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Hi everyone,
Next week I have my online assessment day for BA cabin crew. Its a long held wish of mine to gain my wings and Im lucky enough to be able to take a cut in salary if Im successful!
Wondered if any of you had any times you wish to share when a cabin crew member made that important difference, good or bad, to your flight?
What are you looking for from your cabin crew?
Any crew on here Id love to hear the main challenges of the role – I am nearly 60!Always good to have a dream!
Have you watched the BBCs “A Very British Airline”?
There are significant portions spent following a class of new recruits and the standards BA expects.
As a passenger what I look for in cabin crew is the ability to do the job and then to actually to do the job and to be both professional and friendly.
And have knowledge of the onboard product so reading the menus so you can quickly answer most passenger questions without referring back to someone else. It’s not always some question about allergens but more “does the sauce some with or separate” though in economy the answer will issue be “with” !
I have a few CC friends who work for a couple of airlines (including BA) and they all tell me thst it’s incredibly hard work
Good luck @njb
A couple of years ago I was flying J to Canada on my birthday. Unfortunately our aircraft went tech due to a cracked windscreen on the inbound flight and we were quite badly delayed.
Departed a few hours late and we landed just before midnight in Canada – and it was still my birthday! Felt like the longest day ever.
Just before we landed the cabin managed presented me a bottle of bubbly and a birthday card signed by all the crew. It was a really lovely gesture!
Firstly, best of luck to you in achieving your wings.
For me I look for immaculate and clean presentation. It’s amazing how scruffy a lot of BA crew can look. Also, to look like they are enjoying the job and not doing the passenger a favour by being there. Genuine warmth, empathy, a real human being underneath the formality. I ‘mystery shopped’ BA crew for three years (and other airlines) so paid a lot of attention to them. I’d reiterate what was said above re the menu. As someone who orders a special meal and always asks what’s in it (I detest mushrooms), it’s always fantastic if they already know or are willing to find out for me.look like they are enjoying the job and not doing the passenger a favour by being there
For me it’s just this @njb
Too many experiences where they act as if you are just an inconvenience.
We got 3 /4 of our family upgraded on the home from Barbados once. I kept the Premium Economy seat leaving my teen daughters and husband dotted around Club World. Mid flight a daughter came to swap with me saying the other one was poorly. One of the cabin crew had quietly, and empathetically dealt with her being sick and it is the great service that I remember most.
I made sure to find the place on the website to report how well she had performed when I got home.Thank you for all the replies so far – @ChrisC @memesweeper @Louise K @Amy C @ SteveJ @ZoeB
Some really great perspectives. I have worked in travel but the last 25 years of my career have been spent in education.
Thanks to this site I have sat in 1A – my view of great cabin crew is very much to do with how a difficulty is handled whatever seat I may be sitting in.
Anyway – if the role is offered I have some serious thinking to do -the pay is ridiculous and the hours are long – but ….
Speaking clearly and plainly for the many, many passengers who don’t have English as their first language.
I trained Singapore Airlines cabin crew many moons ago, and the company put great emphasis on this.Good luck @jnb.
Positive and competent cabin crew always make some difference to a flight. However, they can make all the difference to a flight when they handle situations both competently and with empathy when things don’t go according to plan.
One example I remember well was a BA flight where a technical problem developed during the pre-takeoff checks at LHR. The original cabin crew were singularly unhelpful during the couple of hours we spent on board BA spent trying to fix the problem, before asking everyone to deplane and wait for a replacement plane and crew. This was a really bad start to a 12 hour flight and ended up delaying it by five hours. However, the replacement cabin crew were spectacular. The new Cabin Service Director started by apologising for the delay and encouraging anyone who would like information about their EU261 rights to ask for help, and the cabin crew in economy took it from there. They somehow managed to stay cheerful, helpful and empathetic for the whole flight and actually turned it into one of our best long-haul economy flights ever on BA.
“Do you want some whisky in that?”
– Still the most empathetic response from a member of BA cabin crew when I walked to the kitchen in economy to ask for a cup of coffee, during a rather trying long-haul flight with my then 9-month old.
I’ve been lucky enough to travel in business a lot for work, and the service on BA has always been good, but it’s the moments like that I remember more.
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