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British Airways relaxes the dress code for non-rev (staff ticket) passengers

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According to cabin crew website paddleyourownkanoo, British Airways has decided to let staff chillax when travelling on a non-rev (ie free or heavily discounted staff travel) ticket.  This is in response to the more casual dress codes being adopted by fare-paying passengers.

In every cabin, including First Class, it is now acceptable for off-duty staff to wear:

  • jeans
  • t-shirts
  • casual shoes

BA staff travel uniform

For good or bad, you will NOT be seeing:

  • jeans that are frayed or have holes
  • “overly revealing” clothing
  • sportswear
  • beach clothing (including flip flops)
  • any kind of shorts or sportswear

The internal memo apparently suggests that off-duty staff on a freebie think of “fare paying customers and show sensitivity towards them.”

Of course you MAY want to consider wearing sportswear or flip-flops yourself in order that you are clearly identifiable as a fare-paying customer …..


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Comments (93)

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

  • David says:

    Staff passengers cannot wear any kind of shorts?!

  • Nick says:

    Looking up the dress codes for some of the U.S. carriers in the case of staff, most seem to be pretty similar to BA, but, maybe surprisingly, Hawaiian seem to be stricter than most. They’re able to wear slippers, jeans, shorts, and leggings in the main cabin, though the rules differ for first and business class passengers. Men traveling in first or business class must wear collared shirts and long pants or jeans, while women must wear business-appropriate long or short-sleeve blouses, skirts, slack or jeans, or dresses.

  • Avidsaver says:

    O/T If you have the old Black MBNA Virgin Credit card it may be worth waiting before applying for the new Virgin Money replacement. I’ve just received this:
    As you’ve heard from MBNA, it’s almost time to say goodbye to your Virgin Atlantic Black Credit Card. But don’t be sad – you can apply for our brand new Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card!
    As well as earning 1.5 miles for every £1 you spend when you take out the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card, we’ve got an exclusive offer to get you off to a flying start:
    A welcome bonus of 15,000 miles,
    Plus, a bespoke offer for you – an extra 6,000 miles a month for the first three months your account is open. You just need to spend a minimum of £1,000 each month on your card to qualify.
    That’s up to 33,000 bonus miles in your first three months….

    • the real harry1 says:

      Some people are getting 15K + 3x £15K for £1500 spend 🙂 – 60K total lol

      You’ve been done!

    • Gumshoe says:

      This was discussed on Thursday. Rob said everyone who still has a VS MBNA card will get some form of the bonus offer, whether they’ve signed up for the new cards yet or not.

      Emails are being staggered over 2 weeks though, so not everyone will have had one yet.

      There seem to be three versions of the offer: spend £1.5k and earn 15,000 miles per month for 3 months, spend £1k and earn 6,000 miles and spend £500 and earn 2,000 miles (that last one reported by someone who applied for the new card but hadn’t held the old one for years). It’s not immediately clear what criteria are being used to determine who gets which offer.

      • Chelseafifi says:

        I’ve just seen my email with same offer as Avidsaver but I don’t spend much on non Amex, so currently hold the old free Virgin card, this offer is only for the new Virgin + card with annual fee, is there a bonus offer for the free card for those that currently hold that card? Thanks

        • Chelseafifi says:

          Found the answer on hitting apply on email link, it gives you the 2 card options, the free card is offering the 5k bonus plus 2k per month for £500 spend for first 3 months.

        • Rob says:

          Yes, you will get an email soon.

    • Catalan says:

      I’ve received no such communication 🙁

      • gumshoe says:

        As mentioned above, emails are being staggered over 2 weeks. So not all MBNA cardholders have had one yet.

        • Rob says:

          It comes from VA. They are going out over a 2 week period. MBNA has sent you 2 postal letters.

    • Tariq says:

      Ha, knew there would be an offer.

  • mradey says:

    Maybe they should all wear a badge identifying themselves as BA staff

  • Premier01 says:

    I’ve been to this lounge a few times- first visit think was about 5 years back. Annoyingly didn’t used to let you in with a Flybe/Loganair fully flexible ticket… First time lounge dragon let me in for £ 5 as ‘it was quiet’.. had good self-pour bar. Following that went up to £ 15 a beer/wine only.

    Great views of planes… though not much interesting too see other than prop planes and helicopters tbf!

  • Premier01 says:

    why the moderation?

  • the real harry1 says:

    HT DD98 on the deals site: Return flights London Heathrow – New York (EWR/JFK) with Virgin Atlantic £289 available most of September until mid October. Multiple flight options each day.

    That’s be Virgin lite, ie meals & 10kg hand luggage – £45 extra for checked bag.

    • the real harry1 says:

      you had to be an early bird, now up to £379

    • Rob says:

      ….. which is pointless. Get Delight because the extra miles cover much of the extra cost and the legroom etc is almost free.

  • TripRep says:

    Rob – how long do we have to wait for an article on luxury bespoke flipflops? 😉

    O/T: was reviewing the EDI options from the excellent reviews last November,

    We’ll likely be in EDI for breakfast and lunch…. Trying to decide between Aspire & No1, anyone know if No1 is still restricting one hot meal per pax?

    • Brighton Belle says:

      Eating more than 1 hot meal per pax will incline you to unpleasant excess baggage effects ;-(

      • Lumma says:

        Probably not with the size of the No1 traveller hot meals

        • Lady London says:

          Defo not. To go from the No. 1 hot options at Gatwick, they were small and have got smaller to the point of meanness. Delicious though.

    • Stu N says:

      No. 1 give you a voucher that you hand in when you order, so I guess that enforces the one order per person. You could always go to Aspire for buffet breakfast and No.1 for lunch of on Priority Pass.

      • the real harry1 says:

        In No1 T3 they use an A5 size menu to act as the voucher to hand in – I did sort of notice that some people just left them on their table before leaving, not having ordered anything… 🙂

        • Lewis King says:

          Yeah we ate twice last week at LGW thanks to our neighbours not realising this..!

        • the real harry1 says:

          this is wombling with instant payback! 🙂

    • cv3v says:

      Aspire gets used as the business lounge for some airlines (Qatar etc) so can get busy. Perhaps its the times i fly at, but i haven’t ever seen No.1 full. No.1 also has nice brownie, but doesn’t have any toilets (not that the 2 are connected). I like the space of No.1, its the old BA lounge. There are a lot of good food options in the main terminal.

    • ankomonkey says:

      Can you leave for 15 minutes, swipe the PP card again as if a new customer and get a new food voucher?

      • the real harry1 says:

        I don’t think the system wouldn’t throw you out, so yes in theory, might need testing though – the desk agent recognising you might be trickier

        The real worry would be getting charged £15 for the second swipe on the same day, wouldn’t PP build in some measure to stop people doing this? Maybe not, it’s perfectly feasible for somebody to legitimately use the same lounge (say) morning & evening if they travelled back from a meeting…

        • HAM76 says:

          Last year I did a lounge tour at Heathrow and visited every PP or Amex Platinum accessible arrival lounge. There were no charges…

      • John says:

        Do they record your flight number when you enter? If you legitimately had 2 flights the same day you would expect to be able to enter again on a new visit

    • Rob says:

      I saw some Prada ones at half price in Liberty yesterday, but still £182.50 I think.

      • Darren says:

        Mr Ashley has some Fendi ones reduced from £655 to the bargain price of £460 at his posh shop (not Sports Direct), would go well will OB bulldog shorts

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

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