Nice perks if you’re into traveling and willing to go on standby. I think I heard someone say that they only had to pay 10%!! Immediate family members too!!
Yup, was married to a stewardess from CX and yup sure was nice to fly to HK in First Class for a tenth of the ticket price. Just had to standby at the airport all day sometimes. And ya, if they kill ya, you dont get any compensation. But it was awesome.
Got treated better then “real” First Class passengers I swear.
[quote=“tommy525”]Yup, was married to a stewardess from CX and yup sure was nice to fly to HK in First Class for a tenth of the ticket price. Just had to standby at the airport all day sometimes. And ya, if they kill ya, you dont get any compensation. But it was awesome.
Got treated better then “real” First Class passengers I swear.[/quote]
How long ago was this? Maybe it’s different with Asian carriers than US carriers, but non-revenue standby passengers generally don’t get treated better than “real” passengers.
For sure, it’s a fraction of the cost. I flew Miami - London First Class for US$400 as an employee, whereas a revenue ticket would have been US$10,000. Of course I didn’t get to sit with my traveling companion because we were standby and last to get seats, but whatever.
However, these days, with all the mileage upgrades, it’s nearly impossible for an employee to get First Class. Also, even if you get it, you are last to be served meals, which means don’t bother looking at the menu, you get what you get. I’ve also been pulled off a flight to make room for revenue passengers that have arrived late. Kind of frustrating and humiliating.
In my own experience, after 20+ years in the travel business, I definitely get better service as a revenue passenger.
but hey you are not tommy525 
I always got VERY well treated on CX on those standby fares from TPE to / from HKG (those were the only routes I generally flew).
But then the wife was a Senior Purser and the staff knew who I was so the service was exemplary. Each time.
They didnt want to be on her receiving end perhaps. Or maybe they just wanted to take care of “one of their own”
I wasn’t talking about a stewardess or someone who worked directly for an airline. I was talking about one of the support service roles, such as working at the information desk (speaking English). Do those people get any special deals? I doubt it, right?
Right. They are airport employees, not airline employees, so no deals.
Yeah, and the stewardess jobs are very difficult to get in Taiwan. They take a very small number of people out of the total applicant pool. You basically have to be considered hot by Taiwanese people (i.e. 5’7", DD breasts, enormous eyes and weigh 32kg) and speak pretty good English.
They haven’t been called stewardesses since the '70s, come on. They are flight attendants.
And besides, there are a lot of airline jobs besides flight attendants. There are ticket counter and gate agents, arrivals staff, VIP lounge staff, special services, etc.
If I want to call them stewardesses, I’ll call them stewardesses because that’s what they are. What’s the difference?
Maybe the idea that you can not call a man a stewardess. 
You can call him a steward.
Oh hang on, everyone’s going to get upset about the suffix. I agree. From now on, we should refer to William Windsor’s wife as Prince Kate. How about going one further though? The notion of distinguishing king or queen, man or woman, boy or girl, bull or cow, stallion or mare, is sexist too.
Grief.
Why can’t you respect the title of the people who do the job? It’s their call, and that of the companies for which they work.
CraigTPE is not entirely correct either. The name first changed to Cabin Aid…as in “Hi, I’ll be your cabin aid for the day”
That changed when the plural of that word was associated with a disease that hit a few of them in the late 80’s. Cabin Aids.
Guy,
I am sure by now you know I was just pullin ya leg. Nothing male or female in that.
Craig: Because it’s the term I use and have always used. It’s a perfectly good English word with no derogatory inferences. I shouldn’t have to run my speech through the PC word police who are desperately champing at the bit to take offence.
Besides which, I’m the customer. The customer is always right.
I agree with Guy. At the very least, we’re simply discussing the job here, not addressing anyone directly. The term Stewardess is commonly understood and not derogatory.
My then wife simply preferred to be called “miss” 
And its true I probably got better treatment simply because she was a Senior Purser and the other cabin crew knew this and have seen us together many times.
Stewardess is fine by me and I say that too. Most of CX’s flight attendants who are not physically female probably would NOT mind being called “miss” as they are gay. NO offense intended here !
A good buddy of mine (male) was working for NOrthwest Airlines as a weight and balance specialist. In other words, if he did his job wrong the plane would fail its take off. He got all the benefits of flying for an airline and well treated at all times far as he told me.
Most check in counter staff actually work for the airline and not for the govt. They are not govt employees. And they all have airline privileges, all on standby of course. But yeah not the ones manning the INFO booths. They are airport (govt) employees.
Not kidding. A recent China Airlines employment day drew thousands of female applicants for the FA role but they were only accepting a handful.
And yeah the ex looked like a then famous HK actress. That probably helped her get the job.
Used to be real good. You got a great pension plan, company stock, plus travel allowance for free for you, discount for family. Hard job though, not without its dangers in most positions, and that was before the Big One. Nowadays, alas…
And Taiwanese are normally overworked in all industries, but specially in this one. It doesn’t help that, currently, AFAIK, most “international” airlines here are not so: they are subcontractors, so employees do not get full benefits as if they were full company employees. As to local airlines, I prefer to keep my opinion to myself.
Except for the ugly Eastern European girls that I saw working for China Airlines. I went to Palau on China Airlines and could not believe they hired two non-Taiwanese women.
I have a friend whose wife is a trolley dolly for Cathay. (By the way, Craig, “stewardess” is a much less dergatory term than some I’ve heard!) He gets STUPENDOUS deals! MY wife, on the other hand, has a big brother who flys them great big planes. The HUGE ones. But she gets sweet fuck-all in terms of deals. His dead father and geriatric mother, though, get some kind of discount.