I met Pucci last week
 

Either that or she has just lost her place as BA's best CSD.

- Happy and joking with everyone throughout
- Worked the F cabin, but introduced herself and chatted with everyone in a full J cabin (don't know if she did everyone on the plane, but she continued towards the back after doing us)
- Did some very entertaining announcements

etc etc

Was it you?

I'm just guessing here, but your flight details might help...

Pucci,

Let me know ifyou're working BOS-LHR, or LHR-MXP/LIN next week...?

Just a shot.

Would love to meet such a great FTer!

Pucci, are you working YYZ-LHR or LHR-HKG in the next couple of days?

andrew

I should love to think that this was me, but you didn't actually say where or when this was. All I can say if it was me, then I am delighted to have made your flight enjoyable as I want everyone to enjoy their flights.

To you other kind gentlemen - I am sorry but I have now done my working for 2003. I stress work as I am flying off to the sun on holiday in the next couple of days!

Nologic, I would never work within Europe because I am on Long Haul and we operate two totally separate fleet and crews. MXP and LIN are handled by Short Haul. Very very occasionally if we introduce a new aircraft in long haul we may operate a short haul as this gives additional experience to the flight deck. Doing a CDG-LHR with its "Here! Catch!" service in 20 mins for a full 747-400 is a little different from the norm!

I was on a 747-400 from LGW to DUB during the Aer Lingus strike earlier this year. The cabion crew did seem far more stressed than normal !!!

Deftly deflected, Pucci http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Did LHR - GIG last week, out in F (op-up), back in J. Talk about Two Nations! Way out, immaculate and polite service, wholly up to the best of BA standards. On the return, even allowing for our being late leaving GRU (immigration officers' go-slow), the meal was practically thrown at us in the least gracious way possible and the crew vamoosed as soon as humanly possible. with all allowances made, the flight does cost almost £5000 in J and the service/attitude was WAY short of living up to this.

Of course, Sods law decreed that the "Tell us what you think" questionairres were given out on the outbound.....though the only time I've ever been critical of staff in a questionairre I was interrogated about it 5 minutes after handing it in "So you don't like us....."!!!

Had some good service last week in Y from SFO last week - although the plane was only 25% full.
Went to a galley after to dinner to investigate the 'snack attack' options, which caused a 5 minute light-hearted discussion as the FAs tried to work out if they had snacks - the service apparently depends on the length of flight, and the return to heathrow is a shorter flight so they weren't sure if they had any boxes of sugary rubbish. At one point, they had to pull out a white bound set of instructions (which contained excruituating details on how to lay out a dinner on a tray!) to see if that had any clues.
The FAs said that the confusion was becuase there just been a service change at the start of December. Needless to say, I was quite apologetic for causing such a fuss over a bag of jelly tots and tried to go back to my seat quietly - but they were having none of it!
Eventually, a FA appeared who remembered that they'd brought two lots of snacks out on the outbound flight - and went off to retrieve the other set from the front of the plane.
I wasn't allowed to leave the galley without a wide selection of snacks after all that - they eventually allowed me to leave once I had a Kit Kat Chunky, some Hula Hoops, a couple of Smarties boxes and some jelly tots. They also gave me a couple more small bottles of wine.

Bizzarely, a few minutes later, one of the FA's came and found me in my seat (lying across 3 seats with blankets and headphones on) and said "Are you crew?".

I was caught a bit off guard by the question, and she went on to ask who I worked for - BA or VS.
I said I'd never worked as cabin crew, and she said that I appeared to be crew.
I asked if that was due to my effeminate nature, and she got a bit embarrassed. I had a bit more of a flirt and got back to my film.
But how bizzare! Not sure what would have happened if I'd said yes - perhaps I could have tried for a bunk in the crew rest?!?

[This message has been edited by bobnick (edited Dec 15, 2003).]

(sorry OT, apart from it replies to the last post...)

I guess that some crews are better than others.... My last two flights in J (upper deck) LHR-LAX-LHR (out on 25/11 and back on 30/11) were both excellent flights. The service was really friendly, really helpful and really professional: both crews were excellent - it felt like business class. Wish I had a comment card to fill out that flight...

Still my previous J flight (DEN-LHR last March) felt like economy service with a much better seat and slightly better food (AND they didn't dim the lights until about 3 hours into the flight... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif ).

Boo

That's what I thought...let kme know if and when you pick up Boston.

Happy Holidays.

Funny you should mention the "good service outbound/bad service inbound" phenomenon. I recently flew from LAX to South Africa and back in F and experienced exactly the same thing. On my LHR-JNB and LHR-LAX flights, the service was stellar. The LAX-LHR and CPT-LHR flights were another story. Frighteningly slow and inattentive service -- about 8 hours into the CPT-LHR flight I was even scolded for using the F lav by a crew member who apparently thought I was an interloper from the CW cabin, even though she had been working my side of the F cabin all day.

I almost started a topic to ask whether others had noticed a big difference between the service on outbound flights and that on inbound flights, but then I decided that a sample size of four flights wasn't really much to go on. Now that the subject has come up, I wonder if other have thoughts as to whether short layovers or other factors might really contribute to poorer service when crews are on their way back to London.

Pucci does not exist: she is like an angel, but sadly such things come only at Christmas. She is too good to be true. Oh, why are the Gods so cruel?

I didn't want to 'out' you by giving flight numbers/dates. With your permission I'll give the specific flight I was thinking of (I was on 6 long hauls in the last couple of weeks). Better still, you can email me.

Only having a few experiences from BA, I cannot generalise on the inbound/outbound crew friendliness. Last March flying MEX-LHR, I had experienced a very good service in Y and then a couple of weeks ago on CAI-LHR in J, the crew didn't even smile when we got out of the plane.

My friend who was on BA MEX-LHR a couple of weeks ago, experienced a one hour delay leaving MEX, because the crew was in a traffic jam. When the crew arrived they were very nervous but once onboard the service was normal and friendly. Amazing that all 300+ passengers could make it ontime, but the crew could not. The official excuse was that BA cannot influence on when they are picked up from their hotel. The rumour onboard was that one crew member had arrived late for the pick up.

Actually, my point was that it had more to with my travelling out F, back J; though yours is an interesting thought.

Off to AMS today; happily too short a flight to care if the crew are grumpy.