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A few thoughts on BA cabin crew

We flew back from Dubai in First Class on a BA 777 yesterday.  I won’t be reviewing that flight although I will be covering the new Dubai lounge and Concorde Room bar later in the week.

I don’t normally write about cabin crew when I review flights, because it is easy to get a disproportionately good or bad one.  You can review a seat based on one flight but I don’t believe that you can fairly critique cabin crew on the same basis.

What I did realise yesterday, however, is that the Britishness of the BA crew is a key part of the appeal of the airline.  I have done a lot of flying on Qatar Airways, Etihad, Turkish and Emirates over the past year and the multinational crews have generally been very good – although you are never 100% confident that you will receive what you request.

However, yesterday my 4-year old and I had a woman called Georgia looking after us.  She was mid-20’s, Home Counties accent but with the additional ‘yeah’ and ‘gonna’s of her generation, and genuinely good at her job.

There was a marked difference between her and the average Middle Eastern airline cabin crew member – mainly because she was able to be herself.

I would never choose an airline primarily on the basis of its crew, but I did realise yesterday that BA and Virgin do still have the ability to gain a competitive advantage if they recruit the right people and train them well.

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Category

British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard

Comments (81)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Thomas says:
    5 Apr5 April 07:02

    I think that we can only judge the quality of a crew in times of an emergency! You can train a monkey to bring you a snack, but can you train him to do the right thing in an emergency? If the one with the yellow teeth does CPR correct on my grandfather whilst having a heart attack mid flight ARTOLO! Its all good! Eye candy is one thing, safety another………..

    • Kipto says:
      5 Apr5 April 07:09

      +13

      • Kipto says:
        5 Apr5 April 07:09

        Meant +1

        • AndyW says:
          5 Apr5 April 07:23

          What on earth are BA doing allowing people who have done the job all of their lives to carry on doing it…

    • Artolo says:
      5 Apr5 April 07:10

      Hi Thomas, you are right when it comes to safety, but safety is not everything – otherwise i would stop flying, driving, etc. When im flying i want to enjoy the whole expierience, i want to feel a young, friendly and positive atmosphere. Something memorable. Thats it – times are changing gentleman!

      • Leo says:
        5 Apr5 April 08:57

        I don’t care about the age of a member of crew, or their gender or nationality. It is appalling in this day and age that any of those characteristics can even be mentioned when discussing “preference”. Can the individual do the job for which they are paid and can they be pleasant while they go about it safely is all we should care about. And yes if we are lucky enough we all get older….

  • james says:
    5 Apr5 April 07:07

    Don’t worry! I can guarantee you’re not missed!

  • shajacsha says:
    5 Apr5 April 07:42

    You probably had a good experience because you probably always travel first or business class. Have you ever tried cattle ( economy) class which most of us can afford? BA cabin crew are the worst and emirates are the best. BA cabin crew are rude and unfriendly and almost shout at passengers on indian route

    • barry cutters says:
      5 Apr5 April 08:01

      Seriously untrue, over the years iv flown on probably 15-20 longhaul airlines in all classes. BA are by no means the worst cabin crew, they are streets ahead of the American crews generally and much better than the likes Lufthansa klm Air France

    • shajacsha says:
      5 Apr5 April 08:47

      Coming to think of it, I was a biased based on couple of experiences. I was promptly reminded of the good natured BA crews we had most of the time. As always, bad things hide good things. So, I am changing my opinion and apologise for the incorrect and biased comment.

  • flibbly says:
    5 Apr5 April 07:56

    This has been discussed to death on FlyerTalk over the years, but what always strikes me is that if you read between the lines of the poster, you nearly always see a correlation between their attitude and the treatment they (say they) receive – not only on BA but on all airlines, and indeed in all hotels etc.

    A pleasant and friendly disposition tends to attract the same in return. Treat staff as your servants or worse and you’ll get the service you deserve.

  • Adrian says:
    5 Apr5 April 08:13

    We’ve not been on any of the ME3 carriers in years but last year we had AA and BA transatlantic flights and the BA CC were miles ahead of AA, sadly that was the only plus for BA!

  • Alan says:
    5 Apr5 April 08:15

    Good to hear re the BA crew. I must say I’ve been generally lucky with the crews I’ve had in CW over the years. I found domestic QF crew excellent but international F were hit and miss (granted only on the basis of 2 flights, but one good and the other pretty useless!)

    For especially good crew I fill out the form at http://www.ba.com/welldone 🙂

  • Mark says:
    5 Apr5 April 08:18

    We’ve just returned from a trip (one way in First, one way in Club) where I have to say the crews were some of the best we’ve had with BA. Mixed Fleet both ways; It is really nice to see that the relative enthusiasm of the younger crew members combining with increasing experience to provide a service which for us at least really works well.

    Shame the same can’t be said for our pre-flight customer service experience, but that’s another story…

  • Gavin says:
    5 Apr5 April 09:05

    I’ve not really flown any mixed fleet routes to my knowledge, but the crew are usually pretty good on my main routes – Sometimes you feel you have to ‘draw out’ the service a bit from the crew. They seem to like my main European route as it gives them a 24 hr stopover in the sunshine!

    ‘Britishness’ of BA is perhaps more appealing to non-Brits e.g. Afternoon Tea!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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