Lite

You shouldn't, with all due respect, expect any difference in service because the crew on your flight were from Mixed Fleet, and it's great that you didn't because there is a real striving to make British Airways more consistent. The only differences should have been in terms of the way the uniform was worn, otherwise Mixed Fleet crew are trained to the same standard as crew on our other fleets and get on doing exactly the same job. I'm glad you enjoyed your flights and noticed the hats. I'm not a fan of the name badge displaying one's full name but otherwise think the uniform looks lovelier than it already did when worn with the hat and with the jackets done up.

iswitchedtodelta

Will see if there is a difference between Mixed Fleet and Euro Fleet. I am at the front of the plane to Madrid and back of the plane from Madrid. Will report back if there is a difference in service and more importantly if the booze runs out.

p.s. I do re-hydrate myself after flights and after arriving back from Dallas/Fort Worth drank 1.5 Litres of water on the journey home (it takes best part of 4 hours to get home from Heathrow!!).

BingBongBoy

Booze will not run out on a MAD, Coca Cola on the other hand... Possibly.

IAMORGAN

LHR-SAN in CW

I've been meaning to post this for a while, and given I'm currently sat at Linz railway station, I thought I'd share my latest MF experience on a longhaul CW flight. In light of all of the feedback on FT about MF, I seriously considered switching to LAX or SFO with BA. I only flew MF one way, coming back from SFO with a very good worldwide crew.

to summarise -MF crew did well:
1) Name recognition -all crew addressed me by name throughout the flight.
2) Cabin presence -with the exception of during the meal service (see below), I would say that a tray of drinks would come round about every hour during the flight.
3) The CSM -the CSM stopped by my seat a few times during the flight to check if he could get anything and if I was enjoying the flight. He also went around the club cabin introducing himself to (I presume) shiny card holders.

...and not so well:
1) Speed -contrary to what others have reported in CW, I found the service to be somewhat rushed. It felt more like they were serving on an AMS flight than a longhaul sector! Conversely, once the meals had been distributed, the crew vanished and didn't come through doing proactive refills. Customers were left with trays well after they had finished and the crew seemed to wait until the last person had finished before (hastily) clearing up. Whilst I like to be fed quickly after takeoff, this was a rush job.

The second service was much better.

2) The other thing I noticed was the crew didn't seem particularly confident in what they were doing -the PA announcements (except for the CSM's welcome, which was script-perfect and at a sensible speed and pitch) were confused. Practice makes perfect.

Overall, I had a good flight and the crew were really trying very hard.

I've had a few shorthaul flights with MF, too and if there's one thing that is consistent, it's the positivity amongst them. This probably comes from being new.

I think we just have to get used to a rather different style of service. There's no doubt in my mind that you can tell the difference. I'll be blunt and say I find that some MF crew can be somewhat uncouth, but that is made up for in the fact that they all seem to be constantly smiling! The crew are also noticeably younger than your average BA set.

As an aside, this is the first time I've landed at San Diego, and I was bracing myself for a bumpy ride and harsh braking. However, the landing was very smooth and whilst braking was relatively hard, it was nowhere near as bad as I'd have expected. Must smoother than my Airbus landing into Berlin on the way home, in fact!

Anyway, it seems that this crew had settled in and were coping well. I even sent a welldone for the CSM because I think that he in particular set a very good example and was extremely attentive.

sammyh25

Sat in the flight deck on one of our 747s when we last did the San Diego as a shuttle from Phoenix, never again!!! I thought the runway was only 50' long and as for that parking garage that we need to pop over to land.... My little heart was going 10 to the dozen...

Actually it was a great experience to come in there on the 400.

Tobias-UK

My WorldWide crew back from JFK were dreadful, I really do hate it when they make passengers feel as if they are an inconvenience. Poor, poor show with particularly poor catering too. It makes you wonder if the additional money is worth it in CW sometimes.

oscietra

Nice article on the Christmas Day flight from Las Vegas:

http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/12...ually+Smile%3F

IThink

I can imagine BASSA lawyers writing writs for the temerity of the Jaunted views right now!

I have flown mixed fleet a few times now, it is consistently more cheerful, even if the poor girl in First kept dropping stuff off the silver tray all the time.

AJLondon

Cheerful yes. But on my recent ORD-LHR, I would have much preferred slightly more professional CW service. Like offering to hang jackets, rather than suggesting that there is enough room in the overhead bins to roll it up and chuck it in. And having missed breakfast, I asked for a glass of smoothie to be told that there was none left. Fair enough I thought, only to find 5 minutes later when visiting the lavatory to find 3 crew glugging glasses of the stuff from a carton in the galley while giggling away to glory over some Hello magazine article.

I am sure MF are good for BA, but I would urge caution before exposing them to premium business traveler heavy routes. Or at least train them to deal with different expectations on such routes. For a 7 hour overnight ORD-LHR, if it takes over 3 hours to do a dinner service in CW, then something is going wrong.

origin

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...some-crew.html

irmster

I had a different experience on my LHR-LAS-LHR F flights last week. Service was better than I have had in a long time - and the younger crew were a refreshing change from the surly forgetful lot I had in my previous F flight.

On the flight back, I said I only wanted the main course and asap. It came within 30 mins, once I had finished I nipped to the loo and when I returned the tray had been cleared and the bed made up. Couldn't have asked for more.

I filled out a comment card on the way out to thank the CSM and the F crew and will be doing a 'well done' for the flight home.

Far from avoiding MF, I shall positively look forward to having them on my flights.

ANstar

I did initally have not so nice things to say about mixed fleet on my AMS-LHR route - but now after it going back to EF it is like chalk and cheese....

Please make AMS a mixed route fleet again! I can't bear the miserable and at times quite lazy diddy's plying the route now.

meester69

We flew to TPA in early December, I was expecting Disney-going families, but in fact it was geriatric central, no kids at all (apart from ours), but row after row of oldies (the couple behind us were right miseries, but the old man in the bulkhead who was not quite all there was getting very good service from the crew who came and sat with him and helped him full out his immigration forms and so on). I can only presume that they were holiday home owners. Had not experienced such an 'old' bunch before.

RB211

Can someone please tell me which routes MF are on, or point me to the info?

rb211.

BA.MF.CSM

Here goes, I think it's pretty accurate but I may have missed some, so feelfree to add!

LONGHAUL

AFRICA
Abuja
Accra
Luanda
Nairobi

ASIA
Tokyo Haneda

NORTH AMERICA
Boston(coming)
Chicago
Denver
Las Vegas
Phoenix
San Diego

SOUTH AMERICA
Rio De Janeiro

SHORTHAUL
Budapest
Hamburg
Kiev
Lisbon
Manchester
Lyon
Paris ORY
Pisa
Prague
St Petersburg
Toulouse

EX- ROUTES
Amsterdam
Tripoli

Kind regards

BA.MF.CSM