This seems odd, there’s been no change in alcohol policy so not sure why you’d have seen this. Customers are (obviously within reason) allowed as much as they like from the bar. I find it easiest to give everything on the first bar pass as it makes the meal service easier later when everyone already has their drinks.
However, it has been known on some routes (especially CPT and JNB) that the bars are loaded with a fairly limited selection compared to what we’d usually expect. Some crew may therefore choose to give only one G&T on the first pass to ensure everyone gets their first choice. If there’s some spare they’ll come back. This isn’t normal practice though as usually we have full bars from all stations. To reiterate there’s been no change in how we give out alcohol, or who we give alcohol to.

Thanks for the response, although it wasn’t what I was expecting to hear. It definitely seemed as though something had changed over my last few flights. Maybe it’s just been an unlucky few flights with bad crew

LON-SZG

Is there a reason for the lack of flights to Salzburg between 24th April - 29th May? A seasonal thing, a glitch in the matrix, or a gap that'll get filled eventually?

Thanks.

You mention the ‘seniority list’ (old fashioned but I like the idea of reward for long service)- does this mean that the as you get to the top 25% you are basically picking your destinations most of the time? And does this apply to flight deck and cabin in the same way?

Cabin crew do not use seniority for bidding for trips, just for choosing working positions.

Essentially yes.

Keeping it simple...prior to the monthly bid opening the company create ‘trip lines’ which are basically set rosters for the month. During bidding you find the lines/rosters that match your preferences, be it certain days off/destinations/trip length etc. and put them into your bid in order of preference. The more senior you are the better your chances of getting what you want. If you don’t achieve a trip line you get allocated a ‘blind line’ and you’ve no idea what you’ll have until your roster is published. There are also ‘reserve lines’ thrown in which are dealt with slightly differently. It’s all due to change to a new system soon which again is seniority based but no one really knows how it’ll pan out.

Reading through air safety bulletins from last month, as you do, and I came across this one involving a BA 787-9. The interesting things for me were that:-

​​​​​​— pre recorded announcement advising customers to don oxygen masks was inaudible due to some kind of software issue. I don’t fully follow but it reads as though the IFE system which delivers this announcement couldn’t deliver audio at the operator / manufacturer specified volume so delivered it at an inaudible level. Many customers were unaware and apparently some Cabin Crew thought turbulence had caused masks to drop. Can anyone clarify? Has the PA now been fixed?
- Privacy screens on 787s don’t retract in a depressurisation - the safety card indicated it would and crew differences training didn’t reflect this...I guess this has now been resolved?
- Because, basically, the first officer had contacted the first galley to advise the crew to stow equipment and sit down in proximity of portable oxygen, when the situation developed (immediately after that conversation) this seemed to have contributed to confusion. Cabin crew did not immediately don oxygen and tell passengers to do likewise.

I’d be interested to know how learning from this situation has been trained for, as in different circumstances, failure to react promptly to a depressurisation event could have had adverse consequences (I appreciate here cabin alt didn’t go much above 10,000 feet).

Whilst I can totally see why this happened, hopefully this learning is shared with flight and cabin crew so they can be aware of it day to day, rather than just a report being published and nothing being done?

A safety notice with actions in a repetition of this event has already been issued. BA can be a little leaden footed at times but generally not with safety.

Had a lovely CSM out of and into LGW yesterday and we got chatting in the galley while waiting for an ATC slot clearance on the return leg and she provided some interesting Galley FM snippets, just wondering if others had heard these:

1) Revenue Mgt looked long and hard at the LGW-OAK service continuing onto HNL but in the end the numbers didn’t stack up.
2) BKK was reviewed to possibly move down to LGW from LHR but the rest period down route wasn’t long enough so it remained at LHR but changed to MF
3) Some Monarch slots are being looked at in relation to conversion to long-haul with some extra B777’s coming over from LHR (don’t think they can spare the aircraft at present though) and some LHR leisure routes are being reviewed with an eye on moving them down to LGW.
4) Cancun is being carefully monitored due to increasing violence / drug warfare creeping towards the tourist spots. VS apparently pulled the route on safety concerns rather than revenue.
5) Rumours that once the A350’s start arriving we may see a B77W or two at LGW (don’t think that will happen myself)
6) New CW Seat will basically be a copy of the current IB business class seat.

As always, some of the above could be discounted as just Galley FM, but always interesting to hear the rumours doing the rounds.

Pilot37