Originally Posted by
A P Yu
Excellent post - opening the debate
Thanks sir
Originally Posted by
atmorris
13900, excellent post from the other side of the fence, and unfortunately this not common to just Airlines but every business sector is having to make cuts to stay competitive and stay in business.
Just a shame that the Unions cant see it that way, and as they say better to be in a job than out of one.
TUs, in my limited experience of dealing with them, are sometimes more in tune with the way the business goes than some of the managers. Mind you, I don't have experience of Cabin Crew or other customer-facing areas, but what I've seen so far was impressive.
Originally Posted by
Sprout
Interesting to read the comments from the management apologist who seems to think share price and shareholders should be the main focus of a company. Driving costs down and prices down will keep the planes full but at the same time the customer experience is cut too - will this end well? We can all remember when BA was a premium airline that was innovative and I for one aspired to book tickets on it even though it was far from the cheapest - these were the guys that bought us the first flat beds and so on. Being equi-distant from LHR and LGW, now I would normally choose EY as the plane will be cleaner, more punctual and have more legroom. From most places in Europe BA trips are usually in the bottom 5 from a cost viewpoint - the high value customers have gone elsewhere - there are more ways to compete than on rock bottom prices.
I'm in
no way an apologist, and to define me as such you must've completely skipped my third - and longest - paragraph, in which I say what you have said. Here it is again.
Originally Posted by
13900
Lastly, while I get why the company does it, I also struggle to accept it. IAG is playing the private equity game against us, Iberia and Vueling, dangling a 100 euro note in front of us and promising it to give it to the one of us who’s in better shape. And watching while we fight to get it. Last year there was the order of the A320 Neo’s, which IAG said would go to the airline who performs better in short haul. Fine in principle, but how much are we throwing away – in terms of service to customers, in terms of product, in terms of colleagues’ satisfaction – for the sake of having a better ROIC? I’ve had to pay out of my own pocket for training for my job, my pay is lower than I’d get from a non-airline company, and I still have it good. My missus, LGW Cabin Crew on the new contracts, has to do a Sharm-el-Sheikh day trip, get minimum rest and then do a 3-day long haul the day after, just to mention one thing. New contracts in Heathrow Customer Services have less rest than I had when I was doing the work, and let me tell you that being up there in the terminals is a tough job. Anything that could boost morale, even little things, are no-nos because of cost control. A mate of mine who wanted to congratulate his team members for having gone absolutely over and above their job in a particular situation had to pay for a bottle of wine each out of his own pocket – company wouldn’t even frame the ‘Bravo’ certificate.
All of the above, ça va sans dire, is my opinion and not my employer's.