NeTWorKz

Does anyone working at CX(Eg: Check-in clerk, Stewardess or Co-pilot) have any authority or leeway to offer upgrades for free or at a discounted price?

I'm just curious since I have two friends working for CX, a co-pilot and a stewardess, so I'm just wondering if they have any authority to upgrade a passenger? Or if there are any benefits?

Has anyone have any experiences with having a friend work there and getting some sort of benefits? Love to hear about it here or via PM.

Thanks in Advance.

Fly2Where

I would love to know the answer as well. Do you mind ask your friends and report back? Thanks

dchen2

Apologize in advance for my snarkiness but if you have 2 such great friends working at CX, why don't you ask them directly and perhaps post the info here?

From my angle, one of my friends is the boyfriend and "registered domestic partner" of a CX stewardess based at the LAX station. It sounds like the domestic partner and immediate family members of CX staff do get some free standby Y travel and discounted space positive reserved flight tickets. And during the flight if one is familiar with the CX staff working the flight, perhaps being treated with leftover J/F cabin goodies like pillows, drinks etc.

I haven't heard anything about CX staff having authority to upgrade unrelated friends though and I imagine there are many operational safeguards in place to prevent such events from taking place on CX flights.

(Totally different story for mainland chinese airlines though... lots of stories of Y passengers (friends of onboard staff) getting upgraded to J or even F right after takeoff)

NeTWorKz

I will ask them when I get a chance. It's hard to find a time when we're in the same city to grab a beer, that's why I ask here. It's more of a have a beer and chat topic than just randomly messaging them on Whatsapp, just my 2 cents.

Since we're sharing other airliner stories, my other friend is a stewardess for AC and shes was able to upgrade a family member from Y to J but it's no dice for unrelated friends, like what dchen2 said. Also leftover goodies from J/F can also be obtained if you're a FF and have met the steward/stewardess a few times, you don't really need to be friends with them, just be friendly lol

mitwg

I don't know what benefits extend to 'others', but I know 2 CX FAs and they always whine on facebook that they are traveling in Y (when on holidays) and then 2 minutes later post big smily faces saying 'omg upgraded to J'.

A lot of them also ask each other (i.e. a CX FA may ask an QR FA) for loads in advance, much like what we do here on expertflyer for example and they work out whether they can take family (e.g. their parents) on holiday.

Never heard of anyone 'unrelated' getting that much benefits though. All cases I've seen were either family or partners.

HKGglobaltrotter

I have been told by crew that once the door of the plane is closed then it is the ISM in charge of pax and she/he would have the authority to upgrade a pax. I have a friend who works for CX in office and has been upgraded to F from J for his HKG-JFK flight (he had a ID ticket issued in J class originally) because he knew the ISM on that flight. But he said the switch seat only after took off.

AA_EXP09

From personal experience I do not see CX employees in J as much as I see UA/AA employees in J on similar TPAC routes.

dchen2

I agree. UA/AA/DL employees get to standby on a space available basis for unsold J (and F) seats for non-rev travel. That plus fairly easy to apply SWU and mileage awards mean so you rarely see a empty J/F seat in an American carrier.

Asian/Middle East airlines seem to take much more pains to maintain the exclusivity of their premium cabins. I enjoy this when I'm a revenue premium cabin passenger in a sparsely occupied J/F cabin but of course think the opposite when I'm flying in Y and scheming for a way to sit in J/F.

fakecd

I beg to think Captain has the final authority on such matters.

mkjr

So on a recent flight, yyz-HKG, 4 FAs in plane cloths in J but when they land, in full uniforms. I assume those are not upgrades or are they. It would suck to have to sit in Y. None of them drank as I could see and hardly ate. Then looked like they were off to work.

cyncynangel

When they worked over the maximum hours for the month, Cx actually need to pay 150% as overtime or something (can't remember the actual %) and instead they rather ask their employees to take the J class back home
Not sure why they changed back in full uniform tho

nsolitude

Sorry if this is off-topic, but would anyone care to explain what "jump seat" means on CX? I read some of the CX Secrets Stories about less than cordial relationships between cabin crew and pilots, and that usually involves meal-service or seating issues.

HKGglobaltrotter

I am sure he does but I would also think such trivial matter the captain would trust/delegate the responsibility to the ISM (and that's her role to be in charge of the cabin). I doubt the pilot cares much if a pax switch a seat from Y to PEY??

747867

in CX dictionary, jumpseat refers to the two observer seats behind captain and F/O.

fakecd

wwe r both right. i asked my cx pilot friend. he said captain does have ultimate say but for cabin issue they usually dont get so ISM gets most power.... meaning captain can overrule cabin issue over ISM but not vice versa