Hotel and Transportation Update

Hotel and Transportation Update
May 2023
 

Hi Everyone, 

We recently sent out a late winter communication, but felt an early spring update was necessary due to the number of changes that have occurred. Although these are just brief updates, please, as always, feel free to contact us should you have more questions. 

TOKYO 

The Intercontinental Tokyo Bay has been selected for our new Narita layovers. This layover was heavily discussed and in the end was mutually agreed upon by all parties to be in a central part of Tokyo, as opposed to Narita City. Although this does come with a longer than usual transport time, we felt crews would appreciate this given the length of the layovers. Should layover times be reduced in the future, a second look at this market may be warranted. 

LONDON GATWICK 

Gatwick continues to present challenges regarding agreement language and viable options. A visit took place in January where we expanded our perimeter to include several surrounding towns/cities, going as far as Croydon. In the end, nothing compared to the safety, comfort, and accessibility of our incumbent hotel – the Sofitel. Although most layovers in LGW will hover around 24 hours, both CUPE and ALPA did agree to placing crews at the Holiday Inn Kensington (our LHR hotel) for the odd Gatwick layover that exceeds 25 hours. While few in number, it was felt that crews would appreciate being in central London on longer overnights. 

DUBLIN 

This season all crews will move to the Hyatt Centric Liberties, which accommodated many of our crews last summer. The decision to leave the Gresham was based largely on continuous construction noise (and its complaints). The Hyatt is a newly built hotel with spacious rooms and modern amenities. It was well received by crew that overnighted at the property in 2022. 

HOUSTON & SAN FRANCISCO 

With longer layovers coming up, the decision was made to secure rooms centrally at the Hilton Americas (IAH) and Marriott Union Square (SFO). These hotels were chosen without a site visit due to last minute requirements but were based on data from previous visits and with corporate security weighing in on our options. Site visits will be scheduled once we have more insight on how these layovers will look in the future. 

REGINA 

As of March 1st, all cabin crew member layovers are now at the Atlas Hotel. The Delta Regina, which was located downtown, received mixed reviews and after discussing our options with the company the decision was made to move to one hotel in this city. Crews appreciate the generous discount in the restaurant and the options for eating and shopping nearby. This city is now the second example of pilots and cabin crew having different hotel options (ALPA requested to continue staying at the Delta). 

OTTAWA 

After a site visit at the end of 2022, the option was proposed of moving crews on all layovers back to downtown Ottawa. Numerous complaints about room allocation and shuttle wait times at our short stay property, and a lack of other options at the airport, facilitated this. With dedicated transportation and a relatively short average travel time, we hope crews will enjoy being back in the center of our country’s capital moving forward. 

VICTORIA 

After a brief visit in February, our long stay hotel in YYJ has now changed to the downtown Marriott hotel. The reason for this is simple – Delta Ocean Pointe was no longer able to provide enough rooms for our needs and a new option needed to be sourced. We look forward to our new property partnership in Victoria. 

We have one more city to visit before taking a break for the busy summer season that lies ahead for all of us. We will continue to update you on notable changes as they progress. Please continue to submit reports on Crew Connex or get in touch with us at any time. We wish you a happy and safe summer of flying. 
 

Your CUPE 4070 Hotel and Transportation Committee (hotels@cupe4070.ca) 
Ryan Jones – YYZ representative (ryan.jones@cupe4070.ca) 
Tyler Thomas – YVR representative (tyler.thomas@cupe4070.ca) 
Douglas Rotchell – YYC representative (douglas.rotchell@cupe4070.ca)