[Hippocampus]

“The best way to describe the crew on Mixed Fleet is by you imagining what the Toni & Guy Hairdressing Academy must be like!”

It seems that some are still intent on running a smear campaign against Mixed Fleet. Sad, pathetic and despicable.

[AllOverTheGaff]

Must be anti-BA agenda.

Rgds.
AOTG.

[batraveller2]

I think the poor quality of crew on long haul will still be obvious if a mixed fleet route! I suggest avoid at all costs if in club or above (I try every so often on mixed fleet and is always bad). All hats will not help mixed fleet integrate as regular customers know the difference in service, It will be interesting to see if mixed fleet go on edinburgh or aberdeen as i dont think customers would accept their slow service – that would then be the time to try virgin!

[londonlad]

Luckily batraveller2 even MF can write a passage of English better than that last effort of yours.

Take your sad vitriol elsewhere.

[VintageKrug]

The truth is that many passengers are very enthusiastic about Mixed Fleet, viz. this post from Fruitcake on Flyertalk, yesterday:

“I came back from Haneda yesterday morning, with a brilliant, really good, MF crew. A real breath of fresh air. (We also had good service from a WW crew outbound to NRT, but without the same enthusiasm).

“Anyway, back at LHR, on the transit from the B gates yeaterday were a couple of slouching CC, not smartly turned out, more or less pushing pax out of the way to the lifts, with BASSA tags very prominent on their luggage. So depressing!”

I’ve personally had great service from legacy crews, even those I know to have been BASSA members. I’ve also had great service from MF, particularly on shorthaul, although there was a Club service in the early days which was slower than I would have liked but the airline was flying, the strike hadn’t grounded it, and it avoided bankruptcy because MF was there to keep the flag flying, and is already contributing millions to investing into further improvements in fleet and on board experience..

I am pleased MF are now also represented by a Union, but not the BASSA branch which attempts to represent legacy.

To suggest you need decades of experience to do the job well is balderdash.

I’m generally pleased hats are being more widely introduced to coincide with the introduction of British Airways’ 787 and A380s this year; they look very smart

Others will find any opportunity to criticise.

[FormerlyDoS]

“Edski777 – 13/04/2013 12:12 GMT”

Absolutely agree. The fact that mixed fleet had a differentiated uniform was making an internal point and the only external impact of that (or perhaps more precisely, the symptom created) has been a noticeable decrease in the motivation/morale of crew on the 1997 or pre1997 contracts over the past year or two.

Whatever the pro-BA agenda says on here, this has been obvious to any frequent traveller and very bad news from a service perspective, e.g. when I was ignored for 5 hours on a BA flight from BAH to LHR recently.

Yesterday, I had a good flight with BA to Dallas, with a happy and harmonious crew, lead by a Scottish gentleman of a CSD, who set the right tone from the start. The service was efficient, unobtrusive and intuitive, delivered with good humour and a smile.

That’s the service I want, every flight, hats are not on my agenda.

[JeffD]

I have a flown a lot recently on BA and have experienced all the crew fleets. I can say I have only ever come across one member of BA crew who was indifferent to the needs of the passengers, and clearly did not deserve to work for BA.

Keep up the good work all you hard working BA crews across all the fleets. Some of us really appreciate all you do to ensure we arrive safe having had a comfortable flight.

I wish some of my staff had your work ethos of “putting people first”

[BigDog.]

Yes BA’s hard product leaves a lot to be desired. However one aspect of their soft product I do appreciate on flights of 10+ hours is having a good chat with crew.

When all is quiet, to have a stretch and start adjusting to time differences it is really pleasant to be able to catch up with a couple of well informed erudite crew who are keeping watch in the galley. With their experience I find most legacy crew happy to share insights and stories passing some minutes of the long night time. Unfortunately any discourse with mixed fleet is near impossible, and it is not just an age thing.

I acknowledge having a chat is not part of the service. However as I mostly travel alone, for me it is the one area that I value when travelling long haul with BA.

Edit – Further to BeckyBoop’s crass post below (edited now deleted) – if as BB suggests, a 20 yo female cabin crew is uncomfortable chatting with a 50+ yo man then surely it is another reason to engage cabin crew with a bit more maturity and life experience and not fresh out of school/college.

[FormerlyDoS]

JefferyDavison – 14/04/2013 09:30 GMT

I’m pleased you have had consistently good service and makes me even more frustrated when I have had a real mixed bag in the past 12 months.

[SimonS1]

Hats off to BA for sorting out the hats issue. No doubt the fillet of beef will taste a lot more tender as a result!

[Binman62]

Once again BA focusing on the wrong issue. Hats may be an internal problem but there are bigger issues to sort out but there seems little will to deal with those.

For example recent poll on BA future labs had ( the last time I looked) some 87% of those who voted saying that direct aisle access was either critical or very important in business class. Given this clear message from BA customers can we expect to see a revamp of club……..sadly, and given their woeful performance with First, I think it unlikely.

[AllOverTheGaff]

HighFlyerLON – 14/04/2013 10:05 GMT
Finally, thank you BA for being there in this outrageous air travel industry; but not just being, but being better than everyone else! It’s always a pleasure to fly BA!

Dear HighFlyerLON

They say the art of great comedy is all in the timing – on that front sir, you are a genius.

Thanks for brightening my Sunday.

🙂
AOTG.

[bacrew1]

Lovely post JefferyDavison! and is appreciated!

[canucklad]

Hip. Hip, Hooray and I doff my cap…

Good to see BA partly taking my advice 🙂

Would like to see them be more courageous and integrate the fleets totally.

Some of the anti mixed fleet comments just prove my point about elitism and remembering that over the months there have also been as many critics of “legacy” flights…. So will it make that much difference if there was only 1 fleet, called………

Emm, lets see ……British Airways cabin crew –customer focussed and engaged on the fare paying customer…young and old crew (sorry experienced) working together as equals ! Proud to be the best of “ British”

[handbag]

JefferyDavison – 14/04/2013 09:30 GMT
Good to feel appreciated. Thank you.

[Author]

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