Chinese FA's

[BlackBird]

Lufthansa is going to introduce Chinese flight attendants in its China operations so as to satisfy the needs of domestic passengers.

This is something more airlines should do !
Good job !!

[travel2much]

at my airline we have had chinese and chinese speaking fa's for many many years now..I was always surprised that Lufthansa never had anyone on board who could speak either Putonghua or Cantonese..I'm glad they are doing it

[blacksheep]

My company does the same with Japanese...

[crosscheck]

My airline also has had Japanese, Cantonese and now Mandarin crew for NRT, HKG and SHA/PVG respectively, and there is no doubt that they are a great asset. However, there does come a point of "overkill" I feel. Our NRT flights are now predominantly crewed by Japanese crew. There are normally 4 or 5 western crew out of a total of 11 (A340). This does make it a little uncomfortable sometimes, especially when you are the only western crewmember in your galley and everyone else is chattering away in Japanese as if you weren't there. Please don't misunderstand me, I think our foreign crew play a valuable role and in general are charming, but I fail to see the need for so many, when airlines such as BA have only 4 JPZ crew on a 747-400.....
Before anyone jumps down my throat....I am neither a racist nor a bigot and very much enjoy working with these crews (especially the cantonese), but I'm not sure many other large airlines have the same percentage of foreign crew as we do. I'm not sure that F/A unions would like it. Your thoughts?????????

Happy Landings and hours of crew rest to you all!

[flyboydc]

United has made great efforts to have foreign national flight attendants in the company. NRT, HKG, TPE, SCL, LHR, CDG, and FRA all have flight attendants native to their respective countries. These flight attendants are AFA, just as the Americans are, and are on the System Seniority List. Our former CEO Stephen Wolfe thought it would add an element of class he felt we lacked, as well as a good public relations move to attract customers from those countries we serve.

But we also have flight attendants in BKK and SNG who are NOT AFA. They get paid at a lower scale do not have the same benefits, and AFA f/a's are not allowed to be based there. Supposedly they wear a different uniform, but I haven't seen it, and AFA f/a's never work the same trip as these particular foreign nationals.

Many American f/a's are opposed to the hiring of these folks on the basis that it takes jobs away from Americans at an American company, and the lower paid BKK and SNG f/a's are a threat to job security.

[sexat41000feet]

I have seen them and they are hotties, I fly UA to bkk on holiday and they are so cute, and they do wear a different uniform than the AFA f/a's, they work out of BKK & SIN... http://www.crewstart.com/ubb/images/icons/tongue.gif http://www.crewstart.com/ubb/images/icons/tongue.gif


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana ">quote:<HR>Originally posted by flyboydc:
United has made great efforts to have foreign national flight attendants in the company. NRT, HKG, TPE, SCL, LHR, CDG, and FRA all have flight attendants native to their respective countries. These flight attendants are AFA, just as the Americans are, and are on the System Seniority List. Our former CEO Stephen Wolfe thought it would add an element of class he felt we lacked, as well as a good public relations move to attract customers from those countries we serve.

But we also have flight attendants in BKK and SNG who are NOT AFA. They get paid at a lower scale do not have the same benefits, and AFA f/a's are not allowed to be based there. Supposedly they wear a different uniform, but I haven't seen it, and AFA f/a's never work the same trip as these particular foreign nationals.

Many American f/a's are opposed to the hiring of these folks on the basis that it takes jobs away from Americans at an American company, and the lower paid BKK and SNG f/a's are a threat to job security.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[laura@ual]

I'm not opposed to the hiring of foreign language speakers at all. and on united english is to be spoken in the galleys. after all we are an american carrier. I do object to the *opening* of foreign domiciles.This has indeed eroded the premium flying available for our senior North America based f/as. This has a trickle down effect even into our domestic flying. For example if senior f/a "A" can't hold her Narita trip any more because United has opened a f/a base there and there is now a f/a with 2 years seniority flying that position this forces the senior f/a to look for her flying else where oftern into the domestic markets this is also a serious pay issue for her since int'l flying is paid more than domestic flying.

[CO/HNL-IAH]

Oh yeah, it's all about the MONEY, isn't it? U.S.-based carriers (for that matter, ANY business entity) doesn't exist to be charitable -- it's to make a PROFIT! Labor accounts for ONE-THIRD of an airline's operating costs. Why should a carrier pay some dinosaur premium pay when they can get away cheaper? And why not "share the bounty" by pumping some money BACK (in the form of employee wages) to those foreign countries that we extract high air fares from?? GIVE ME A BREAK!

[travel2much]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the foriegn domiciles (except for BKK/SIN) are open to any FA who wants to transfer. If an American FA wants to go to Narita, (or any other foreign domicile) she/he has the ability to put in a transfer. The folks who are hired locally however, are restricted to the overseas domiciles (if someone hired in Frankfurt wants to go to Tapei they can, but they can't go to LA unless they have a greencard). United has something like 20 domiciles, including the foreign ones, so there is a wide variety to choose from.

[scairbus]

Swissair is introducing chinese F/A s as well.this will complete our crewbases at BOM,DEL,BKK,NRT,KIX,seems that the swiss F/A are in charge of the lovely european and US routes...We can only dream about getting trips to BKK....