Originally Posted by
east_west
I'm curious how BR FA pay compares to UA... I think most would agree that BR FAs deserve a significant pay premium over UA FAs given that BR FAs provide far superior service. And the soft product difference leads to a clear price premium for BR over UA for comparable flights. I can see why BR FAs would expect to be paid significantly more, especially if any of them have taken a UA flight with the typical surly service. Not to mention that every BR FA is at least bilingual whereas most UA FAs are not.
Of course as a customer, I would prefer there not to be a strike (and in fact, I've booked most of my summer travel for UA).
My experience differs on all counts here. BR is consistently about 25% cheaper than UA on SFO-TPE in J every time I book a trip. That is one of the main reasons I take BR. I certainly prefer BR over UA for a number of reasons but I would not be able to justify anywhere near the price differential in reverse.
I would say BR FA service is generally only average, especially since I fly longhaul where, apparently (as I learned on this forum), all the new FAs are assigned. I do acknowledge that (the few times) when I have flown shorthaul on BR, I have found the service much better and with clearly more-experienced FAs. I also find the English skills of many of these FAs to be rather poor - calling them bilingual would be quite generous.
This is just my observation from experience and not suggesting that BR FAs should be paid more or less than their counterparts on other airlines, but it also does not help my opinion of the union - especially when the strike is purely for economic benefit. It is not like we are talking about 10-year-olds working in dangerous coal mines for 80 hours a week. (And yes, in the interest of full disclosure, I have a flight scheduled during the potential strike period so I am certainly not happy about it.)