Richard Branson's open letter to all Virgin pilots

Richard Branson's open letter to all Virgin pilots
virgin.com

Of any airline I have ever traveled on, the Virgin lines (Atlantic and America), have been my favorite. This ranges from the very basic things like more leg room than their competitors to wifi in the sky, to the excellent way almost every Virgin employee treats their customers.

This last point is the most important. I was on a flight last year where my friend and I got to the airport about 10 minutes late. The flight we were to catch from SFO was already boarded and ready to taxi by the time we got to the gate. We were put on standby and were seriously in danger of not getting a standby flight till late in the evening. However, at the last minute the plane (which still hadn't taxied) opened its doors, and 5 flight attendants got off.

These ladies were off-duty and were using their free flight options to go to Vegas for the weekend. Somehow they heard there were 3 passengers (us and another fellow) who had missed the flight. They all ended up getting off and giving us their seats. They didn't have any compunction about waiting a few extra hours to catch their flights and start their weekend, so that we could make our flight and start ours.

I've had other experiences on Virgin that are similar. The staff that have to deal with thousands of potentially unruly travelers every week almost always bend over backwards to make sure we are happy or at least mollified if we're pissed about something or another that really has nothing to do with Virgin, and especially if it is.

The point I'm getting to is that after a few candid conversations I've had with flight attendants, these people are paid shit. Fucking, low-grade shit. Pardon my language, but its true. Pilots earn a bit more, but its still crap.

2 years ago, one flight attendant I got to know coming back from D.C. said she earned something like $30k after several years. The average pay is lower.

Its utterly ridiculous that some of the nicest, caring people in the airline industry have to deal with such people as the general public (myself included, of course) and yet make less money than a manager at a McDonalds franchise. Day in, day out.

I'm assuming that the pilots union doesn't include the flight stewards. Given that, I would encourage the flight attendants to strike as well for better pay. They well deserve it.

I'm the kind of person that will pay a little extra for quality. I do it with food, personal products, and travel. I don't fly Virgin because its cheaper, though it often is. I fly them when I can because I enjoy the experience and don't want to be stressed out when I get to where I'm going. If it means that I pay an extra $10-$20 to fly Virgin so that their employees directly benefit, that's something I would do gladly.

That said, it was a well written letter that showed that he had spent time studying the issue and wasn't just sugar-coating a "screw you" letter (I've seen my share of those as well).