Originally Posted by
craz
there was alot more of it when PN and TW were around. the most Senior people used to fly the longest flights and for TW that meant TLV or RYD, PN changed when they sold the TPACs to UA
Now most Carriers except say US have several flights in the double digits 10+ hrs, so Id think they would vary their flights. US has only TLV so Id think their most Senior people would want to keep on that 1
Most European Carriers dont have the Bidding process and allow their crews to bid once or twice a yr for a particuliar routing
Also most Carriers want someone who speaks the language of the Destination on board so that helps keep certain crew members flying only certain Routes. Hebrew speakers for TLV, Chinese for HKG,PVG,PEK, Japanese for NRT , French for CDG etc etc
TLV and India are the second-highest on the list in terms of seniority privileges on CO, as per the FA on my most recent TLV flight. She said Asia (China and Japan I presume) is higher. She also told me that seniority for international and domestic flights are completely separate lists.
I've always had Hebrew on my flight, and usually a couple of FAs, (at least) one in BF and (at least one) in Y. On one flight, it was quite funny as the guy was fluent in Hebrew with a very strong Chinese accent! One flight though, there was only one FA who spoke Hebrew, and was awful at it. I half wanted to grab the PA and make the announcements myself!
Originally Posted by
jupper
Well, it's not per se about understanding English, I'd prefer to have my parents on a flight that still has announcements also in Dutch, with KLM discontinuiing that, they're learning the *A game...
KLM is discontinuing announcements in Dutch?! And what do you mean, they're learning the *A game?
Originally Posted by
bearkatt
there was a german fa on a berlin flight that i think lived in berlin. i suspect co hires fa;s from other countries who schedules are backwards from us based fa's.
Nope. I had an Israeli FA on my flight once in BF; I asked her if she does the opposite of other FAs (meaning, does she take the TLV-EWR flight, and then return on the EWR-TLV flight). She said she now lives in New York, and that FAs need to start their itineraries from the CO hub.
Originally Posted by
sbm12
It is worth noting that CO has reduced the number of language flights over time. I'm pretty sure they no longer ensure Greek speakers on the ATH flight, for example. I'm sure it can be quite frustrating for folks without any English. I'm very happy that I have a terrible vocabulary of Spanish, enough passable French and 6-10 words in a few other languages that I can get by in many parts of the world, at least enough to ask how much something costs, where the bathroom is and request another cold beer. Life skills. :-:
Ah, the most important one
