[Binman62]

Handbag….I should be clear that despite the pejorative term ” Clingon”….. which I understand it is widely used by BA staff, …..I have, like Martyn, no issue with staff in F or J. Like Martyn I object to near empty cabins and no Avios availability. My recent trip home from HKG was a prime example. 5 in the cabin, 4 my family and not a single redemption seat available from when I booked in March in any premium cabin.

I also think staff should have all the elements of the product and the product should be consistently delivered to all passengers. The problem for BA is that they differentiate the service depending in a passengers worth, and to be frank the crew cannot do this successfully. In the end they disappoint someone and in F and J no one should be getting off thinking they were given second rate service.

You will not find this on QF or CX neither of whom discriminate against staff and both deliver an outstanding product consistently.

Even on near empty BA flights your chance of getting your first choice of meal is not great and that just is not acceptable.

Bottom line is that if you offer a First product it needs to be the best and consistently delivered time after time.

BA do not do this and indeed the whole cabin experience is simply Club world plus.

This thread started with the news that there is no longer any real exclusivity in using BA first as the product seems to be given away more than it is sold. It was the same with Concorde which towards the end was used to allow over sales in club and F on subsonic services. Shame really.

[handbag]

Binman62
All I can say, that I totally agree with you.

Totally understand the Avios issue.

As Crew all we can do is follow the guidelines we are given and deliver the product that is available.

[EU_Flyer]

These are all good points and I’m enjoying reading this thread!

BTW from my knowledge of staff travel polices of BA vs QF/CZ etc is that BA allocate staff seating just before the flight closes based on F backwards, so that if you have a priority standby and there are seats in F or J, you’ll get those cabins.

Further more, BA rarely upgrade commercial pax from Y and Y+ if they need to get staff on. They simply put staff in the empty F and J seats. Reason being is that BA don’t wish to encourage even their top tier FFs to get too used to being upgraded as it creates an expectation (as shown through this thread!). Plus, it raises staff morale when they’re placed in J (notwithstanding the missing PJs and toiletries)

QF, CX, SQ etc when faced with staff travellers always upgrade commercials to make space for the staff down the back. This might make the commercial pax feel good (at the airline’s expense) but staff end up getting some fairly horrendus seats as a result and this can’t be good for morale.

In the end, personally I prefer the BA policy as it means that all pax get the class they’ve paid for and staff get a little treat. I remember flying CW on NYE from SYD-LON and it was like being in the BA staff canteen. But it wasn’t their rejection of the washbag that gave them away, it was the fact they were all wearing suits in the middle of summer on a 23 hour flight!!!

So how do I become BA staff? VintageKrug…. you there?

[Binman62]

Alexupgrade77…. Not entirely accurate.

BA staff will be seated as per their priority and cabin entitlement with those who have f/ j priorities given those seats. In some instances BA will put staff into all but the F cabin to ensure they get as many away as possible. They will and do upgrade commercial passengers to achieve this especially into F.

The same is true with QF though they have a reputation for leaving with empty seats rather than accept staff and would not always upgrade to allow staff acceptance.

SQ are by far the most restrictive, they protect F at all costs and staff rarely get upgraded. They will and do depart with empty premium seats rather than upgrade.

[IanFromHKG]

AlexUpgrade’s response re CX sounds about right – I have had several friends who worked for Swire and had F standby access (for 10% of the fare), but who rarely used it because they could so rarely get on the plane. In fact, in the summer, I was at the airport checking my daughter in and one of them – who is currently VERY senior with Cathay – was at the airport with his family and they were asking which flights they could get on to as they had been unable to get on their preferred route (to London)…

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