Air India is currently undergoing all kinds of changes, as the airline has been privatized, and is trying to reinvent itself. Most of these changes have been positive, though there’s one development that’s leaving the company’s employees pretty unhappy…
In this post:
Air India’s new flight attendant layover hotel policy
With Vistara being merged into the Air India brand, the airline is working on developing new, unified policies for flight attendants. This involves everything ranging from travel benefits, to layover entitlements, to workplace wellness reimbursement.
There’s one proposed change that’s raising the most eyebrows though — Air India wants flight attendants to start sharing hotel rooms on layover. The proposal is that this policy would be implemented as of December 1, 2024, and with this, cabin crew and cabin seniors would share rooms on layovers, while cabin managers and cabin executives would get their own rooms.
Now, the proposed layover policy changes aren’t entirely negative. For example, the proposal is that the layover allowance on international trips would be increased from $75-125 per night, to $85-135 per night. Furthermore, on domestic trips, crews would go from only having breakfast included, to having all meals included.
Crews sharing hotel rooms on layovers crosses the line
There’s no denying that Air India is bucking the industry trend by proposing that flight attendants share hotel rooms on layovers.
On the one hand, I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often (at least at airlines without strong unions), given that the cost savings are potentially significant, and many airlines like to see what they can get away with.
On the other hand, there’s a reason you don’t find this policy at more airlines, and it’s because it’s unreasonable, plain and simple. Being a flight attendant is exhausting, and it’s important that flight attendants get proper rest during layovers, especially given some of the ultra long haul flights that Air India operates.
Sharing a hotel room poses a couple of issues:
- It’s kind of awkward to just constantly share a room with a stranger, since most of the time you won’t even know the people you’re flying with
- Different people deal with jet lag and rest in different ways, so not everyone will have the same sleeping and rest patterns
For the sake of Air India flight attendants, I hope this policy isn’t implemented. I’m happy to see Air India investing in improvements, but that also needs to include investing in employees, and at least giving them the opportunity to have a private room on layovers.
Bottom line
As of December 2024, Air India intends to change its layover policy for flight attendants, whereby they’d have to share hotel rooms on layovers. The industry standard is very much that flight attendants get their own hotel room, given the different schedules that crew members are on. So while I can appreciate that Air India probably views this as a money saving opportunity, I think this will have a negative impact on morale.
What do you make of Air India’s proposed hotel room policy for flight attendants?
The increase in the hotel room budget is not much. I guess it depends on the destination if you can find a hotel room for that price near the airport. Probably difficult at best in Western cities.
Love the simpletons who have clearly never travelled outside their backyard, who come out comment on your blog these days, Lucky.
The fact is that Indians care little about what the rest of the world thinks, whether it be their friendship with Iran, Russia or Palestine or their lives and habits. Seems like the west is much more interested in India than India is about them. Certainly makes for fun times when Europe and the...
Love the simpletons who have clearly never travelled outside their backyard, who come out comment on your blog these days, Lucky.
The fact is that Indians care little about what the rest of the world thinks, whether it be their friendship with Iran, Russia or Palestine or their lives and habits. Seems like the west is much more interested in India than India is about them. Certainly makes for fun times when Europe and the US condemn India for purchasing Russian oil, but still continue with military deals, because their economies, like their egos and other things, are flaccid.
What if they Both stink of Curry Breath? which they normally do!
Why are we discussing this topic without mentioning India's caste system that denies and defies basic human rights? India is the world's largest democratic country in the world since its independence in 1948 and what democracy has brought for India? Compare to red Communist China's economic and military strength and dominance in global stage today. I definitely do not want to live in the country where the Bushes and Trumps populated at the top of...
Why are we discussing this topic without mentioning India's caste system that denies and defies basic human rights? India is the world's largest democratic country in the world since its independence in 1948 and what democracy has brought for India? Compare to red Communist China's economic and military strength and dominance in global stage today. I definitely do not want to live in the country where the Bushes and Trumps populated at the top of the ladder by birth. I want to live in the country where the Clintons and Obamas climbed the to the top through skills, intelligence and humility-based on meritocracy. We need to be objective by understanding a country's culture rather than imposing our culture on other's.
Delusional
Do let us know when you find such a country ! Wasn't the current and most popular Prime Minister Narendra Modi sold cups of tea n Rilway station ?
Love the simpletons who have clearly never travelled outside their backyard, who come out comment on your blog these days, Lucky.
The fact is that Indians care little about what the rest of the world thinks, whether it be their friendship with Iran, Russia or Palestine or their lives and habits. Seems like the west is much more interested in India than India is about them. Certainly makes for fun times when Europe and...
Love the simpletons who have clearly never travelled outside their backyard, who come out comment on your blog these days, Lucky.
The fact is that Indians care little about what the rest of the world thinks, whether it be their friendship with Iran, Russia or Palestine or their lives and habits. Seems like the west is much more interested in India than India is about them. Certainly makes for fun times when Europe and the US condemn India for purchasing Russian oil, but still continue with military deals, because their economies, like their egos and other things, are flaccid.
My wife used to be a flight attendant for Hainan Airlines. I remember during their layovers that their Chinese flight attendants would be forced to share rooms while foreign flight attendants were given private accomodations. This was several years ago so I'm not sure if that policy has changed, but that always gave me a chuckle.
Kick this airline out of Star Alliance.
AI doesn't deserve to be in SA, neither do SA carriers and customers deserve to have this mess as an option.
During the glory days of flying, Pan Am actually had a policy of room-sharling by flight attendants. I can tell you from personal experience ... it sucked. Who wants to share a room with somebody they don't know - or like - after pulling a 14 hour duty day after crossing multiple time zones. Finally, Pan Am abandoned the policy and started assigning single rooms for all F/As. So Air India doing this now ... just seems like something out of the dark ages.
There will be rapes, unfortunately. India has à strong rape culture where rapists are not just those who like violence (like the US) but some Indian rapists just want sex.
In general, in Indian culture, "personal space" is not valued anywhere near as much as it is here. I know Indians who, rather than stay alone in their house when their spouses of families are away, would rather invite a friend over to stay the night. Several people sharing a room to sleep is not at all unusual, given the lack of living space available to most ordinary families (and the fact that sometimes several...
In general, in Indian culture, "personal space" is not valued anywhere near as much as it is here. I know Indians who, rather than stay alone in their house when their spouses of families are away, would rather invite a friend over to stay the night. Several people sharing a room to sleep is not at all unusual, given the lack of living space available to most ordinary families (and the fact that sometimes several generations live in that space).
That is probably why Indian airlines (other than AI) have been forcing crew members to share hotel rooms: Indians are pretty used to sharing space. Of course, not every Indian feels the same way, and I agree with Ben that this could become a safety issue. I had a terrible time getting enough sleep when I was in college if my dorm roommate was awake. Imagine a pilot or FA who has the same problem, then has to deal with an emergency in flight. It's a recipe for disaster.
That's just plain cheap and ridiculous
This is a policy for a lot of Indian airlines. Air India was the only exception. Now its trying to get competitive with rest of Indian airlines.
Always shared rooms for overseas conferences with colleagues.Mind you this was only 4 times a year but surely the crews would know each other if they are operating on the same flight so seems pretty sensible to me.
Back in high school and university days 10-15 years ago, it's common for 4 students (yes FOUR) to share 1 hotel room with 2 double beds when travelling to competitions or conferences.
For a junior flight attendant, I can see them being ok with sharing a room if perhaps they get more per diem or extra bonus for doing so. For older or more senior flight attendants, I understand the privacy they seek.
I shared rooms with other employees my age and sex on business trips on my 20s and early 30s, and I worked in the USA. It's pretty common.
Always the flight attendants, never the flight decks...they wouldn't dare!
Some people like night life some don't.
Finally you would be amazed by how low rates airlines get to put their staff in comfortable/ luxurious hotels. unbeatable prices.
Knowing how the country is, I'll say there's exactly zero chance of forcing the room sharing to be by members of opposite gender at least
That wouldn't happen in any country.
This would absolutely be a dealbreaker for me. It’s so difficult to get proper rest even in a room you’re sharing with people you may know. Imagine you’re a light sleeper and get paid with a loud snorer? No way to get a good night (or day’s) sleep.
Ridiculous.
Utterly stupid policy. I'm sure there's savings here but part of its (alleged) transition to a higher service airline can't be done unless the crew have good morale to provide this service. Making them share rooms will have a knock on effect on the quality of onboard service and fairly so.
I was hoping for better things but it seems this is just another management team who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
What a weird move to reinvent Air India as a 'modern' airline. I assume India has very limited legal protections in this area, but the reason this doesn't happen for many Western airlines is not just cabin crew don't like it but the airline could potentially be liable for failing to put in place measures to prevent sexual harassment. In some countries like the UK, this now extends to Directors being potentially personally liable also, not just the company...
It's largely a competitive issue. Air India is the only airline in India that DIDN'T have this policy until now. There's a significant cost disadvantage in such situations. Perhaps the regulator can step in and mandate differently, but until then the lowest common denominator will inevitably prevail.
Joke airline. Unsaveable.