It’s ‘one of those’ isn’t it? I know crew are being encouraged to “go the extra mile” and the person doing it probably sees it as a nice gesture. I’m sure crew are also being encouraged to follow standard operating procedures.

As with many jobs, including my own, there can be a huge number of sometimes incompatible objectives.

I have long concluded you can’t please all of the people all of the time and sometimes it feels like “no good deed goes unpunished”.

It’s a bit like when as an IHG elite member I get slipped a few extra drinks coupons or if a hotel gives me more than a one category room upgrade on a space available basis - nice when it happens but I don’t expect it. In fact, as a Gold a few years ago, I was flying JER-LGW and was offered a switch to earlier flight for no cost - I turned up just as they were closing the checkin for that flight and the agent said “you’re Gold sir - it’s no problem - don’t expect it all the time but there are seats and if you wanted to go earlier I can switch you for free”. No idea - maybe she was being nice (that’s what I think it was - and I think it’s because I’d let the person behind me in the queue jump ahead as they were on the closing flight) or maybe they were overbooked later.

My personal opinion is that I wouldn’t do this were I a senior crew member as it can make others around envious, create an expectation, and risk being in a situation where you run out of a specific drink on the inbound sector (my understanding is there is no question of a top up bar being loaded in Faro). It also isn’t really for me to give away Club product or decide on Exec Club benefits. My understanding is the SCCM or their designate should time permitting welcome Gold members. That doesn't mean giving them a free drink. How about a free meal too? Or a First amenity kit or so on.

But I also respect / recognise the opposite view, which is that it is a personal touch and some crew feel unsure what to say / how to recognise Golds in Traveller without being able to offer something - and they probably think as senior crew it is within their discretion and, anyway, nobody will ever know. The argument may be a full service premium airline where people are encouraged to ‘think customer’ ‘standard service’ should be a bare minimum and there is nothing wrong with ‘going the extra mile’.

The interesting thing is that in that example from a few weeks ago in High Life, the correct response where a Club customer dropped wine over themselves was to offer a sleeper suit top from First.

So it comes back to operating crew on the day being best placed to make the judgment call and being empowered to do so. As I say, you won’t please everyone and is a service standard the same as standard service / is it a floor not a ceiling and so on. What does ‘good customer service’ mean? Some Club crew would give out cold towels in the summer rather than hot towels, some would offer a choice. Others might think “hmm I could offer a cold towel today ex Marrakech but my service standards says ‘deliver hot towels’ so I had better do that.”

Same with PAs - when landing at 2245 at Heathrow is it really necessary to include the bit about connecting flights (I don’t think that’s in the script any more at all but just as an eg) as nobody would be within the minimum connecting time for a connection.

As a customer, I wouldn’t say no to a free drink but as I read flyertalk I’d be well aware it isn’t standard service.

I find it an interesting debate and as with so much in life’s rich tapestry you are going to get lots of different angles on it.