cattle

Rather than taking an excellent thread from EnRouter off track I have started this one so I can get flamed here




I appreciate Cargoagent giving us the inside scoop on this one ^ I always wondered what was so difficult about this and now I know. While no less frustrating, it makes me more understanding now

Have any of you considered that perhaps (work with me here) AC runs these crews a little thin and is squeezing everything they can out of them as it is and adding the EnRoute swap out is just too much instead of calling some of them lazy?

I would suggest that until you do their job for a month while trying to keep the upbeat motivation levels that you expect here. Try working day in day out in tight quarters while being hunched over all day and then have to replace the magazines in the same time as a regular turnaround.

It seems to me, and I might be wrong, but there are those here that are always saying AC is a new lean profit machine and you are getting what you pay for from this point forward are missing something here. Your happiness depends on what you either pay up front for your ticket or what you pay for on the a/c, not your expectations

You get upgrades if you pay the right fare and/or have the right pass so you get what you pay for.

You get a free snack in Y on a Lat/Lat+ fare otherwise buy it yourself because you were too cheap to buy a better fare for a free sandwich so you get what you pay for.

Pillows in Y. Give us $2.00 and you can have one as you get what you pay for.

Advance seat selection. What, you bought a Tango fare? Wait until check in and don't complain. This is the new AC profit machine and you get what you pay for.

That FREE EnRoute magazine isn't up to date in your seat pocket? Toug... Wait a minute, they don't charge me for that FREE MAGAZINE I don't care, this is different, it better be there or fire those lazy workers who didn't get in my seat overnight

Some of you have been telling us every chance you get that you get what you pay for either in the ticket price or on the a/c. Which is it?

I'm not taking jabs at AC for how they run their airline now. I'm asking those who always talk about AC's new profit model and how great it is for the airline and shareholders. Is what you are wanting/expect is in line with real expectations given AC's new profit model that you all love so much?

Outsourcing won't solve your problem if you are stretching your workers too thin to begin with. Either you have too many workers 29 days of the month and there is no excuse for the magazines not being in place OR you have the right number of workers 29 days a month and fall behind for 2 days when swapping our EnRoute. Which do you want as a shareholder?

ogmios

Why not just put the magazines on a rack on the bridge on the day that the new mags come out. People will take many of them on board. The FAs can just grab the rest, stow them, and when the plane is next cleaned those extra mags can be dropped in the seat backs where needed, since many passengers will have just left their copy in the seat back.

YOWkid

Isn't this what AC used to do for all other magazines at the Rapidair gates at YYZ T2?

I remember finding the really nice ones like Foreign Affairs where it would have costed me a fortune to pick up in the magazine shop.

However, times have changed. I haven't seen a Foreign Affairs or other really nice "premium" magazine at an AC gate, MLL, or on board for a very long time.

ogmios

Half of the time that I bother to go to MLL at YOW I can't find magazines in English. I remember a couple years ago when there was a large selection.

RTR

I thought of that, not all pax will grab one, but that's okay. Maybe EastWest or UpFront can comment, but I'm not sure where they could stow the magazines.

While this may be slightly off topic, we could help the groomers by actually taking the time to clean up our seats and handing over our refuse when the Flight Attendant comes by to pick it up. So many times I see seats and pockets overflowing with newspapers, headsets, foodwrappers, cups...If we all make a point of helping the groomers they might have the time they need to complete their tasks.

CATTLE - great idea moving this to a new thread.

Cheers! RTR

back seat

Good idea, but I don't think it would work as there would be multiple copies on an airplane. I don't think a lot of people take the magazine with them.

Fermat

Maybe that's a reflection of the diversity that we live in these days!

parnel

The very fact this is extra work for AC crews for two days a month makes my point about outsourcing all the more viable.

Cargoagent

Go with the second option. ^

ogmios

The idea is just to do it for the first flight of the day. Hopefully, there would be only a small amount ... say 20 ... left over after boarding, and perhaps the FA could find a place on board for them until the first grooming. This way there would ideally be less enroute's to distribute, which would hopefully help out time-wise.

acysb87

Happened on a recent March flight on a 767.In my seat pocket I had a Feb.2006 copy and the seat beside me had a January 2006 copyof En-Route

cur

I don't know how this is so complex to some people on this forum. I've never gotten an out-dated En Route when travelling in the first week of a month. This because the system works like this:

Boxes of new En Routes come on the 25th. AC efficency gets them to the groomers by the 30th
On the night of the 30th (or god forbid, the monring of the 1st), while doing their seat pocket sweeps, groomer will remove old en-route magazine, and put in new one, while checking for safety card, en-route entertainment, and removing rubbish.

light bulb!

gbeaumont

The problem is their is no incentive for the groomers. If it was outsourced to the supplier - they will want to make the swap asap as their advertisers want the latest version in the seat pocket. A one or two day a month job just makes sense for it to be outsourced. It is possible that the supplier may do it for free (built in or course).

It is not that the employees are lazy, just that the added work doesn't fit well into their schedule - why not outsource?

cur

This post COMPLETELY fails to take into account airport operations.

Lack of incentive? "Do this or you will lose your job" That's a pretty good incentive.

Groomers HAVE to go into the seat pockets anyways, not only to clear out rubbish, but to make sure the safety card and menu are in there. It's their job. When they groom, they take boxes of all the stuff on board so everything's in easy reach.

What groomers seemingly do now during their downtime, is prepare little baggies with everything, air sickness bag, safety card, entertainment guide, BoB menu. Then when they groom, they bring the bags on board, remove everything, then put in the bag.

Why not outsource? Because that's stupid. Why not outsource Cara to deliver the BoB menus, and the printer to put in the safety cards? For an airline that is asking for AC employees to suggest ways to shed weight off their planes and is keen of the suggesion to dump wine bottles earlier (saving roughly 10kgs), I don't see why outsourcing the delivery of an in-flight magazine into seat pockets is anywhere near logical.

I've never gotten an outdated en-route, I just don't know how this spawns a thread of its own.

parnel

Then you better start flying in the first week of each month because that's what happens. The rest of your post is pretty lame BTW