Here is the HR guy in me...when I see crew sitting in J, I usually think two things:

1) These people must be very tired after the end of a long day of work.
2) I'm impressed that Air Canada takes good care of their employees. So many companies do not care at all - even in today's labour climate.

It is also neat to see the on-duty FA's treat the deadheading crew like any other passenger - no better, and no worse. They get help putting their bags into the overhead, called by name sometimes.

I don't have a problem with pilots in J as long as they don't bump paying or upgraded pax who have previously "confirmed". (Remember the definition of "confirmed"?)

However, the two sentences above capture the essence of everything that's wrong with Air Canada today.

Unbelievable!

I don't have a probem with pilots or other employees in front either.

As long as they don't fill up the luggage bins that is, as we saw once on a YVR-YYC flight.

Funny you mentioned that as I just got off of a YYC-YUL flight and am sitting in the YUL lounge waiting for my cnx.

The lady in 1D was a non-working AC FA as evidenced by her crew tags. I had to listen to her rattle on with the lead FA for the first 45 minutes of the flight...after which then was an "Oh yeah, I actually should do some work" sigh from the working FA and he quickly went over to close the J curtain...Then more chatting for a while and finally a drink.

During the flight, I was shocked to witness the non-working FA use her KNIFE to stab at the AVOD screens! :rolleyes:

I was already annoyed because I had to have my carry on by my feet on the Embraer because there was no bin space until I found out why...I witnessed the non-working FA pull FIVE carry on bags out of the bins. :rolleyes: Thanks.

She was extremely annoying and unprofessional but it was all made good because she the other FA (the good one) saved her for last regarding meal choice. All that was left was the cold salmon and she obviously didn't want it but tried choking it back anyway. :D

Sorry I couldn't resist.

We need FACTS and PERSPECTIVE here
 

Hi Everyone,

I think this is an interesting, and, needless to say, controversial issue. I'd like to thank Bfrich for starting the topic.

However, we have become too hostile towards each other without the necessary information to have a good debate. These hostilities are neither helpful nor productive. We need information about what exactly the policy is, preferably from an Air Canada Captain. Since I don't know one personally, I can't offer this information, but if anyone can, please share it with us!

There are at least TWO major issues here:

Issue #1: What exactly do Air Canada Captains get?

(1) unlimited free J irrespective of availability (a paid pax gets bumped);
(2) unlimited free J subject to availability (ahead of confirmed upgrades);
(3) unlimited free J subject to availability (ahead of WL UGs);
(4) unlimited free J subject to availability (not ahead of any paid pax or WL UGs);
(5) J only when being repositioned as an emergency, and last minute (ex. must fly out of a different city tomorrow and needs to be rested);
(6) unlimited free Y travel (no bumping of pax);
(7) a discount (ex. 20% off) on Y or J travel;
(8) something else...

From all the posts, I do not believe that we are operating under the same set of assumptions. This needs to be clarified.

Issue #2: What is the industry standard? What do other carriers such as Asian carriers do?

To this end, I have started a thread in the ANA forum. One could argue that everything is done differently in NA, and I would agree. However, that doesn't necessarily make it right. As many people here know, I tend to be an outspoken critic of many aspects of Air Canada. I would like to know if this is another union issue? Union issues can get out of hand. For example, about a year and a half ago, I politely commented to a FA in J on a long haul, early in the flight, that the bathroom was rather unclean. She very tersely responded that it was not in her union contract to be a cleaning lady and that this was not her problem. Perhaps she was right. And yes, customers should be considerate of one another. But when the bathroom gets filthy, it becomes difficult to use it comfortably. And on several other carriers, the FAs rush to clean it for you before you use it, if it is dirty (happened to me 2 days ago actually, on an Asian carrier). And in the end, this gives other carriers an edge. This is not about SE entitlement. This is about customer-focussed service and about delivery of a viable, appealing and competitive product (a polite demeanour, a delicious meal, a clean washroom as opposed to a terse demeanour, an somewhat edible meal, a filthy washroom).

If AC has implemented a policy that gives huge perks to its pilots to the point where customer services and frequent flyer benefits are not honoured, then I would say it is a problem in that it will alienate high revenue customers and ultimately hurt the airline. If however, the perk is provided subtly, carefully, and only in situations where passengers are not adversely affected, then I see no problem with it.

In the scenarios I described above, I think that 5 - 7 and perhaps 4 are much less of an issue than 1 - 3.

Comments? (I am going to duck now... ;))

FF

If you had actually bothered to read this thread you would know that pilotboy doesn't work for AC. Don't let that stop you however from your continued disgust on all things AC.

I did, in fact read most of the thread, but will admit that I missed the page you're referring to.

You might want to look at this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=814810

And guess who's post is above yours ;)

If you bothered to read the post a bit more carefully...Sopwith never said Pilotboy worked for AC. He said Pilotboys statement captures the essence of everything that's wrong with Air Canada today.

And he is absolutely correct ^

[QUOTE=YVR72;9600455]Here is the HR guy in me...when I see crew sitting in J, I usually think two things:

1) These people must be very tired after the end of a long day of work.
2) I'm impressed that Air Canada takes good care of their employees. So many companies do not care at all - even in today's labour climate.
QUOTE]

Yah and HR guy would think that...........:rolleyes: they like a union worker forgets about customers.

This thread wouldn't be complete without having someone offer an example to the contrary. Allow me :D.

I was the only paying passenger in the J cabin of a CRA. Three uniformed employees were there with me. The FA made sure their drink and food orders were taken first, and that they were topped up and comfortable afterwards. I declined the "meal", but I did ask for a glass of water. I got that, and then was ignored for the rest of the flight.

As someone who nearly always declines the meal, I can confirm that I've quite often been subsequently ignored. It's tiresome, but I really don't think it's intentional, and is most likely just some odd quirk of the way FAs are trained to provide a meal service. People without a tray in front of them do tend to get overlooked completely. A lot depends on the individual FA - some are very good about checking if you want wine etc, but many do take declining a meal as a signal that you won't want a hot towel, wine, snacks, water, cheese, coffee, liqueur or any other aspect of J service.

However, I believe I've been witnessing an increasing trend for people to decline meal service in J. A year or two ago it would have been almost an eccentricity; now it seems to be much more common. It would be very interesting to know if this is generally the case, or just an artifact of the routes I've been flying. I've been on E90 flights recently where J was full, but only one passenger accepted a meal.

I was the only passenger in J in January on a LAS/YVR flight.I was given meal choices(I always take the meal,whether i eat it is another story),received attentive service and AVOD worked perfectly.:D

as we're talking about deadheading here, suffice it to say that yes this travel will be free to the captain. he/she will not pay for the upgrade or have to burn a cert... in fact they're getting paid to sit there. now that's an outrage !

nicely formatted post though... i especially enjoyed the use of semi-colons after each point being made...

1 gold star for you.

who made you arbiter of what is right and wrong when it comes to another company's business practices ? who gives a flying fish what other companies do ? that's their business. now if an airline were rendering foreign nationals to guantanamo or delivering clubs to seal hunters then you could discuss right and wrong...

but really c'mon... seriously ?