Aayush's Placement Blog

Hello Everyone, This is Aayush Joshi and here is my blog for the Placement I am doing/ I have done (as per the time you are watching this). So I am going to post my blogs here for the placement with Cathay Pacific Airlines

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Overall Experience

So if I share my journey from the beginning, At first I thought it would be very hard for us to learn our duty and doing this placement with our other courses and our part time job it would be hard for us to manage everything.

But as we started doing our shifts and with time we learned our duties and after few days we managed to help our agents with the documentation check so it would be easy for them to handle the process.

So about the document check, we were handling about 12-15 countries that have connections from Hong Kong. So because of the covid-19 restrictions from the countries, we have to check every single documents that are required for their final destination so that their travel process goes smoothly and our Hong Kong team don't have to worry about offloading the passenger from our region.

Now about the assignments, in this course that are not many assignments and the assignments that we had was little bit easy to do. But the main problem came where we had same due dates for every course's assignments.

I had 7 courses in this semester and it was sometimes difficult to coup up with al the assignments with their due dates because I was working part time with 7 courses and their assignments.

But doing everything part by part I have managed to do every assignments and within the due dates I have submitted all assignments.

But I think I have made a right decision of taking the placement in this semester because I have experiences alot and I might not be able commute properly in the fall semester as the TTC will operate slowly because of the cold.

So now as I am almost finished with my semester, I feel very excited to work more in this industry and I feel very achieved after doing this placement. I have learned alot working at the airport. All of my co-worker helped me in every situation and they taught me so many new thing about the industry that now I am capable of doing work in this industry and share my experience and knowledge.

Here I would like to thank all of my co-workers, my fellow students, my Duty Airport Managers and not to forget about my Professor who was also their when I need their help.

Thank you so much everyone for making my journey smooth and memorable. I hope to work more with you all in the near future and I am blessed of having you all with me.

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Progress Check

So as we progress our placement, and when we are half way their, their is a progress check which our professor conducts to see how our placement is going, what are the challenges we faced and how much our SMART learning outcomes has fulfilled.

So it was a very short and simple process, our professor came to our Cathay office and asked every student to meet for 10-15 minutes to check on the requirements matched for the half process.

Every student met the professor for 10-10 minutes and everyone shared their experience and their challenges and the SMART learning outcomes.

At first I thought it is a type of interview and that's why I was scared and worried that what is going to happen and how much marks my professor will give me.

But when my number comes, I went inside a conference room and we talked about my journey, my experience at the airport, my experience at the gates as I had my RAIC card, my SMART learning outcomes and the challenges I have faced in the placement journey.

So at the end it was a conversation between me, my professor and one of our airport duty managers from Cathay team.

Here is the photo of my fellow students and our professor came for our progress check.

Our professor was very sweet and we had some beautiful time together. She shared her experience with Cathay and her professional journey as an employee for airline.

All in all, we had a very good time meeting each other and shared beautiful memories of our work and our future plans.

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More Problems

As everyone knows, the airport is very strict with the rules and regulations and because of that many times passengers cannot help themselves and that's where we comes to help them.

So here again I encountered a situation in which a passenger from other airlines left her hand carry bag when she went to the baggage help desk to report their misplaced check-in baggage.

I was working on my shift as usual managing Cathay customers in the queue and helping the customers with their needs. One lady came to me and she was really worried.

I asked her what happened to you and why are you so worried and she was crying a little bit. She told me that I came here from a long flight and when I reached to the conveyor belt, she was not able to find her bag till the last moment and she went to report the missing baggage to their airlines help desk.

Someone took her and asked her to keep the hand carry at their desk and fill out the missing baggage form as per the airlines requirements.

And after writing the form, she move out of the arrival section. And then she realized she forgot her hand carry bag inside. But because of the restriction she was not able to go inside the arrivals.

She was asking for hep to the security officers but no one is able to help her and she was so upset and worried because her house keys and everything was inside the hand carry bag.

Suddenly she came to me and asked me for help. At the beginning I was not able to help her as I was handling the Cathay customers.

But after helping most of the customers, I went with her in the arrivals level to see something that can help her. We were asking the security officers but no one knows where to go and whom to ask.

Then at the last, I called from the emergency assistance button that connects the call to the officer inside the immigration officer. I explained everything to the officer and he helped the lady with her hand carry bag.

Incidents like this one are very rare but we have to stay very careful as it might lose our precious items like her house keys.

So this is the photo in which their is a communication device that I have used to talk to the immigration officer inside the arrivals.

The device at the right side is the device with which I had the conversation.

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Student Visa Blunder

So here I want to share a situation that I have faced when I was on my shift at the airport. I was managing the passengers and helping out with their problems but suddenly my manager called me and told me to go with a girl to the immigration office. At first I got scared and I thought what have I done wrong but then she told me that she just landed in Canada with our airline, as a Student with student visa but haven't received the Student permit from the immigration officer.

So what happened was, when she arrived and finished with the kiosk, she by mistakenly went to different gate and reached to her bag. She thought that after baggage pickup they will give her student permit.

But even after the bag, she was left with the student permit. So she asked one of the security officer that she want to go back inside so that she can receive her student permit.

but as per the airport rules, you cannot go in the immigration department or anywhere in the arrival area without the RAIC card. So she was then asked to reach out to us for further assistance.

So then, I went with her in the Immigration office and after checking all the documents, the immigration officer handed her Student Permit and the Work Permit that will be used for the co-op placement.

So this is one of many incidents that I have faced at the airport and wanted to share because it can happen to anyone.

So the door in this photo is of Canadian border Services that I have used to communicate with the officer inside and they opened the door and helped us out from here.

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Deportee Handling

So there are many situation where we find the industry interesting and sometimes a lot of hassle is there to manage everything.

Here I have to share a situation where we have to handle the deportees and I am going to share the process how it's done.

First of all, what a deportee means? According to dictionary: "A person who has been or is being expelled from a country" is called deportee. And yes, that is exactly the meaning in the aviation industry as well. So when a passenger was deported from a country and an airline has a deportee with them, they will treat the deportee as a simple passenger but when they arrives at the gate, the scenario changes from there.

So when I encountered a deportee, I felt that the process was very easy and simple. Upon arrival, we allow other passengers to leave the aircraft and follow the arrival process but with deportees, we have to give them a company on their way to the immigration office.

Talking about how we manage the situation, we hold the deportees back and allow other passenger to go and after everyone left the aircraft, me and one of my co-worker took the deportee to the immigration officer that will take deportees with them. And that is everything about the deportee situation. We just have to escort them till the other officers take charge of the deportees and they will do the rest of the remaining process with the deportees.

And to be honest, situations like this is very rare and I have faced it only once in the last 3 months of my placement. I felt very bad for the deportees, but at the end I thought that it is good for everyone and it is done only when a passenger fails to follow the rules of the country and misguided themselves.

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The fun Begins

The fun part begin for which aviation is popular for.

So with the RAIC card, you are able to go to gates after clearing security (because of yellow pass), and you will learn so much about airport, aviation industry, how the background system works and so much more.

So on the day I received my RAIC, my managers asked me to go to gates and learn new things. And I feel very lucky having supportive coworkers and manager who helped learning everything easily. Mainly my managers who always supported me and gave me opportunities to learn more.

So for the arrivals, we must keep everything seamless and easy for passengers to understand and follow the procedures in easy and quick manner. With coordinating with the immigration team, we are responsible to let people in a group for which their will be no mess in the immigration process or in that area. And this is done by confirming the number of flights landed at that time and the number of passengers in total. So we release 50 people and hold other for 5 minutes and than release 2nd group of 50 people and likewise. It depends on the load but it is something like this only.

Another thing we do is boarding passengers for their flight "from" YYZ. This includes connections also, so at the boarding gate, we are printed our boarding pass for the passengers who reached YYZ in different airline. And at the very last, we are required to verify the passengers by checking their passport and boarding pass.

I have experienced almost everything which is done at the gated on the first day only. At the beginning I felt overwhelmed but after experiencing the same thing for few days, I get used to it and felt like I was doing this for years, lol.

Here is a picture of the staff preparing for boarding at gate "C33". And in the background you can see the passengers waiting for the boarding process to start.

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The day I got my Yellow pass(RAIC) 10th June 2022

So here comes the day when finally I received my RAIC card.

So the process starts with booking an appointment via an online service to schedule a booking. So the hardest part is to get an appointment for which whenever you see you will shown as no bookings available. But sometimes you will get a booking right away. But here is a twist, you have to be so fast that no one else can grab your opportunity and you will get the slot.

I remember that I was checking the website every 5 minutes but never got any slots. And after so much struggle when I see some slot, before I take the opportunity, someone else booked their appointment.

But at the end my friend booked an appointment for me and on 10th June I got the card within around 20 minutes of the process. So the process was very simple yet complicated. You have to be very careful with the documentations and if you are lacking even a single, they will send you back home. The documentation consists of Police clearance for last 5 years from the place you spent more than 90 days, last 5 years of your employment status with proof, last 5 years of addresses with proof of the last one. And your mark sheets if you were studying in last 5 years. Also a piece of ID from Canadian govt for address proof. Of course your status in Canada as a student or whatever you are.

And that is everything you need and after passing a test of 5 questions with 60%, you will get a temporary pass like this one.

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Ups and Downs-Part of journey.

So this is the best part of aviation which some people likes and some don't. So the ups and downs in aviation basically depends on the flight load and the country where passengers are travelling.

With Cathay Pacific Airways, you will meet variety of passengers that are travelling to different countries. And in this covid era, there were so many restrictions that people don't wanted to fly even they need to.

The restrictions are also comes in varieties, for example: some countries require PCR test where some can manage with Antigen test. Also their were countries that want "passenger" to download an app for declaration about the details for travelling.

But day by day, the restrictions and going away and except few countries, people fulfilling vaccination requirements don't have any restriction and can travel without any hassle.

From my experience, I have seen good as well as worst days where we have to offload passengers because they are left with the documentation or they don't have the negative covid test result that they are not aware of.

This industry is so volatile that you cannot "Assume" anything prior day of the flight. Everything can be changed in few hours, so all we need to do is research about the restrictions and make sure that every passenger is following that. That I must say that our Duty managers are doing great work making sure everything is perfect from our end and trying to fix every possible situation to make passenger's travel safe and adorable.

Here is a picture of a friend helping a customer with filling all the necessary details in the declaration app for the country.

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First Day of the real "Thing" 20th May' 2022

So here comes the first day when we have the opportunity to represent Cathay Pacific Airways as a Customer Service Ambassador.

So here, our main duty is to provide solution of guest's queries and the most important, to make sure everyone is standing in the correct queue so that the right person gets the priority.

Also, on the first day they gave me a Uniform to try for the measurements and it was really nice.

Before every flight, we have briefing in which Duty managers share some details about that flight, for example:- the flight load, where we are going to set up the counters, and the most important- restrictions that must me attended for entering the country for the passengers travelling.

Here is a picture of briefing, in which everyone is gathered together to discuss key points about the flight that night.

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Orientation Day (9th May' 2022)

Hello Everyone,

so finally the day arrives when we have a chance to visit an airline office and learn on hands about the duties and responsibilities we were learning since last few semesters.

At first, I was very nervous as this was my first step/chance to get practical experience, live working with an airline and I was scared because I was their as a newbie and I do not have any knowledge about the work I have to do in my placement (or so called "internship")

But as time passed a bit, Claire (who is kind of our "supervisor") and our manager "Winnie" who were training us made us very comfortable and took out all the stress we had at the beginning.

After learning about the duties and some facts about the airline, it energize everyone and motivated to give our best in the internship.

Also a fun fact that they were soo sweet that they bought us some donuts and the always there cold drinks. LOL

All in all, It was a short meeting but it was really fun and entertaining. Get to know many things about the industry as well as the organisation.