KLM boss goes undercover as a flight attendant

[offshore171]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1662536686067240965

Undercover Boss!
@KLM
CEO Spotted Serving Passengers On Long-Haul Flight On a May 20th #flight between Amsterdam and Los Angeles, some passengers onboard a #KLM #Boeing 787-10 were served by the airline's very own President and CEO, Marjan Rintel. An elite status member of KLM's Flying Blue loyalty program posted a photo of the airline chief to Facebook, dressed up in the carrier's bold blue cabin crew uniform...


Could anyone imagine Joyce or any other Australian airline CEO doing this?

 

[RooFlyer]

Nice touch.

Could anyone imagine Joyce or any other Australian airline CEO doing this?

If there was, I dare say there would be tip-offs to the media beforehand and a press release afterwards. "Lookee, just one of the workers ..."

 

[justinbrett]

Probably would have been better to go undercover as a passenger; surely it's the airline staff she should be auditing, not the passengers.

I bet the staff were explementary for that flight.

 

[Skyring]

Probably would have been better to go undercover as a passenger; surely it's the airline staff she should be auditing, not the passengers.

I bet the staff were explementary for that flight.

Perhaps she wanted to get some current experience at the sharp end so she could relate better to those doing the work? If she'd been doing it for the publicity she would have had a cameraman and PR team with her. And she could hardly keep it from the crew.

 

[offshore171]

Probably would have been better to go undercover as a passenger; surely it's the airline staff she should be auditing, not the passengers.

I'm sure she travels as a passenger on her airline regularly.

However it's probably not legal to travel as a passenger under a different identity due to aviation security rules.

 

[Himeno]

When I saw this, I thought that someone had started making a new season of Undercover Boss - Wikipedia

 

[odysseus]

When I saw this, I thought that someone had started making a new season of Undercover Boss - Wikipedia

If it was the US version, she would have been on the flight solely to get some good sympathy stories and gift US$50k to the most deserving staff member, who was operating on that flight.

 

[Quickstatus]

Probably would have been better to go undercover as a passenger

The QF CEO should try Y as a passenger on the ultralong hauls/project sunrise

Hmm ok maybe too hard. What about baggage handling for one shift during the December peak season?.

it's probably not legal to travel as a passenger under a different identity due to aviation security rules

Nor as crew. Nothing undercover about this.

 

[DC3]

One flight? With some photo ops.

I guess it’s the thought that counts.

 

[Quickstatus]

I guess it’s the thought that counts.

I'm not sure what that would achieve. Maybe an insight into crew work conditions but how would one flight make a difference. I do appreciate an executive who tries to experience the workplace of their employee rather than rely on the lower rung managers and supervisors to report back. the quality of the workplace is important.

Or at a minimum try on the uniform to check its functionality.

Other CEOs have tried be a flight attendant for a day before - Brandon and Tony Fernandez but for other reasons.

I bet the staff were explementary for that flight.

Maybe but being exemplary might not be in the best interest of the crew. They want to appear overworked, haggard, miserable lest their work conditions get enhanced.

 

[offshore171]

Nor as crew. Nothing undercover about this.

Ok, but the passengers don't have access to the manifest. It wasn't an announced thing, as I understand it. It just happened that a passenger recognised her.

Not sure why everyone is so quick to dump on this. I'd like to see more of it to be honest.

 

[justinbrett]

They want to appear overworked, haggard, miserable lest their work conditions get enhanced.

I think their employment would get enhanced if they tried that.

 

[Foreigner]

Maybe the boss is self-centered. Would she have worked both economy and business? She may have accessed coughpit too to serve aircrew.

 

[Anjan]

Nice touch.



If there was, I dare say there would be tip-offs to the media beforehand and a press release afterwards. "Lookee, just one of the workers ..."

A certain CEO with high vis vest doing the baggage handler thing.

 

[Quickstatus]

Would she have worked both economy and business?

Is she carrying a tablet. So maybe an honorary CSM for the flight?

While I'm sure she means well, it reminds me of a surgeon friend who would help out between cases by mopping the floor. What he didn't know was after he mopped the floor and the stepped out, the orderlies would come in and re-mop the floors because he didn't do a very good job.

 

[kelvedon]

Other CEOs have tried be a flight attendant for a day before - Brandon and Tony Fernandez but for other reasons.

He lost a bet that his F1 team would beat Tony Fernandes’s team

Richard Branson, who wears an AirAsia stewardess uniform, serves AirAsia's Chief Executive Tony Fernandes during an AirAsia promotional event on a flight from Perth to Kuala Lumpur May 12, 2013. Branson shaved his legs and dressed up as a stewardess ...

Read more at: Branson dresses up as air hostess

 

[Quickstatus]

Richard Branson,

Who went the whole distance and put on red lippy

Did he also get the sack for putting heels on the seat?

 

[ANstar]

Perhaps she wanted to get some current experience at the sharp end so she could relate better to those doing the work? If she'd been doing it for the publicity she would have had a cameraman and PR team with her. And she could hardly keep it from the crew.

Whilst she wouldn't of being doing it for external publicity it would of been a carefully organised event for internal comms and crew engagement. Nothing by chance here. KLM are masters at communications and social media.