Trolly pushers cant be asked

[Lanc53]

On a recent Thomson flight, crew pushed a trolley past me but would not take my empty drinks cartons etc. I wanted to clear my tray so I could get to the toilet. But they couldn’t be asked. Not even an offer to do so later, just a flat refusal.
I obviously wasn’t on their trolley schedule.
On the return journey they would not move the drinks trolley up the isle one row
So I could get to the toilet.
They seem to have no thought other than to push the drinks trolley according to their way of doing things .
Is this where training overcomes customer service?

Can any one explain this behaviour?

:confused:

[Final 3 Greens]

Troll alert

[sea oxen]

FTG

That's not very helpful. I'm sure that the OP is just asking about.

I'm wondering about which isle it was - (IOM?), and what the trolly pusher was doing there.

Leaving that aside, the answer is that the trolleys need to be pushed in a certain sequence in order to maintain the correct balance of the aircraft. A sensor attached to the trolley calculates the weight added to, or taken from, the trolley. The pilots can then operate the trim wheels to keep the aircraft in level flight.

It is expected for the cabin crew to be thrashed with a birch if they fail to observe the carefully-rehearsed sequence of trolley movement developed during preparation for the flight.

There will be a call button near your seat, and you may use this to indicate that you need to visit the lavatory. A cabin crew member will attend to you and alert the flight deck to the temporary change in the aircraft's CoG. You should also mention whether it's a wee-wee or a do-do as this can be critical.

HTH,
SO

[Chuchinchow]

Oh, how we all laughed.:}

[Load Toad]

Some people see the trolley as half empty - others half full.

[ExSp33db1rd]

Is the trolley pushed by platelayers ?

[Lanc53]

following your theory all in flight duty free sales should be banned. the speed at cabin crew with moved with with litre bottles of booz was excessive. (it was the only time they did move with any speed)
I tmust have been hell for the poor pilots to keep control whilst all those bottles were re-distributed around the aircraft.


any other sensible answers?

[Steve888]

What if the trolley was on a conveyor belt moving in the opposite direction...

[boardingpass]

why would someone serving food or drink from a cart want to touch and store your dirty plates and rubbish? You don't mix gash and service - any Wally knows that.

As for trying to disrupt the service to go piddle, my mum always told me, before going to bed or before going on a trip, you go to the toilet. Please blame your mother for an impoverished upbringing.

[Rusland 17]

Troll alertsays the man who starts a new thread every time someone at BA fails to kiss his a*se... :p

[Lanc53]

Re boardingpass-

at last something like a reasonable answer.
But an explanation (at the time) would have been nice.

I will now leave you with all the 5 year olds to enjoy their toilet jokes.

[G-BPED]

any other sensible answers?

Surely you didn't expect any at all did you? :}

[PAXboy]

Was that Troll or Trolley? Sorry, I wasn't reading too carefully as I knew it was April First.

Lanc53, if your question is real, "It happens". On a busy sector, I've seen CC looking left and right to make sure that they miss no one and - at the split second they are about to look at me - they get called by a person on the opposite side of the aisle, who has a long and complicated request and ... It's irritating but you may have to be more assertive (politely so!).

Lanc53 if your request is not real (or even if it is!!) Welcome aboard the PPRuNe cabin, get yourself a drink and stretch out your legs more easily than if you were in 65F and enjoy the fabulous company. :ok:

[lowcostdolly]

Lance53 Welcome to PPrune.......from a "trolley pusher" to the SLF ;)

I can be "asked" to answer your post. I don't work for Thomsonfly but I have done charter in the past so I have a good insight into the demands of a charter service from the CC point of view. I don't however know TOM's current standard operating procedures for their service and yes every airline has these to a greater or lesser extent. My answer would be based on mine.

In order for me to try and give a balanced answer pertinent to your flight please would you say what aircraft and route you were travelling? That will make a difference to CC response as well. Also without going into details do you have any medical condition that meant you had to go loo immedietly?

Just a little tip....if you want CC to explain behaviour/procedures you might be better off asking the question in the CC forum.

LCD :)

Quote: F3G

So how would you describe a company charging £12K for a £4K ticket and not fully refunding it?


Thread drift alert F3G :oh:

[Final 3 Greens]

Thread drift alert F3G

It was that big boy Rusland wot did it missus, then he ran away (as usual)

[sea oxen]

Lanc53

I do apologise - that wasn't polite of me.

It was hard of me to grasp what you meant, though. When you say that they couldn't be 'asked', what do you mean? Would they not listen, or did you mean that they could not be troubled to do so? If it were the latter, the expression 'arsed' is the word you want,

As boardingpass points out, you can hardly expect CC to be caterers and refuse collectors at the same time - although on some sectors, I admit that the distinction becomes blurred.

On the return journey they would not move the drinks trolley up the isle one row
So I could get to the toilet.
They seem to have no thought other than to push the drinks trolley according to their way of doing things .

How long was the trolley there? As far as 'their way of doing things' is concerned - well, yes. That's their job.

This phenomenon is very familiar to LH passengers, especially with an early-morning arrival. Everyone is woken/waking up and breakfast is served. You have 20 minutes to dodge the carts and get rid of the coffee (and the wine from the night before) before the seat belt lights are switched on and it's Tycho Brahe time.

Moreover, the floor of an overnight flight from London to SIN or BKK looks like a Manila garbage dump. They've designed those little plastic cups so they're *just* big enough to get into the seat pocket when they're empty, but they spring out when you're not watching. :) They roll around all night.

F3G
Equitable Life? <ducks>

SO

[Final 3 Greens]

When you say that they couldn't be 'asked', what do you mean?

Arsed perhaps?

[Capetonian]

I'm sure I'll get flak from some of you for saying this, but when this happened to me on an Aerolineas Argentinas flight (MAD-BUE) in C class, after I'd asked them 3 times and had the service light on for 30 minutes, I put the stuff onto the floor in the aisle. When they finally did come to clear it, I had the pleasure of being able to be as rude to them in Spanish as they were to me, thinking I wouldn't understand.

Their only competition, if you can call it that, on the route was Iberia and Air Vomit, so hardly surprising that their service is so appalling.

[MPN11]

Not that any airline I can think of actually gives you anywhere to put your garbage, of course. As a result, on LH, you can spend 8+ hours surrounded by the detritus of your sad but temporary existence in an aluminium tube. Climb over it when disembarking.

It would be nice, as they say, if the [usually non-existent] water/juice rounds were accompanied by a trolley for trash. That doesn't even happen on some 'premium' carriers in Club. Which is a BAD thing. ;)

How hard would it be to issue a 'trash bag' to every pax?

[jetset lady]

How hard would it be to issue a 'trash bag' to every pax?


Ooooh! We do....We do!

Well, we do if you're down the back. On short haul. If you have a tea or a coffee or a sandwich. If it's one of the few routes that still have sandwiches.....

In fact, why don't we do it on all routes? It would makes so much more sense even if not all people use them. The majority do and it definitely does make things much easier for all sides. I shall investigate! :cool:

Jsl

P.S. I don't think it would ever work in the premium cabins though. It just doesn't look right.

[MPN11]

@ JSL ... thanks for that! Whilst I understand that the 'premium carriers' wouldn't want to hand out trash-bags, it would help if they cleared up occasionally - especially in Club.

I'm not expecting CC to double-up as cleaners, but it would be nice in a Premium cabin to have the option of doing something other than dumping stuff under my feet or in the aisle ;)

BTW ... I'm being reasonably light-hearted here, on a fairly serious issue, before the 'Outrage Bus' turns up at my house!

[jetset lady]

MPN11,

Sorry. I got very excited there for a second! But you're right regarding the premium cabins. The reason we don't have waste carts in the cabin is because crew should be walking through with a tray throughout the flight clearing in empty glasses, rubbish, plates etc. It looks better and is less likely to disturb those that may be sleeping. It's a particular bug bear of mine when I see crew stroll past, whilst managing to completely "miss" things that need tidying away. :ugh:

[sea oxen]

MPN11

I am alarmed to hear of this happening in premium cabins. Any carrier in particular? I mean, this is glassware we're talking about, right? Any scenario outside what JSL mentions would seem extraordinary. In 25 years of flying (mostly) at the left-hand side or upstairs, I've yet so see this.

In Y on a LH, it's almost inevitable that you'll grab something, either from the galley or from someone wandering by. I dislike untidiness as much as the next man, but it hardly warrants hitting the call button or staying awake for the next muster. And there's that nice 'crunch' sound when people retrieve their baggage. :)

I'd like to say that I'd report back, but I shan't - I shall never fly Y LH again unless I am guaranteed an exit seat. I'm too old and tall for it. How jaded I've become. On my first LH flight I'd have sat on a Punji stick. This wasn't introduced until the 747-300, after my time.

SO

[Rush2112]

Last month I flew SIN - CDG - SIN in economy and I hit upon this notion of taking my empty plastic cup that had previously been full of wine and dumping it in the rubbish thing in the loo while attending to my pre-snooze ablutions.

[Load Toad]

Anarchist!

Showing initiative will not be tolerated.

[ExSp33db1rd]

Southwest Airlines crew in the US of A pass frequently through the cabin dragging big black plastic garbage sacks into which they invite you to drop anything you care to.

If I'm lucky enough to find a blanket in a plastic bag - happens sometimes - I hang the bag on the thing that holds the tray table up, or fashion some other sort of hook, and drop everything into it, 'specially those plastic tops, or red-hot foils off a main meal, otherwise, just where do you put them, there certainly isn't any spare room on the tray.

If I can't find a blanket bag, then I use the sick bag.

[lowcostdolly]

MPN11 my mob do automatically issue a trash receptacle to the pax... AKA a seatpocket :eek:

The CC have not been informed of this formally though.....we just find it on turnaround!! That's despite the fact we do go through the cabin regularly with a gash (rubbish) bag.

The frequency of trash collection does vary between carrier but this is something lowco do very well. What we don't clear during the flight we have to do on our time assesed turnarounds where we have to clean the plane :( That motivates us to clear in the rubbish.

Oops sorry management we don't "clean" do we :oh:.......we "tidy"!!! If we "cleaned" we would have to be paid to do this AND would be in conflict with food handling regs :suspect:

[lowcostdolly]

Lance53 you want a sensible reply......I will do my best bearing in mind I don't work fot Tui/Thomsonfly. I'm going to assume you flew on a 757 to a mid haul non eu destination as you make reference to the duty free service......hope I'm near the mark :ok: I've worked on a 757 so know how narrow the aisles are not to mention the seat pitch ;)

Firstly SEP (safety) training will overide service training in any UK airline. Most airlines including my own have rules on how many rows a CC member should be away from the trolley. This is in case of unexpected turbulence,decompression etc. You will not realise that of course when you want the trolley moved.

Also if we do move the trolley every time we are asked the disruption to the service is significant to the pax waiting to be served. On charter it is even more so as the CC have a laid down service to complete in a limited amount of time.

My colleague Boardingpass also makes a good point. We should not be picking up trash/dirty plates on a clean service trolley. We don't have the room anyway despite the food hygiene regs. Charter carriers such as Tui have a much better insight to these regs as their CC are true "food handlers". We at my lot for the most part handle wrapped food.

I do however take your point re explanations from the CC. Certainly at my mob the callibre of new recruits is diminishing. They are getting younger with less "customer service" experience or "people handling" skills. Some I have even found to be on power trips in some situations and I, as the SCCM, end up sweeping up after this.

Our SOP's are meant as a guide. It is not unreasonable of a CC member to expect an adult to wait say 3 rows until they move the trolley to allow them access to the loo.....but they should offer a polite refusal/explanation which would engage you and some unfortunatly dont :(. If you have a medical reason i.e IBS which needs the trolley moved immediatly then the CC should oblige. Just as we would oblige with a child.

Hope this answers your question.

LCD :)

[kenhughes]

I once put my rubbish in the barf bag (never being airsick, it wasn't going to get used for its intended purpose). The look on the FA's face was treat when I handed it to her - until I explained it was just my coffee cup and snack wrappings.

The look went even worse and I've not had the courage to do it again. :ouch:

[Ixixly]

I May regret making this simple observation later but...

1. Pick up tray with offending items
2. Move self
3. Replace tray in original position
4. Go to Loo
5. Return to seat
6. Pick up tray with offending items
7. Place self into seat

7 Simple steps?

In the event you AREN'T in an Aisle seat where these steps work, you'll be obviously next to other pax eating...so wouldn't it have been a sensible to think "Gee, everyone is going to have their trays down in a few minutes, I might nip to the loo quickly". I dunno, that is just what I do.

[Final 3 Greens]

It would not have been a good wind up if it contained common sense, would it?

[bealine]

How hard would it be to issue a 'trash bag' to every pax?

Dunno about charters, but on full service carriers, I get my blanket and goodies out of the plastic bag very carefully (so that the bag doesn't rip to pieces) and I use the evil polythene wrapper for any rubbish which may accumulate around my seat. After the crew have made their rounds preparatory to landing, my seat space is still clean.

Simples!

[Rush2112]

Dunno about charters, but on full service carriers, I get my blanket and goodies out of the plastic bag very carefully (so that the bag doesn't rip to pieces) and I use the evil polythene wrapper for any rubbish which may accumulate around my seat. After the crew have made their rounds preparatory to landing, my seat space is still clean.

Simples!

Ha, more initiative LT!

[Radar66]

On a recent low cost flight, I too wanted to empty the contents of my tray into a rubbish bag that was being offered around the cabin. However when I tried to dispose of my newspaper, I was informed that it wasn't the correct bag for that sort of thing - recycling and all that - and they would be back around again with the correct bag for papers.

Could it be that you offered the 'wrong' kind of rubbish at the time? :confused:

In the future, I suggest that you do what I do for your personal convenience. Retain a plastic carrier bag for your own personal rubbish bag and use that to dispose of your trash as and when during your flight. Then this can be easily moved when you want to vacate your seat for any reason.

[Heidhurtin]

Me never h'd a problum. Just chuck it all into the aisle, one of 'em 'll pick it up wen dey trundle past, or de trolley would stuck.

Simples!

(Hat, coat, heading for the door..........)