Tag Archives for flight attendants.
The President of the American Airlines flight attendants union Julie Hedrick sent a note to cabin crew members where she takes credit for preventing their airline from offering full beverage service in economy.
It’s one of several tidbits she reveals in a new communication with flight attendants.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated an earlier complaint, was unable to resolve it, but found sufficient merit to issue a “Right to Sue” letter so the federal government has found some merit in the arguments thus far. Winning this case would represent an existential threat to airline unions. It seems a long shot, however.
Each country will take a somewhat different approach to dealing with passengers that have received Covid-19 vaccinations, and the challenge is coming sooner than later (in fact it’s already here).
Furloughs don’t just disrupt the lives of those who lose their jobs. They’re just the most obvious people affected.
Pilots get bumped down to flying smaller aircraft, and from captain to co-pilot. Flight attendants though are really displaced too. That’s because senior flight attendants, used to working the best trips, wind up back on reserve.
Publicly the flight attendants union has been saying no to concessions, and also implies to members that the airline won’t go through with furloughs – that WARN Act notices will be nothing to worry about. That’s a dangerous position. It suggests Southwest is bluffing and will pay to remain fully overstaffed, while its competitors have succeeded in downsizing and when the airline has publicly told investors they’re unable to do that.
Beginning today, and expected to last for at least a week, United Airlines has stopped overnighting flight crew at downtown hotels in several cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Portland, and Seattle.
The Chicago-based carrier, which has also moved its flight operations out of downtown Chicago to an alternate location, is making preparations for “potential election unrest.”
Listening to the flight attendants melt down over this, or celebrate in pure joy, is an act of unrivaled schadenfreude. On your next American Airlines flight it may be the cabin crew brawling, rather than passengers in a mask dispute
Customers often don’t like it. It isn’t something that should be done before 8 a.m. or in the morning prior to arrival at the end of a redeye. But ultimately the people most likely to take an airline’s credit card are the people who are actually already flying the airline.
United Airlines flight attendants don’t have to social distance from each other in the galley. On long haul flights they’re in close contact with customers as they serve beverages and even meals. But the airline is telling them that as a Covid precaution they need to stop sharing beds up in the crew rest area of widebody aircraft.
It’s no surprise now to see him take to LinkedIn to tell the story of a flight attendant encounter, emphasizing why he sees more government subsidies for airlines as important. Only this time his argument is that his airline, which furloughed more employees than any other carrier by a wide margin, has gotten too old. Or at least that a flight attendant tells him that furloughing younger employees means they now miss the youth on board their planes.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
