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From what I see and hear, they have taken away everything that was good about the job. The 2-3 day stays in Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai, Leipzig, (rail around Europe) are gone. Even when you have days off, they tie you down with endless restrictions. They have taken away the sense of team by becoming the evil crystal palace in YIP, run by the Prince and Princess. All common sense is gone. As the Prince says, “if you don’t like it here leave”. One of the core values used to be, if something serious happened at home, Connie’s people had your back and you are on the first flight home. Now? I suspect it would have to be evaluated.
When I flew exclusively PAX in the middle 2000’s I went home after a 4 day trip tired, had 3 days or so off and did it again 2 more times a month. Beat the crap out of me. When I worked 17 days a month at K4, I flew maybe 8-9 of them and went home relatively rested. There were some months that we had such a good time that guys learned to not tell their wives about it because they were stuck back home taking care of the regular day to day business of raising a family. Still, we always had the reward of points at hotels and upgrades at Airlines and could take our families away on very nice vacations.
Those days appear to be gone and it doesn’t seem that they will return. No amount of money that K4 is capable of paying without going into financial peril, is going to make up for lack of quality of life. I think that this “new” business model created by the prince and princess is unsustainable long term. If you intend to fly more than 10 years, get out now while you can accrue seniority at another carrier.
Christmas Day I spoke with my good friend, who without a doubt has always been the happiest person I know, and has always been very happy to work for Connie. He said, “Tom, I have never seen it so bad. It has gotten to the point where flying the airplane and being with crews is painful.” I never thought it would be capable of beating this man, who is loved by everyone at K4 down. Very Sad.
Happy New Year
2-3 day layovers are still a thing, when my daughter was in the hospital they dropped all of my flying and got me the first ticket home, I haven't paid for a hotel in years because of all of the points we rack up, bids are anywhere between 11 to 16 days of work, and im making a very good wage here. YMMV but I have to say this forum is filled with people talking about how bad this place is when a lot of the people I fly with really don't feel this way at all. On top of that it turns out some of the most vocal people on here don't even work here anymore. Now sure there are days when I'm ready to put out an app but at the end of the day I weigh my options and find that I would have to take quite a large hit in QOL to go somewhere else. Not to say everyone's complaints arent valid but if someone is thinking of coming here I think they are going to get a pretty distorted view of what the reality is of working here by reading these forums.Originally Posted by maxjet
As some of you know, I am a by-product of the lost decade. I arrived at K4 in 2011 having had 7 jobs in 4 years and getting 4 types in that 4 years. I was grateful to have landed at K4 and was always a cheerleader for Connie and the management team until my retirement. While I will always be a Connie supporter, The Prince and Princess have poisoned the well. The environment at K4 has become very French Revolution like with the Prince and Princess declaring, “let them eat cake”.From what I see and hear, they have taken away everything that was good about the job. The 2-3 day stays in Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai, Leipzig, (rail around Europe) are gone. Even when you have days off, they tie you down with endless restrictions. They have taken away the sense of team by becoming the evil crystal palace in YIP, run by the Prince and Princess. All common sense is gone. As the Prince says, “if you don’t like it here leave”. One of the core values used to be, if something serious happened at home, Connie’s people had your back and you are on the first flight home. Now? I suspect it would have to be evaluated.
When I flew exclusively PAX in the middle 2000’s I went home after a 4 day trip tired, had 3 days or so off and did it again 2 more times a month. Beat the crap out of me. When I worked 17 days a month at K4, I flew maybe 8-9 of them and went home relatively rested. There were some months that we had such a good time that guys learned to not tell their wives about it because they were stuck back home taking care of the regular day to day business of raising a family. Still, we always had the reward of points at hotels and upgrades at Airlines and could take our families away on very nice vacations.
Those days appear to be gone and it doesn’t seem that they will return. No amount of money that K4 is capable of paying without going into financial peril, is going to make up for lack of quality of life. I think that this “new” business model created by the prince and princess is unsustainable long term. If you intend to fly more than 10 years, get out now while you can accrue seniority at another carrier.
Christmas Day I spoke with my good friend, who without a doubt has always been the happiest person I know, and has always been very happy to work for Connie. He said, “Tom, I have never seen it so bad. It has gotten to the point where flying the airplane and being with crews is painful.” I never thought it would be capable of beating this man, who is loved by everyone at K4 down. Very Sad.
Happy New Year