Etihad Tries To Poach Qatar Airways Cabin Crew

I hope a QR employee posts a coment here (anonymously I presume) telling us how QR reacted, what they said to employees etc. I'd be interested in what they did before the event and afterwards also. Knowing the petulance the chairman has demonstrated when provoked, I can't imagine the company being magnanimous or compassionate towards employees looking for a working environment with higher morale.

The ME3 used to have a 'gentleman's agreement' so to speak.. they refused to hire cabin crew from a rival for at least a year after the candidate had quit. That agreement started to wane before the pandemic, so it's no surprise this would continue now. Makes sense for Etihad... a very similar fleet to Qatar should make training pretty easy.

This is a rather one-sided view of the event. There are thousands of expats from all over the world living and working in Qatar. Etihad could simply have decided to have an open day in Qatar and meet these people rather than going to each individual country. Qatar Airways hired a receptionist at a company I worked for in Abu Dhabi back in the day, using this technique.

I have a friend who worked for QR she left (ran) in less than a year, said it was the most horrible job she ever did until now. Called it prison, Absolutely hostile work environment, daily threatening of employees, extremely tiring rosters and often substandard noisy dirty hotels. Not to speak about curfews and 24h camera surveillance in accommodation. Judging from my recent flights with QR they only seem to find Indians and Philippines to work for them as the whole crew was from there. Maybe EY tries to the hire some experienced staff from there?

Hi, Western EU nationality here. Etihad was my first choice, I got rejected due to my age 31 at the time, I never applied to EK as I used to live in Dubai and I prefer a quieter pace of life, I got accepted in Qatar and what struck me was the sheer minority of Western Euros, Aus, NZ and North American crew. I was curious why and I was constantly told that our nationalities had 'attitude'. i asked my colleagues in what way (my colleagues were mainly Indian, Thai, Filipino and Eastern European). and they said 'oh they like drinking, smoking, tattoos and posting pics on Instagram' - and those nationalities don't?!! I loved Qatar the country and the airline paid well and also have very fond memories there but to constantly be picked on for 'uniform showing too much shape' (I'm 45kg lol) and girls with blonde or Afro hair were told we were going against Asian centric hair norms by people who had never seen our colouring before, not to mention having supervisors from for want of a better word, poor countries who would yell at you 'did you earn your salary today? you don't want to be going home do you' or being belittled coming from a developed country and being accused of taking a job from a more 'deserving' colleague.

What route? I flew Q Suites from ORD - DOH - MLE earlier in 2022 and my crew was a mix South African, European, Australian, and Thai.

"there are no Qataris who are looking to be cabin crew for Etihad"

I think the word "no" is exaggerated?

You do realise that other people also live in Qatar than those working as cabin crew for Qatar Airways, and might want to pursue a career flying with Etihad?

Obviously Qatar Airways are doing a great job in recruiting and training their crew. Their customer service is outstanding.

Exactly. You couldn't have said it better

Is it open for foreigners too

The cabin crew can apply all they want, but they also need to get out of the country. Officially the kafala system doesn’t exist any more, but if your employer does not authorize you leaving Qatar, then you are not leaving.

Don’t know why EY would want the QR staff they are noticeably subpar on attitude and service delivery.

There are many expats in Qatar including me From Africa and I want to take part in this openday actually majority of people who will attend this event are African s and asians.But my concern is from the view of things ave never seen an African (black) working in Etihad kinda feel like the targeted individuals are some Europeans who are still here in qatar rather than the qatar airways flight attendants.Personally I don't think etihad its targeting QA staffs.

Etihad wants to rub it on the face of QR, by poaching 5 star airline cabin crews, they can get back to 5 star airline soon. their new CEO might not be crazy like James Hogan once did, but he (or the emir of Abu Dhabi ) don't believe in cost cutting to profitability anymore.

Regardless, Qatar Airways maintains high expectations of discipline for all of its team members, any attempts by its current team members to join such events will be dealt with swiftly and seriously.

nicely put, that QR is very strict, i would rather say extremely toxic.

@Ben for the win! "I can’t help but wonder if they might send someone to see who shows up to the recruitment event." You can bet your life savings that Qatar Airways will have spies on the ground and in the line at that event! To use a famous line from Star Wars... "It's a TRAP!!!!"

Maybe ME3 could hire the Qantas and US3 Golden Ladies and Grandmas... What is worse, usually they arent sweet Grandmas but crampy and rude ones...

Back in 2016, I was served by a very professional African-American crew (based on her accent) in business class named Grace.

I am patiently waiting for these airlines to recruit in Nigeria

True. It's very common that airlines will held recruitment process in other GCC countries as they can find people who already adapted with the culture and lifestyle. When recruited from outside of GCC, you can get sometimes staff who don't manage to adapt and end up leaving back to their countries after few months

They are definitely not aiming all those Indians and Filipinos with very poor customer service skills from QR. QR is having the worst staff comparing to any Airline i ever seen before

Live and let live. All the Best Etihad. Qatar is Qatar. They only need Allah!!!

Based on your comment, I will assume that you travel VERY LITTLE!

It's really a tension to people who are willing to take this opportunity, but it could be a treacherous to people.
Qatar should be serious about this matter.

Thanks Etihad airways but take this as a NOTE because it will be very shameful to call people and at end of this people crys make sure people have liberty.

There is also the fact that Qatar in general recruited plenty of people on a temporary basis for the world cup (that includes cabin crew), in addition to plenty of expats family members who came to the world cup to watch games and search for an opportunity (especially from North Africa). So there are quite a few people around here looking for jobs at this time.
Then again, I may be wrong.

I will be there

not an African.thats an American.

Let's wait and see what will haoe it's today when people are to be recreated but it's a sorry to Africans I don't think we have chance

Cabin crew

Was I rejected because am African?? The rejection is still paining me I wanted to try something new but my dreams were shuttered

Exactly ..it's not only the Qatar airways staff living in Qatar ....there are many of us who are interested to apply

Qatar Airways has had recruitment drives in the UAE in the past.

Actually the most logical reason is that Qatar just hosted the World Cup and a lot of people that fit cabin crew criteria would have worked in the hospitality/sector during the cup and are going to be out of a job now that the games are over. It’s logical for Etihad to try and scoop these people up.

Can rwandese apply for this post?

I went for the recruitment but I wasn't shortlisted though it was a wonderful experience.

I worked for Delta airlines and truly enjoyed working for them.
It was an easy work environment. Qatar airways is overbearing on its cabin crew to the extent of being 'Hostile'
Money is important, but Dignity is your personality !
CF, USA