Among other possibilities, the Flight Attendants Union says members will consider refusing to serve food or alcohol or even smiling at customers during the upcoming weeks of peak holiday travel time. It has also said it is considering a strike, though it says such a strike wouldn’t take place until after the new year.
While the airline said in November it is willing to grant employees a 2% salary increase for 2013 and an extra month of salary as a bonus, the union is demanding a 5% salary increase, citing rising inflation.
The union says it may move ahead with actions that could include providing the most basic level of service possible, or becoming extra-vigilant about routine safety measures and other regulations to try to cause a slowdown in travel. Such changes could mean, for example, becoming especially zealous about offloading oversize luggage, which would delay flights.
Lovely! So I guess you can add Cathay Pacific to the airlines that announces “flight attendants are here primarily for your safety” during the after takeoff announcement. Now, I doubt this tactic will actually work as there are far too many flight attendants that won’t go along with this to have any major impact, but I’d love to hear some firsthand reports from those flying Cathay Pacific over the coming weeks.
At least the US airlines are in good company now…
Update: It looks like this has been resolved and won’t happen after all.
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December 22nd, 2012 at 11:28 pm
eponymous coward said,
You’re a bit late on this.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=129478&sid=38533658&con_type=3&d_str=20121221&isSearch=1&sear_year=2012
The CX forum on FT had this story on the 19th.
December 23rd, 2012 at 12:51 am
Pedro said,
“You’re a bit late on this.” @ eponymous coward, lighten up. Some people have better things to do than troll blogs looking for breaking stories. I appreciate the info whenever it’s shared. Thanks Lucky.
December 23rd, 2012 at 1:51 am
Kris Ziel said,
While I agree that Lucky should put it here because most readers here don’t look at every blog/news report out there, this is a few weeks old.
December 23rd, 2012 at 5:58 am
eponymous coward said,
Well, I was pointing out the strike wouldn’t happen. I think that’s kind of newsworthy for someone who might be anxious about Christmas travel on CX F- or a blogger writing about it.
December 23rd, 2012 at 6:15 am
bluto said,
I would put the update at the top
December 23rd, 2012 at 6:23 am
lucky said,
@ eponymous coward — I didn’t write anything about a strike.
December 23rd, 2012 at 8:49 am
eponymous coward said,
Yes, but the WSJ did, didn’t it?
December 23rd, 2012 at 10:33 am
Rapid Travel Chai said,
It seems I may have some culpability here, I was catching up on my last two weeks of news as I fell behind in China (WSJ and many others blocked) and posted yesterday, neglecting to check the latest status, and it seems to have had ripple effects around the blogs. Nonetheless, a story with a fun spin: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/rapidtravelchai/2012/12/22/help-cathay-pacific-flight-attendants-learn-bad-service/
December 23rd, 2012 at 10:41 pm
eponymous coward said,
No worries, it’s all good.
And I’ve been following it because… well… I have an upcoming CX flight. A 15 hour flight with no food in F would be kind of lame.
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