pilots-fwa , page-14

Mike_au1,

I find it sad that a number of people post rubbish claims without checking the source first, then every Tom, Dick and Harry who knows nothing of airline ops jumps on the bandwagon and takes these posts as gospel, making pilots out to be the big , greedy, bad wolf.

FACT: As part of the negotiations to resolve an EBA that was meant to be signed off back in Dec. 2010, the AIPA is well entitled to make claims for "superior first class" accommodation as this is one issue that has been festering for a while. The last EBA agreement with QAN was to put crew into "First Class" accommodation whilst away on duty. Over time the "First Class" definition has been stretched quite a bit with some accommodation standards now reaching that of a 3-2 star hotel. Alright for some maybe, but QAN has cut back and back over time and the standards have dropped alarmingly. If you were required to work graveyard (overnight shifts) 80% of your time across numerous time zones, spend 60% of your time away from your family and friends overseas, I am sure you too would want a good standard of hotel as well. This is not a greedy claim, just an effort to re-define the companies' continuous drop in standards. If you are not sure of what I am saying, just ask any QAN pilot for yourself, most people seem to know one.

Alos, you obviously have no understanding of how staff travel uploads work either. The CEO is "THE BOSS", NOBODY in QAN has a higher upload category than him. In fact, Mr Joyce does not have to compete with other staff for staff travel seats. He travels confirmed P Class every time he travels, whether it be a work trip or holidays.He travels exactly when he wants to go and to where he wants to go, and if that means offloading a full paying commercial First Class passenger to get a seat for Mr Joyce, that will be done. Load scales of catering are doubled to normal levels to ensure the CEO has a choice of meal, his favourite wines are specially loaded he has special handlers (private assistant) to ensure smooth onload/offload at each port. Ah, how tough it is at the top!

For you to suggest to the many HC readers that pilots are making demands to have a higher staff travel category than the CEO is absurd. It simply would never happen and is a misrepresentation of the truth!

Surfrat