[RichHI1]

Magnus77, obviously a good business has to meet the needs and aspirations of its customers in a profitable manner. So therefore both saving and cutting waste an pleasing pax are important.

As an AA elite (EXP same BA EC Gold and above) I get continual questionaires from AA about changes thye have made or are considering and this feedback is acted on by AA management (doesn’t mean they don’t cut stuff but they do seem to take account of pax priorities). Do BA not do a similar thing and ask BA elites how Cabin Service is going? As I am told the MF crews wear different unfiroms and it is not a covert operation, I can see no reason forthem not doing it.

[HonestCrew]

Thanks Magnus.
It is felt things will not change until Willie Walsh leaves IAG. There are some folk who are determined to make MF work and others who want to highlight the benefits of integration. Integration will be a big two fingers to Walsh as it was his and his wingmen’s baby and I can’t see anyone at BA wanting to do that, especially with IAG golloping up BMI and all the juicy new job roles that might be up for grabs!
A few years from now it may be possible to say all the MF crew are great and every flight runs as great as BA thinks they do. But, and it’s a big but, BA will continue to recruit young people with no customer service experience on low pay (which does not attract applicants with better skills) forever now unless things change. This is seen as the way forward and something has to change.

Rich. MF girls wear hats and I believe the girls all wear skirts, not the ugly unfeminine trousers other fleets can wear. They look smart and the hats ensure their hair is up and well held, adding to their excellent grooming. The majority of WW and EF crew do not want hats both for reasons of ‘difficulty controlling said hair’ (!) and also so not to be mistaken for being MF.
Apart from this, uniforms are the same, but MF management do perform regular grooming checks which older crew would see as being patronising, even though some of them could do with a little ‘advice’.

Right, off to the footy. Toodle-pip!

[Hippocampus]

In response to Rich and HonestCrew:

I don’t think the company has got everything right with Mixed Fleet. Ideally the growth should have been slower. Mixed Fleet numbers in the first year should have been in the hundreds not 1,000+. This would have made it much easier for management to nib in the bud teething problems. Mixed Fleet should have also operated 3 class long-haul routes initially where you deliver a set service routine rather than 4 class long-haul routes where First requires a much more bespoke individual service. I can also understand that some of the language in the recruitment campaigns and uniform differences have caused unnecessary friction.

If crew want Mixed Fleet integrated then it is upon them to offer a business case to the company that works for everyone. I emphasise the words business case. Crew have to look at this from the perspective at works for the business, not just their own interests. Bear in mind that many in IAG wanted bmi to remain a separate “BA Express” operation to BA, However, BALPA foresaw this and agreed on productivity savings to allow bmi pilots to be integrated into BA.

Also, I don’t think some of the comments by current/ex cabin crew on this and other public fora (one crew member on here recently branded Mixed Fleet crews slags) do crew any favours at all and only reinforce the need to keep them separate.

[RichHI1]

Hippocampus thank you for your candour.

It is an interesting point that those who are fortunate enough not to have to write business cases for seemingly everything perhaps see things in a very different light. As a small businessman I am unfortunately wedded to the business case as it is the only way to run an efficient business.

I suppose there is then the discusison of time horizons for business cases and pay back periods. Luckily have no other stockholders I am not subject to the short termist pressure which hogties many corporate managers wishig to implement long term improvements.

[VintageKrug]

Indeed, I think it’s (sadly) essential to keep MF separate from the legacy crews,for a wide range of reasons.

I agree with Hippo that MF was introduced rather more quickly than would have been ideal, and this was especially evident when they started working on F routes, and to a lesser extent in Club World largely around the speed of service, both of which seem to have improved markedly in recent months.

What should be remembered is that as recently as June 2011, legacy fleet was threatening to strike and BA had to get these MF people trained and out working in order to guarantee to run all longhaul services exLHR in the event of another strike; it was quite simply the right thing to do at the time.

[RichHI1]

So VK how would you balance the drivers of accelerating this between cost savings and destroying the effect of industrial action, 50 50 or more 20 80?

[VintageKrug]

I don’t think you can put it in such simple terms, primarily because of the range and types of routes MF serves, and the many other pressures on BA last year (oil price/Middle East instability, volcano threat, delay in A380/787 delivery and need to store up cash to acquire bmi to mention but a few issues which sat alongside the strike).

However, the driver for MF was always overwhelmingly cost reduction, to bring it into line with most other new contracts available at other top flight international carriers.

[MartynSinclair]

MF and Legacy working together appears to be like the England football team. A group of players that find it impossible to work as a team because they are so jealous of each others contracts.

[HonestCrew]

A good analogy Martyn with regards the football players, but I don’t think there will be a problem with jealousy of contracts at BA. WW and EF crew work together with some crew on ‘old contract’ and some on ‘new contract’. Old contract crew earn a far higher basic wage giving them a significantly higher monthly salary. New contract crew (who were recruited after around 1998) have a lower basic wage but are happy to do the job for that money. There is never any talk of earnings amongst crew. Similarly, MF crew know how much they will earn and if they stick with the job it is presumed they are happy earning that wage.
MF pay is low, therefore will only ever attract the very youngest of applicants with very little experience and not folk from a variety of customer service backgrounds as always happened in the past.
The future of BA crew will be 18-22 yr old people with basic education, learning customer service from trial and error on the job, who will work for a couple of years before moving on elsewhere to earn a real liveable wage. This is ideal for the money counters at BA as it means very few annual wage increment rises and less of a pension burden. If BA want professional crew who know what customers of all nationalities want they must do something otherwise we will turn into a scheduled Ryanair with free drinks and the Union Jack.

Yes, the crew will be smart, youthful, ‘easy on the eye’ and cost efficient, but is this enough to keep BA at the highest level?
Time will tell I suppose.

[Henkel.Trocken]

I’ve said before that having been a party to initiatives like Mixed Fleet in many industries over many years that over time Mixed Fleet as it stands now will be deemed to be a failure. That of course will never be admitted but the conditions people are employed on now will be relaxed to attract the right people to the job rather than to put ‘bums on jump seats’. It has happened everywhere that initiatives like this have been taken.

Ultimately there will be integration too because EF and WW will at some point become unviable alone. That would take years but the day will come.

In the current situation you have many excellent crew in WW and EF and like in any big organisation you have a few rotten apples in the barrell. I suspect the rotton apples in this case also have rather loud voices and tend to air their views for the majority. I know for instance a member of WW cabin crew who is a neighbour of mine would gladly change some of her conditions of working to be closer to mixed fleet as though she loves her job and I’m sure she’s excellent at it would like to be away from home for less time and she would like the ability to do short haul for perhaps four months a year and generally work more flexibly.

Of course she is not about to take a pay cut and ask to join mixed fleet but she has thought about it. She can’t be the only member of WW and EF crews who would like to do things a bit differently.

There is no doubt in any sane person’s mind that Walsh got the approach wrong over management of cabin crew. I have been party to implementation of some much bigger changes and the key to success is always in allowing people to feel in control of change and offer them opportunities they want as a result while at the same time asking for some concessions as a result. The approach has to be individual and it is achievable even in the largest organisations. There will always be some people who don’t want to change anything but you can always cope with them.

The real power for change at BA now lies with the WW and EF crews to make proposals about how things could work better and how they could work with the MF crews to develop the customer experience and work together without changing things like pay.

Walsh made the classic mistake of disempower people and they fight, he has to all intents and purposes gone. I’m sure the many wise crew at BA who are not militant knew exactly what was coming from his time at EI and decided to weather the storm.

The storm is over, it’s time to take control of your jobs again and decide to get back to doing what you do best. I have no doubt that recent times have been awful but the future can be much better if you choose to make it that way and stop hanging on to the bitterness of the past. The choice ladies and gentlemen is yours. I would sieze the day!

[JulianCucumberpatch]

That is an excellent post Henkel.

So much is true in what you have written. I am really surprised that someone with so little experience and such a poor record in industrial relations, was put in charge of a PLC like British Airways. Last night I was watching “Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” and it looked like a biopic of our ex CEO’s extended family.

Most Legacy crew have moved on and that it shown in the fact that absenteeism is at a historic low. It is ridiculous and wasteful to have everything doubled up such as the management of crew and standby, because of BA’s dogma in keeping Mixed Fleet a separate entity..for the moment.

[HonestCrew]

Good positive post by Henkel.
Moving forward is the only way but to really get things going BA must show staff they are valued. Plus there are a couple of members of crew management who have lost all respect and who no one takes seriously any more. They should be shuffled off elsewhere within BA and replaced with someone fresh.

Only then will morale rise and things improve. There is still so much bitterness which reflects in the service and effort crew put into the job, bitterness that is fully justifiable but stoppable should everyone work together.

[NewBAexec]

There has been a mention of Gatwick single fleet being like MF when it first went ahead. I flew with them every year to go on holiday since it started. I can categorically say that it was not and has never been like MF. What I have experienced on MF is a joke! A kid calling passenger “mate” in First!

When speaking to Gatwick crew, a lot of them had 5-20 years experience working as crew in BA. I remember the CM on my flight was an ex worldwide Gatwick CSD. What I find about Gatwick crew is that they are as experienced as the WW fleet at LHR but much friendlier.
Many of them came from EF Gatwick and WW Gatwick and brought their experience along. It is just a shame that LHR looked down on them just because they were not part of their legacy fleet.

Having flown with them to Mauritius recently, they were excellent and all very experienced. Very good PA’s all professional, even French PA’s were made before and after take off for the French customers. And they don’t have this bitter attitude towards MF even though Gatwick crew are on better salary, terms and conditions than their fellow colleagues at MF. However they do agree that the standards are going down!

[Henkel.Trocken]

JulianCucumberpatch – 26/02/2012 13:23 GMT Thank you for your positive comment about my post however it is unfortunate that you followed it up with the comment about Walsh, if it was meant to be funny it wasn’t and if you didn’t mean it to be funny you are someone who needs to move on – quickly and maybe out of BA.

HonestCrew – 26/02/2012 14:39 GMT Thank you also for your comment. When I said sieze the day I meant don’t let people who are still in post limit you and get in the way. In all organisations there are middle managers who shoudl be put out to grass and BA is no exception. If you let these people get to you, they continue to win. Just rise above them, put on your best smile and rise above them – if you let them get in your way, they win. Time will sort them out. I never thing shuffling people around is a good idea, why move a problem? Remember positive energy is far more powerful than negative and if you adopt a positive strategy, you will win – almost every time!

FWIW, I’m a ‘Change Management Consultant’ I’ve overseen some huge projects over many years and never encountered industrial action as a consequence of the work I and my team have done. The changes BA needed to make were in the scale of things minor and in terms of company sizes, BA are not that big. They just got it so wrong and it’s difficult to believe they made so many mistakes. Hopefully a few heads have rolled.

[firclaonly]

I am a gold card holder with BA flying often in First and the things
that happend to my since this guys took over the Atlanta – Heathrow route was unbelievable(well actualy now it went back to the profesional guys)because lets say, a big coperate acount was to be lost by BA if the wouldnt have done so.here is my story on that particular flight.first after take off the Service manager was greeting the First Class passengers with high fives.then before diner i was noticing that the wine was not coresponding with the winelist and when i asked the FA why that is,she just said “is shit isnt it “never in my live i have spoken to like that i couldnt believe what i just heard.this guys never worked in a posh restaurant or have the experience to do so and if you pay serious money you want at least a bit of respect(not been called love or darling) and a profesional cultivated service.the a ruining the BA brand and but thats what you get if you pay peanuts ….

[Author]

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