Hmm indeed ;)

No wonder the country is in such a shambles. :p

There have been a few ageist/sexist comments in this last week and I find them most unwelcome on a frequent flyer forum. A person's age, sex or "hotness" has zero to do with their ability to do a job well.

Wow !
 

I am suprised, nay amazed that a little criticism gets such a reaction.

I never WANTED the BA experience to be bad, tbh, I was looking forward to it, my last BA expreience was in Y to Bermuda and back, and it was great, load levels meant there were more CC than pax, and we all had a row to ourselves, several rows in fact.

To be honest, I'm not too sure why saying the only good member of the CC was "pretty young thing", at least she had the time to smile now and again, and was the only one who appeared to be bothered.

I will report back, to see if the return leg was any better, I have had poor crews on Ek too, so it's not unique to BA, I was just genuinely disspointed wihtthe whole experience, perhaps, as the World's favoutite airline, with the newly ressurected "to serve to fly" motto, I was expecting too much ! All I seemed to get was "to serve to dissapear behind the curtain".

OK - well this I think I can agree with you on. I genuinely hope you have a good return experience, because when BA crews are good the flights truly are a delight.

BAH

Folks,

tezzer is online at the moment. This provides us all with a perfect opportunity to help out, share our own [travel] experiences etc. Let's stick to the topic.

Prospero
Moderator: BAEC forum

I have had bad BA crews but I have had as many bad other airline crews and I fly with BA far more frequently, so statistically I assume BA to be alright really.

The good news is that whenever I have had a bad experience, it has usually been met with a vastly different one to follow. So fingers crossed that your return is indeed much better.

I would find someone drawing attention to the "club newbie" incredibly patronising and embarrassing...I don't see why they would call a customer up just to say, well done, you've made it to club (regardless of whether in the case of the OP they had flown in club/f before)...i'm sure an email would suffice on the off chance people do want a congratulations. There are often people milling around by the desk, so I can imagine it would've been heard but even if it wasn't, it would simply be an uncomfortable situation.

In fact, let me go further, who WANTS a poor travel experience ? Really wants a poor time ?

Not me for sure, I want a pleasant, trouble free trip, with as few ripples as possible, doesn't everyone ?

Priority boarding IS done for all F, CW and gold and silver passengers. They are also invited to board at their leisure.

However, we cannot hold back 200+ passengers in WT and WT+ until all the CW and F passengers get down from the lounge. If we did then the aircraft would be extensively delayed every day.

From the sounds of things you got down to the gate after priority boarding had been offered, and by the time you got there regular boarding had commenced. Unfortunately this is sometimes the case.

Jenbel - I note your comment "It's a shame that someone who flies such a lot found that BA was not as good an experience as on airlines he flies more often" Did you not see that the OP said he's not flown with BA for around 15 years or so? Maybe it used to be often then, but not so much these days.

Hi,

Your post didn't sound too unrealistic to me so I'm sorry you received a few odd responses.

I also hope that saying nice things about people like " where a nice lady welcomed me to my first trip in the CW cabin" and "a pretty young thing who was always there with a friendly smile as she walked past " doesn't make us all objects of hate!

Hope you have a good return trip.

From the OP
I don't consider someone who flies more than once a fortnight longhaul an occasional flyer (that's how I'm interpreting it anyway - he usually goes EK or KLM because he can get to his destinations more easily using them, but for going to Jamaica, he had to fly BA or VS on this occasion).

That he does not fly BA does not mean he is not a frequent flyer - this may be a foreign concept to some of the BA board :D

Already said

This CW "newbie welcome" is an idea with its heart in the right place, but equally could well backfire (as it has here) and hence should be deployed only with great skill, sensitivity and sound data profiling.

I can imagine some of my friends (perhaps leisure travellers) who would feel like a million dollars for receiving such a personal welcome . . . equally others are trying to do exactly the opposite and will gain their sense of satisfaction from 'fitting in' and not standing out as a newbie . . . and there will be others who once had high status in the programme and feel grossly insulted on some deep level by being treated as a newbie. (I wonder if this set the tone for the OP's entire experience, quite possibly). Asking quite a lot of the desk staff to be sensitive to all that lot and respond accordingly.

As for the OP's experience it needs to be recognised that BA has, on a bad day, crews capable of delivering from boarding to disembarking absolutely no sense of a premium experience whatsoever to people who have shifted a big pile of wedge - that is a serious problem though happily IME a rare one - and by the way, what's that about with a CC that refuses to loan a pen - don't they hand them out free back in the WTP cabin?

My apologies - I was reading the part where he said he hadn't flown with BA for about 15 years.

If that was the case then he WOULD be welcomed to the CW cabin as BA would be unlikely to be aware of his travel patterns from so long ago. I honestly find it hard that anybody could be offended with being welcomed by name.
I'd certainly like it but as I'm neither a new SCH and have flown dozens of times in CW I don't qualify.