Removal of drinks from flights

With all the comments about removal of food from lounges, cutbacks to save BA money I recently stayed at the same hotel as a BA crew.

One day I noticed 2 large BA carrier bags FILLED to the top with empty miniatures, wine bottles and drinks taken from the aircraft. the BA crew had an evening beach party at the hotel and the following morning the hotel ground staff was seen holding the 2 bags and showing them then the hotel manager.

I am sure if I asked for 2 bags of drink to take off the aircraft this would nit be allowed !

I got handed a bag of miniatures back in the 90s as well.
It became apparent during the flight that the crew had mistaken me for a colleague and hence the bag I reckon.
It was one of those awkward situations where I didn’t want to say I wasn’t who they thought it was.
Maybe this also explains why the drinks “ran out” 5 hours into my Miami flight in January??

My good friend (an ex BA captain) has confirmed that this used to happen regularly in his day (he left BA around 10 years ago).

its perfectly legal as crew both cabin and flight deck can purchase miniatures from the bar on certain routes worldwide.

I do not know of any Crew who would be prepared to risk their job and not pay for their miniatures, wine or beers through the Crew Purchase Scheme that is in place.

Many years ago it was an accepted practice that Crew (Cabin and Flight) would take some alchohol with them at the end of a flight. When the Crew Purchase Scheme was introduced, this came to a very abrupt end.

It is now quite normal practice for Crew to purchase their allowance and then meet up with other Crew for a drink. You are allowed to drink them providing you do so before the legal cut off point set by the CAA. It is therefore not unusual to see a carrier bag with numerous miniatures or quarter bottles of wine.

All Crew are aware of when they are allowed to drink to and how much they can purchase.

A couple of stories to tell here……..
I’m sure elsewhere on the forum I’ve already mentioned this, but it’s a great story of a BA employee delivering memorable, personal and “I’ll fly with them again” customer service.…..and tale two , well that’s a different kettle of fish…….

1) For whatever reason my colleague and I couldn’t get seats on our regular Sunday night BD flight down to LHR, and “had to slum it” on the BA shuttle instead.

Not changing our BD routine we were the last to leave the lounge opposite the gate and proceeded just in front of the dispatcher. On boarding we noticed the front rows were empty, feeling emboldened I stopped at row 4 or 5 and asked the cabin crew chappie if we could just hop into row 1…..

He brusquely rebuked me, “ No, take your allocated seats” —-Feeling chastened, we both continued on, 2 seconds later, he burst out laughing and directed us to row 1 …….

We had an amiable chat with him during the flight and found out , as well as working for BA , he was also a special constable. Coincidentally his patch covered were our work was located, at which point my colleague offered him a tour, the next time he was pounding the beat. We advised him that sadly, our normal routine was to have a double baileys delivered to us just prior to landing, laughing he said he couldn’t match that as BA didn’t carry Baileys. But he did thank us for our company and thrust a handful of JW ( not Blue) miniatures into our palms as way of thanks for choosing BA. Truly a credit to BA, and he embodied the “To Fly, To Serve” ethos…….

2) I seem to remember the sad tale of Gail Sheridan , wife of Tommy who was prosecuted by the Procurator Fiscal after a substantial collection of airline miniatures were found during a police raid of her home whilst she was employed as cabin crew for BA. BA suspended her from duties, but ultimately it seemed to be a case of the establishment persecuting the wife of an individual who was proving to be a right thorn in the backside…. Up the revolution : )

openfly – 05/03/2015 11:13 GMT

Hi

I am World Wide Crew (Legacy) and really surprised at the stupidity of the people whose conversation you overheard. I also agree as a shareholder with your feelings

I can assure you that (on WW) I would be amazed at this kind of discussion. If someone was stupid enough not to have a receipt, they certainly wouldn’t be letting anyone else know. I can honestly say that I have not heard anyone have a discussion like this since around the introduction of the Scheme (about 10 -15 years I think). When it was first introduced, it took a short while for Crew (Cabin and Flight) to get the message, as it had been an ongoing practice for so long. A few suspensions, sackings and rummage by asset protection focussed the mind. There are now regular checks for receipts and we all know the consequence for not having one. .

We have a briefing before every flight and it is quite normal as part of the input for someone to say “ensure you have your receipt for your items and don’t lose it”. It has been so ingrained in us to cover ourselves with a receipt for so many years now.

I am obviously only speaking for the general culture of WW as I don’t fly on other fleets.