

CX does a gate return after passengers spot a RAT on board the aircraft. Requires an aircraft change,, full re-catering and passenger comp. Please tell me the crew did not use discretion to get this one done.

Well as long as the rat had its rabies shot and frequent flyer miles card it should be good to go

On the other hand if the RAT was a G day worker then it was right and proper that it be offloaded

If the Capt was called out to operate the flight at the last minute , in order to save time one would assume that he went directly to the aircraft from the AEL

Stopping for a coffee would take no more than 5 mins and presumably give him a much needed caffine boost for the flight , after being on reserve for a number of hours with no chance of achieving pre flight rest, because he was unaware that he was to be called out for a long haul flight

Personally I think it was a very sensible decision to arrive at the gate in a calm professional manner instead of looking flustered and harried

It really is falling apart isn't it

Update (from London)
 

Just to update you, and clarify... The plane was at the gate at least one hour before boarding time, and I saw it there. I saw the gate people setting up the ropes, so I went off to get some soda for the flight before returning which is when I started documenting for you in real time.

I think some cabin crew was on the plane, as I only counted 12 (at most) with the pilots showing up.

I am wondering because of the low winds, atc knew the plane would arrive too early so the crew knew to go to the plane late (we ended up taking off 1:10 late, but landing only 0:15 late). Or, was the crew taken from another flight and put on this one? Not sure--food for fodder.

Also, the gate people on the announcements specifically mentioned cockpit crew was late to arrive to the aircraft.

Anyways, great flight, only saw the seatbelt sign on once, and I took some awesome sunrise pictures during the arrival.

Whoever is flying LHR-HKG on the 29th, try not to be sick...;)