Cleaning the A/C

[BigBangTheory]

And how often are you sitting at the end of a runway on ATC hold getting full pay for doing nothing but waiting for a clearance to take off?

Happens all the time. We are required to be on the plane and once the brakes are released, the boarding door is closed, the pay begins. How often do crews sit in the terminal waiting for a delayed aircraft? This happens all the time. Are we getting paid for sitting in the terminal? NO! Do we get paid while you take your sweet (insert three letter word here) time boarding the aircraft? NO!

This is why you work/fly for SWA and I don't.

 

[eolesen]

Sheesh.... reading all this crap makes me appreciate the dot com mentality at my post-AA employer...

I don't recall a single occurrence of "it's not my job" being muttered, regardless if it was dealing with an unreasonable customer, getting called in to work a weekend, or having to deal with a clogged toilet.

 

[TWU informer]

Sheesh.... reading all this crap makes me appreciate the dot com mentality at my post-AA employer...

I don't recall a single occurrence of "it's not my job" being muttered, regardless if it was dealing with an unreasonable customer, getting called in to work a weekend, or having to deal with a clogged toilet.

You could always stop reading and continuously posting AA management defending comments and enjoy your new job and employer.

 

[boston]

And how often are you sitting at the end of a runway on ATC hold getting full pay for doing nothing but waiting for a clearance to take off?

I am,we are, being paid to do what we were hired to do and that is evacuate or respond to a medical emergency. I'm also not paid at the gate during boarding and deplaining pax to evacuate and respond to a medical emergency.

 

[butchord45]

You could always stop reading and continuously posting AA management defending comments and enjoy your new job and employer.

Ok so we (the f/as) will clean the aircraft. We will only ask for say cleaning pay. Half of whatever you pay the rampers and fuelers that clean and stock the plane. That way the company can layoff all the people whose jobs we eliminate. Come on.....do you really want that????? They are already laying off enough people do you really want them to lay off even more??

 

[jimntx]

Precisely. If the rampers no longer had to come up and clean the cabin, it would be no time until the company decided that we have too many rampers.

And, as Butch said, if they pay me, I'll clean. For those who want to hold up the SW f/as as an example...aside from the fact that they are now the highest paid domestic f/as in the U.S. (on a flight hour basis), IIRC as of their last contract, they are now paid for the time they spend cleaning. It's not flight pay, but they are paid.

 

[Skymess]

And how often are you sitting at the end of a runway on ATC hold getting full pay for doing nothing but waiting for a clearance to take off?

Oh yes, the joy of ATC holds. I don't care what your position is, ATC holds suck for all involved. As for FAs the annoyance is unreal...."can I use the bathroom", " you can't hold me hostage", "I need a drink". You give them water and they want diet coke or beer and pout if they don't get it. " you should really play a movie if we are going to be sitting here this long". The loud cell phone conversations are also a pleasure when you are delayed. "stan-ley, I have been sitting here for HOURS (10 minutes) and they won't even give me a glass of water".

Heaven forbid your delay involves a flight with no food. You are accused of trying to starve them to death while holding them hostage.

As for cleaning the planes; I'm NOT doing it. It infuriates me now when I am on one of those flights where I have to do it. As someone else said, I wasn't hired to clean and I don't want to do it. It would have to be a 6 figure pay increase for me to vote yes to increase our plane cleaning duties. N-O-.

 

[upsilon]

I am, we are, being paid to do what we were hired to do and that is evacuate or respond to a medical emergency. I'm also not paid at the gate during boarding and deplaining [sic] pax to evacuate and respond to a medical emergency.

Then why was so much of your FA training about serving food and drinks? And why do you do it in-flight if it is not what you were "hired to do"?

And I find it amazing that any FA would even imply that because they are not on the clock during boarding and deplaning they would not "evacuate and respond to a medical emergency".

I just hope that the current tensions and job stress is causing these irrational postings.

 

[jimntx]

As for cleaning the planes; I'm NOT doing it. It infuriates me now when I am on one of those flights where I have to do it. As someone else said, I wasn't hired to clean and I don't want to do it. It would have to be a 6 figure pay increase for me to vote yes to increase our plane cleaning duties. N-O-.

Well, I don't consider cleaning the cabin to be man's finest hour, either. However, the reality is that it IS contractual. I don't know what we got in return for this concession at some point in the ancient past (prior to Sept. 2000 when I started ), but nevertheless it's part of the contract. Call it intuition, but I don't think the company is going to give back this little concession any time soon.

In fact, I think they are creating "f/a clean" routings on purpose. (Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean there's no one out to get me). We have a flight out of STL that is "service to ORD with continuing service to SAT"!!!!! Furthermore, the continuation to SAT departs ORD 1hour, 45minutes after the the first leg arrives from STL. I took this info to the base manager and she called planning and asked what was going on. Even the person she talked with thought a STL-ORD-SAT routing was odd and admitted that the 1:45 on the ground at ORD was exceptionally odd. He said he would look into it and "get back to her." That was over a month ago; so far, she ain't heard squat. (Try to imagine the look of shock on my face. <_< )

In the meantime, we have to clean the plane at ORD because it is a C-Bill.

 

[jersey777]

Then why was so much of your FA training about serving food and drinks? And why do you do it in-flight if it is not what you were "hired to do"?

And I find it amazing that any FA would even imply that because they are not on the clock during boarding and deplaning they would not "evacuate and respond to a medical emergency".

I just hope that the current tensions and job stress is causing these irrational postings.
[


I don't know where you get your information but I actually went through flight attendant training and the vast majority of time was spent dealing with evacuation drills, medical procedures, and emergency equipment familiarization. It doesn't take long to teach how to pour coffee. It takes awhile to learn how to treat all the different medical and emergency situations that could possibly happen on an airplane so your comment is ignorant. In fact, once a year we have to fly to Dallas not to remind us how to serve drinks but to refamiliarize ourselves with evacuation drills and medical equipment. We also get a chance to deal with little things like how to deal with a terrorist situation. Oh..and also what to do if we find a bomb. So just because the vast amount of time is spent with customer service in real life doesn't imply that we aren't ready to spring to action should there be an emergency.

 

[boston]

Then why was so much of your FA training about serving food and drinks? And why do you do it in-flight if it is not what you were "hired to do"?

And I find it amazing that any FA would even imply that because they are not on the clock during boarding and deplaning they would not "evacuate and respond to a medical emergency".

I just hope that the current tensions and job stress is causing these irrational postings.

I think think you misread the post. It simply said that while we are boarding and deplaining pax we aren't being paid but we are ready to evacuate or respond to a medical emergency...no weher was it implyed otherwise.

 

[upsilon]

I think think you misread the post. It simply said that while we are boarding and deplaining pax we aren't being paid but we are ready to evacuate or respond to a medical emergency...no weher was it implyed otherwise.

Thanks for the clarification of the sentence which was unclear. I'm glad I was mistaken.

 

[Barfbag]

All this bickering back and forth about whom does what, until we get some stability in pricing, or some form of re regulation, work groups will continue to look at each other as scape goats for a situation beyond our control.

That little old lady from Pasadena, is sitting in front of her PC, on Priceline.com taking money from your pockets even as we speak.

Even as fuel roars upward, and airlines cut back available seating, prices are pressured downward as the whole economy worsens.

Good luck to all.

 

[Veritas]

That little old lady from Pasadena, is sitting in front of her PC, on Priceline.com taking money from your pockets even as we speak.

Does she really?

She probably would not buy the ticket and stay home if she did were not able get it for what she was willing to pay. The flight would depart with one more empty seat (or a non paying pass rider in it) and the revenue would be lost forever.

Why does everyone think that they are smarter than the the yield management department?

 

[jimntx]

Yeah, yield management is so adept at what they do, there's another thread on this forum about the fact that we are grossing approx. $54,000 from one JFK-LAX transcon and the fuel alone is costing $34,000. That leaves $20,000 to pay all wages, landing fees, gate rentals, etc.

They are going to yield manage us into BK any time now.

P.S. Consider this, if the little old lady from Pasadena passes up a flight on AA because we don't have a $99 fare to LGA, we have lost $99. Would that even cover the fuel it takes to lift her behind into the air and transport it across the country?