Originally Posted by
CX828
I don't have a problem with staff taking J seats. It should just be done in the correct way. I.E. you list for Premium standby, pay your appropriate taxes, are in the appropriate upgrade list and are allocated your seat subject to availability at the gate.
Your response sounds like you work for BA - to your comment "would you really expect a BA captain to leave his family in Economy" - No, but I'd expect him/her to list their family for the correct class so they can sit in Business. If there are other staff on-board who listed for Economy as they didn't want to pay more to sit in business - its unfair on the other staff. hence why the policy should be followed. If BA allow operating crew to make free for all choices once doors closed the policy will be completely abused on empty flights.
When I talk about bringing the cabin "quality down" I'm referring to a CSM sat on the jump seat for most of the flight talking to his wife, the pilots coming down the aisle more than necessary to chat with their family (2-3 times seems normal, 6-8 times seems extreme)....
I must confess I'm in the middle ground here. I can see your point. However the flip side, as has been mentioned above, is that the person will often have endured many jump seats, middle seats right at the back, little or no food choice (and sometimes no food at all on a 12 hour flight!), having your seat progressively changed to a worse and worse one and eventually spending much of the flight sitting on the cold weather equipment at the back of Economy on a 747-200, paying for a premium sby and only getting a middle seat on the back of WT, or despite being given a boarding pass and seat, having a ground staff person come on board and turfing you off to make room for someone else. CWS said that the balance is firmly in the court of the paying customer, and so it should be and I'd have thought there are few people who think otherwise. But on the (and in general) rare occasions that an upgrade is offered then I don't see the issue in that. Like so many things in life, you have to take the rough with the smooth.
As regards your last point, well I was always told to dress smartly (in the 70's and 80's I always wore a jacket and tie - obviously now you stand out like a sore thumb since the majority of premium passengers have.... 'trying to be diplomatic'.... 'relaxed' dress standards), be unobtrusive, be discreet, don't ask for anything out of the ordinary, don't accept the PJs, amenity kits etc, don't be loud, be helpful, offer to swap seats to assist paying passengers, put overhead luggage elsewhere if necessary to make room for paying passengers luggage - and especially don't get drunk!