Bits: 7,200 Avios with any Dyson product, random thoughts on BA cabin crew

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• Waribai says:

  5 Apr5 April 04:54

  100% agree about the staff especially on long-haul routes. We fly LHR-HND a couple of times a year on either BA or JAL and the difference is like night and day. The seat (in C and F) and the food on JAL is just so much better but conversely the ability of the BA staff to put you at ease and make the journey more fun especially with the family is hugely appreciated. Even my wife who is Japanese agrees!

• mr bridge says:

  5 Apr5 April 05:17

  I agree about the crew, when you board a BA return long haul flight to uk, you suddenly feel your back to normality! Nice pot of tea in FIRST

  • Mark says:

    5 Apr5 April 07:44

    Glad it’s not just me who feels that’s kind of nice after a long trip…

  • Lady London says:

    5 Apr5 April 17:53

    If it’s been a hard trip I sometimes feel a sense of relief when I see the BA tail fin and know I will be at home as soon as I get on the aircraft.

• John says:

  5 Apr5 April 05:23

  Well, if you get a British cabin crew member on EK/QR, then you will have a similar sort of experience

  • Waribai says:

    5 Apr5 April 06:24

    I wouldn’t necessarily agree. Sure they will reflect their national persona to an extent but they often take on the values of the airline they are working for. So there is only so much they can do that would be similar to BA.

• Godfrey says:

  5 Apr5 April 05:40

  Re your BA cabin crew comment the only other thing they need to do, apart from recruit and train well, is be able to sack the poor ones, of which there are far too many.

  • richard says:

    5 Apr5 April 09:26

    Here Here!!

  • harry says:

    5 Apr5 April 17:36

    you probably can’t sack the oldsters who just turn up for cabin crew duty aged 50-60, useless grumpy old frats they might be but try proving that to a tribunal…

    If I were in charge I would divert them to sweeping up rubbish duty around the terminal or something similar – no reduction in pay so how could they argue?

    • Genghis says:

      5 Apr5 April 17:48

      Don’t duties normally need to be comparable in nature?

    • Lady London says:

      5 Apr5 April 17:57

      @harry do you really think being 50-60 is what causes this? I am sure you don’t mean it but it does smack a bit of ageism. Surely someone 25 can be h*cked off with their job too?

      • harry says:

        5 Apr5 April 18:07

        I think 30 years flight duty serving some really horrible people (probably one or more on every flight) would wear down anybody

        plus cabin crew was always going to be a young person’s game – except under the old contract BA paid them far too much for them want to withdraw gracefully as they aged

        I don’t actually blame them for hanging on, grumpy as they are – they wouldn’t find better conditions elsewhere

• Barry cutters says:

  5 Apr5 April 05:53

  In my opinion American and American Airlines in general are by far the worst. last week I did the Dreamliner from Shanghai to lax and back , I have also used the 773 on the lax and nyc to Lhr routes. And the planes are great, the main cabin extra has plenty of legroom in economy and the business class is decent. How’re in both classes it is truly the cabin crew that let it down.

  • Paul says:

    5 Apr5 April 06:56

    Your experience of AA is markedly different from my own. Their 777-300 service has been superb and I have recently insisted that BA re route me onto this service rather than endure cramp world and surely crew.
    BA can have great crew but even a great crew cannot save you from awful food, dire IFE and BA third rate service in most aspects of flying. They have only recently started pre ordering meals and only ex LHR and only on limited routes. They will have WIFI on 90% of services by 2019 and their technical reliability is poor.
    I am in the US currently and flew here First on BA which was fine but nothing special and frankly QR and CX J are both better. Not once for example was my name used nor was my gold card status mentioned. I never saw the chief crew member.
    AA have better J seats and so long as the food is edible and there are some first run movies then I don’t really care about much else. I want privacy and comfort and to feel a bit special……CX and QR do this every time but BA haven’t done that in any class for a very long time.

  • RIccati says:

    5 Apr5 April 16:56

    Since we are on the topic of crew, especially AA crew, I have stories to tell! Night horror stories.

    When I boarded AA’s services on LHR-JFK Business and transcon JFK-LAX Business and First (paid fares ex-DUB) I said, wow, AA seem to got it right. The seats are nice, food is tasty and snacks and desserts are abundant…

    But then I tried other destinations and discovered how unpolished AA crews can turn out…

    Once I made a bed, returned to the seat after changing and… found the off-duty stewardess sleeping in the bed I made!!!!!!!!!

    On other occasion, I for the both kinds of red they offered in Business and was immediately told off, “What, are you doing wine tasting, it’s not the first class”. It turned out that service was personally derived to me by the purser (CSM).

    The crew typically refuse the request for a spare blanket even as there are plenty around in empty seats (in Business). The spare seats in front of the cabin, where it is quieter and it makes sense to spread across the cabin if the flight not full — are ‘reserved for pilots’ and then you find the crew themselves sleeping in those business class seats, a standard practice on American Airlines.

    Economy class crew efficient but unengaged, they can be sitting at the back of the cabin, also in spare passenger seats with bottles of water and plastic glasses next to them so that they don’t have to get up if you come asking for water…

    • RIccati says:

      5 Apr5 April 17:18

      Have also saw on AA:

      — A bulldog or similar ‘fighting breed’ travelling without any muzzle whatsoever.

      — Passengers seated in First (one in front on Business cabin) without a boarding pass for the seat.

• Genghis says:

  5 Apr5 April 06:32

  Completely OT – We booked HBO BA IST-LHR tickets on eDreams and paid extra for luggage yet when we came to the desk yesterday there was no evidence on the system of paying for additional luggage (even though booking confirmation clearly said this had been paid for). I refused to pay again, argued my case and they eventually agreed to take them “for free”. Has anybody had a comparable experience with eDreams (or similar)? I can feel a complaint (or two) coming on…

  • harry says:

    5 Apr5 April 08:51

    no experience of edreams

    but on my BA route we are pretty much always offered extra free checked in luggage

    it clearly is an option for them – on heavily booked flights at least

    I guess it’s because we travel at peak times (school hols) and they’d rather we check in more luggage rather than stick it up on the shelf when a flight is full

  • Olivula says:

    5 Apr5 April 09:50

    Just Google Edreams BA baggage and join a long list of travellers with problems that go unresolved.

    • Genghis says:

      5 Apr5 April 10:18

      It seems that way. Lesson learnt I guess but will still be complaining

• Artolo says:

  5 Apr5 April 06:41

  Well i disegree with your comments. Im a young generation of frequent travelers and i always avoid BA, why? Seats, entertainment is always better on Gulf airlines, and the most important- I don’t feel comfortable being served by pensioners – the average age of BA cabin crew is always above 50, with a false smile attached to their faces and yellow teeth (all very British)

  • Mark says:

    5 Apr5 April 07:40

    Not sure I’ve ever experienced an average age over 50 but it will depend on whether or not your Heathrow based crew is the legacy Worldwide / Euro fleets which are being wound down and who are on relatively generous terms. As all new crew join Mixed Fleet so it is inevitable that the average age of the legacy fleet crew is increasing.

  • harry says:

    5 Apr5 April 08:15

    harsh but true enough on my European RFS route to our place in the sun.

    8 flights out/ back with BA a year, 8 planes full of Artolo’s crew of ‘pensioners’ lol

    eye candy they are not

    • Susan says:

      5 Apr5 April 10:48

      List of things which matter in cabin crew
      1) Reliable in an emergency
      2) Friendly and efficient in service
      3) Neat and tidy in dress

      Things which are so irrelevant I can’t believe it’s even raised in 2016
      1) Eye candy

      • harry says:

        5 Apr5 April 13:25

        I think you’ll find Richard Branson & Nicky Lauda rather disagreed with you (they were right lol).

        They should all be at a similar state of readiness for emergencies, so no point raising it. Though younger crew will tend to be quicker.

        Eye candy just means young (as well as easy on the eye lol) & younger staff tend to be more willing/ friendlier.

        I must say, I am quite fed up of the many BA trolley dollies pushing 60, they are generally unsmiling, grumpy and fussy, regardless of their lost facial charm.

        Whereas I reckon the ‘gay stewards’ of the same vintage are usually friendly enough.

        • Susan says:

          5 Apr5 April 14:59

          You rather lost the debate at ” trolley dolly”.

        • Sussex Bantam says:

          5 Apr5 April 15:34

          Don’t feed the trolls people…

      • Leo says:

        5 Apr5 April 16:32

        At last. Common sense. Here here! +1

  • Alan says:

    5 Apr5 April 08:18

    Lol a pension at 50? Chance’ll be a fine thing. It’s up over 65 for most now and still climbing so be ready for people to be working longer (yourself included) 😀

  • czechoslovakia says:

    5 Apr5 April 09:37

    You never flew bmibaby i take it? Being barked “Rubbish!” at, whilst having a nearly full bin liner shoved under my nose (crappy night flight, so i had dozed off) by a t-shirt wearing old fight attendant who was as wide as she was tall, makes BA look like heaven. But then i paid 1p for that flight, and still consider it fair value.
    Still consider BA crew to be the most family friendly, but that`s way down the priority list.

• Anon says:

  5 Apr5 April 06:59

  Whilst compared to Virgin I think some BA crew can be a wee bit stuffy and proper, overall I’m impressed.

  Had a few issues in CW to Tampa last year, male Spainish BA crew member dealt with complaint in an excellent manner, sincere and excellent response.

  I tried to tip another BA crew (English by birth) on a domestic flight for the caring exceptional service she gave to an elderly lady, she refused (understandably) so I told her I’d make a charity donation instead.

  Come to think of it, I’m also hard pressed to think of poor crew service in Virgin Upper Class, respectful but extremely friendly, mind you that’s UC with only 14 seats, so high proportion of staff to pax.

  • Alan says:

    5 Apr5 April 08:37

    Have just checked and both /welldone and /thankyou work, taking you to the same form. Finally we’ve found a bit of BA IT that works! 🙂

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