Originally Posted by
orbitmic
Totally agree - the second part is exactly what I was trying to get at, it sounds like there is a bit of a "don't leave me alone" undertone to Cruz's message. And fully agree on the first part too. Sometimes as a GGL/CCR, it makes me feel as though many crew members are now worried about coming for the "hello, it's nice to have you here, if there is anything we can do please don't hesitate to say" bit they used to routinely do before for fear that one might actually answer: "oh I'd love a cup of tea" which they are not supposed to hand out for free. As a result, they politely/smilingly ignore you which is fine, but then those few minutes of chit chat do tend to have a strong impact on loyalty in my view and that is now 'lost advertising' for the airline.
In short, before BoB, I'd say I had SCCM coming to say hello and speak for a few minute on at least 80% of my ET flights, now it is well below 10%. It is not about feeling important or anything, just that a few minutes of chatting made a flight more pleasant for passengers, and quite conceivably for crew.
The saddest thing in my opinion is that now there is almost no contact with passengers other than the initial ''towards the back to the left'' or ''could you push the bag under the seat please''...that's as far as the customer interaction goes. Quite simply, particularly if you're travelling alone, they've turned the whole flight into a soulless experience. That's OK if you're paying LCC prices, but quite often you're not, and it's unlikely that you would consider it value for money if that's the case.
I never thought food and drinks were the most important part of a flight, but even a cup of coffee, tea, or fruit juice (like you get on Finnair) just makes the whole thing seem much more hospitable. I would now rather fly a host of airlines in Europe other than BA because I just don't get the feeling of being welcome anymore, it's now all about getting my money.