[rferguson]

Such irony.

Alex Cruz said to the media:
‘We are appalled that Unite proposes to disrupt customers’ travel plans on such special days when so many families are trying to gather together or set off on well-deserved holidays. This calculated and heartless action is completely unnecessary and we are determined that it will fail.’

Today, the week before Christmas they gave 140 BA employed airport staff in Germany notice of being made redundant.

Speechless.

***My personal opinions only***

[seasonedtraveller]

[quote quote=782301]Such irony.

Alex Cruz said to the media:
‘We are appalled that Unite proposes to disrupt customers’ travel plans on such special days when so many families are trying to gather together or set off on well-deserved holidays. This calculated and heartless action is completely unnecessary and we are determined that it will fail.’

Today, the week before Christmas they gave 140 BA employed airport staff in Germany notice of being made redundant.

Speechless.

Distinctly 2 faced & hypocritical response from Cruz…..

***My personal opinions only***

[/quote]

[JohnHarper]

[quote quote=782337]Despite the risk of being censured by BT, that guy looks and acts like a Kebab shop owner, in my opinion.

[/quote]

And one that has just failed its food hygiene inspection at that.

Then again, didn’t the BA lounges in T5 fail a food hygiene inspection not so long ago?

[AnthonyDunn]

rferguson #78160

The fact that BA’s short-haul Y “food” offering eventually became “crap in a wrap” has finally been recognised by paying customers. Presumably as well as by cabin crew and those dealing with the quantities of waste coming off at the other end. At least M&S B.O.B. is edible (unless you’ve a Palm Oil allergy…).

BTW, I think you meant to add an “s” to “descent”.

[FDOS_UK]

This is what I don’t get.

BA has a major advantage (obstacle to competitors, in strategy terms) in operating out of slot constrained Heathrow, with a lot of lucrative connecting traffic.

Yet it benchmarks Norwegian as a competitor, a company that exists mainly to deliver point to point services from anywhere but Heathrow.

Last week, after my client paid through the nose for a last minute WTP ticket, I was offered a snack sized Kit-Kat as a second ‘meal’ (on a 7 hour flight) – I have to confess that I just laughed when they asked me if I’d like one and then opened up the cereal bars I’d bought at Asda and taken with me for that purpose.

Now if I was getting a really good deal, like Martyn Sinclair does, I wouldn’t care – but the thing is that my client had to pay well in excess of £1,200 for a ticket that was not fully flexible.

It isn’t good enough, which is a shame as the crews both ways were professional, efficient and pleasant and the seat on the 789 was excellent.

I actively avoid BA and only use them where the schedule is best fit – I’m sure I’m not the only one and although an individual customer represents a tiny fraction of an airline’s revenue, those tiny fractions eventually become a significant fraction – which one can see with BA’s RASK trend over the past couple of years.

Trying to fill the aircraft with people who choose on price as the main driver does not strike me as being entirely sensible, when you have a strong obstacle in your inventory and serious damage is being done at the moment, which will become more apparent in a few years time, when it will be costly and difficult to repair.

Anyone for a Donner with Chilli sauce?

[rferguson]

@ anthonydunn – apologies. English is not my first language and sometimes I find I still make little mistakes 🙂

I fully support ‘Buy on Board – of food. Purely because on the majority of intra european routes ‘meals’ haven’t be served for a long time now anyway. I wouldn’t call a bag of crisp or a biscuit a meal and as a passenger that commutes I would welcome the opportunity to buy something more substantial if i’m hungry and would welcome choice even when i’m flying in Eurotraveller.

But….charging for soft drinks I think is really bad. Charging for tea and coffee? Appalling. And it seems BA will be taking a hard line to protect their new revenue stream. From the Q&A section of a semi public documentation for cabin crew:
Q: ‘Should crew charge customers for a cup of hot water, either for their own tea bag or because they only drink hot water’.
A: ‘The priority it to offer drinks for sale so only cold potable water is available on request. If hot water is requested, crew should offer the customer a Twinings cup to buy at the retail price regardless of whether a tea bag is required.’

….head hanging in shame.

**Personal opinions only**

[esselle]

There is much talk about mixed fleet, legacy crew, worldwide etc.,and whilst I sympathise with crew over the very difficult climate and strained relationships with management, I think it is time to find a name for a new grouping.

Those who don’t care about service standards, have no interest in the customer experience, who are abrupt and show little consideration for their passengers, those who don’t know their Meursault from their Merolest.

Cruz Crew.

[openfly]

£2.50 for a cup of hot water…..!! Please tell Snr Cruz that it’s free on Norwegian (his favourite airline), and you get a smile!

[AnthonyDunn]

Ferguson #782301

Credit where it’s due: you fully understand “irony”!

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

[Henryp1]

[quote quote=782484]There is much talk about mixed fleet, legacy crew, worldwide etc.,and whilst I sympathise with crew over the very difficult climate and strained relationships with management, I think it is time to find a name for a new grouping.

Those who don’t care about service standards, have no interest in the customer experience, who are abrupt and show little consideration for their passengers, those who don’t know their Meursault from their Merolest.

Cruz Crew.
———————
I think that description can apply to any crew, just back from a long haul flight with ‘legacy crew’, in club the majority were over fifty, generally overweight some significantly, a couple with mobility issues. Male crew shirts hanging out due to sizes with no attempt to look professional, just lots of rushing up and down the aisles. Overall I don’t think mixed fleet are any better or worse than other crew groups.
[/quote]

[canucklad]

So the strike is off….
I wonder if they agreed to a one off payment to make Christmas more festive?

[TheLion]

[quote quote=775746] @thelion and others – I am interested in how you would steer the ship. What would you do differently and how would you sell your thoughts to the owners of BA, the shareholders?

Its easy to say its “disgusting” and as a Gold passenger and a shareholder, I do not entirely agree with the way the service is deteriorating. But exactly how would you steer the ship and justify the numbers on the accounts..? How would you deal with the “poor hard working staff”. Could you justify the wage rises and increase in employee benefits…

Looking forward to hearing your views and ideas…

[/quote]

Good question. I enjoy the challenge. I’ve been meaning to reply for a while; sorry it took a month! Will do over Xmas when I have time to gather my thoughts 🙂

[esselle]

How much would it cost to train, motivate and instill a sense of pride in the employees?

At the height of Body Shop’s success, their delivery lorries carried the slogan “If you think training is expensive, try ignorance”.

[Kass]

Very few crew hit the so called £21k mark, as the basic is added to by bonus and performance pay. The issue is that the bonus is controlled by the profit of the company so not a guaranteed income, and the performance based on levels of sickness… which is where the issue lies. If you work crew to the bone, with little time off to recover jet lag and lack of oxygen (a hour working in an aircraft is equal to 2 on the ground) then they get sick, then have a choice, either come in sick, but then pass it to all the other crew or stay home and not get paid flight allowance or performance pay. So far, since the strike has been in the making, crew have, on a private FB page posting payslips and no one, not even people that have been there after few yrs earn what the company says they should. Also, having many friends in the industry, I have done my own enquires and research and basically out of EJ, VAA, BA, Norwegian, and some of the Charter like Thomson (all where people I know work) BA MF are the lowest paid before tax. Even EJ out of Luton where not many N/Stops occur are paid more. Plus they are treated with respect and looked after, as employees should be. Also, the call out time for MF unlike ours is 2 hours, so you either live in the London area which is expensive, compared to income, live further away and then spend loads on petrol to work, plus accommodation for the days you are on call, or if your lucky live with parents and pay no rent.
The life at MF is hell. I went on strike to stop them forming it, but not just because it was endangering my job, but because of safety based on the age, experience and tiredness of MF crew.

[Kass]

There are in fact 4 types of contract/pay

Legacy Pre and post 97
MF crew
Single fleet Gatwick crew

This is not inc other Cityflyer crew etc

[Author]

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