I was on board BA0867 BUD - LHR last night in the Club Europe cabin and I found the service to be sub-standard for the following reasons:
- There was only one stewardess serving 11 Club Europe customers. Consequently, service was very slow and erratic;
- We were not offered an aperitif. The first drink to arrive was with the meal, which was served around 1 hour into the flight;
- There was no trolley in use in the Club Europe cabin, meaning the stewardess had to keep running back to the galley, taking a long time to serve anything;
- The meal service was done in a strange manner. The order was taken row by row and then served by row. For example, row one was asked what they wanted, the stewardess then returned to the galley to prepare this and serve it, together with bread and a drink. As you can imagine, this took a huge amount of time with just one stewardess. Luckily I was in row 2 but I would have been very angry if seated in row 4, as their meal did not arrive until well after an hour into the flight;
- Further to the above, the empty plates took far too long to be cleared away creating an unpleasant atmosphere in the cabin;
- We had to physically take empty glasses to the front galley 10 minutes prior to landing as the stewardess did not even do a sweep around of the cabin, preferring to stare at her Ipad for the last 30 minutes of the flight.
My questions:
- Is it normal for Club Europe to operate with only one stewardess?
- Is it normal for service to be this lacklustre in Club Europe?
- Am I justified to ask BA for some form of compensation, especially as I used a valuable 2 for 1 Amex voucher on this flight?
Very poor show. Sounds like a case of being short on staff but also not following routine and as such creating an even bigger disorder. You should complain so that the crew member can get more training (hopefully).
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One cabin crew to 11 CE is not unusual, but an experienced CSD or Purser can rattle through the service without any noticeable delays. So I don't know what happened there.
I know there are situations where the pre-meal drink can be dispensed with (and I prefer it that way in all events), and I think being short on staff is one of them. I also prefer the plating of meals / trays to be done in the galley rather than off a trolley, but in CE it shouldn't make any difference to service or speed. Certainly waiting an hour would be more than reasonable. Personally I wouldn't complain unless something had gone badly wrong, but maybe you feel more strongly about it. Doing the service row by row is not unusual, however.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Calthrop
My questions:
- Is it normal for Club Europe to operate with only one stewardess?
- Is it normal for service to be this lacklustre in Club Europe?
- Am I justified to ask BA for some form of compensation, especially as I used a valuable 2 for 1 Amex voucher on this flight?
Many thanks in advance for your comments.
I can't speak exactly for how things would have been done by the Eurofleet cabin crew who operated the flight, but we have some excellent members of this forum who do shorthaul all the time who might be able to answer the questions you've posted, but I will have a go.
On Mixed Fleet, it can be quite normal for the Club Europe service to be operated by just one crew member and that would usually be the Senior. They will have sole responsibility for Club, looking after the flight crew as well as doing galley preps and the bar paperwork for the forward galley. This frees up the other crew member sat at the front to help out in the much bigger and busier Euro Traveller cabin. I'd say anything up to four rows (five at a push) might be looked after by just the one crew member. There is no standard as to whether the trolley comes out or not. Feedback officially to BA, as well as unofficially on FlyerTalk, suggests that customers like not having the trolley in the cabin and instead having a hand run service. When this is paced and organised, it really does create a relaxing and more personable environment. Obviously that was aimed for but not achieved on your flight, unfortunately.
I'm very sorry to hear that the service was lackluster on the flights you travelled on and would say that this isn't normal. Usually you have the most senior crew member working up there and the extra space and nice added touches make it a really pleasant cabin not only to travel in, but from a crew perspective to work in as well. Feedback is always a good thing for the company and for the crew members concerned. Again, am unsure about Eurofleet, but I have always had comments fed back to BA on my flights fed back to me on Mixed Fleet. I don't know whether you'd get anything from the company in form of compensation, but to get something off of your chest and potentially offer that crew member some much needed feedback on their performance might just be what is needed.
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IMHO the behavior of the member of staff is not acceptable. The main problem was not the ratio of how many passengers one crew member served.
It was the attitude of the person itself.
In service business anything can go wrong and I mostly accept it with only one exception: Showing bad attitude concerning colleagues and/or customers. So if someone is overworked, tired (during a night flight) - no problem at all.
In my personal understanding this will enable the crew member to refine the attitude about work - and life. I would emphasize the better service in the future and not ask for any compensation.
The neighbour seat was free, you had one of the best seats of the plane. Some passengers view row 2 much better than row 1 due to the possibility to store the cabin baggage in front of you.
- We had to physically take empty glasses to the front galley 10 minutes prior to landing as the stewardess did not even do a sweep around of the cabin, preferring to stare at her Ipad for the last 30 minutes of the flight.
This is the only part of your story which I would say you have a right to complain about.
I wonder what she was doing looking at an iPad for half an hour?
My (not very useful ) advice would be to travel in Euro traveller,
In my experience i find CE waste of money, and ET for me is fine for these short flights.
- We had to physically take empty glasses to the front galley 10 minutes prior to landing as the stewardess did not even do a sweep around of the cabin, preferring to stare at her Ipad for the last 30 minutes of the flight.
I might complain about this part, but not the rest. The rest of it does not sound particularly bad, but this part does not sound good at all.
- Is it normal for Club Europe to operate with only one stewardess?
- Is it normal for service to be this lacklustre in Club Europe?
- Am I justified to ask BA for some form of compensation, especially as I used a valuable 2 for 1 Amex voucher on this flight?
Many thanks in advance for your comments.
1. Yes, as per the other posters. The crew member that usually serves the CE cabin is the senior crew on board. You can usually tell by the grey cravat/tie they are wearing. I have seen pursers handle loads such as the one your cabin had with ease, and there was no degradation in the service quality.
2. Row by row does happen, and I actually prefer being served by hand rather than off a trolley.
3. If you were disappointed by the flight, it wouldn't hurt to send a mail to BA. You are the customer, after all!
You were clearly unhappy with the experience but it's hard to judge how much this was down to bad service and how much to your subjective expectations. One crew member per 11 pax is not an issue. Plating meals in the galley and serving row by row, which is more personalised and less canteen-like, would not normally be perceived as an issue. Likewise meal service an hour into the flight, unless it resulted in the meal being rushed in preparation for landing. But the opposite seems the case here as you felt the trays were not cleared away fast enough. However, if service was an hour after take-off then it's surprising there was no drinks round before it and I agree this could make one feel neglected. Having to clear your own glasses because the crew member was distracted is certainly not good, but in the great scheme of things not something to get upset about. I'm not sure whether you're objecting to aspects of the service or the crew member's attitude. If the latter, it may be worth mentioning in feedback. if the former, I would shrug it off and relax more on the next flight.
11 customers is around three rows. I don't think having one crew member serving is understaffed in this case but it is obviously going to depend on the crew member.
As for serving without a trolley - I've always found that to be a rather nice way of doing it. Seems 'premium' like the brand BA is trying to project in the Club Europe cabin. Obviously not so good if it was slow beyond belief, though. I think the issue here is the taking orders on one row AND serving before moving on to the rest. Should have taken all orders and then distributed individually as ready.
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Based on limited experience (< 10 flights in 3 months):
"Would you like another?" is very rare.
Apart from the hard product, flying on the LCY routes is better. Staff seem less likely to want to "get it over with." Case in point is the OP's observation of the iPadding hostess.
) advice would be to travel in Euro traveller, 
