As the title suggests, really - I wondered whether BA staff or independant assessors ever fly under-cover to evaluate crew service standards?

Direct experience, and from reading this forum avidly, makes it fairly obvious that the crew on any given flight can make or break the passenger experiece. Yes, their number one job is our safety, but how they look after you on board directly impacts on whether you disembark with a big smile or more with a "thank God that is over" expression.

I've experienced crews both good and bad, but recently there have been quite a few posts about poor service standards. My parents flew out to DFW this week to join me for the second week of our US holiday. My Dad in particular was really looking forward to the flight, and hopeful of his first NF.

He scored lucky with the cabin, but with what could only be described as a dreadful crew. He's a huge BA advocate, so it takes some doing to make him speak negatively of the airline, but the crew were massively underwhelming from start to finish.

Both my parents are very relaxed travellers, not at all "demanding" of the crew. But about three quarters of the way through the flight my Mum wondered to the galley to ask for a cup of tea. Instead of saying "no problem, I'll bring it to you", the crew member looking after the F cabin asked if she could wait, as he'd be serving afternoon tea in half an hour... Ur, excuse me, isn't this supposed to be First Class?!?!

I wont list all the things they said were wrong with the flight as I havent started this thread to moan on their behalf, but I'm just intrigued as to how BA monitors its individual crew performance? Any ideas?

Perhaps they should employ us FT'ers to give them detailed crew feedback!