Ask the staffer
 

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-7...thestaffer.jpg

This thread is a continuation of the ever popular https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...k-staffer.html thread.

We are incredibly fortunate on the BA Board to have a number of staff members among us who are willing to share their knowledge and expertise. We have pilots and cabin crew, ground crew, lounge staff, check in staff, air traffic controllers and even an ex-military ATC with a bear fixation!

Remember: No question is stupid here, and nothing is too geeky! So please ask anything you like, with one exception. No questions about security please.

Happy new year all

When positioning, are members of flight or cabin crew allocated crew meals or regular passenger meals?

Apologies if this has been asked and answered previously.

Shown to seat in first?
 

If there's a crew member available to do so then you'll be shown to your seat. There should be an F crew member at the boarding door for this purpose, but if they're otherwise engaged then it will fall to one of the other crew boarding (CSM/D and a WT crew member). It might be that one of these is off already or assisting PRMs etc so it's not always possible. If there's someone around to show you then you will be; but an open passenger door can never be left unattended so you may need to find your own way at times.

From a passenger perspective, it feels like some crews are friendlier than others. I’m wondering from a cabin crew perspective if a) they feel that’s true, and b) whether they similarly find some passenger groups (as in, averaged over the whole plane) better sometimes than others?

If so, do you have any theories as to why?

I have a family member traveling next month in CW on BA from LHR to the USA. She is vegetarian and has also been diagnosed as having a gluten intolerance which does make food somewhat tricky. BA have a gluten free option, a vegetarian option but not a gluten free vegetarian option. So there isn't really a simple solution other than taking her own food.

I expect some of the vegetarian meal may happen to be gluten free and some of the gluten free meal may happen to be vegetarian. Does BA have the ingredients/allergen list for their meals (eg could we look at the VLML ingredients list to see whether there are any gluten containing ingredients)? Is this information available in advance?

Are there any other suggestions anyone has for dealing with this situation? I was wondering whether she should take a lunch box and fill it up in the lounge (if the food there is well labelled).

When planes get flown to Manila/Cardiff/elsewhere etc for maintenance are there specific crews for that on a rota or is it just part of being say an A380/A32X pilot etc and all pilots will at some point go there and back?

Also on the longer hauls is there a member of CC too?

Curious as always, thanks!

Pete

Thanks Can I help you ^ :)

Is it planned long term to use automated safety demo voice (for example like Finnair) as all the shorthaul aircraft's screens are enhanced and we see more and more manual safety demonstrations? One advantage would be to be able to play key safety information in other languages, too + then the cabin crew don't have to do it. Some have seemed very nervous / unsure when reading the text.

Different service port/starboard
 

When traveling longhaul with an infant and seated at a child seat position, what's the best way to ensure we receive one of the child seats on board? I believe there are fewer carrycots and child seats than there are carrycot/child seat positions, but I could be wrong.

Thanks for this. I must have been thinking of another airline.

There is always a box of chocolates in the First galley (their own version on the Club Kitchen), so if you're not offered any, just head to the galley! Or ask the crew serving you for one.

My best advice would be to self cater as you can never guarantee you'll get a main course that fits two separate dietary requirements. There is a "Chef's Chat" onboard which will list allergens, but this is an internal document that can't be reposted publicly, but crew can show you onboard. If your family member isn't too fussy, I would say order the gluten free, and don't eat the meat (IIRC it's often a chicken breast or fish fillet?). If they can't eat anything that's touched meat, at least they'll have the starter (often veggie)/salad/dessert thats GF. The veggie option is invariably pasta, so not gluten free.

You're not supposed to remove food from the lounge, but I imagine if you explained to the lounge staff what you were doing, they would probably let you fill a lunchbox. Just make sure you don't bring fresh food into the USA undeclared!

Cabin crew are people. Some are friendlier than others.

Chocolates! Never seen or been offered any in F. If only on request what else are we missing and should ask for?

Are CC ever trained in any aspects of flight deck (eg how to work radios and other such tasks) in the event of one of Skipper or FO being incapacitated? Or is the expectation at that point always that the remaining member of the flight crew immediately diverts to nearest viable alternate and handles all the cockpit workload his / herself?

Just curious...

How often do you experience turbulence that is so bad you are crapping it, too, but are having to smile and tell passengers to relax?

Has there been an instance of flight crew requesting assistance from "any onboard pilots"? I imagine doing an autoland might come into play in the case of single-pilot operation to reduce the workload, rather than worry about the competence of a flight-sim/BAFT jockey!

Have any of the staff on here flown on other OW airlines in a personal capacity, especially in J, to compare to BA? I ask because we regularly see the comments on the q-suite and AA's 77w.

I remember reading a while back an account of something like this actually happening in the states on an internal flight. All very exciting and sensational until you drill down into the small print that the person assisting I think was an ex marine pilot who helped work the radios.

Still laudable, but as you say, the genuinely unknown scenario of taking a total stranger into the cockpit and taking on faith that they would be able to do what was required of them sounds in my limited experience like it might risk increasing, not decreasing both cockpit workload and therefore risk, for the remaining functional pilot.

Hence my Q around whether there was ever anything more formal in place within the airlines with CC staff.

Thanks for the colour

No-one who has seen video of my last go at Canarsie in November would want me assisting at this stage in my, ahem, 'development'... ;-)