Note to Emirates Cabin Crew: Stop Ignoring Call Bells
Jackie Reddy May 14, 2019
Emirates has issued a memo to cabin crew, reminding them to answer passenger call bells as swiftly as possible. It says that it has issued this internal missive on the back of lagging recent customer feedback regarding its cabin service. Passenger request bells, it says, are being left unanswered.
Cabin crew at Gulf carrier Emirates have been reminded that they must answer any and all passenger call bells promptly, reports Paddle Your Own Kanoo.
In an internal memo, an excerpt of which has been quoted by the outlet, the carrier states that, “Feedback from our customers in the last four months has highlighted that cabin monitoring is not being done as it should be. Cabins are being left unattended and call bells are not being answered immediately or at all.”
Offering insider insight, the outlet’s Mateusz Maszczynski says, “Every member of cabin crew has been told this line many times in their career: “It might be a Coke, it might be a stroke”.”
“The meaning is that cabin crew shouldn’t ignore call bells, because while we might assume a passenger has pressed the button to order a soda, it may also have been pressed to alert cabin crew to a medical emergency or something else equally as serious,” he goes on to say.
While it’s absolutely understood that crew members should not be ignoring requests for help from passengers, it can sometimes be a challenge to respond to them during a busy flight, explains Maszczynski.
He says, “It’s no exaggeration to claim that Emirates cabin crew are some of the hardest working in the entire industry. The airline demands very high standards of service and crew are expected to work for much longer without a break than at many comparable airlines.”
However, putting the airline’s request into context, Maszczynski adds, “Let’s be honest – there will be other airlines that suffer this kind of problem much more than Emirates.”
[Image Source: Emirates]
