Originally Posted by
Bar Operator
How many cabin crew on this flight ? She could have asked another crewmember to assist if available and reasonable, but otherwise I'm struggling to understand why serving 17 customers on a 70 minute flight was such a struggle. It requires a little organisation on the ground to be sure. It then requires the crewmember to get up promptly after take off, take out a combined food/drinks trolley into the cabin and get going. It's definitely achievable.
If the CSM was under any doubt as to her ability to deliver the service in CE she should have considered asking a colleague for assistance.
Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Given that CSMs should have plenty experience of operating the MAN route, which is something like 40 minutes in the air, I can't really see what went wrong here, 17 in CE should be complicated. However what we don't know is if something else went wrong (e.g. oven failing, hot water flow, trays in the wrong place). I would write in to register a complaint. If you feel strongly about this you could think about a part refund of whatever you spent on CE, though that may take some effort.
Thanks for your comments.
It was an A319 and there were 3 cabin crew. One of the cabin crew did the hot towel / landing card run after departure while the CSM prepared the trolley. The CSM got up right after takeoff and worked quickly IMO. It was an afternoon tea flight so the ovens were not needed. It didn't look like she had trouble locating the items in the trolleys. I did notice, however, that she tried to deliver the pilot's meals twice. The first time they didn't open the door to the cockpit so she had to put the trays back and start the service with 1A (trolley brought to the aisle). After that she put the trolley back to door 1L for the second attempt to get to the cockpit.. Then she continued the service with 1F (!) and then me in 1D.
I might complain but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.