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Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Crew That Eats Together....

got this from the Fly Away Cafe
didn't know that it's the same way with other airlines.

Q: Does the whole crew get together for meals on layovers?

A: Rarely, although a lot depends on the size of crew.

With smaller crews typical of commuter carriers, a crew may be three people — two pilots and one Flight Attendant. In those case it is fairly typical for the entire crew to get together for dinner. Those layovers tend to be in smaller cities, which means fewer dining options, and it’s easy to coordinate preferences for only a handful of people.

At the major carriers you are talking about a crew of at least five — two pilots and three Flight Attendants — and it goes up in numbers from there. Since that’s the work environment that I’m accustomed to, it’s the one that I can speak to the best.

I haven’t been out for dinner with the entire crew since longer than I can remember. Crew members have their own interests - whether it’s visiting family on a layover, pursuing a personal interest, working out, shopping, or even slam-clicking (going into your hotel room (slam), locking the door (click), and never being seen or heard from until the flight the next day). It’s not typical for everyone to be on the same page about what they want to do on a layover.

Despite what might be portrayed in movies or on television, we don’t always like one another very much. I don’t mean that we hate one another either, but most of the time you don’t share a lot in common with most of your co-workers. If you are fortunate enough to fly with someone that you like, you’ll probably go off and do something together. But no one wants to spend quality layover time with someone that you have nothing in common with.

Another reality is that crew members have different budgets, and that carries over into meal choices. While some might enjoy going on for a leisurely meal and glass of good wine, others subsist off of cheap fast food eaten in a hotel room. The two extremes rarely can find common middle ground to make everyone happy.

Some crew members view their layover time as a time to be alone, away from family at home and passengers on the plane. The layover is a time to decompress, relax, watch mindless television, read a book, etc. The last thing they want is to be around co-workers.

Most Flight Attendants have made all of these choices at one point or another in their career. I know that I have. It’s all about making a personal choice, and rarely is an entire crew going to make the same personal choice.

i just came from a seoul-cebu-seoul flight. aircraft assigned to this flight is the scarebus-321(airbus321). i don't like this aircraft because it is quite small with a single aisle. the galley is so cramped and it's difficult to stow items for the flight as there are not enough space to keep them. we usually end up stowing it in the overhead bins. malas na lang the passenger seated near the galley if he has a big bag to stow.
since the flight was on a sunday we had a couple of honeymooners onboard. fyi, in korean culture couples usually are dressed alike. and they usually take the flight right after the celebration. so just imagine a couple dressed exactly alike from their sporty or casual top down to the shoes with the female still in bride mode hair and makeup. it's like noah's ark inside the plane. hehe...
we also had a couple of families with little kids in tow. apparently for koreans cebu is a honeymoon and a family destination.
we had a smooth inbound and outbound flight. inbound seoul was the best because the passengers were all asleep as the flight was at 1 am.

our hotel in cebu was the Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa. the hotel facilities and service was superb but i didn't like the location though. it's located in mactan island an hour away from cebu downtown. if you will take a taxi it would cost you 700pesos roundtrip. good thing they provide a complimentary shuttle service to the downtown area for their guests.

i have nothing much to share during my layover there because it was quite short. i just went around ayala center to eat and have a pedicure. my korean colleagues on the other hand had a massage outside the hotel. they have a korean contact and according to them the massage is really good.