Blueboys999

Obviously not cut out to be a Flight Attendant then.

robbo755

After a reasonable delay of approx 2 hours at BKK on the midnight TG465 flight, I wandered down from the comfort of the lounge to find all the weary non-status and Y pax waiting patiently in the sweat box. After about 5 minutes First and Biz pax were called, whereupon one lady turned around to her friend and said "ooo couldn't you just kick them".

It's that sort of thing that makes it all worthwhile.

lukew

Never in premium cabins when flying, but every day when commuting first class by train from Kent!

lancefan

Not while sat CE or CW. I was flying F back from LAX on a low J 747. Door 2 was been used to exit the plane and the FA's made the WT+ pax sit down and wait untill all the F pax had exited. I will always remember the evil eye i got from a hoity toity looking middle aged couple sat in 12A & B in WT+, boy if looks could kill.

IanMKT6

Unfortunately not that common in my experience (I'm doing between 2 & 4 CE flights a week at the moment, and have seen it on the odd occasion).
However its certainly something that should be praised to the skies as the old ET pax loading up the CE bins then heading off down the aisle is one of my main irritations...

Tell you what, I'm flying back from GVA tonight and I'll buy a nice box of chocs at the airside chocolate shop. If the the crew keep the bins closed and I can easily get my bag in, I'll give it to the crew to say thanks, if not my Mrs will get an extra Christmas pressie...

Shuttle-Bored

If you think getting an evil stare in CE is bad, try getting it on the Shuttle! Flew back down yesterday morning from EDI, and although no priority boarding announcement was made ("strictly by seat row number ), the Other Half and I chanced our luck and were allowed to board without any issue ^ .

Or at least no issue until we were queueing on the airbridge, where the woman (passenger!) in front decided to do a ticket check for some reason. On spying that we were in row 2, she turned to her daughter and said something along the lines of "huh, they're boarding early, who do they think they are?". Bit my lip and resisted the temptation to say anything - but what a nosy moo!

uk1

I must admit I'm confused. Is it reasonable protocol to ignore the strictly row number announcement .... I always assume it's an oversight if they fail to announce the rest of it ie premium passengers can board when they want.

Shuttle-Bored

Post Aviance, EDI can be a wee bit hit and miss about this. When I've followed the "strictly by seat row" protocol, and waited for boarding, I've been admonished for hanging around when I could have boarded earlier. 8 times out of 10, they do announce it. And when they don't, I'm also in the "assume it's an oversight" camp, and give it a shot.

Only been rejected once (at LGW), and the subsequent correspondence with the BA management team confirmed that the gate agent was in the wrong and should have let Silver/Golds board at their leisure even tho remainder of pax were being batched by row.

flying mermaid

I didn't notice any evil looks on our LHR-IST and return flights in November, but then we tend to board late and read books. There was one lass who did stare quite blatantly at Miss FM and myself who were seated in 5A and C and made a comment to her companion, something along the lines of "well they can't seat anyone else there, unless they are very thin" - presumably a reference to the squashed 5B. Perhaps they are not evil looks, so much as curious ones from people who haven't seen CE before?

By the way we had 2 fabulous legs with BA, with very friendly and professional service - going over was a super efficient lady called Wendy with a very pretty side kick, who encouraged me to partake of the champagne for breakfast.

Although the seats might be the same there is a huge difference in the elbow room and personal space, so I think CE is worth every cent (although I did hunt out discounted CE tickets).

JamieT

Waiting for my EDI-LCY 0720 last week, the gate staff made a priority boarding for Gold/Silvers announcement and it was actually the first time I'd heard them do that in two years of taking that flight on a weekly basis. I'm hoping it'll catch on!

I've never been admonished for waiting for my seat row to be announced and I always wait - I never even thought that it might be an oversight! Will have to try that in the New Year.

layz

You get it a lot when on an East Coast train with a restaurant. Usually there's a bunch of people who board at the last possible moment so they jump on the train at the closest carriage (1st class in KGX) and walk through the train.

If the crew is good then customers in the restaurant will already be enjoying a pre-departure drink. A lot of evil stares and the occasional 'oh this looks nice' comment (particularly in the GNER days when there was better tableware). In my many years of travelling GNER/NXEC I've encountered one truly resentful person who 'accidentally' knocked over the glass of wine of the person opposite me with their bag.

Whether it's train or plane people need to realise that premium passengers provide a significant portion of the revenue for the operating company. Economy fares would likely be higher without the premium custom and fewer routes would be profitable.

BA or bust

^ Yes, this would an excellent idea!

London Dude

Good to know, but never seen that before the other day. I wish it were made standard policy.

BingBongBoy

I usually go as far as to get a damp cloth and try and wipe the newspaper ink fingerprints off the overhead lockers in Club too... but some are just permanent now...

Always push all the headrests down, so they all look the same, always correct the shoddy cleaners work when they randomly throw the headrest covers on and just hope they catch on to the velcro strip... I likes a nice presentable Club cabin if I can achieve it in the 45 seconds I have free between completion of checks and first boarding.

sunrisegirl

At the gate the TRM is ultimately in charge of when and how he/she wants the aircraft boarded. Very occasionally they will tell the gate agents it must be VERY STRICTLY by row number and they will always have a good reason for this, ie. time critical to meet the slot. This is the only time the gate team will turn a gold or silver back, as in this case it applies to every passenger on the flight, including golds and silvers.

I don't know whether or not this was the case on the flight you mention, but I find it very disappointing that a member of management, who was not at the gate to know exactly what was going on, would say this to you.

LGW are (mainly) very good at offering pre-boarding to silvers and golds.