In the 2003 romantic comedy View From the Top, Gwyneth Paltrow starred as a regional flight attendant who fought to work for a leading international airline, often reciting the mantra: “Paris, First Class, international” to keep her focused on achieving her dream of staying in luxurious hotels in capital cities around the world during her layovers.
Sadly, the glamour of staying in Five Star hotels just a mere stone’s throw away from major tourist attractions in iconic cities like Paris, London, and New York is proving ever more elusive for flight attendants, even at some of the biggest airlines in the world.
United Airlines flight attendants who are lucky or senior enough to score an international flight to the British capital will no longer enjoy layovers in fancy areas like Kensington or Chelsea and have instead been banished to a hotel in a sleepy little town 24 miles southwest of Central London.
Unsurprisingly, many crewmembers feel that the decision, and similar hotel moves from big cities to small towns, is another erosion of the benefits that should come with the job of being a flight attendant.
“Woking, First Class, International” just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Nor does “Long Island, First Class, International” when referring to the move from a central Manhatten hotel during long New York City layovers.
To get from United’s new crew hotel for Heathrow layovers, flight attendants must now travel on a train for nearly 45 minutes to reach the lights of Picadilly Circus and other popular tourist hotspots.
The thought of working a super busy red-eye flight to Heathrow just to end up nowhere near London is enough to make some senior crew members give up their flights, meaning that Heathrow is becoming an increasingly junior route.
Cost cutting could well be a consideration for the hotel planners at United, although complaints about the notoriously long travel time from Heathrow into Central London were no doubt also considered.
Still, it’s enough for flight attendants for flight attendants to be worried about the quality of the hotels that United is picking to put them in and the situation is now becoming a hot topic in protracted contract negotiations.
In a recent memo, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) said that hotels were becoming a ‘critical issue’ for crew members and that negotiators would be pressing United to improve what it offers in upcoming bargaining sessions.
Currently, United promises to put flight attendants in ‘Downtown-like’ hotels during longer layovers. What ‘Downtown-like’ actually means, however, is certainly open to interpretation.
According to Tripadvisor, the number one sight in Woking is a cemetery, while flight attendants can also spend a few hours perusing the shops in Victoria Place, a multi-story shopping center.
London is, however, a particularly tricky city for international airlines to find decent accommodation that suits the needs of flight attendants, which aren’t astronomically expensive.
Increasingly, airlines that are synonymous with luxury have chosen hotels near Heathrow that are anything but luxurious. Leading carriers like Emirates and Japan Airlines lodge their crew in Slough, the location of the British version of hit comedy show The Office.
Other airlines, such as Etihad Airways, don’t even send their crew that far, preferring to book up cheap airport hotels on the outskirts of the airfield. Unsurprisingly, London flights are not highly sought after.
The flight attendant union at United will look to get a greater say in where its members stay in various cities and will likely push to get flight attendants staying in Downtown hotels on longer layovers rather than ‘Downtown-like’ hotels.
What surprises me is that your story didn’t say Slough! London is a VERY expensive city in which to stay and I doubt that airlines have an easy time justifying the expenditure, Woking is pretty sedate, probably has reasonably priced accommodation, and was thus chosen. It is a bit farther from LHR than I’d have expected but I guess being near the airport is pricey as well. If you have a layover, you can still catch a train into London. While I understand the disappointment, I also understand the airlines’ point of view.
This is work travel, not a vacation. Flight Attendants have every right to ‘demand’ a clean and safe hotel, ideally in close proximity to the airport, but insisting on a hotel in the city center is absurd, especially given the rising costs of those properties. My company has limits in place when booking hotels while on company business and airlines should be no different.
Throw me into that Briar patch! Please! I’m a retired airline pilot who spent about 20 years of his career overnighting at the Gatwick Hilton hotel. Whether the airline booked us there for cost reasons or some other consideration was unimportant. We could walk directly from the airport to the hotel and not have to contend with rush hour traffic. We could sleep for several hours and then we were furnished complimentary tickets from the airline on the Gatwick Express inbound to the city for those of us who want to spend time there. When we merged and started flying into Heathrow, that ended. ‘Up to one and a half hour commute in rush hour traffic, both directions. Exhausting! I hated it and our hotels were not nearly as nice. Be careful what you ask for. You might get it.
I don’t think you have any clue what you’re talking about. Flight attendants do that job to see the world, not to be stuck in a tube with a crowd of people crammed in like sardines who stare at their phones while they miss holidays and have their sleep habits turned inside out. It’s not a job you do to get rich. It’s a job you do for the lifestyle and corporate greed along with underpriced tickets are the issue. You can fly to Europe from the west coast for about the same prices as in 1985. That’s what’s absurd!!!!
I absolutely know what I’m talking about. Do the math. 45 minutes on the Gatwick Express utilizing a company supplied round-trip ticket when you’re well rested versus an hour and a half in stop and go rush hour traffic. At Piedmont and USAir(ways) the company saved money and the crews were happy for over 20 years. Few if any of us ever complained.
I find it interesting the commenters grasp the concept of cost cutting for this but when they receive one less stale pretzel on the plane they go mad. It’s probably temporary accommodations. All US airlines typically have a contractual obligation with crews to put them in populated city centers on long layovers regardless of destination. The simple answer why airlines like etihad or emirates don’t have the same accommodations is because workers have little to no say in their work environment and also their accommodations in their home base are paid for by the airline itself. I don’t see this lasting long for UA, either temporary or the company trying to put heat on them during negotiations.
Woking may well be interesting to some as where author H G Wells book War of the Worlds was based. There are several impressive SciFi sculptures around and about the town.
Beyond that though it has little to offer.
What the article didn’t mention is the Pilots contract states they HAVE to stay in city centers and Minimum 4 star hotels, Or they are compensated. I just don’t understand why SK hates his front line employees so much? 4 years with no contract or cost of living increase. Adding service on Int. flights but cutting staffing in Polaris. We thought FL was bad in the 80’s
Why not then expand the United flight attendant base at Heathrow and eliminate UK hotel costs altogether?
UK hiring practices are also more economical than US ones at least in the long haul (international) area.
I’m sure there will be a lot of FA-bashing commentary to the tune of “it’s work, not a free vacation” but let’s not forget that flying really is a “lifestyle” career. Airline crew will always be expected to forgo birthdays/holidays/anniversaries with loved ones because this is not a 9-5 Monday through Friday career. When you’re spending Christmas alone for the third year in row, the differences between a lively and accessible downtown vs. a sleepy, closed-for-the-holidays airport suburb are worth taking into consideration. Every career path deserves the right to advocate for quality of life/work improvement and flight crews are no different.
Try 31 hours in Medford, Oregon, at the airport hotel., or 32 hours in Dallas Fort Wort -“downtown like” , both in dangerous areas. It’s not just International .
It’s interesting the article does not mention their pilots still stay right downtown.