canadiancow

Also, when concierges gain seniority, a lot of them tend to start bidding for MLL positions. It's a pretty good job to sit behind a desk scanning BPs, telling everyone "go to customer service" (while sitting under a sign that literally says "Customer Service") all day.

I've seen many former concierges (some still in their concierge uniform) behind MLL desks once they're around 25 years.

Resurrection

With all the praise for the Concierges on here recently, I thought it might be interesting for some to read their Job Description (and pay). That's right, the new hires n Vancouver are paid about the same as you would make working in the drive-thru window at Tim Hortons.

https://careers.aircanada.com/jobs/7802998-concierge

expert7700

​​​at that hourly rate, (and low # of hours guaranteed) it costs less to pay a concierge for a year than one sine SE100k"s minimum spend. In the US, 20-32 hours week screams out "part time" (less benefits).

//that being said, some may want the low 20hr work week. I'd use all my off time to find any anomaly nonrev flights with low J cabin loads, and keep a "go bag" at work for last minute adventures.

Resurrection

Perhaps but it isn't going to go very far if you're paying for housing in very expensive Vancouver. Maybe if you're living in your parent's basement.

Adam Smith

We're going to do this again?

The hourly wage may not be great, but it's not comparable to the hourly wage at Tim Horton's. I'll just recycle what I said last time.

SKYEG

CSR jobs are severely underpaid across the board. It's actually pretty sad that it hasn't changed over the years. You want good customer service? pay these staff a bit more.

If you're a single income parent, $25/h would be difficult to survive comfortably nowadays. The concierge job is pretty crap for what you get paid. Dealing with issues and entitled corporate DYKWIA for that kind of pay? brutal. I'm sure some still enjoy their jobs and are proud to do it, kudos to them. Maybe concierge would be an OK job right after college while single or maybe with just a partner. Dual income no kids types. It's not a survivable wage with kids - not a career wage by any means. It's a CSR job. the flight benefits and privilege would be worthless if you can't feed your kids at home and afford to pay a mortgage. This is at $25/h. I can't even imagine trying to survive off $16/h... just insane. Execs should give up some of their crazy 7/8 figure bonuses to pay CSR's more. Yeah I'm on that team. Doesn't matter if working at tim hortons or AC, pay a better wage.

I have friends that are firefighters who do ground crew PT, EA's that are PT Gate Agents and at home CSR's. All for AC and JUST for the flight benefits. that makes way more sense as they make a livable career wage and can double dip on flight benefits with a PT job that means nothing to them. They don't think there's anything cool about what they do working for AC. Definitely don't think it's a glamorous job, they aren't proud of working for AC at all. It's just to travel free. Being unionized actually makes things worse for them but I won't even go there.

For the actually Full timers - my friends that fly AC mainline/Jazz captains, FO's and TONS of FA's constantly complain about the wages (they are also pretty underpaid, especially all junior staff) and how the "glamour" of flying has complete died off. Fun for the first few years to experience travel (if you haven't already) and hooking up with randoms in new cities but that's about it. Just becomes just a regular, low paying job. Need to be SUPER senior to make any type of decent wage, grind your life away in a union. When some of my friends started at Jazz as a pilot, they made like $45k a year lol. that's like $21/h. Had so many convos with FA's/SD's on destinations they hate flying the most because of entitled or unmannerly pax. There still are the old school career captains and FA's but for the new gen -> it's just a fun job to work a few years before settling down somewhere and getting married. Some think it's good for some clout for social media lol

Working in the airline industry sucks.

zappy312

This is the pay rate chart for the call center, assuming similar wage progression for the concierges, you'll be making more than Tim Hortons by step 2. $27 with annual wage increases seems better than most entry level jobs that exist out there (and heck, even ON healthcare jobs where wage increases were capped at 1%).

Resurrection

Really?
Tim Hortons
Vancouver, BC
$16 an hour
Full–time

Team Member

SilverChris

There's a lot that's being overlooked/ignored here. Compare the perks and extra earning potential that Adam listed, and you might draw a different conclusion. I'd like to think that the standby perk is worth a lot more than a breakfast muffin staff meal.

Adam Smith

​​​​​​Health benefits: zero
Pension contributions: zero
Job security: zero
Automatic wage increases with seniority: zero
Travel benefits: zero

Whereas the AC jobs come with all of those things, as I've already detailed.

Argue that AC's front line staff are underpaid if you like, but don't give me this garbage that it's the same as making $16/hour slinging coffee at Tim's.

cmill007

In 90% of this country, it's well beyond difficult. What you're describing is near-abject poverty for someone with a dependent. I despise this part of the airline industry.

I would, in an absolute heartbeat, accept a permanent 10+% hike on airfare if I transparently knew the extra revs were going exclusively to the floor-level employees.

tracon

Until the first time you get bumped and need to find a hotel with your $16 part time pre tax wage.

fbrdky

At the risk of veering off topic: would working for a non-unionized airline be better in terms of cash remuneration? I suppose you're trading job security for more cash but still have the travel benefits.

CdnFlier

It's an interesting reflection on the position, but I'd also highlight that previous concierges made considerably more under the old agreement, or the ones on the "grandfathered" wages were making nearly double the new ones. I recall some controversy when the new pay scales kicked in a few years back.

Whether or not you need skills to do the job, I would say that the fresh off the street concierges tended to be much less helpful than the seasoned ones who had worked elsewhere in the company and had some idea how ticketing, etc worked. The new ones were a helpful check-in service but not much else where as the experience side of things really made the experience better when things went bad. I'm a few years out of date on being SE though.

It's all about how they want to approach it though, is it just about bodies and someone to answer phones who are cheap and plentiful, or do you pay more and have fewer that can really make a difference in a traveler's day. They've picked the cheap and plentiful route.

RangerNS

That doesn't say very much. Inexperienced people are inexperienced. These days, with the culling-because-covid, and Amadeus coming in, most everyone is inexperienced, even those with many years on the job.

I suppose I've only been doing this for 7(?) years, so maybe my good 'ol days weren't that good. But the prevailing view here has been to only ever talk to an agent or concierge if you already have a plan. Even concierges sometimes have to "talk to ticketing" or whatever. The primary value is the agentax ratio.