aoyamaguy

Hi all

I had a recent trip to Singapore on the 787-9. As is common on that aircraft (particularly on longer sectors) seats 7J and K were blocked and so could not be selected at any point prior to or at check in (and were visible on Expertflyer as such). These are good seats as they are at the back of the mini cabin and the window seat has direct aisle access.

Seat availability wasn’t great and I ended up in the middle seat in row 6.

I know this is a first world problem, I got what I paid for, it’s none of my business etc, and I don’t want to rant, but…

On both flights, outbound and return, the seats were not in fact used as crew rest seats.

On the outbound, an off duty pilot and his girlfriend occupied the seats shortly before pushback. It was very obvious that they were receiving what I would call special treatment - visits from the flight deck, given a whole bottle of champagne to share, a nice dessert from F for the girlfriend etc.

On the return again I wasn’t happy with my seat so thought I would check whether 7J and K really would be used as crew rest. GGL phone line confirmed they were, and this was explained again at check in at SIN when I asked.

On board it was a similar story to the outbound flight. What turned out to be an off duty cabin crew member took the seat together with his boyfriend, shortly before departure. They were also given F PJs, amenity kits, extra glasses of champagne etc. Lots of profuse thanks to the cabin crew “for sorting us out”. Nothing seemed too much trouble for the crew as far as this pair were concerned, in fairly stark contrast to the service given to the rest of the passengers, which was perfunctory at best.

Obviously I realise crew get upgraded, I’m totally fine with that (although think it could be done in a more subtle manner). However it was pretty annoying that the seats were clearly not being used for crew rest, remained blocked and so as a paying passenger I ended up with inferior seats as a result.

I would have thought that either the seats were needed for crew rest (and hence blocked) or they weren’t. What happened on these flights — did the crew just decide not to rest or where else would they have gone to rest? Any way to get around this in future?

Flier74

Ok bear with me,

certain routed have seats blocked off for Flight Crew rest for a number of reasons, some flight Crew prefer to take rest in the cabin instead of bunks if they are not too tired at the times of their break or want to watch a movie then sleep.
This forms part of their agreement, however those seats can be released by Flight Crew in mutual agreement for staff travel passengers in order for them to get on.

seats which are allocated are always the same on The same aircraft type hence they are blocked and no one at the airport can touch them.

they also remain empty for the flight if they are not required for rest or staff travel passengers and even if this is the case, Cabin Crew generally can’t release them for use of other Customers unless all flight Crew agree to this.

on terms of preferential treatment, yes this should have been done more discreetly but maybe they were given F amenity kits and PJs because they were on a FIRST priority but did not get their entitled cabin due to FIRST being full?

I hope this explains some of your points how this has happened but no there is no way around it on certain routes, seats are Crew rest and remain as such whether they will be used.

Same goes for some 777 aircraft which don’t have rest compartments and some the Cabin Crew need seats as there is not enough space by the doors for everyone to rest.

I can assure that Flight Crew would have taken their rest on such a long sector and would have done so in the Flight Crew rest compartment (bunks)

mikeyfly

On a flight to SJC a while ago on the 789. I was in 7A and leaving LHR the seat and foot rest were very wet presumably from cleaning, or a previous pax spilling something. All they could do was move me to 7K, which was occupied by an off duty staff member. They were then moved to the wet seat and given extra blankets to sit on !

MFCC

Industrial agreements and CAA/EASA regulations require there to be rest seats for the pilots on long sectors. In reality, most of them use the bunks and not the cabin seats. As a result, the flight crew on the day often (and kindly) release these seats to those on staff travel at the discretion of the Captain.
These seats are never commercially offered to passengers, are not available for booking, and are not part of the seats available for sale. As such, I wouldn't concern yourself too much with who is in them or for what reason.

Telegraph

This subject pops up every now and again on FT. Why do customers on BA begrudge staff for having perks.

Kgmm77

Presumably because its a general rule of any business scenario that the customer should come first, or more importantly be perceived as coming first. Ergo in most businesses care is taken with optics and whilst benefits provided to staff are commonplace, they are done out of sight. It sounds like the OP may not have been so aggrieved had the soft service provided to staff not been better than that received by the rest of the passengers.

flatlander

The hazards of staff travel! They may have been lucky not to be moved to the remaining empty seat in Economy or a jump seat.

Telegraph

And they do as staff are only seated after customers are in their cabin of entitlement and often staff will be in a very uncomfortable part of the plane.

BOH

Are you serious asking this question?

Telegraph

Yes. Staff travel is a benefit of working for BA.

aoyamaguy

Yes, exactly this. I don’t begrudge anyone getting a perk but this seemed to go a fair way beyond.

As a separate point, it doesn’t seem commercially very sensible not to be able to sell all the seats on the plane. I appreciate the agreements/regulations need to be followed and that’s clearly not negotiable, but the fact remains that the seats were prevented from being sold when actually in an ideal world (as a business) BA would have sold those seats - with the crew happily resting in the bunks which seems to be their preference anyway.

Greenpen

I understand that many organisations offer the benefit of business class travel to their employees. Riles me when I see this happening.

aoyamaguy

So there is an employment contract or union agreement in place stating that staff on staff travel must be served whole bottles of champagne? Really? Are there no policies or procedures in place which would put any limits on this? I find that really hard to believe.

mikeyfly

Good grief!

Telegraph

In what way did this affect you? I’ve been given a bottle when it was my birthday and once as service recovery for a dirty seat so it’s not exclusive to staff.