Deadheading Priority? (Pilots verse Flight Attendants)
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Arizona USA
Posts: 8,571
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It's a shock to actually agree with you 411A!
Like you, I have been at this business in the pointy end for a very long time, and realise that pilots have to earn their qualifications and experience, not just pass through a short course, and be assigned to the line.
CC have no clue...period.
This is not to say that many are very good at their jobs, BUT, insofar as authority goes, the bottom rung on the ladder is reserved for the CC skirts, and ah...wanabee skirts.
As I mentioned before, dime a dozen.
Warning Toxic!
Disgusted of Tunbridge
Disgusted of Tunbridge
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Hampshire, UK
Posts: 4,011
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
This is not to say that many are very good at their jobs, BUT, insofar as authority goes, the bottom rung on the ladder is reserved for the CC skirts, and ah...wanabee skirts.
I believe CC training was once down to 3 weeks in school for BA. They can come out paid more than pilots. I will never forget an 11 year 747 copilot- lowest paid on the crew. Less than a 3 month CC. Second in command?
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: BRUSSELS
Posts: 120
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
BelArg....
Yep, I knew this, and in one of my former lives, on 707 (pax) the girl in charge of the front galley (+ flight deck) would systematically present us with three glasses of "bubbly', as soon as the last SLF was out! (Even if Nigel had dug a hole on the 1000ft markers, only would she put her knickers on her ankles!)
Times change; airline transport used to be a public service, now it is a business like "selling" fish and chips.
The days of the baby boomers is over, now is the time of the money boomers and "Spirit has left the building"!
But you know what? When those Long Teeth Toddlers will reach our age (IF they reach it), they will be suicidely bored stiff as there will be no good memory to recall like we have.
Cheers.
Yep, I knew this, and in one of my former lives, on 707 (pax) the girl in charge of the front galley (+ flight deck) would systematically present us with three glasses of "bubbly', as soon as the last SLF was out! (Even if Nigel had dug a hole on the 1000ft markers, only would she put her knickers on her ankles!)
Times change; airline transport used to be a public service, now it is a business like "selling" fish and chips.
The days of the baby boomers is over, now is the time of the money boomers and "Spirit has left the building"!
But you know what? When those Long Teeth Toddlers will reach our age (IF they reach it), they will be suicidely bored stiff as there will be no good memory to recall like we have.
Cheers.
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Derbyshire, England.
Posts: 4,097
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Quote:
That's not the way BA sees it! They've gone to great pains to take away authority of the A/C Commander over the CC. Their i/c CC, a Cabin Services Director (no less), has complete autonomy and control (and often gets better hotel rooms than the captain). The result is a cabin services management that will do anything to keep the darlings happy, frequently lines them up against a wall and shoots them with a money canon, treats said CSD as complete commander, a cabin services department with minimal effort, special payments too numerous to count, usually a complete refusal to countenance extension, extreme demotivation and a renowned hostile attitude (to everybody), plus an ability to disappear to bunks for long periods on even short longhaul sectors. Combine that with loaders actively sabotaging by 'losing' cases (to show who's boss) and an 'upstairs' with not much idea of what's going on and no control, and you have one weird place to work! It's the Heathrow/Thiefrow factor working again. Awful place.
That's not the way BA sees it! They've gone to great pains to take away authority of the A/C Commander over the CC. Their i/c CC, a Cabin Services Director (no less), has complete autonomy and control (and often gets better hotel rooms than the captain). The result is a cabin services management that will do anything to keep the darlings happy, frequently lines them up against a wall and shoots them with a money canon, treats said CSD as complete commander, a cabin services department with minimal effort, special payments too numerous to count, usually a complete refusal to countenance extension, extreme demotivation and a renowned hostile attitude (to everybody), plus an ability to disappear to bunks for long periods on even short longhaul sectors. Combine that with loaders actively sabotaging by 'losing' cases (to show who's boss) and an 'upstairs' with not much idea of what's going on and no control, and you have one weird place to work! It's the Heathrow/Thiefrow factor working again. Awful place.
Join Date: Dec 1998
Location: Down Under
Posts: 96
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The KLM way !
A little over a year ago I was off-loaded from a KLM flight to allow off-duty F/A's to travel. The flight was almost full and the only seats available were a couple of economy seats plus the cabin jump seats and there were more staff waiting than seats available.
The reason given for being off-loaded at the Captains direction was;
1) I was now retired from KLM (>56 years old)
2) I was a 'buitenlander' (one of their former foreign pilots)
3) I was ex cityhopper (regional) division and therefore had never been a 'real' KLM pilot in the first place.
Letters of complaint to management received the same treatment. They refused to deal with it.
With mentality like this, from both parties, there was no use in persuing it any further . . . . but it doesn't take much imagination to guess my opinion of them both.
The reason given for being off-loaded at the Captains direction was;
1) I was now retired from KLM (>56 years old)
2) I was a 'buitenlander' (one of their former foreign pilots)
3) I was ex cityhopper (regional) division and therefore had never been a 'real' KLM pilot in the first place.
Letters of complaint to management received the same treatment. They refused to deal with it.
With mentality like this, from both parties, there was no use in persuing it any further . . . . but it doesn't take much imagination to guess my opinion of them both.
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Arizona USA
Posts: 8,571
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Years ago when traveling from PHX on TWA with a 75% space available ticket, I was astonished to find that TWA CC were being boarded, each with a class 10 pass...service charge only, space available.
I mentioned to the TWA personnel at the gate that I held a revenue ticket that was of a higher priority than a class ten pass, and if they left me behind, Kansas City would know about it without delay.
CC off, yours truly on.
Of course the CC were not pleased, but then again...dime a dozen.
The ultimate was waiting to board an AA 727 at LGA, and there was one seat left, and this was apparently 'reserved' for the deadheading Captain's wife, as he would sit on the FD.
She had a 10% space available ticket whereas I had obtained a positive space ID50, so the missus (and her AA Captain) were left behind...I can still remember her cursing at the AA Captain as I walked down the jetway...'Harvey, you cheap b*stard, getting me a 10% ticket, you will pay for this you a**hole'.
I mentioned to the TWA personnel at the gate that I held a revenue ticket that was of a higher priority than a class ten pass, and if they left me behind, Kansas City would know about it without delay.
CC off, yours truly on.
Of course the CC were not pleased, but then again...dime a dozen.
The ultimate was waiting to board an AA 727 at LGA, and there was one seat left, and this was apparently 'reserved' for the deadheading Captain's wife, as he would sit on the FD.
She had a 10% space available ticket whereas I had obtained a positive space ID50, so the missus (and her AA Captain) were left behind...I can still remember her cursing at the AA Captain as I walked down the jetway...'Harvey, you cheap b*stard, getting me a 10% ticket, you will pay for this you a**hole'.
