[capetonianm]

I think we are all aware of that. I said ‘in an ideal world’

[JCB2]

i have flown at that economy 5 with BA to MCO and CUN in the last 2yrs and on every flight, the “bar” was closed after the 1st round of drinks… i.e. 1hr into a 9-11hr flight! on all occasions the flight was only half full, so the ” this is a busy/party” flight did not wash.
on one of these flights it was announced the Cabin crew were taking a 30min break and would appreciate not being disturbed.!!!1

[capetonianm]

We flew BGI LGW last night in Y on. BA. Packed flight, service excellent, and my wife was given a second bottle of wine without even asking for it.

[TiredOldHack2]

Never had that before. There again, I don’t usually drink wine on short-haul flights but, as you say, three and a half hours: yes, I probably would.
My standard BA Declaration of Libation, at least on long haul CW night flights, is: “A large gin and tonic, please, with a hell of a lot of ice (it always seems to melt fast on board aircraft, irrespective of the cabin temperature – perhaps a physicist can explain?). Yes, that’s right, two of those artful little bottles, and yes, Tanqueray is great.”
Then: “Wine? Er, red or white…? one of each, please.”
And a glass of port with the cheese.
And then I sleep like a baby.
London to Santiago looms again in June: BA’s longest single flight. Fourteen and a half hours. Might need another bottle of wine.
I was once rash enough to ask for “Both” when in economy on a long-haul Iberia flight (hell in the air). Senora snapped back: “You may have one bottle and then another if you ask for it.”
I drained the first one and the request for another was studiously ignored. Screw ’em. That said, Iberia has got better since then.
EDIT: I’ve forgotten the non-unmimsy steward on Argentinean Airways who took a shine to me and gave me an excellent full size bottle of Malbec to take off the plane!

[rferguson]

[quote quote=920944]i have flown at that economy 5 with BA to MCO and CUN in the last 2yrs and on every flight, the “bar” was closed after the 1st round of drinks… i.e. 1hr into a 9-11hr flight! on all occasions the flight was only half full, so the ” this is a busy/party” flight did not wash.

on one of these flights it was announced the Cabin crew were taking a 30min break and would appreciate not being disturbed.!!!1[/quote]

RE the 30min cabin crew break. If this happened and was reported the entire crew would have been suspended.

At ALL times 50% of the crew MUST be on duty. This is not a grey area or ‘depends on the flight’. It is black and white non negotiable.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Montysaurus, GivingupBA, DerekVH, Swissdiver

[IanFromHKG]

This reminds me of a flight many many years ago on GB Airways (then operating as a BA franchise operation – or was it the other way round? – whatever!) to GIB. Clearly the school holidays had just started and the back of the bus was crammed with happy schoolchildren. We were at the front of economy, and by the time the drinks cart got to us the slightly flustered attendant asked us if we would like gin, vodka, wine, whisky, etc, adding rather apologetically that she couldn’t offer any mixers because ALL their soft drinks had been taken by the schoolkids!! So it was alcohol only. What a blow… 😉

I am also reminded of an early flight we took with what was then Dragonair and is now Cathay Dragon, with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. They had come out to HK to visit us and we had splashed out and treated them to a side-trip, booked in business class. After we had all had a (tiny) glass of champagne, I asked for another, and was told that “the bottle is finished”. When I suggested they opened another, they said that they only had one. Not impressed!

[capetonianm]

A few years ago on Austrian in business class JNB VIE, they offered us a very good ZA wine from a 750 ml. bottle. When the FA came back I asked if I could have a closer look at the bottle, which I then took and emptied into our glasses. 5 minutes later she came back with an unopened one for us to take home!

Happy to say we’re flying to CPT with them in a couple of weeks.

[GivingupBA]

[quote quote=921197] Having spent 3 days residing in the Medina (as opposed to modern Marrakech) where alcohol was very hard to come by indeed… [/quote]

Try 4 months. I remember being on the BA flights from Saudi Arabia in the 1980s: contract workers were just gasping for an alcoholic drink as the wheels left the tarmac (protocols/ rules may be different now, I don’t know).

I witnessed a very sad incident on a flight from Heathrow TO Saudi – a British businessperson unconscious and flat out on the floor dead drunk as the plane landed. He’d been chucking drinks down for 6 hours. The cabin crew were frantically trying to revive him, knowing that his reception at customs/ immigration might not be good.

I also heard a reliably true story from a friend who witnessed it, also on BA from Heathrow to Saudi. A UK guy was reluctant to get off the plane after landing and remained standing for a while at the top of the flight stairs (no jetways in those days). More and more Saudi agents hovered round the foot of the stairs, immediately sensing something was wrong and glaring at him. He eventually started down the stairs then a large bottle of whisky fell out of his trouser pockets and bounced all the way down the stairs onto the tarmac without breaking. The really funny part is that the Saudi agents thought it was hilarious, just confiscated the booze, gave him a small fine, and let him go… they had a good sense of humour apparently.

[canucklad]

Great stories
Staying on the dry countries theme, one of my old London drivers told me that he always flew BA on his family visits to Iran.

Apparently making sure he doubled up just before entering Iranian airspace. He was hilarious as he also said that his forced prohibition wasn’t as bad as it sounded. His wife liked a sun worshipping beach holiday and as such left him to head off with the other women to a female only island for a week….therefore didn’t need to get drunk.

[handbag]

“Cabin crew were taking a 30min break and would appreciate not being disturbed.”

Not only should the whole Crew be suspended, if any of you ever see this happen, please report.

As rferguson says “At ALL times 50% of the crew MUST be on duty”. I am gobsmacked and appalled that this has ever happened on BA and would be extremely worried at it happening on any airline.

[Author]

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