Australian hotels, racists and Qantas' long-haul business class

Talking about anecdotes... I stayed in four different hotels in Melbourne and Sydney this month: Common features, lousy cable TV selection and absolutely obscene internet charges. Right back at the airport hotel in Toronto, back to normal, no internet charges, pleasant staff. Anecdotes, I know, but: You read it here first :-).

Also, having left Australia some 15 years ago, I was shocked about the level of racism that is standard political operating procedure in that country today. Much of what leading politicians and newspaper columnists spouted there on a daily basis in that regard would be a career-killer in Canada, thankfully. Truly mind-boggling stuff.

Well, I was also able to fly in Qantas' long-haul business class in its Airbus 380 fleet. I love the A380. It's such a more quiet, overall smoother ride than any other plane on the market. The seats are comfy, even though the recline doesn't seem to be completely vertical. One big issue: For some reason the aisles don't seem to be cushioned properly. As a result, each time a passenger or flight attendant passes by at your seat you'll be awoken by the feel of an elephant passing by. Clearly a design problem. Compared to what American Airlines calls 'business class', well, it's a no brainer. Qantas' premium economy is superior to American's business class product, let alone Qantas' stellar business class. Even the business class lounges were remarkably different. Qantas offered decent food and drinks, while American tried hard to sell even that to you in its lounges.  Makes you wonder why anyone would fork out money for a business class fare on American Airlines.

Other than that, I cannot believe how much Melbourne and Sydney have changed since I left. The mining boom brought obviously tons of money and people into the country. New gleaming everythings have transformed the city scapes, and not necessarily for the better.

I gave talks both in Melbourne and Sydney on assisted dying and managed to catch up with old friends and colleagues in both cities. Overall it has been a delightful trip. Oh, did I mention the weather? No point in that, it's been fabulous, in Sydney more so than in Melbourne.

Solidarity with BA cabin staff

UNITE, the union of the BA cabin staff have called a strike, lasting from December 22 to January 02. Hey, let me declare a conflict of interest. I am scheduled to fly on BA on December 23 from LHR to JFK. I was looking forward to catching up with secular friends in New York to get over the painful sickening sweetness that comes with Xmas. I was also looking forward to giving a talk on December 30 at the APA Eastern meeting in New York, and to a lively discussion about my paper (the joys of the academy).

Well, I may or may not get to New York, who knows. I can't rebook my flight, because it's a return leg, so in a sense I am on the road and can't easily change horses in the middle of the race (or so my booking agent, AA, told me - I had some hope they'd help me, being gold member [pun intended] and all). So, I am likely to be well and truly stuck in London unless BA and UNITE reach an agreement, or unless the UK Supreme Court forces UNITE to back down for the time being. I shall see.

What irks me about the public debate on this is the nasty response by the wider traveling (even the not traveling) public. There we hear stories about priests not being able to return to Africa (to do what, propagate the death penalty for gays in Uganda as they're wont to do? surely they're not doing anything really useful there anyway!), married couples not being able to go on a honeymoon in Florida (at least you won't be eaten by the crocs that are everywhere in that state), and so on and so forth. Some of the stories are truly sad, BUT, surely the point of a strike is to put pressure on your employer. What's the point of striking if nobody notices (us academics faces this problem just about all the time, especially in the context of strikes :-)? So, here's my first point: you can't blame cabin staff for striking at peak season, because this is the best time of the year to go on strike, from a strategic perspective.

BA and the sorry British public opinion on this matter also go on about their cabin staff being paid better than anywhere else in the industry. The company churns out press releases using their (arguably overpaid) inflight directors' long-haul salaries to show how well paid their cabin staff are. Of course, starting salaries for current flight attendants they're proposing now are a fraction of those directors' salaries! They're barely a living wage. Bizarrely the published opinion on the matter points out that Virgin Atlantic cabin staff already are being paid these miserable salaries for the hard work they're doing. What kind of argument is that? Since when has the lowest salary in the industry established what is reasonable? I kid you not, this is the level of public debate in this country!

Then there is people going on how miserable BA's service is. Well, for better or worse, I like the company's economy and premium economy better than that of many other carriers. Compared to Air Canada, for instance, BA's performance is way better. Admittedly, BA's long-haul business class is a bit of a joke (the in-flight service, not the seats). I would not ever fork out my own hard-earned cash for a seat in the far front of their planes, sorry to say.

Either way, good success to their cabin staff, don't let published public opinion in papers like the Daily (Hate) Mail drag you down! You're right to fight for better working conditions (or at least to prevent a further deterioration). I for one don't go on Virgin Atlantic anylonger because I know that their arguably superior service is paid for by greedy ol Richard Branson's miserable pay conditions for his staff.