moonunit

Yellowbelly

Flew LHR T5B to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) this week in WT+ on a B787-8. CW cabin full, WT+ and WT had a few empty seats, mainly Brasilian nationals travelling home at the end of their school winter holidays so quite a few families. I was in 10J so bulkhead aisle seat and 10K was empty. The CSM was through the curtain to see me within minutes of the seatbelt sign going off, very pleasant welcome and asked if I would like a glass of champagne from CW. Returned a couple of minutes later with a small tray that contained a large glass of said champagne, a dish of nuts (unfortunately cold but still nice) and a bottle of water.
Later in the flight I was advised that the WT bar no longer stocks malt whisky (replaced by Baileys on the B788 that apparently has small galleys so limited room) but no problem - I was served The Singleton malt from a large bottle into a cut glass tumbler at my seat. The CSM also recognised me by name as we deplaned.
The plane was clean and in good condition, the new WT+ amenity kit, blanket and pillow an improvement and one of the hot dishes was a curry that are always good from Heathrow.
All-in-all an excellent flight.

Soupdragon62

Some mixed experiences over the last month

Gold greeting on 2 x IB flights and 1 X CX flight

No greeting UD BA SFO-LHR couple of weeks ago, but the crew were the best I've ever had and the wonderful crew member made sure she took my meal order first saying "I always make sure my golds get their first choice' and extended that courtesy to the family as well. I liked it this way, subtle, clearly status being acknowledged without that slightly awkward conversation that can happen from time to time. Talking of awkward, swapped seats last week on a LHR-LAX flight and the person I swapped with, who apparently spoke very limited English, was somewhat bemused by the CSM thanking Mr SD for his loyalty.

So all in all a fairly high 'hit' rate recently, although overall I'd say it's only happened on 10% of all flights I've ever taken

CoweyB

CoweyB

Pascoe

As per my last few trips - BA Metal outbound - nada, IB metal return, CSD made a point of coming to see me. And that was even after I had moved seats (due to a disgusting slobby Americen dude next to me taking his shoes off even before wheels up, with the worst food odour you can imagine) and therefore she had to go track me down.

Many things on IB are significantly worse than on BA imho, but this part seems much more consistent. Pity it's the part of Gold status I probably care about the least. Hey ho.

pennineuk

wanderingjock

terrible experience on a recent flight from Canada with a mixed fleet CSM who didnt introduce himself to me (5 of us flying in CW (no F on this route)), which i wasnt too bothered with tbh. However, there were no washbags ("we were in a hurry, so none loaded in London") and then the classic, "..and why do you want one anyway?" !! I was a bit startled and said that i use the eyemasks, and the oversocks and i need toothbrush and paste in the morning. He said he would search around to try and find a couple of toothbrushes.

In the morning (actually mid afternoon as we were 2h45m late) i had to go find a friendly FA who did manage to get me a couple of toothbrushes - one for my wife and one for one of my daughters. i briefly spoke to my wife who said, "the chap with the silver tie had been incredibly rude about my breakfast and said if there was no completed form, then i didnt get one!" she didnt fill out the form because she didnt have a pen (which are in the washbags too! ) and had understandably fallen asleep quickly, as we'd been in the airport from 4.30pm and took off 3.15 hrs late at 1 25am i then asked a FA to send the CSM to see me when he was finished talking to another customer - he was defensive, curt and really quite rude. I love giving golden tickets - tho saddened that the recipients are not rewarded properly for them - but this guy really needs some serious retraining. A really bad egg in an otherwise pretty good crew.

Sorry for the rant, but really feeling like the end of a great holiday was spoiled for the family because of this CSM's attitude. What's the best way to raise the issue (not looking for anything - but someone needs to have a quiet word with this guy about service and attitude)

Good news for him was that we arrived 18 mins before EC261 compensation would have been payable to the whole plane. IAG probably think he is a hero, but i have 4 family members now saying, "why dont we fly business class with someone else next time?"

IAN-UK

SQTraveller

I was flying economy recently and there was no greeting .. or maybe they timed it for when the cabin was dark and everyone was asleep --- thankfully they didn't wake me for the greeting LOL

ThatT1Feeling

Mixed bag recently on my recent trip in CW outbound to Calgary and back from Vancouver. Both ways (787 out and 380 back) were completely full and both had IFE issues.

On the outbound, the SCCM was straight up to me with a full-on, genuine greeting and she appeared to have all the time in the world to chat if I'd wanted to.

On the return, no sign of the SCCM throughout the flight until about an hour from landing when I asked to speak to him about the dodgy IFE and a floppy screen which wouldn't stay in place.

The whole experience just felt so inconsistent across the two flights.

MarkLHR

snuffi

Had more of these in the last 2 months than before, or at least that is my perception, I am not sure if anything has changed in terms of "instructions"? Mostly they have unfortunately been a bit cringe-worthy, certainly if I were crew I would not want to have to deliver one!!

On the way back from NY earlier this week I was next to a lady who had GGL, and she got the works whereas nothing was said to me, so perhaps it was a gold-heavy flight and they went up a level. As an aside It was immediately (and obviously!) established that both the passenger and the CSM were from Newcastle, so that then became a far more natural conversation than might have been expected in the circumstances, up the Toon howay the lads etc.

81romeo

Last Sunday on the way back from MAD on the A350 apparently only GGLs got a greeting (just one onboard). On the way out the day before I think this happened too although it was more of us. Have been flying a fair bit across Europe in the last four weeks (all CE) and never had a CSM / Purser coming to my seat to say hi.

A couple of times however - as I was the last on board - the CSM / Purser welcomed me with a smile saying "We were waiting for you Mr 81romeo".

Interesting thing worth to mention which happened on a short haul to Italy last week: I was in 1A, 1C I guess was blocked. There was a gentleman sitting in 1F and 1D was blocked too. CE cabin was full. To my surprise upon boarding (last onboard) I find a couple sitting in 1C and 1E. The lady sitting in 1C clearly had a Euro Traveller ticket as she placed her boarding pass on the table in the middle. Turns out her hubby (in 1D) was a BA FO. Upon disembarking, Purser gave them a bottle of champers too Purser didn't even say hello to me Pilots are important indeed

IslingtonFlyer

I very rarely have got a GC greeting however last Friday I was flying out to Budapest with 11 friends in ET for my Birthday. Crew were fantastic, Captain wished me Happy Birthday over the tannoy, i was given a bottle of champagne and a birthday card signed by all the crew and were all invited into the cockpit after landing. Then on the way back expecting nothing i was presented with another bottle of champagne as apparently it was my 100th flight with BA (i had no idea!). Generally i have low expectations when on board particularly when in ET/WT so this time they really did exceed it!