<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ozstamps:
I could be wrong, but I got the impression there was one crew of FA's doing the flight. In F there were 2 young guys from start to finish and i was up half way for a juice and same guys were up. Never ventured out of F cabin, so maybe the usual double crew existed there, but you usually see the extra bodies before takeoff and doing breakfast before arrival and clear up etc.
Interestingly the Purser of the cancelled flight seemed REAL annoyed they were not going. Told us in F as a cabin just before we deplaned after midnight that they'd 'all' agreed (not sure if she was talking just FAs or all crew) to work 'illegal' if needs be to get that flight out, and invited us to write to the company if we chose.
Have you or anyone else EVER seen a FA using the Megaphone? I commented I was real impressed it was powered up and battery worked and she later showed it to me. Said it was part of the pre-flight check on EVERY UA airplane that the test button be pushed to get that little "beep" indicating fully powered. I was impressed that detail goes into the pre-flight checks.
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Hi Oz,
I have seen you reference a "double crew" before but have not said anything... just to clarify, maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean by "double crew" but we do not have that at UA for F/As. Though we do take staggered breaks, there is only one crew, usually around 15 or so on an int'l 747. The whole crew is required to be up and about for the first and last parts of the flight (the main and pre-arrival meal services). During the hours in between, the time is broken into three parts and the crew takes breaks, 1/3 at a time. We do not have two complete crew sets with one working the first half of the flight and one working the second half, if that is what you mean. Other airlines may do it differently.
A Purser agreeing that the crew will waive anything is definitely frowned upon by many of us, including me. Especially since we gave management many millions of dollars of concessions over the past year, they should have the resources to recrew a flight if necessary, if they are doing their jobs. Don't believe it-- a crew on a SYD trip trying to sound altruistic by saying they will waive whatever is necessary to get the flight out is only thinking of themselves at the expense of their colleagues (for example, the Purser has a hot date with a surfer at Bondi or whatever) and is not really thinking of the passengers. It should be just as easy for UA to recrew a 747 at midnight or 0200 or whatever as it is for them to do it at 1030.
Finally, the use of the megaphone in this case seems a bit over the top. It is true we are required to check a bunch of this type of equipment in this manner before every flight. However, I don't know how close you were to the megaphone, but those things are incredibly (and painfully) LOUD!!! They should really only be used in an emergency, which this does not sound like it was. With 15 or so F/As on board they could have done what the pilot did and gone through every few rows to keep people updated. We are required to keep a flashlight within easy access at all times so lighting for something like that should not have been a problem.
Anyway, sorry you had such an ordeal. You are one of those great customers who travels enough to understand that sometimes things just don't go as planned, and that on a 14+ hour flight over the ocean where opportunities for help are few and far between it is not worth taking any chances. I am glad you made it home safely, although late, and thanks for sticking with us all these years.