Deckard

Realistically I am sure that there is an element of discretion at play here. Are sweets apparently obtained in Duty Free and delivered by a Frequent Flyer likely to be an attempt to poison the crew? I am sure that not all offerings are consumed.

steadman

Likely? Of course not.

I just think aviation security should be, or indeed probably is, a little more secure and absolute than that. Crazy people can use Duty Free too.

IAN-UK

I'm not sure i follow you. I expressed an opinion.

My assessment of the situation where flight deck crew and cabin crew accept gifts of food from passengers for onboard consumption, is that this presents a very real, very serious risk to safety and security.

I'm not aware that there are formal rules promulgated that specifically permit crew to accept and consume food on board from strangers. If there is, it flies in the face of common sense.

I'm simply suggesting that giving crew foodstuffs to consume on board, be it chocolates, KFC or Werthers Originals, presents a potential threat to flight integrity.

There are many ways to express gratitude to crew for their onboard service. Not all these ways involve gifts: but where you feel gifts are appropriate, these do not have to be foodstuffs.

Again, that is my opinion.

ttama

I agree.

Given that passengers aren't allowed to take sharp objects on board in case they're used to incapacitate air crew or take them hostage, surely airlines can't allow their crew to accept edible gifts that might contain drugs or other harmful substances? If I were a crew member I wouldn't want to risk my own health, or the safety of everyone else, by eating food given to me by a passenger or any other stranger. A well-organised terrorist group can easily create packaged goods that look like they haven't been tampered with.

Why create a situation that could cause embarrassment for the crew; they either have to refuse the gift and risk offending the passenger, or accept it and bin it.

steadman

I would say 80% of the posts on this board are opinion. I wonder why my post has been singled out.

A practice of pre-service food gifting to crew sent the OP here specifically asking for opinion.

Greenpen

I teach. Sometimes I get a food gift from a student. I throw it away if I don’t like the student.

msm2000uk

I think this is much more 'au fait' on the ME3 airlines.

I take a couple of boxes of white chocolates whenever I fly on QR ex-CDG - based on the suggestion from crew friends who work for QR, that they prefer white to milk/dark.

M

Annalisa12

Sealed means nothing. So easy to open it, put something in and seal it. Look at drugs going through the post office in cans and packages professionally wrapped.

Annalisa12

Worked in teaching environment. Knew some that would never eat food from students.

PETER01

Not in Australia though. I watch Nothing to Declare/Border Force and they always seem to catch them

HIDDY

I'm the same. Unless cajoled into a conversation my interaction with cabin crew is minimal. A please and a thank you is usually about as verbal as I get with them.....always done with a smile of course.
Being a Blue card holder helps.

McCoy

I have once, and once only, bought a box of chocs from the duty free trolley, and immediately given it to the crew member, as a thank you for particularly kind service earlier in the flight.
They were opened and consumed in the galley with colleagues, and I think were appreciated.

But that was a single, personal moment. I don't think I'd gift the crew pre-emptively. Would seem creepy to me.

orbitmic

By far the most forceful argument against QR crew that I have heard to date!!!

simons1

Seems a bit strange to me.

Giving foodstuffs to the crew would seem questionable....there have been stories around before about food contaminated by interference of some description.

Doing it ahead of the flight seems even more strange. Almost akin to an inducement.

Oxon Flyer

Post of the week award

Anyway, it would be interesting if we could have a few staffers chime in and confirm whether there are indeed any rules/guidelines on acceptance and consumption of passenger foodstuffs on duty. Particularly relating to flight deck crew and easily-contaminatable items like mince pies.

Accept with grace, then discreetly bin them ?