chasingstatus

Managed to blag 5A in ET on BA2763 this evening so was pretty please that I could jump off quickly and get home swiftly. Had a minor coronary when I got on board to see that the curtain was behind Row 5 and did a quick double take on my boarding pass to make sure I hadn't missed a seat shift. Thankfully not. Approached the Pursar to double check that I indeed had the correct seat and after checking his nifty iPad realised the curtain hadn't been moved.

It didn't fluster him in the slightest, he apologised (by name) and asked me to take my seat. A quick call down the back and he advised another crew member she had forgotten to move the curtain, but not to worry, he would look after us (very pleased about this given the thread a few weeks back about a CE passenger being bumped back due to loads - I didn't want to end up miles away from the exit!).

His service to his CE passengers was exemplary and he treated us as standard ET passengers (rightly so), even running to the back to get paper cups for my tea. Although a tea cup would have gone down nicely (as would the champers) I would have been a bit miffed if I was in paid CE!

So.. my questions.. he twice mentioned that "she" had forgotten to move this curtain - once to me and once the Captain. Would he not have a responsibility to check the configuration of the aircraft before boarding started?

Secondly, has this happened to anyone else? Either ET sitting in front of the curtain, or CE behind it?

Have to say, he was actually the best Pursar I have had for a very long time, genuine smiles for the whole flight and used the iPad to wonderful effect - apologising by name to the other 3 customers in row 5 for the confusion, and and at the end of flight said goodbye to the 6 CE passengers by name (memorised). Was nice seeing my little Silver card icon on there when I sneaked a peak. Hopefully will be a shiny gold icon soon.

LCY8737

Had a similar situation on Lufthansa a few years ago. Was told to mind my head as the curtain moved over my head (no joking!). Fast, brutal, efficient "downgrade".

Bearface

Crew don't move the curtains? The ground staff do? I think this is what I remember!

chasingstatus

"She" must have been the ground staff then. Should he not check though? (Not that I'm bothered but genuinely curious)

Genius1

I sat in CE (with a CE ticket) and received ET service (although with proper cups/glasses) during the volcano palaver. At that moment I was more concerned about the plane not crashing than not getting a salad.

sunrisegirl

Crew move the curtain, not the ground staff.

On a recent flight I took there were a couple of new crew on board, freshly out of training so perhaps this flight could also have had them on board, and moving the curtain slipped their mind.

MAN-FF

I was surprised recently on BA 946 LHR-DUS to find there was no curtain there at all. I selected and sat in 4C due to there only being 3 rows in Club Europe. The extra legroom and empty B seat was much appreciated considering I was in ET.

Is it a common occurrence for the curtain to be missing? I've not see this happen before on SH. Could it be that BA were using a UK Domestic Airbus on the route that day?

MAN-FF

Baconroll

It's usually the cleaners who move the divider. Sometimes, at outstations, the dispatcher moves it. Other times it will be an engineer, as the dividers can be quite temperamental at times Crew aren't allowed to move them (elf n safety), although we usually know how it's done.

Once the customers are onboard, it's very tricky to start moving the divider, as the seats need to be moved as well. Our turnaround times are very short, and getting all the safety-related matters done are a priority. We're constantly asked if we're ready to board, even whilst the cleaners are still onboard

So as you can see, the divider does sometimes get forgotten. It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes it does.

I'm glad you enjoyed the flight. I'm surprised the Purser went to the back for the delicups, as there's a whole canister of them at the front

Baconroll

Sometimes, the curtain/divider is removed because it's broken and there hasn't been enough down-time to fix it. We don't have specific aircraft doing specific routes (such as "domestic" aircraft), so the divider was probably broken on your flight.

sunrisegirl

Ooops! My apologies

Herman ze German

Having the CE seatlayout in the first row of ET is very common though - unless the plane has the new "space saving seat". Apparently this is to allow a quick adding of CE seats if too many people decide to upgrade (for money). I've never seen that and quite often sit in xA or xC as I like the empty B seat. On my recent flight from DUS I noticed that even the SH crew now has iPads. Has this been around long? I thought it was only for LH crews.

Genius1

The first row on the left hand side of ET is in CE configuration (on non-spacesaver aircraft) due to health and safety - it prevents the pax behind the curtain from being hit by a trolley moving down the aisle.

elihassett

Exact same thing happened to me a few weeks ago from BCN-LHR.

I asked the cabin crew he said the curtain was broken.

Baconroll

Genius1 is correct regarding the first row in ET.

Pretty much all "seniors" (CMs, CSDs, CSMs and Pursers) now have the ipad, both on short and long haul flights

DVT

Interesting, but I don't understand at all. Care to elaborate?