georgina80

I was shopping at my local Marshall’s store in Costa Mesa (Orange County, California) today when I noticed five women loudly and excitedly speaking with Australian accents in the shoe aisle. Within a couple minutes, it was clear they were Qantas flight attendants (one of them was actually complaining about Qantas uniforms). I was a bit surprised as to what on earth they were doing in a random store in my neighborhood, a solid one hour drive from LAX (two hours with traffic).

After a little googling, I came to find out that apparently Qantas puts their crew in the Hilton in Costa Mesa and the Hilton in Anaheim. I was a bit surprised, as OC is not LA and there are probably 20 Hiltons closer to LAX. Costa Mesa is a nice place, and has the highest-grossing mall in the United States (South Coast Plaza), but this crew placement seems rather random. Having personally done a Qantas flight from Sydney to LAX, and then the dreaded additional one hour drive home to OC, I just don’t get what they’re thinking.

This also reminded me of an experience two years ago, also in Orange County. I visited a friend who was staying in an Ayers hotel in Fountain Valley. Over the course of three days, I saw Ethiopian Airlines crew coming and going. Apparently that was their designated hotel, again nowhere near LAX.

This all begs the question, what is the logic of these kinds of crew hotel placements? At first, I considered cost... but OC is often more expensive than LA. Then I considered that perhaps these airlines are putting crew in OC due to entertainment options (Disneyland, shopping, etc.) or the nice beaches... but LA also has so much to offer. Anyone know the answer?

OskiBear

I think it varies from airline to airline, but I've had a few friend who are crew and it seems to depend on the crew's needs while on a layover. If it's a minimum rest, overnight layover, they appear to be close to the airport. However, the international crew who might have a couple of days (this was a few years ago and it seems the layovers are shorter now) prefer a hotel in a location where they have dining/shopping/entertainment options. Can you imagine how it would be as Qantas crew stuck at an LAX hotel on Century Blvd. for three days?

I live in downtown Long Beach and we get quite a few international crew. I've spoken with some in the past (at local places) and they seem to really like staying here because of the aforementioned shopping/dining/entertainment accessibility and the fact that it's walkable to everything.

daniellam

I remember flying Asiana Airlines (OZ) and a crew member mentioned that whenever they have layovers in JFK, they stay in New Jersey in an area where all the Korean shops and restaurants are located.

Badenoch

The Holiday Inn Kensington Forum in London often has flight crews staying there. There's nothing particularly special about the immediate area vis-a-vis shopping, entertainment, dining, etc. and it's at least an hour from the airport. I suspect price is the motivation.

LarryJ

If the crewmembers have a union contract, there is likely a section which specifies the minimum requirements for layover hotels. Often, there is a cutoff for long vs. short layovers and the airline will maintain separate long and short layover hotels in a city.

The hotel selection process starts with the airline sending out requests for bids to various hotels which they think will meet their, and the contract's, requirements. Many hotels are not interested in airline contracts, because they can fill enough of those rooms at higher rates to make more money without the airline contract. The airline will select hotels from those that submit bid and meet all applicable requirements. Many contracts then gives the union's hotel committee the right to inspect the proposed properties to ensure that they are suitable and meet all contractual requirements. How much say they have will depend on the hotel language in the contract.

pinniped

I spend a lot of time in various Hilton properties in Manhattan...mostly Midtown East / UN area. HGI is my target brand level but sometimes I'm in a regular Hilton or Doubletree. I see international crews all the time but rarely domestic crews. The above post about international layovers being longer makes some sense...those crews get to come into Manhattan whereas a regular domestic overnighter probably stays in Queens close to LGA or JFK.

lhrsfo

No doubt price is important but that hotel is within a mile of some of London’s finest museums and restaurants and is a very short bus ride to the best shopping. The immediate vicinity is not great but improves immeasurably within 100m

teddybear99

Years ago, I worked for a company who had a contract for an airline to transport their pilots and crew members to hotels for their layovers. There was a period where there were a large number of canceled flights to the NE USA due to a major snowstorm/blizzard and the contracted hotels were out of rooms. I ended up taking two crews to a hotel that was not contracted, but was called by the agency who handled these type of circumstances and was able to find rooms where most were hotels were already booked to the rafters due to this storm.

Upon arrival to this hotel, a few of the crew were highly upset because it did not meet the conditions of the contract agreed to by the union because the rooms were accessible by outside doors, not internal hallways. I guess it had to do with "safety" and that anyone can walk the outside levels of the hotel. Some were refusing to stay there and asked to go back to the airport instead. I had to call the agency to get direction and to approve the return as we were not paid for any transportation not approved in advance. When these flight crew members spoke to the representative and were told that they either accept these rooms as they were the only ones available or they would sleep on the floor at the airport until they were cleared to fly after the storms passed, they decided to stay, but filed a complaint through the union. I never found out what happened as most of theses flights did not get off the ground for up to 3 days.

nancypants

Qantas pilots and cabin crew have different hotel requirements and also different sign on times. So you’ll quite possibly find that the pilots are staying in a different hotel than the cabin crew, and it’s probably closer and almost certainly better/more expensive than the cabin crew hotel

evergrn

Torrance (CA) Doubletree is quite a ways away from LAX. With traffic, it can take 45min sometimes.
But it seems to have contract with many foreign airlines such as ANA. Always tons of airline crew staying there.
Not sure why they'd choose that hotel. You could walk to the mall and supermarket, but you'd have to cross a huge busy street and a couple of parking lots to get to the mall.

writerguyfl

I concur with what's written here. I was a hotel Revenue Manager, but only had one instance of dealing with airline crew rooms.

We were a downtown hotel that was anywhere between 25 and 85 minutes away from the airport, depending upon traffic. Because of that distance, we only got Request-for-Proposals (RFPs) from international airlines. I'm fairly certain that was due to the fact that international airlines had longer layovers when compared to US domestic ones.

The things that LarryJ and teddybear99 mention about needing to meet certain minimum standards is spot on. (Although, listing the various attributes of the hotel building and services is a basic component for RFPs coming from companies and established organizations looking for rates/group rooms.) Listing all of the life-safety systems of the hotel was part of the RFP process. It was random stuff like needing to list the date of the last inspection of the fire alarms.

Despite being so far from the airport, the crews loved staying with us. At the time, we were arguably the best hotel in town. They could walk to dozens of restaurants or visit shops spanning the range from Marshalls to Neiman Marcus. And if they got lucky with their dates, they could walk around the corner to see a touring Broadway or concert. And, there were museums a short cab or bur ride away.

We were paradise compared to being stuck at some mediocre hotel next to the airport surrounded by parking lots.

Badenoch

I'm familiar with the area and it is closer to 1,000 meters before it improves immeasurably. If the airline's contract is with IHG the HI at Kensington High Street is a better location for shopping and dining.

tgsh2006

You can get on the tube at Gloucester Road and a few minutes later arrive at Knightsbridge for Harrods, Harvey Nicholls etc. Plenty of dinning options around South Kensington as well.

MSPeconomist

Some hotels that do a lot of airline crew business are required to offer them a special line for checkin/out and even a lounge/hospitality room.

I know of cases where the union contract requires a hotel in a central location, but after some natural disaster, incident, or other disruption, crews are relocated to hotels close to the airport or even in more isolated places that seem more secure.

My impression is that the random crew member who is a victim of IROPs would be more likely to be sent to an airport hotel with airport shuttle service versus hotels and crew shuttles that are arranged in advance.

I would expect full service airlines to generally use more expensive hotels than LCC/ULCC and RJ carriers.

Also, you might see uniformed crew in a hotel because they are commuting to work and have picked the hotel themselves rather than being placed there for overnight rest as part of a scheduled trip, when deadheading, or due to travel on other airline business such as returning to HQ for ongoing training.

LarryJ

All of the airlines for whom I've flown has contracted with the hotels for a separate check-in process for crews. This is very common. The hotel doesn't have reservations in our names. The reservations are by our flight number and for a pilot or F/A. Keys are usually pre-made. The check-in process is for us to fill out a sign-in sheet and receive our keys. If the hotel is prepared for our arrival, all the agent has to do is ask our flight number then hand us our sign-in sheet and pre-made keys. After we've gone to our rooms, they enter our names into their computer for our room.

Every contract is different. At my current airline, the determination of which hotel (long or short) is based on the Scheduled, or Re-Scheduled, layover time. Arriving late or early, doesn't change the layover hotel unless a move is needed to ensure crew rest prior to the next departure.

In IROPS, the Hotel Desk is often swamped, just as the customer service lines are, so we "self-help". We are fortunate to have contractual language that allows us to self-help in such situations. If the company doesn't provide suitable accommodations, and we're unable to contact them in a reasonable time, we make our own arrangements for lodging and transportation and expense them. I believe that our "self help" language is better than most other airlines. It's the first time I've worked for an airline where we had it.

I once had an IROPS situation turn two short EWR layovers into one very long one. Being rescheduled into the long layover triggered a move from the airport hotel to the hotel in Manhattan. The Hotel Desk changed the hotel reservation but the transportation contractor wasn't able to provide timely transportation so I expensed an Uber.