Africodagga

I just saw a photo of Sam Chui in a KLM 747-400 Combi with 9 KLM flight attendants in the forward side-galley. This photo made me think about the distribution of the 9 KLM crew on a 747-400 Combi. I am assuming the following;

2 flight attendants work the upperdeck business class (in total 20 seats, 1 FA in the galley and 1 FA serving the passengers)
2 flight attendants work the lowerdeck business class (in total 15 seats, 1 FA in the huge side galley and 1 FA serving the passengers)
4 flight attendants work the lowerdeck economy class (in total 233 seats, 2 FA serving the 36 economy comfort class passengers/99 economy class passengers between doors 2/3 from the middle galley and 2 FA serving the 98 economy class passengers between doors 3/4 from the rear galley)
1 senior purser assisting where ever assistance is needed

Is the above assumption correct? I also would love to read about distribution of KLM FA on other aircraft if someone has knowledge of that.

Thanks!

TLSpace

I saw the same picture, I noticed by looking at the stripes that there were 2 senior pursers, 5 Business class FAs and the last 2 did not show their stripes. But why, I would not know!

source: https://blog.klm.com/what-do-the-str...uniforms-mean/

Didymis

The CA's with one stripe are called CA1 or 'eenbander' and the ones with two are CA2 or 'tweebander'.

On the 747-400 Combi (which is most remaining 744's) there are 9-10 CA's.

• Two CA2's work on the upper deck (10 pax each).
• One CA2 works the front C-class cabin (15 pax).
• The remaining CA2 works the Economy Comfort section.
• The remaining CA1's, including the Junior Purser work in the Economy section.

The Senior Purser is responsible for the entire cabin crew and helps where he/she is needed, mostly in Business Class.
The Junior Purser is responsible for the Economy section and his/her own section.

It can happen that a Senior Purser is scheduled as a Junior Purser, but this is not very common.

johan rebel

Cabin crew composition and duties have been a bone of contention between KL and the unions forever. Specifically, the airline would dearly like to get rid of the second purser (I see their point, why it would require two to manage a crew of less than ten is beyond me), and they have argued for decades about the position of supernumerary purser (i.e. whether the purser's role should be strictly supervisory, or that they should be required to roll up their sleeves and serve pax as well).

The position of Senior Purser was traditionally considered an unofficial sinecure by many (hence the infamous invisible ghost pursers, especially on the 747 and MD11 where they could hide behind the curtain in the purser's office), and perhaps still is by a few.

That the Junior Purser now has a designated half section to serve in Economy is a fairly recent change to which the unions only agreed very grudgingly.

Johan

arjen05

During (too) many flights on KL's remaining 747 in the past months, I've seen very often 2 senior pursers on board. When it happened the second time in 1,5 week that I've seen 3 of them on a single flight I've asked for some background. In the cases there were 3 on board, one of them was in training under supervision of the acting senior purser and one senior purser took care of economy class, acting as a purser in that case. That happens fairly often recently (approx 5 out of 10 recent flights I've made), since there seem to be a lack of 747 pursers at the moment.

Is Junior Purser the official term used for the economy purser? I haven't heard that being announced or figuring on name badges?

Didymis

It indeed happens for training and/or scheduling purposes, but three is definitely a lot!

It's just Purser, officially.

johan rebel

No, I think the term is just purser.

I believe KL restricts the number of aircraft types an FA may work on to two. With the 747 on the way out, and the number of aircraft and destinations decreasing rapidly, I should imagine that not many FAs are eager to get a 747 certification anymore.

If I remember correctly, the airline in the past offered bonusus to crew who elected to stick to the bitter end with aircraft that were being phased out, such as the MD11.

Johan