Will UA use Purser, Lead or Service Mgr? - UA to standardize on "Purser" post-Oct2018
 

On a recent UA flight a FA kept going on and on about how because of the merger she was no longer a purser but now has to be called a "lead." I asked if there was any material difference in the position and she said no but then continued to rant and rave about the name change.

Is there something more to the change or was this just one long-time UA FA overreacting?

I'm not sure but perhaps there going the CO way. At CO lead f/as on domestic flights are called Flight Service Coordinators and on international flights they are called International Service Managers. Also 2 of the 3 f/a bases in the mainland ( I'm excluding the GUM base) are subdivided into 3 bases

EWR has :

NTA - Newark Transatlantic
NLS - Newark Language Speaker
EWR - Newark Domestic

IAH has :

HTA - Houston Transatlantic
HOS - Houston Other Speaker
IAH - Houston Domestic.

It will be interesting to see after the dust settles if they keep the bases seperate or clunk thm all together into 1.

When I was dealing with a VDB in SFO a few weeks ago, I heard a bunch of UA cabin crew types talking (overly-loud, for my taste) about some of the changes resulting from the merger, and one of the topics that drew laughs and derision was the adoption of CO's "Flight Service Coordinator" title. I was almost tempted to say that I thought the crew was being rather unprofessional, given that there was a full boarding lounge and lots of pax within earshot (including me, standing not 2 feet away at the podium), but decided against it.

I thought they were supposed to be "the most professional men and women in the business"... :)

DEN-SEA earlier in the week referred to herself as the purser. Same with LAX-LIH & LIH-LAX.

Hope they keep "purser". There's a lot of pride in that, have talked to a few of them and they talked about the additional training they go through. Many of the leading global airlines seem to use the phrase.

FSC or ISM just seems like mumbo jumbo.

Also, imagine the alternative meanings one could make of the acronyms.

That would be PMCO's employees, not PMUA :)

Yes, I'm sure it will also result in a serious dilution of GS/1K benefits. Not sure how, but our resident all-knowing 1Ks will figure out a way, for certain.

What is "Newark Language"?

:rolleyes:

Good on ya to try - but this has absolutely nothing to do with that. :rolleyes:

But it is another example of the CO way prevailing, not that it will make things more efficient in the slightest of course...it's just because it's CO and thus it's obviously the better way of doing/naming.

Fuhgeddaboudit...

That's what they say when your upgrade fails to clear ;)

The new system should be

Purser -->the most professional men and women in the business
FAs --> the 2nd professional men and women in the business

So the announcement from the Purser will be "Welcome on board, My name is xxx the most professional man/woman on this flight. My colleagues, the 2nd professional men and women in the business, and I will be here for your safety
and cleanness."


So does pilots.
Pilot--> the most professional men and women in the cockpit
co-pilot/1st officer -->the 2nd professional men and women in the cockpit

This is your most professional man/woman in the cockpit speaking...........etc.....
you can listen to the most professional conversation through Ch. 9.

It's obviously better to name the lead FA after the person on a sailing ship responsible for the handling of money on board?