curioushun

hello! wondered if anyone had any experience dealing with Cilla on BA? Would love to chat about it!

BOH

This must win the award for the oddest topic of the year

SKT-DK

By far.....! Not even sure what it means

allturnleft

I was hoping it would create a lora lora laughs!

She was known for being very demanding on board

plunet

There's always a surprise surprise waiting for you in the BA FT Forum

Bobbie2013

I seem to recall (years ago) on another cabin crew forum a whole thread dedicated to what a difficult passenger she was - requested not to be looked at directly by crew, had an assistant who made all her requests for her etc. No idea if it was true but there seemed to be a lot of crew who supported this impression!

13901

For a while I used to run tours of Waterside for new joiners, visitors, people who’d gotten lost etc. One of the things I’d been briefed to say was that Waterside and surrounding park had been built over an old rubbish dump where, amongst the many things, they had uncovered a few thousand copies of Cilla Black’s records.

Being an immigrant I had to Google her as I had absolutely no clue of who she was (or even how to pronounce her name).

Swanhunter

From people with first hand experience, she was every bit as challenging as the stories make out.

BOH

Can never understand why companies pander to celebrities with egos the size of a bus who demand this and insist on that and virtually want their needs put above every other passenger on the flight. If someones needs are that ridiculous, just tell them to go and hire a private jet.

I used to work for a chap who had an ego very similar to Trump who used to get his PA to phone through to every hotel and taxi company a list of special demands. One favourite was whenever a taxi was needed to LHR from his home near Esher (10 miles!!) it had to be an A8, 7 series or S-Class, the driver was instructed in advance not to talk to him, the aircon had to be set at 19C at least 10 minutes before pick-up and the driver must wear a face mask for the duration of the journey (this is way pre-Covid). His PA was always embarrassed to request this, in the end pretty much every private hire company simply refused the business with some even telling his PA her boss must be an absolute knob

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum curioushun, certainly an interesting first post.

I only once saw her when flying and she must have been on best behaviour. But in the former Concorde Room in T4 she was the only celebrity whose name was total recondited mud. Just for being rude and unreasonable.At one stage she was being given special treatment in terms of movements around Heathrow purely to minimise her exposure to other people who she could offend. Most of the stars from that era, the working class guys and gals who made it big time from showbusiness or sport, were genuinely great travellers. Bob Monkhouse (Ok, he was an Old Alleynian), who had a home in Barbados, was at the top of the reputational tree, in terms of BA staff enjoying their time with him, but people like Richard Burton and George Best were well looked after by BA staff because they treated everyone with respect.

lloydah

Met her once at the luggage carousel in T1 years ago. Had a very pleasant chat for 5 mins or so. No personal assistant in sight. I hefted her case off the belt, she said thanks etc and that was that.

Wozza2404

I'd imagine OP is a journalist who has heard about Cilla's reputation.

What's interesting is there are a few celebs with similar reputations on BA these days, and you'll often hear them referred to as "the new Cilla".

Can I help you

I am suspicious of a first time poster asking such a question, I have never and will never discuss a customers behaviour, just because they are known to the public it doesn’t make fair game for gossip.

corporate-wage-slave

Well if someone has passed on AND they had a good reputation, then I don't think it harms to reinforce that reputation. Plus you can't libel the dead. But professionally I'm sure you are well experienced to keep mum about some of the things you've seen.

LCY8737

We much rather you'd spill the beans on Pucci...