AlicorporateUK

As a further perspective on the LO vs BA topic, what people fail to mention/realise here is the premium/exclusive feeling deriving by sitting all by yourself in those empty C cabins (of our favourite Central-Eastern European carrier, needless to say) when flying within Europe, together with the particularly attentive "If you need me, just press the button" statement from most pursers as soon as the food-tray is duly placed on your table – compare that to the 16 rows of CE on most BA flights and their crew being around at all times as a result!

Jokes (well, sort-of... ) aside, BA's CE is (on average) nearly always cheaper compared to LO on the WAW-LHR-WAW rotations (similar timetables, too), lounge-wise Mazurek beats the lounge next door hands down whereas on those (rare) occasions that I manage to get to LHR a bit earlier when booked on the nearly-always delayed 6:10PM flight, I do enjoy the stroll to the "other side" (i.e. B) on my way to the UA lounge (always a good excuse for some extra steps, I'm a runner after all ); catering-wise, we said it, even if you get bored with BA's standard meal, they have some decent special meals (just take a look at the BA forum), however I am not a fan of Brewdog so Żywiec (far from the best but...) adds a couple of extra points for LO. Needless to say (and possibly above all), having status with M&M plays a significant role for me personally, together with the fact that BA lacks big style in terms of Central-Eastern European network and I strongly doubt they'll be making an appearance in my part of the world anytime soon (or at all).

G

fifty_two

For the record , Basia's CEO (Rafał Milczarski) got sacked few days ago , but dont feel sorry for him , i am sure he received a nice xmas golden parachute , big enough to survive for few decades (based on average polish salary)

JD3313

This! Ultimately I buy J class so that I can sleep comfortably on the plane and in this respect the standard forward-facing lie-flat seats on TK and LO beat most of the other products hands down. It is really mind-boggling to me how most bloggers and/or influencers seem to prefer supremely uncomfortable products like reverse herringbone seats, coffin (a.k.a. staggered) seats, or (the worst of them all) SQ seats.

TPJ

Why AY is now trying to fire all long haul F/A's and replace them with F/A's from cheaper countries (yes it is now happening in a Nordic welfare state right now - just visit the AY forum for details). Why BA has treated their F/A's like s...t while creating the Worldwide Fleet? Because they can. In these CEO's eyes they are easily replaceable numbers. Hundreds of people want to be F/A's and will queue up for interviews (romantic job, will see the world - all this BS). We understand the difference between good service provided by experienced F/A's and mediocre service provided by someone not really interested in the job. But for these CEO's the experienced ones are easily replaceable numbers (that 'cost the Company too much')...

P.S. I am not sure how many times I said on this forum that IMHO these vintage IL-62 F/A's are the Company's greatest asset...They really are...
.

Gamerska

My question was rhetorical - as of course I agree that an experienced FA is invaluable.

What I find interesting is that my comment about the politics behind the LO Prezes removal has been deleted - with no information as to who or why. Why is it apparently. not allowed to discuss the political reasons for removal of an individual from a government owned airline? I did not express support for one side or the other, just noted the facts. Can anyone explain?

hugolover

There's no conspiracy on FT when it comes to Basia. No one gives a flying f..... It's an airline you can avoid your entire life without really shooting yourself in the foot.

It's moved to the restructuring thread.

Jaenks

I kind of understand AY plans to replace all Eastern long haul crew with Asian crews. US, mid-East and European routes will stay with Finnish crew. Took two long haul flights to Asia and back from HEL during the last month and got very good service from Finnish crew members and also from Asian crew member.
Spoke recently with two LO pilots and was told that there were many Ukrainians who worked as a cabin crew but not much left now, the contracts were not extended and many of them just quit.
Remark about BS in your post: It is not F/A recruitment story about romantic job and see the world, but Finland being as welfare country. That is the biggest BS.

hugolover

Basia can't get crew for love nor money so its not surprise the UA crew buggered off. It's not a nice place to work. She's even got Weronika Piętka on a beach in a costume to try to paint the picture of the glamorous life of Putka and Cisowianka on a broken E95 with no working boiler at the back and no water in the lavs .

https://www.lot.com/pl/pl/odkrywaj/i...eronika-pietka

I noticed the general standard of LO crew is sinking fast and no one wants to work for them. Dishevelled and incompetent. Almost no crew ask pax to sit-down during taxi to the gate. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

A lot of this goes back to Rafał, getting rid of the Instructors and Supervisors, and putting them all into Purser and Senior Purser. I think she goes around every poor town in Poland and sticks them in the back of buses-like a country across the border and says "You're cabin crew now"!

fifty_two

One thing to mention , this is not only FA's but in general many employees in head office , now they dont hire (or maybe for managers positions) on normal employment contract , but rather B2B or mandate contractors , with low salaries , so they can avoid paying decent salaries , no need to deal with unions and can get rid of them whenever they want

hugolover

And Warsaw is an employee's market, not an employers market. Look at all the IT vacancies in Poland. Who'd pick Basia?

Anyway, as I say, Basia is bankrupt, the late night call to the Vet won't be too far away .

fifty_two

True , if you have good skillsets and some experience , although now lot of big corporations are under freeze

IT is a separate niche in the job market , the game is completely different for others and not all basia's openings are about IT

Plus this polish IT sector is mostly outsourcing/nearshoring (not to say that there arent big polish IT companies but many cant or dont want to offer good salaries) and will be gone (or not expanding further) as soon as salaries get too high and a new european player enter the market of "welcome and enjoy my good infrastructures and my cheap good docile labour force"

Ukraine was about to play that role , even polish companies started to outsource in ukraine , but war stopped everything

Well , those people i know who worked/work there did and each had different stories

I agree that if it wasnt for the state , LO would have been in history books long ago , like too many polish airlines

TPJ

No - if the plan goes ahead US flights are to be crewed by US outsourced F/A's. DY did the same and all US flights were crewed out of FLL F/A base.

Not really familiar with Finland - if you believe they are not a welfare state - let it be.

PS. I recall BA had no issues recruiting Mixed Fleet F/A candidates (minimum wages paid, flying both long- and short-haul routes). I do not recall any LO canceled due to F/A availability, either.

BA850

Well, quite. A sensible recruiting strategy would see LOT target young people just out of high school or university with the promise of a couple of years of travel in the knowledge that a long-term career is unlikely.

Guarantee them a certain number of 787 flights per year so they don�t end up spending all their time hopping around the Balkans in an E-Jet and then move on to the next intake.

I must admit that I do have a bit of a soft spot for old Basia. I only ever fly LOT for positioning flights (or if I absolutely must travel direct to/from Warsaw), but it�s usually a laugh, if nothing else - like the time (pre-Covid) two of my flights were sub-contracted to Avion Express.

Even though Avion Express provided cockpit and cabin crew, LOT would send some of their own Flight Attendants along to supervise proceedings.

This was to prove fortunate, as the first leased aircraft came replete with a stony-faced Lithuanian crew, whose miserable demeanour was compensated for by a pair of cheery LOT FAs.

The second leased aircraft came with a much friendlier, but rather inexperienced crew. They didn�t seem to be from Lithuania, but I could be wrong. Anyway, they made a right hash of the service and the more senior of the two LOT FAs onboard had absolutely no compunction in berating them in front of the entire cabin.

Never a dull moment.

BA850

A little late, but LOT�s Christmas email. Order for twin-engined 747s incoming?

SuperFlyBoy

Saw the e-mail, but do you really think so??