Who's to blame...?

In my earlier posting I talked about SQ cabin crew slipping to no. 3 in the Skytrax ranking of "Best Cabin Crew" category for 2011.
I have put up a poll on the right hand sidebar of this blog asking the readers to indicate what are their thoughts on this issue and who's responsible of the decline.
Up till now, majority think that management and the union are the main culprits ( 17% and 12% respectively) followed by the "attitude of the crew" (4%). A good 51% is of the opinion that management,union and crew are equally to blame.
I am with the 51% group.
What's your take huh?

MSA ( Malaysia Singapore Airlines)

Pictures courtesy of http://rolandabrahamthomas.blogspot.com

Stories from pioneer stewardess Eunice.

It was a pleasure meeting and having a chat with Eunice last week. Eunice was an ex stewardess from the Malaysia Singapore Airlines era. She left MSA 2 months before the airline split (SIA & MAS) in 1972. I remember Eunice vividly as she was an excellent crew. She was all the while very pro passengers and would exceed passengers' expectation of the service. Sometimes, Eunice would be chided by her seniors for going that extra mile and accused her of  "spoiling the market".
We have not met each other for at least 41 years. She still looks the same except for the little wrinkles you would see in a 70 years old lady. Of course, Eunice was a little fatter now as compared to when she was in her late 20s. 
The surprised meeting was an arrangement organised by ex colleague Edmond Tay who is currently working for Lotus Limousine. Present at the dinner cum chit chat session were Wijay, Adrian Oei, Rodney Wee, ex chief stewardess Cecilia and I.


Here are a few stories Eunice related to us while she was a young stewardess back in the late 1960s and early 1970s.


1) Eunice was a newbie stewardess and she witnessed her expat captain limping into the cockpit. Eunice after introducing herself to the captain asked what was wrong with his leg to which he told her he had a wooden leg. Eunice was quietly shocked to hear the reply. She was wondering it was safe to have a captain flying the plane with a wooden leg. "What happen if there is an emergency?" Eunice thought to herself...."wow scary man, I sure don't wanna fly with this disable pilot" Eunice told herself.
The co-pilot during the flight asked Eunice for a glass of cold water so he could put his one of defective eyes into the glass and get it washed. Eunice was puzzled at reason for the request. "Damn what kind of pilots we are having on this flight?" she asked herself.
On arrival at Singapore, Eunice who was already quite traumatized by the state of her pilots decided not to take anymore chances. She went straight to the office and requested that she should not be rostered to fly with those 2 pilots.
Her manager and the office staff burst out laughing. "Please don't take it lightly because I am scared to fly with disabled and unfit pilots" she told her manager. "Come, come Eunice, the pilots were pulling a fast one on you" her manager told her and couldn't stop laughing. "These 2 pilots did the same to other new stewardesses so just relax ok?" another office staff told Eunice.


2) On one of Eunice's first few flights, a flight engineer commanded her to flush the aircraft toilet every 15 minutes so the plane could keep on flying. She was told if she ever stop flushing the toilet, the plane would take a dive and bad things would happened. 
Eunice was so very terrified that she kept flushing the toilet every 15 minutes during the whole flight. 
Her senior colleague, another stewardess couldn't help laughing at the naive Eunice but finally told her the engineer was playing a joke on her.


The next story was not about flying but about the casino in S'pore.


Eunice paid 2k for a whole year entry into one of the casinos here. She spends her free time playing the slot machines. During the last Chinese New Year holidays she told us she spent 40 hours in a stretch in the casino. Her maid had to bring her clean clothes for her to change. She did not tell us whether she made any money or not. But she loves spending time playing the machines.
There was an occasion when the casino security people apprehended her for picking up $80 worth of other players chips and exchanging them for cash.
When interrogated, she explained that she did not mean to cheat. She found the chips and thought it was ok to cash them. Anyhow, no action was taken against her as they believed her story.
In the same interrogation room, she saw a Chinese national being acussed of stealing $60 worth of chips. He could not repay the money as he had lost them at the gaming table. Eunice took pity on the man and volunteered to pay on his behalf. It would be a crime if the man was charged in court and found guilty. Eunice saved the poor man from being convicted.


BT: I used to know the younger Eunice who did not smoke,gamble nor drink. Today, at 70 years she does all 3. She claimed she is old and and want to enjoy herself by indulging in those so called hobbies.

It's sad SIA has come to this stage.

The days of glory for this airline in terms of superiority and profitability has almost come to an end. Gone are the days when it was ranked as having the best service and best cabin crew as well as one of the most profitable airlines in the world. 
I admit I do not know much about the performances of other divisions in SIA but I can tell you about cabin crew. 
Why has the inflight service been declining? Main reason is the airline is not recruiting the people with the right attitude. It's extremely difficult to get the right people for the job because this generation of young people are mostly materialistic and spoilt. They have maids at home to serve their every needs and their parents showered them with all the worldly items like money,iPhone,iPads, computers etc etc. So why would they want to work hard? Yet they still want to be cabin crew so they can have fun and get paid well. This generation is not hungry anymore especially the Malaysian and Singaporean crew. Worst still, they want a huge pay rise as well as not having to work too hard. They want everything to their advantage but aren't willing to give.
The other point I want to make is the management staff are also the same as the crew. They also lack cabin crew experience and I wonder how could they empathise with the crew and the passengers. Cost cutting and taking punitive measures against their crew for petty wrong doings are of primary importance to them. Having the wrong middle management people is also a big mistake. There are currently a few remnants of the now defunct check trainer rank running the affair in the office contributed to this pathetic state. These staff are hated by the crew in general. They are of the older generation who only knows how to use the whip but never the carrot. 
I wish I am there to help but I can't because the people in the office do not want  to face the truth. I will tell the truth even though the truth hurts. I have done it before but it fell on deaf ears. Just like the convicted office supervisor Henry Teo who had told his superior about the loophole in the accounting procedure. It fell on deaf ears and in the end Henry exploited the weakness of the system and swindled the company millions of dollars.
As SIA's profit is down so badly,my advice to the staff is to hold back your quest for asking more money and less work. Anyhow, the union is weak and so the company do not have to concentrate on bargaining with it. Just go ahead and put on the thinking cap and come up with solutions to help SIA regains it glory again.

SQ 3Q net profit down 53 % on-year.

Singapore Airlines said Thursday its third-quarter net profit tumbled 53 percent from a year ago due to the impact of "persistently high" jet fuel prices.

Weak passenger and cargo demand from Europe -- grappling with a debt crisis -- also dragged profits lower.

The airline, considered a bellwether for the industry, said net profit in the three months to December fell to Sg$135.2 million ($108.5 million) from Sg$288.3 million.

More  at  Yahoo News

Anonymous said...

BT,from your stories in this blog seems like you are well connected with the manangement? And whenever someone is victimised,you somehow are able to have a say in the matter and let the management know about the truth. How did you manage to do that? The victims must have felt a relief to have sought for your help. You're like a hero to them isn't it?

My reply.......Boh Tong said...

To anonymous: I have all the facts so if the managers don't do anything to help then I will approach the Big Boss and the managers will be in a bad light.

December 21, 2011

BT:  The above comment was about this posting. Further to my reply above, I had also penalized the errant crew whom some managers think I should have not done so. To me there should be justice and accountability when we punished someone. 

Edmond's treat at Indochine

Edmond Tay, our ex colleague gave us a treat at Indochine Restaurant Holland Village last night. He surprised us by inviting our long lost ex colleagues Chief Stewardess Cecilia and Check Stewardess Eunice. It has been 40 years since I last met Eunice and 10 years last met Cecilia. In the photos,there was Adrian Oei the distinguished looking gentleman, a former SilkAir cabin crew manager,Rodney a former Chief Steward, VJ,Edmond and myself.
We had a wonderful night reminiscing the past and look forward to getting more of the ex cabin crew to join us at our next function.

Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy

Researchers say the ketones found in coconut oil have slowed the progression of Alzheimer's disease in some people and may actually prevent it...watch video please.

How did SIA cabin crew fare in world airline survey?

Asiana Airlines was named winner of the World's Best Airline Cabin  Staff award at the 2011 World Airline Awards in a ceremony held at the Paris Air Show. 
The runners-up in this Best Airline Cabin Staff category are Malaysia Airlines, taking 2nd place in this category, ahead of Singapore Airlines. 
Voted by over 18.8 million airline passengers from 100 different nationalities, the World Airline Awards™ are the most prestigious and respected quality recognition of front-line product and service standards across the world airline industry.
In 2010, SIA was voted as having the World's Best Cabin Staff followed by Malaysia and Asiana.
Anyone knows why SIA has slipped from number 1 in 2010 to 3rd place in the 2011 survey? Will like to hear from you.

BT: This is a very serious topic cos SIA may never be what it was in the yesteryears. 
In fact, SIA has been living in it's past glory of being the best airline in the world for many years. We knew it was coming when it got rid of the CCEs. Penny wise pound foolish so the saying goes. Now all those who had left SIA or made to leave has the last laugh.

Crew safety training

Above pics were taken from the internet. The are somewhat similiar to the facilities used in SIA,MAS and other airlines in terms of safety training for the crew. In all my years with the airline, I have gone through the procedures (recurrent training)umpteen times. To be precise, we have to renew our safety efficiency license once a year. Should the crew failed any of the test(repeatedly),they would not be allowed to fly. In the safety training for new as well as serving crew (pilots & cabin crew)we went thru fire fighting,operation of the slides for crash landing as well as ditching,the ability to rescue "passengers" in water as well, and first aid. For the newbies the whole safety courses would be about 2 weeks and for the yearly renewal for operating crew, 2 days. The course for the operating crew is to determine whether they are still current and fit to help passengers in case of emergency on board the flight. If they failed, they would be given a chance to repeat. On failing again,they would be "grounded" and go thru the 2 week course with the newbies.
BT: Gossips....all those 40 years, 1 life guard and 1 firefighter instructor had been accused of molesting 2 stewardesses while they underwent the courses with them. It's amazing because thousands of girls had undergone the training and in the early days, only donned swimsuits and bikinis and yet only 2 instructors were accused of molestation. Don't blame the instructors cos the girls were sexily clothed and most were young too. I can't remember what happened to the 2 instructors. Don't know whether they were found guilty or not.