SCMP: Petty theft "costs us millions", says CX
 

SCMP simply reaffirms a problem endemic to pretty much every airline...
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...abin-crew-hong

"One of the most popular items had been the small pots of Häagen-Dazs ice cream served in-flight. Cabin crew had been known to have freezers at home packed with the product." --> just how many pots of ice cream can one person eat?

Per article: "Such petty theft at Hong Kong’s biggest airline had long been treated as an unofficial perk". A perk to steal? Really?????

"millions of many years"
Taking home ice cream.

Tripping over dollars to pick up nickles.

I witnessed this before!

On a European destination flight, before 30 mins landing, I saw one BC SNEAKILY put one big bottle of evian into her carry-on baggage.
From her behavior, she was completely aware that this was not right...

At that moment, I thought if I reported this, she would get fired.
But I didnt do so...

I read an article somewhere that some cabin crew members will sell "acquired" items on eBay just to make extra money. Things such as amenity kits, pyjamas, blankets. I don't think they're all from items left behind by passengers either.

I see both ends of the spectrum. On one hand totally understandable if a crew member grabs a bottle of water on his/her way out at the outport after a long flight. On the other hand I know a crew that landed in HKG and offered to bring "desserts" to our party - it was bag full of ice cream which we knew did not come from 7-11.

Correct. Grabbing some expiring bread or bottles of water probably would not have irked CX; the F/A's probably took it too far by taking more expensive and clearly resuable items (metal cutlery? bags of ice crream?) and now have to pay the price.

As a water drinker I empathize a little, water bottles cost too much in Europe......

do they re-use / re-cycle uneaten haagan daaz? i thought that all food was thrown out?

also a bit petty to stop them from bringing a bottle of water - in fact maybe its an OHS thing and basic duty of care - can't have dehydrated crew!

hardly. can get a big bottle of water for 0,50 to 1EUR at the supermarkets...

It might not be about the price; It is about the convenience.

Some hotels crew staying with locate in the suburb, no supermarkets or stores around.
Grabbing a bottle of water seem much more convenient for them.

Being said that, I still dont approve this kind of behaviors.
A bottle of water is still property of airline company.

Complete and utter nonsense. Even if the total adds up to "millions" it is a miniscule and completely insignificant fraction of cx overall costs. They carry 30M pax per year so the loss is 10 cents per pax? How much money does staff morale cost?

People here seem to be glossing over this part

It's not just ice cream or bottled water...

Which ever way this is dressed up by the liberal minded, stealing is stealing. The fact is that trusted employees are stealing from the company and clearly to a significant and increasing extent (cutlery - expensive glassware - bottles of champagne -freezers full of ice cream and significant amounts of food etc etc, what next the seat covers?
The stealing clearly has gone way beyond the odd bottle of water and it is any public company's duty to monitor this area and take action when it escalates beyond what has been considered to be acceptable
levels. Prior to taking the action the company would have been well aware of the ramifications and would not have acted unless the stealing was causing significant losses. Doubtless the union was consulted prior to the searches commencing and are on record as agreeing that action needed to be taken. A couple of prosecutions for offences at the more serious and of the scale should bring things back to a level that is considered to be tolerable.

dry ice do not last that long into a flight. there is no way they reuse this.
methinks the only food that may get recycled is the cheap wine and softdrinks.
juices gets donated to public housing area.

Evian goes out for 1EUR/1.5L in france. if you are paying more in france you're going to the wrong places. 1GBP in london too.

I agree. Stealing is stealing.

Unless CX specifically says you can take it, it is the company property. While it is a waste definitely, but the burden falls to the company, not individual FAs.