Caring More About You
Notwithstanding the craziness from a particular person from Boston, I would like to thank you all for the emails and comments left partaining to my immenent departure from KLM. June 30th is my last day of work at KLM.
As you already know I was very reluctant to stay in the Delta team when my contract was up and I travelled to Atlanta and had a meeting with Management Outstations and they convinced me to stay on for another year. It has nothing to do with Delta in particular, but more of looking for my next challenge. I made the decision to stay on at DL, because if I left i would just be moved around to another department, but it would not be step up. More like a step to the side.
Then Les got approached by AF-KL and accepted their offer and it made me think of an offer I had gotten past January from Gordon Humpherys who was Vice President Airport Services at SkyTeam in Amsterdam. He was formally the Director, Atlantic Operations at Delta based in Paris. He asked me to join SkyTeam, because it tranformed itself to a virual company with no employees to one that was headquarted at Amsterdam/Schiphol with a growing employee base from around the world. But I wasn't taking him too seriously, until I met him on a flight to Atlanta last February where he explained me what SkyTeam was all about. It sounded interesting.
Delta world Headquarters @ Atlanta
In March I saw him again at the Burger King at Schiphol and we talked for a long while. I visited the SkyTeam World Headquarters loacted in the World trade Center at Schiphol and he gave me a tour and I liked what I saw. What I saw were Directors, VP's, Managers and employees from all 13 airlines that represents SkyTeam doing their jobs trying to make SkyTeam a good alliance for its customers. My interest was peaked. After several conversations with my parents, brother, Lesley and Remesh, I decided that I would take a leap of faith and leave The Flying Dutchman and join SkyTeam.
SkyTeam
I'm not going to go into too much details about my resignation, but let's just say that KLM wasn't happy that I changed my mind. Many asked if a better offer was made by KLM to stay and the answer is no. My Unit Manager was pissed-off. But I kept the honor to myself and said I would stay on long enough to train my replacement and finish my job correctly and they took me up on that offer. They looked around with the KLM group of companies and found a 36-year old woman at Martinair to replace me. She went through some basic KLM training and at this moment J. is in ATL for Delta training. when she's done next week, she will take over my tasks slowly but surely untill she has everything under control. She's a smart woman and more than capable of handling the job.
I will become Coordinator – Marketing & Customer Experience. My specific responsibilities as written in my contract are:
WTC @ Schiphol
It's a new experience for me and a challenge. Some areas are quite familiar to me and other are not as I will be working for airlines I have little/basic knowledge of. Think of Vietnam Airlines and Aeroflot. But I'm already excited. Also at least i don't have to take the freakin' bus from Schphol to Amstelveen anymore, but I can now just walk it within 5 minutes to the WTC. And I'm so going to love the flexible hours. Yes I am!
As you already know I was very reluctant to stay in the Delta team when my contract was up and I travelled to Atlanta and had a meeting with Management Outstations and they convinced me to stay on for another year. It has nothing to do with Delta in particular, but more of looking for my next challenge. I made the decision to stay on at DL, because if I left i would just be moved around to another department, but it would not be step up. More like a step to the side.
Then Les got approached by AF-KL and accepted their offer and it made me think of an offer I had gotten past January from Gordon Humpherys who was Vice President Airport Services at SkyTeam in Amsterdam. He was formally the Director, Atlantic Operations at Delta based in Paris. He asked me to join SkyTeam, because it tranformed itself to a virual company with no employees to one that was headquarted at Amsterdam/Schiphol with a growing employee base from around the world. But I wasn't taking him too seriously, until I met him on a flight to Atlanta last February where he explained me what SkyTeam was all about. It sounded interesting.
Delta world Headquarters @ Atlanta
In March I saw him again at the Burger King at Schiphol and we talked for a long while. I visited the SkyTeam World Headquarters loacted in the World trade Center at Schiphol and he gave me a tour and I liked what I saw. What I saw were Directors, VP's, Managers and employees from all 13 airlines that represents SkyTeam doing their jobs trying to make SkyTeam a good alliance for its customers. My interest was peaked. After several conversations with my parents, brother, Lesley and Remesh, I decided that I would take a leap of faith and leave The Flying Dutchman and join SkyTeam.
SkyTeam
I'm not going to go into too much details about my resignation, but let's just say that KLM wasn't happy that I changed my mind. Many asked if a better offer was made by KLM to stay and the answer is no. My Unit Manager was pissed-off. But I kept the honor to myself and said I would stay on long enough to train my replacement and finish my job correctly and they took me up on that offer. They looked around with the KLM group of companies and found a 36-year old woman at Martinair to replace me. She went through some basic KLM training and at this moment J. is in ATL for Delta training. when she's done next week, she will take over my tasks slowly but surely untill she has everything under control. She's a smart woman and more than capable of handling the job.
I will become Coordinator – Marketing & Customer Experience. My specific responsibilities as written in my contract are:
- Manage relevant processes for Customer Insight creation and marketing analytics.
- Support and contribute to Customer Experience projects and initiatives, including taking leadership of some.
- Support and contribute to Loyalty/CRM initiatives.
- Lead, support, and contribute to Digital Marketing initiatives.
- Support and contribute to other Marketing & Customer Experience projects and activities as they develop.
WTC @ Schiphol
It's a new experience for me and a challenge. Some areas are quite familiar to me and other are not as I will be working for airlines I have little/basic knowledge of. Think of Vietnam Airlines and Aeroflot. But I'm already excited. Also at least i don't have to take the freakin' bus from Schphol to Amstelveen anymore, but I can now just walk it within 5 minutes to the WTC. And I'm so going to love the flexible hours. Yes I am!
posted by Traveller at 3:57 PM
10 Comments:
Gefelicteerd Ryan. Cor van Yield Management is ook overgestapt naar ST, hoorde ik. In ider geval heel veel succes met je neiwe job..
Xxx. Rekha
'Too bad you are leaving us. Good luck with your future endevours and I hope to see you in ATL evey once in a while!
Greg
Once again, congratulations son.
Mom
That's the wrong video Ryan with the old members. On the Korean Air channel on YouTube you can find the lates ST video incl. the one with Air Europa etc. I'll change it.
Les
Hey Ryan, I read it and couldn't believe you are leaving KLM! But good for you. Congratulations!
You told me that KLM and Delta both allowed you to write a blog as long as you kep confidential information out, you do not damage the company's image and if you do not a appear in a Delta uniform. Will you also seek permission from SkyTeam to continue your weblog? I do really hope so.
Anyway, I'll shoot you an email sometime this week. And don't you worry your head about KLM and its Unit Manager. You adhered to the rules of the CAO for The Netherlands (checked on intranet) and you even were willing to stay a bit longer to train your successor. What more do they want???
Anyway all is going well here at LAX. There was some shoveling with personnel between teams. You remember Dion fatafehi? He asked me to leave the KLM team in Terminal 2 and go to the Tom Bradley International Terminal to man the Cathay Pacific desks. All because I speak Cantonese and there flights to HKG are often delayed due to Chinese people who don't sepak English and understand the announcement. I told him no, because Cathay has 3 flights per day at weird times and Air France and KLM only have 2 and on the days that the flight goes on to Papeete 3. But the times are near each other and I don't have any nightshifts, unless there is a crazy delay with one of the flights. But Cathay is another story! And it requires me to go to Hong Kong for a 6-week training!
A lot is changing here at Swissport, because they want us to handle as many airlines as possible. That way if there are any sickies, we can switch. They are doing this with the newbies... 6 months AF-KL, then on to Cathay, then on to Alitalia, then on to All Nippon etc. etc. I think it's because of stress we have such a high turnover of staff.
AF also wants us to wear their uniform. So when we are done handling the 601/602, I have to change out of my KLM uniform and put on the AF one. It's a nuisance. Because when one flight is delays, half the staff is in light blue and the other half in dark blue. Whatever.
I think I'll be heading to Amsterdam for training soon, so Ill let you know. Or maybe you should drop by LAX, you SOB!
:-)
Michael Wang
Hi Michael, I also work for Swissport in Canada! This is my first comment here after silently reading this weblog for 2 years. Although I did have the pleasure to meet Ryan in Amsterdam last year October during my training in Altea.
I read your comment and had to laugh, because we at YYZ do the same thing as you guys in LAX. Except we have AF first followed by KLM. It's a hassle indeed.
Nice to know we at YYZare not the only ones.
Greetings from Toronto!
Maria
YYZ/PK/KL - YYZ/PK/AF
You have no manners, Maria. THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS CONGRATULATE RYAN. WERE YOU RAISED BY WOLVES??
CONGRATULATIONS, RYAN. I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST IN YOUR NEW JOB.
John
Boston MA, USA
John, please do not speak of thing you know nothing about. I congratulated Ryan via a private email already thank you very much.
I have no problems with you, so please treat me with respect. I would highly appreciate that.
Maria
Ta hode! E homber si ta gusta pone boca unda e no mester pone. E ta traha riba mi nervio bo sa! Tsss..
Jenny
@ Rekha: Ja, dat had ik gehoord.
@ Gregory: I'll be in ATL in a few days. I'm stayin at the usual hotel. We kan meet up if your schedule will allow it. When I get to work tomorrow I'll shoot you an email via intranel after I see what my possibilities are to get to ATL in Deltamatic.
@ Les: Thnx buddy.
@ Mike: I don't think I'll be in LAX anytime soon, so drop me a note before you head to AMS. It'll be nice to catch up.
@ John: .......
@ Maria: well put.
@ Jenny: Bo sa! Mi tin gana di dale e guyo ki riba su smoel.
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