News and notes from around the interweb:
- “Delta isn’t the only airline to make trainee flight attendants share hotel rooms, with United also a major player that has a shared room policy. Of the ‘Big Three’ US carriers, American Airlines is the only one that provides single occupancy rooms for its new-hire crew members during training.”
Junior flight attendants are poorly paid. Trainees aren’t even quite junior yet. And they’re usually young. I’m not sure this is unreasonable? Frontier Airlines does its flight attendant training at a truck stop off the freeway in Wyoming, because it’s cheaper than doing it closer to their Denver headquarters.
My key takeaway is that AFA-CWA didn’t end this practice at United, and remember that unions generally use the lowest-paid flight attendants as symbols while bargaining to benefit their most senior members.
- Watch this dog fly Singapore Airlines business class to Japan.
- Delta’s anticipated Taittinger partnership appears to be coming close to fruition. United has already trumped them with not just Laurent-Perrier but also Freemark Abbey cabernet and some other quite nice wines.
The DL partnership with Taittinger champagne that had kinda leaked out (via DL themselves, I'd say) a couple months ago, should be officially announced very soon. Thinking bonafide long-haul only.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) February 15, 2025
also, some kinda "white wine sommelier selection" thing
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 12:37 PM
- In case you’ve wondered why Saks never seems to have the items you want to buy with your Amex credit in stock it could be this is the reason.
- As I was first to report, Chase’s Austin lounge space is closing:
Sapphire Reserve lounge at the airport closing on March 20th
byu/FlaxxtotheMaxx inAustin - 20% bonus converting Citi Thank You Rewards to Qatar Airways through March 15
Oof, Gary, your post was indeed anti-union (calling into question why Union’s FA’s union didn’t flight for trainees to have their own rooms like American).
It all goes back to who are the actual ‘customers’—if it’s passengers, then so that they receive a better onboard experience, please pay the flight attendants more, provide them better training, support, and benefits, including individual hotel rooms during training; however, if the ‘customers’ are actually the ‘shareholders,’ then sure, by all means outright fleece the workers and the passengers as much as you can, so that ‘daddy’ can take home a juicier ‘return in investment’—‘profits over people,’ yet again. So much for ‘stakeholders’—majority shareholders run this country, not ‘the people.’ Sad.
*fight (fight! fight!)
(though, ‘flight,’ was a nice typo)
@1990 – shareholders should be the primary consideration of public companies and they have a fiduciary responsibility to that effect. Sometimes things align where shareholders, employees, customers and any other stakeholder can all be treated well but primary consideration should always go to shareholders. Sorry but that is the basis of our capitalist system. Buy stock and benefit. That is the best approach (although airline stocks are typically a horrible investment)
@AC — Finally, an answer. So, only shareholders matter, and let’s be further honest, only majority shareholders with actual influence.
In that case, someone should remind us silly passengers to stop worrying about the quality of service, and to stop bothering with ‘loyalty’ programs, because we are not the actual customers—we are mere cargo, and should STFU!
Musk wants to take over ATC. That’s the guy who moved to Texas because he knew he expected to blow up and crash more things.
Having EEs share personal space is just asking for lawsuits. It just takes one weirdo for a big settlement.
@GUWonder — Yeah, it sure would be concerning for anyone who flies or happens to live/work/exist under any flight paths. Oh well. Gotta move fast and break things, because something-something, it’s not failure, it’s just 10,000 ways that didn’t work, and people died, but who cares. He’s a genius! The Edison of our times! *awkward arm gesture twice* /s
American does not make trainee FA’s share a room because AA owns the hotel they are staying in.
https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-american-airlines-employee-only-hotel-in-texas-2023-2
I’m actually amazed that Saks is still in business. I tend to pop into one of their stores twice a year to buy a $50 gift card with my Platinum card credit, that I then sell to CardCash. I know people like to feel special, but the Saks merchandise always looks ridiculous and massively overpriced to me. This time, in their Boca store, I stopped in to use the restroom, and it was in an abysmal state. Each year, I get a lower payout from CardCash for my gift card, which suggest to me the trajectory of Sak’s business.
I’m not sure why sharing rooms during training is a big deal. When I went for customer service training, there were three of us in a room. It was large, with plenty of bathroom space. We didn’t give it a second thought.
Flight attendants have shared rooms in training (as do just about all customer service agents, and many others) since the 1940s. When airlines had their own training centers, even TWA and Braniff, they shared rooms and had common living areas. American is probably the only difference because they have their own hotel.
Most will allow a flight attendant to have their own room in training if they pay a supplement. Or if there are gender mis-matches.
When I was in the Army we had 20 people sharing one big room. @ 1990. I know you are just baiting people. Management’s job is to get a return for shareholders (the owners). Otherwise no one invests. And I, for one, have no trust in corporate managers as do-gooders. It is the union’s job to represent the workers. And workers can vote with their feet, as can customers, provided we avoid regulatory capture and shared oligarchy.
I wish all human passengers were as well-mannered as that dalmatian appears to be.
(Queue the dog haters )
Junior employees sharing hotel rooms during training is quite common in many industries
@jack the lad — Were we discussing the army? You’re comparing apples to oranges, sir. Thank you for at least admitting that ‘regulatory capture’ and the ‘oligarchy’ may actually exist. I feel like many here conveniently ignore that reality—no, it’s not unsustainable yet, but if things digress further, nearly all of us are gonna be a lot poorer and disempowered, fast. Like, if you don’t have tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, you aren’t in the club, fellas.
Why ANY company in this day and age encourages or demands that employees share a room to save money absolutely boggles my mind. It’s an enormous lawsuit waiting to happen.
Lol- reminded me of when I interviewed at Walmart.com for a senior management position. I was told, you’ll have to fly to Bentonville every month or two, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is there’s usually a company plane going between the two sites, so you get to fly private. The bad news is we’ll be sharing rooms when we get there…
Does poster 1990 ever shut up? God help the rest of us with brains.
Actually Gary the Largest domestic carrier in the U.S. (Southwest) does NOT require trainees to have roommates while in training.
Alaska Airlines does NOT have shared rooms for the 6 week training period.
I can’t say when American switched to single rooms, but from starting up, until somewhere in the early 2000’s or possibly later,rooms were shared at the flight academy..
@hh-mke. Nailed it. I would rather be on a plane full of dogs than with most people.
When I trained to become a FA for Skywest in Salt Lake City, I had two other roommates., fortunately I had a room in the suite by myself and we had a common area and kitchen. During, my yearly recertification in Salt Lake thereafter, I had my own room. So, it’s not uncommon to have roommates while in training.
While FA have to share rooms, pilots don’t.