What is "Mixed Fleet" - what does it mean?
 

Guys,

Seen many references to Mixed Fleet - but for the life of me I can't work out what it means??

http://lmgtfy.com/


http://www.britishairwaysjobs.com/baweb1/?newms=info42

So its just crew who sometimes work long-haul and sometimes do short-haul??? So what? I thought thats how most crew worked anyway?


The way some people go on you would think they are leppers of some sort!!

So how do you tell if, horror of horrors, you are on a Mixed Fleet flight???

Mixed Fleet is a new fleet that BA have set up.

They work on the 747, 777 and Airbus aircraft doing a mixture of Longhaul and Shorthaul flying.

The contract and pay they receive is different to crew who joined BA prior to 2010.

They have one Customer Service Manager in charge instead of a Cabin Service Director and they don't have a Purser in charge of First and World traveller.

Some crew on Mixed Fleet were temps on WW and a few have transferred from WW and E/F for promotion but the vast majority are direct entry crew from other airlines or brand new recruits.

These are the routes flown by Mixed Fleet.

Longhaul routes.

Accra
Abuja
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Haneda
Las Vegas
Los Angeles (Begins August 2012)
Luanda
Nairobi
Rio De Janeiro
San Diego (Route Transfers to WW fleet August 2012)

Shorthaul Routes

Hamburg
Kiev
Lisbon
Lyon
Manchester
Paris Orly
Pisa
Prague
St Petersburg
Toulouse
Vienna

They wear the BA hat ( don't know why only they have been given the hat and not all fleets).

most of the time younger crew ...
And better dressed (because of the hat, however LCY-JFK crew do also wear a hat) ;)

othewise never saw a female FA from MF in trouser, not sure if this is a rule ?

A bit OT here, but did Phoenix come off MF and go back to WW this month?

Yes.

Thanks ^

Thanks!!

well on that basis - give me Mixed Fleet any day!!!

recently been on flights to and from LAS and ORD in F - service was great!!!!

also recently been on flights to and from JFK and Newark in F - service was average

BA employ different crews with different remuneration, terms and conditions.

Mixed Fleet (MF) is the newest crew grouping started by BA from scratch. They operate both short haul (european) and long-haul (over 2,000 miles) routes.

Most MF crew are new to BA as well as the airline industry and therefore may not always be familar on how to deliver an efficient service level. Most pax agree that they are enthusiatic given they are not long in the role; just not very experienced. It a bit of luck as to who you get. The crew are normally young since BA recruited new staff at a terms that are lower to existing BA staff and that of some other airlines. It is rare to get a mixture of both experienced and inexperienced crew on the same flight to balance the service. I know there a some dedicated CSMs who are trying their best to bring their teams up to standard but it will be a struggle for a while yet.

The main complaint, which I have experienced myself, is the length of time to complete the meal service in premium cabins.

Existing long-haul crew (WW) remain wary about their MF colleagues since it is expected that BA will gradually replace their routes with MF crews.

What is not widely know by pax, is that from time to time, MF crew are supplemented by voluntary BA staff who fly from time to time to provide BA with an emergency pool of staff to keep the planes flying in the event in the event of future strikes. These would be even more inexperience crew who are limited in what they can do (e.g. they are not trained in food hygene and cannot prepare meals. They can however serve drinks). It would not be possible to provide on-going experience to such staff on WW flights.

As pax, our complaint is that we do not appear to get a discount in fare during the MF learning phase.

I remember crew telling me that the change was not good for the airline when the new people came in. Also I think they told me the mixed peoples wages were lower etc and thereby the standard would go downhill.

But now the results seem to be a mixed bag, have they done any "surveys" to compare the "teams" :)
Personally I do not fly enough to notice any difference.

I think possibly a bit unrealistic

True but it would stop the complaints

I am sure BA record and monitor all feedback on all the fleets. Surveys are handed out on both M/F and WW Longhaul flights by the crew. On Shorthaul flights, both M/F and E/F, passengers are surveyed online.

:D