Originally Posted by
yannerd
I had an interesting chat with an FA on my last flight. She gave some interesting insights into how Cathay treats it's MPC members. Her thoughts were that Cathay goes out of it's way to retain DMs and DMs only, anyone else seems to be inconsequential.
A lot of the ISMs are lifers in the company and still live and breathe the company so they're all very happy to give DMs the unpublished perks like cheese plates and caviar. The ISMs of course don't care as they just tell the FP and BC folks to do the serving but the crew don't like doing it only because it leaves them short staffed for all the other stuff that needs to get done. The extra perks seemed to have become ingrained now though and to the point where she has gotten DMs who tell will tell her that they don't eat the Y garbage and that she better bring something from the front of the plane. If she tells them she's not able to offer them the F or J food, they just ask for a comment card to write her up.
But most of the time, the ISMs offer them themselves. I think it is more about how doing this is not equitable at all - just because one is DM doesnt mean one should get something not within their paid class of service.
On a similar note, she did mention that Hong Kongers are the worst flyers of any group. They're incredibly demanding and still expect to be treated like royalty when flying CX.
But there is a reason why 691/759/739 are some of the most 'hated' regional flights....
What's also interesting is that in her opinion, positive comment cards don't mean anything nor help with promotions and such but negative comment cards will get the crew members an immediate talking to from management.
That's absolutely true. That's why I've stopped writing compliments and instead buy them gifts like chocolate.