Takiteasy

I am wondering what elements of speech are imposed on the by the airline or is there a big game of BS bingo on specific words going on in the BA pilot fraternity?

- Welcome on board this British Airways operated Boeing 747
- Your safety is our priority
- We recommend you keep your seat belt loosely fastened during the entire flight
- John will come back to you with arrival details later on. In the meantime sit back relax and enjoy the flight
- Compulsory timing reference on arrival: We are a few minutes early / I am pleased that we are right on schedule / I’m sorry that we are 27 minutes late

Just a few snippets. Bits in bold are constants. Surely aside from safety ones, BA would not impose that lingo to pilots?

And don’t get me started on the ‘we’ll do our best to catch up time while in the air’ or other ‘we are negotiating with air traffic control’.

I must have missed quite a few! 😀

UKtravelbear

It's all on the Ipad - I've seen lots of CC read directly from the ipad the text on landing etc

It provides a constant message and ensures nothing is missed (though I have head the odd AM instead of PM!

Takiteasy

Wandered

Its 'operated' because you may be on an AA ticket, thus covering codeshares.

mwp1

All She Wrote

While a lot of PAs in most airlines will inevitably be similar in wording, those coming from the flight deck are generally ad hoc, with the exception (usually) of the welcome on board PA which covers specific points, crew introductions etc. There are certainly things that are best avoided, but that's generally down to common sense and not really worth space in manuals.

(Not BA specific)

G-BUSI

I have seriously lost count of the number of "Welcome to Edinburgh/Aberdeen/Newcastle/Manchester/and even Salzburg I have heard as I have turned off the runway at GLA over the years. The crew go into "automatic mode". I am certain of that!

beachmouse

Though a 'Well, folks' from the cockpit on a United States airline can generally be assumed to mean 'I am about to tell you something you do not want to hear'

It can be also amusing to listen to a pilot try to come up with workarounds for things he's been told not to directly discuss with the passengers. I've had a few Delta short haul flights where the pilot encouraged passengers to use the toilets before the boarding doors closed. Which is a coded message that 'Delta operations doesn't want me to tell you we're about to load the plane, close the door and then hold at the start of the runway for 15-40 minutes because of congestion at ATL. Yet again.'.

redct

This is always my favorite. I've noticed that "we're number __" for takeoff has started to go away in pilot announcements, but that's been remedied (at least in the US) by the existence of airportviewer.com. Not sure if there's a UK equivalent.

jowlymonster

This made me chuckle even though I very rarely fly US airlines.

I've also had welcome to "Munich" when landing in Rome or similar.

IAN-UK

I think (hoping) they've got rid of the rather tortured attempt to be inclusive of all onward travel eventualities in bidding farewell to passengers (welcome home to those .. etc etc). There again, perhaps I'm just successfully shutting it out

The smug "thank you cabin crew for a job well done" grated a little, but i guess it delivered a cheap morale boost.

But I really can't find anything wrong or upsetting to have a series of set comments such as the seatbelts loosely fastened one, and welcome aboard.

ptr120

Points such as confirming the operating carrier are a regulatory requirement.

Woodbinerich

I love the way pilots always understate things to maintain their (and the passengers) composure.

My favourite turn of phrase I heard from a BA was a few years ago on a very windy and gusty day coming back from OSL.

We attempted a landing at LHR, with the little A319 being buffeted and rocking quite violently from side to side, with the cross winds.
We ended up doing a 'go around' and when we had climbed back up to a few thousand metres, the pilot came on, cool as a cucumber, and said to the white faced passengers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm not sure whether you noticed, but it's a bit breezy down there, so we are going to have another go"..

LTN Phobia

Speaking of pilot PAs, BA used to be full of comedians many years ago.
Anyone recall frequently getting funny PAs on BA flights?
It still happens very occasionally but I miss the frequency of funnies.

Pascoe

Explanations for go arounds can be creative at times - flight deck trying to balance the fact that for them it's just part and parcel of flying, against the fact that for some passengers it may not be.

One I had last year at Mexico was a good example - go around as runway not vacated by previous aircraft. But to a less frequent flyer that sounds really bad news (in reality it was no doubt almost onto the taxiway but rules are rules).

So the skipper comes on the line and says something witty about them wanting a nice clear runway for their 300 ton aircraft