Originally posted by Denzil
Mike excellent post & one which i would expect Alan to respond to. Find it hard to see why Alan is a VS frequent flyer when he thinks so little of the service & the crew members.
One thing i must agree with (and oh how it pains me to agree with you Alan), is that some of the crew do have a bad attitude (look at me i'm the best, i work for VS). They do get noticed for this & in many cases WON'T get on in the job, we (that's any passenger, paying or non rev) just have to hope they leave.
Denzil,
its quite simple.
Only two airlines with flat bed seats fly direct to Orlando, one being BA and the other Virgin.
Out of the two, VS give you a great clubhouse and a longer bed.
Out of the two BA give you better food.
I have found both sets of crew to be the same, efficient at doing their job.
There are some great Virgin (and BA) cabin crew but that should be the way they all are. I am fortunate not to have to fly in Economy and when you read the attitude of Crew members on other sites who all hate this MCO route and their perceived attitude to the customers in all classes of travel, its hard to be sympathetic to any complaint from them.
As a frequent flyer of over 12 years I feel I do have the right to critiscise bad attitudes and poor service, as I have spend tens of thousands of my own hard earned pounds to fly this way.
In my industry, like many others, we have had to forego pay rises, even inflationary pay increases and the removal of personnel to survive in todays world.
I increasingly get irritatetd by people who think that they only have the 'right' to an inflation plus pay rise, we ALL have to live and have to cut our cloth to what is actually available, not what we think we are worth.
This future strike is about being paid more than inflation, and no reduction in staffing levels.
Its time you looked at the real world, with the 9 million people actually not working in this country, the millions not getting any pay rise whatsoever, the millions on a much less favourable pay and benefits structure than yourself and look at what effect your withdrawing of your labour will have on them.
Would I fly Virgin IF they had paid the cabin crew more instead of spending the money on the Clubhouses, better Upper Class, better PE and Economy seating? No, probably not.
Nothing has changed since you were given your pay terms and conditions when you joined Virgin, nothing has changed to the many new staff joining Virgin crew at the moment. Yet this strike is all about forcing Virgin to pay you more at the expense of those hard working joes using your service to get to their once in a lifetime two weeks.
I have to say I find Mike's comments quite insulting to the 'burger flippers' as if they are all stupid and lazy!
When terms and conditions are agreed by Cabin crew staff, as in any other buisness, it will be spelt out at that time the basic salary, the expenses and the other mryiad of extras you get. its not hidden.
Many industries will tell you that its not the salaries paid Mike, that provide hard workers, more that attitude. I know of many companies who are employing Eastern Europeans, as they have a work ethic now missing from British workers, at salaries British workers would not accept.
No-one owes anyone a living, and the airline industry is begginning to understand this. Its a pity Virgin strikers don't.
P.S Denzil, you might not belive this, but on other fiorums I am accused of being too pro Virgin and defending them too much!!! [:o)][:o)]
