Personal Welcome Message
 

Dear all,

From time to time I have seen on BA flights that some passengers receive a personal welcome message at their seat by an FA (maybe the CSD or CSM?).

How do you qualify for that (Gold? GGL? ...?) and what do they tell you?

Thank you in advance!

Not just for Gold or GGL, I got it on my first flight after reaching Silver. I was in WT on a very full LHR - ORD so I was impressed/flattered that they found time to get around to lowly 'ol me :)

EDIT: In my case, the CSM said "Hi, I'm such-and-such. Welcome to Silver. If there's anything I can do for you, please let me know."

Hi

Various reasons, sometimes just GGL, sometimes Gold, sometimes a message from the Exec Club which can be anything from "Welcome to Silver" to "We hope you enjoy your first time in CW"

Last week I had a "welcome to your 6th year of GGL" message from a very nice CSD on my way to Helsinki.

However, even as a GGL, most times it never happens, even on longer flights. When it does, it's usually just an introduction and a message along the lines of "if you need anything, let me know"

The information on status and any messages come from the info on the CSD's iPad..

Decent BA gold welcome on IB flight to MAD last Friday, haven't had a short haul hello for a while !

Used to get it quite often as a Silver and Gold until BA introduced Buy On Board. Since then not so much as a hello!

Incidentally on my last flight (and my last BA flight of the year) I asked for the usual glass of water as I won't pay for the M&S offering. Luckily for me the next passenger was off-duty CC being plied with drinks from the CSM (I think the most I counted was 4 glasses on the tray table!). Although I was quite happy when he offered me one of his glasses of champagne. :D What a nice chap!

As a point of reference, on the return from JER on the Do over the weekend which is a very very short flight, the CSM stopped by and gave KARFA and I a warm welcome and thank you for flying with BA so much, which seemed convenient to get to thanks two GGL in one shot given that we were in 1D and 1F. Whereas our fellow Do friends in 1A/1C were skipped over. It made for some fun joking with them across the aisle. :) I am generally appreciative that the thank you does not occur on every flight, but I appreciate it when it feels reasonably genuine.

I was actually greeted by the CSM on achieving Bronze (yes!). Perhaps it was a quiet flight but it was nice touch by the company. She was a lovely lady enjoying her first flight to Rio. I gave her a few tips of safe jogging trails and restaurants to tryout during her turnaround.

It rarely happens before Gold, depending on how many status holders are on the flight I s'pose. Even then, it's entirely down to staff. It happens to me maybe one in every 10 flights.

Here's the trick though: when it does happen and they ask if you'd like anything, say yes without hesitation. Get a comp drink for you and a friend, for example. An extra pillow, maybe. Whatever suits.

I sort of got one when I first made Bronze. It shocked and stunned me when the CSD apologised to me, and only me, for the flight being late. So I went looking to find out what was going on and that's wen I found this forum.

Got no recognition when I made Silver

Had recognition occasionally when I was Gold. Best was when the CSD/CSM whatever mentioned me by name as I got of the flight. I had been sat in row 12 in economy

Upon boarding today in ET, without even looking at our boarding passes, it was "Welcome back Mr Jed, let me take those off you to get them signed (children's' logbooks), row 7 today?". I've only ever had that kind of welcome before on SQ, where we spent half the flight wondering how they do that.
I agree BOB has made subsequent interactions few and far between in ET, which is how the rest of the flight went. But we were chuffed that TS paid off and the A, C, D strategy worked, with the B and E seats blocked.
Upon exit, again addressed by name, plus invitation for the boys to go up to the flight deck.
Great CSM.

I must say the last few European flights we have taken in CE /ET have been extremely impressive.

I think getting a hello and food in SH Y is now pushing the proverbial boat out! I mean you can't expect both surely? :D

Got BAEC Gold for the first time a couple of months back and I've been personally welcomed on nearly every flight since (including being woken on a leisure flight back Sat am from a heavy night in CPH :))
I've come to the conclusion they are after my Golden Ticket (or whatever it's called). I'd prefer the anonymity!

Varies - from nothing to a lovely warm handshake as I received my last flight (granted it was in F). I've not been on BA for a few weeks now but have had recognition on 3 LATAM flights in the past week, which was unexpected!

Not my favourite thing but nice if it's done genuinely. I have been called 'Mr' before by crew who was so focussed on the iPad they didn't even realise I was a woman...

I had this on a few times now. most recently one of the shuttles from BCN-MAD. after boarding had finished I was in row 23 or something and the cabin manager walked from the front galley all the way down without stopping until she reached me, looked at the older man in suit next to me and said Mr linzbh? and I raised my hand. thats me! OH MR LINZBH! WELCOME BACK, ITS GREAT PLEASURE TO SEE YOU AGAIN. I AM SO SORRY YOU HAVE BEEN PLACED DOWN THE BACK WITH NO BLOCKED SEAT NEXT TO YOU. BUT I HAVE A WHOLE ROW AT THE FRONT OF ECONOMY FOR YOU! PLEASE COME.

every spaniard looking at me like I'm a celebrity. I don't know why, but is it really hard to reach Gold/Emerald equiv on IB so its a rare site or something? I doubt it. very strange experience. its happened a few times now on that shuttle service.

back to BA and more recently last week on flight to Lagos, not even a welcome back at the door by the CSM which is usually all you get on the Lagos flights.

I have seen a recent uptick in greetings and I like it. Kinda like a DYKWIA hall pass. Much appreciated on the last s/h when some silver with seemingly hoards of bags pushed by me on boarding with a ''scuse me I am silver' only to be seated next to me in the middle seat of the exit row. I loved the csm for that greeting.....

I got one for my first flight in CW. It was a very nice touch although it made my 'imposter syndrome' a little worse!

It's fairly random both in terms of occurrence and content, and in my experience less frequent on short haul Y since BoB was introduced as I suspect CSD CSMs are worried that when they offer the standard 'if there is anything we can do...' people will actually have an answer (like 'since you're offering I'd actually love a cup of tea!' Or something equally outrageous!)

you get anything from 'I just wanted to introduce myself' or 'thanks to flying with us so much' to an unsolicited glass of champagne or even occasionally an onboard upgrade.

MF often seem quite generous. Incidentally, as platinum on FB I am now virtually systematically brought a bottle of water on my AF and often KL flights. Maybe not systematically but >80% occurrence including frequently a 1l bottle of sparkling water for personal use on my recent long haul AF Flights in Y and W

Never had a welcome on BA in recent years, but I am usually 'acknowledged' on QR/CX as OW Emerald.

I couldn't really care less one way or the other and would prefer the crew to focus on service issues that really matter.

I really liked the greetings on each of several recent CX flights - a simple "welcome aboard / back WotAs, would you like a bottle of water?" as they handed one over.

I don't need thanking for my custom, or other flattery. The bottle of water was a nice perk, while the greeting was fast and largely unnoticed by those around me.

Not a message as such but being called by my name on both sectors of my CE trip was a surprise.

Glad to see KARFA made the lunchtime flight^:D,great to see you in JER.A PHX do in spring would make an excellent addition to the calendar if you could be persuaded to consider.

I have already looked at some complex routings eastbound ex CAI:D

Fully agreed. All the bluster to massage people's ego is unnecessary. A simple welcome is more than enough, and CX seem to get it right most of the time.

You're only storing up trouble for yourself! One day you'll miss your flight and I won't hold back :p:p:p

On this morning's packed LHR-WAW all Gs in ET were thanked for loyalty and offered champagne or Buck's Fizz. That's definitely a first for me...

BAEC Gold. Two flights in WT+ in june (BA9/10 LHR-BKK-LHR). Not a single word of welcome/greeting or any other token of recognition on any of the flights. Didn't even get served the drinks I asked for on the outbound...

I get it on almost all of my BA LH flights, very seldomly on SH (perhaps twice in the past 100 flights). I have also noticed a trend that if it is a holiday route (LGW), I've yet to receive one, yet if it is a business heavy route (east and west coast US), I get one almost without fail.

So funny, the FA came over and addressed me by name to tell me he had a "message," and of course I assumed the worse. What happened back home that someone had to contact BA to reach out to me???

No, he assured me, "no, it's good news! We would like to welcome you to BRONZE." He added something about where to go online for information about my new status and I might have chuckled a bit. I told him I'd be looking forward to Silver after my next leg.

Gold, otoh, I don't see that happening this cycle... :(

Have been travelling several times with Mrs AITF in CE recently. On three of six individual sectors, I got a greeting and she didn't. She was not amused about this.

We are both GCH and were on the same booking, seating next to each other.

Only explanation I have for this is 1) she sits at the window and I am on the aisle and 2) despite being married, we have different surnames.

Still not good form/staff etiquette though. Can they not see all this info on the I-Pad?

All I can say is thank goodness I don't have reward programme status.

Get a life people!! :p

+1

Who cares about sporadic name recognition....just give me what is promised and what I pay for and I am a happy pax.

On CX it happens almost every flight no matter what class I am in.
On MH it neve happens.

On BA it was always a hit and miss with Long haul leading the way and short haul hardly ever. Last Monday coming in from Singapore in CW the CSD came by just before landing asking if I had a good flight and thanking me for my loyalty.

Globalist

Happens quite a lot on short haul for me, but very rarely on long haul especially after I got Gold. Maybe now I'm back to silver they'll start being nicer to me :)

^:D

Got my first "welcome message " on Comair a couple of weeks ago , that took me by shock !

Before I knew about FT, before I was Gold and before I knew there was an even higher level (GGL) I assumed it was for Golds. Having gotten there now I see it's not the case ha. Never happened on SH for me. Happens extremely rarely on LH. It's a nice touch when it does. Last time it did happen I got a glass of champagne when in WT+ :) seems it's very dependant on the CSM and crew. Last time it happened I'm sure it was just a member of crew and not the CSM.

I've had it on every flight in First.

Also notable on the LGW JER flight to the do. And I'm Gold not GGL!

Boarding my first CW flight to JFK as a lowly blue I was greeted warmly by the CSM with "Welcome to Club Mr........" was a nice start to being in the front end. Since becoming Bronze none. On a recent busy CW flight from HKG I watched the CSD reluctantly walk around the cabin for ages reading loads of greetings off his ipad! definitely agree its down to individual CSM/CSDs and there workloads.. Will see how I get on as Silver from next month :-) If this little touch encourages loyalty then why not, You pay out plenty for the ticket.

Very variable: in May 3/4 flights had a welcome (as a Gold) - although one was a couple of days after the first with the same TATL crew. 6 flights in June (3TATL) with not a dickybird...

Had a couple of glasses of champagne with a welcome for Mrs T and I on our way to Bologna at Easter in ET, think that was because it was her first flight as a silver, and had a welcome by name and an apology for the IFE not working on our first FIRST from LAS by the cabin manager, but she didn't do the same for anyone else and it was a full cabin.

Only a lowly silver, even received a thank you and goodbye by name as we left the plane.