Originally Posted by
747_not_777
On the flight up to MAN from LGW on Monday I was in 1C, and therefore chatting face-to-face with the Polish cabin crew on take-off and landing. I said I was suprised to see Ryanair operating a BA flight - she smiled, and asked if I was scared! To be fare, given the seat I was in, the flight was comfy, on time, and I was a happy punter.
So when all the rows were open did they enforce the seat assignments or announce open seating? Although I was allocated a seat number I just got an error when I tried to change it at OLCI so I wondered if they had the correct seatmap loaded or whether they were just assigning seat numbers as BA's check in system expects it.
What DID annoy me on the return was the cabin crew blocking off the 1st 8 and last 8 rows, despite the fact it was a BA booked service and people had therefore selected specific seats. It was not done to balance the aircraft - the middle of the plane was chocca with people all forced to sit six-across, for absolutely no reason. I know an aircraft can sometimes need to be balanced with certain loads, but this was not one of them I've ever seen a need for on a BA operated 737.
Fortunately my flights weren't so busy so I got my preferred seat type (aisle) both ways with no one in the middle seat.
I suggest you contact BA with your experiences, at least it means if they need to use Ryanair again then they're aware of the issue and BA can demand that the seat blocking isn't used unless it's genuinely needed for technical issues.
It was done to a) make it easier to clean the plane and b) make it easier for them to dish out the catering. And c) to show that with my 6ft 3" frame, I will never ever (not that I ever would have), ever, ever, ever choose to personally fly Ryanair. I'd rather leave early and walk.
Legroom was fine for me, just, (I'm 6' 2") I believe it's worse on some charter airlines and not much better on BA and bmi unless you get the convertible seats near the front that also have extra legroom. I've had to cope with much worse on rail replacement coaches.
Thanks BA for getting me there - I am indebted. I think that given the circumstances you've done an excellant job during the strike. But next time can you charter in something which a) isn't bright yellow inside, b) has professional cabin crew c) doesnt sell scratch cards mid-flight and d) doesn't play god awful fanfare rubbish on landing. Quite frankly, it's embarassing.
I thought it was a great deal. Although I'd hate the tacky aspects of Ryanair (colour scheme, fanfare, etc) to ever become standard on BA I did enjoy this flight more than I would a regular BA domestic. Partly because of the novelty value (never flown Ryanair before), but also because we were offered a much wider range of complimentary snacks than you'd get on a BA flight.
The staff on my flights were fine and they seemed to enjoy what was a change for them. Of course they're not going to be trained to BA standards, the BA style of service will be unfamiliar to them, but they managed as well as could be expected I thought. Again if your experiences differed let BA know so they can address this should they need to charter FR again.
And talking about landings - my two on Monday were some of the roughest I've ever had. The cabin crew lady on the outbound even smiled and apologised to me as we were chatting as it happened. Where do these Irish pilots train - on Microsfot Flight Simulator on a Windows 3.1 operating system with a basic joystick and an VGA screen?
I did notice this, but I've also had regular hard landings a number of times when I regularly used to fly KLM. I just got used to it, never tried to find out if it was more likely on particular aircraft (I know KLM operate a number of 738's too) or more likely just particular pilots who flew that route regularly.