Retro BOAC 747 routes
The kangaroo route was a favourite. It would be a three-week round trip from London to the Middle East – Rome, Bahrain or Tehran – then Bombay, Hong Kong, Singapore or Bangkok before on to Sydney or Melbourne "and sometimes Perth and Darwin" and vice versa.
Working positions on the 747 worked like this. Note this was before equality for women.
Cabin Service Director (always a male) in charge of the aircraft.
Purser First Class (male) in charge up front.
Purser Economy (male in charge 'down the back'
A bird (female) slaved up front and did the PA's.
B bird (female) looked after mums and babies.
C & D (either male or female) worked down the back.
Lounge steward (male) worked up front and looked after the lounge and flight deck.
Steward 1 (male) looked after and cooked the food up front.
Steward 2 (male) looked after and cooked the food down the back.
Bar 'tarts' 1 2 3 & 4 (male or female) worked in the 4 positions down the back selling drinks and duty frees along with renting headsets.
In those days there wasn't club or super club class and first class had 27 or 36 seats. Promotion was usually 'dead man's shoes' and took about 6 years to get from Steward 2 to Steward 1 and another 6 to make Purser.
A Typical 3 week trip from a BOAC steward's diary.
22 Dec 1973 Pax QF760 B707 LHR-ATH-TEH- DEL
23 Dec Asleep
24 Dec Taxi to Agra visit Taj Mahal. Evening Xmas room party with BOAC VC10 crew in the Oberoi plus we invite the Lufthansa 707 crew down the hall to join us for carol singing.Their incredibly young Captain leads them in 'Stille Nacht' (Silent Night) - puts me in mind of the Xmas day truce in WW1
25 Dec The flight we are due to operate diverts to Dum Dum due fog at Delhi airport, we remain in hotel with Xmas lunch provided by BOAC Catering. We are now OFF-SCHEDULE
26 Dec We are told to operate BA812 to HKG. The crew who should have taken that flight are not best pleased as they now have to stay in Delhi OFF-SCHEDULE
27 Dec Evening we Pax on Cathay Convair 880 HKG-KUL-Djakarta-PER.
28 Dec Asleep in the Parmelia. Evening room party plus the Cathay crew
29 Dec PM operate to SYD via MEL (bad turbulence)
30 Dec Bondi
31 Dec Bondi New Years Party on beach
1 Jan 1974 Bondi
2 Jan Bondi Visit Rose Bay and marvel that QF still operate Flying Boats from there (to Lord Howe island?)
3 Jan Operate SYD-HKG
4 Jan Evening operate HKG-BKK
5 Jan R&R in BKK
6 Jan evening operate to BAH
7 Jan Gulf Hotel on standby for diverted flight - no go
8 Jan Due to pax back to LHR on BA743 - but off-loaded so back to the hotel
9 Jan evening repatriation flight to UK on QF Jumbo, but in-flight engine shut down (my second such experience in two months with P&W JT9Ds) and we land in Vienna
10 Jan Lifted back to Blighty on BEA Trident 2 - trip over. £££allowances good
So there you have it -20 days at sea with just 5 flights operated plus 4 pax trips,
but that's how it often was - over forty years ago.
Regarding the upstairs lounge he recalls looking after Sir David Frost back in the days when he commuted to New York for ''that was the week that was''
All he wanted was a plate of smoked salmon and to curl up and go to sleep. On landing he always had strong coffee and orange juice.
RE my anecdotes in this thread about BOAC/BA crew life and lay-overs down route - may I extend the courtesy to Ian Burgess-Barber for his kindness in allowing his memories to be published here.
Best R.
Last edited by rog747; 25th Feb 2019 at 14:11.