At the (absolutely enormous, I suspect) risk of offending everyone, let me throw in my tuppence worth on what has become the sub-subject of this thread.
Delsey diners make up a proportion of the cabin crews of every airline in the world – it’s certainly not something exclusive to EK. (In my first airline, I recall ‘I have to wash my hair’, ‘I have to get my Christmas cards written’ (in *** September!), and what topped the lot was the FA who took a sewing machine with her on an overnight.)
Call it inverse snobbery or good taste, the fact is, there are young ladies out there who have decided for one reason or another that they don’t like to socialize with tech crew. In all too many cases, the one reason is no other than some pilot did ’er wrong, and by some peculiar twist of logic, all pilots are henceforth tarred with the same broad brush.
However, all that is of no consequence to the bigger problem we’ve been discussing here. The fact is - and it should make anyone in EK management uncomfortable – for too long now, we’ve been experiencing a far too heavy turnover of cabin crew. I know that there has been a school of thought quite high up in Management that this is not such a bad thing – that fresh blood, younger faces (and let’s face it, shapely, lissome bods) are exactly what the airline wants and will continue to want.
That might have had some merit in the days when EK was a small semi regional operator, but it isn’t the case any more. We need to retain experienced cabin crew, but in all too many cases, the very ones who have the get up and go EK so desperately needs to retain do just that – they get up and go, in all too many cases, after patently silly (or bloody minded) decisions from their supervisors. I’ve said for some time now that we need to consider some system of awarding a higher Grade to senior crew who stay on (which translates, of course, into ‘who are invited to stay on’), with perhaps a few extra perks thrown in, like education and medical allowance for kids, or something equally attractive to the non-marrieds. But a suggestion like that will cost money, (to which I say ‘will it really, when all things are taken into account?), so we know where that will go.
Sadly, this too high turnover results in crew working First and Business Class who just shouldn’t be there – at least not yet in their careers. (My record is because of no-show crew and late callouts, a Grade 2 just three weeks out of training school working FC – on an 8 day trip.) With the best will in the world, a kid not long out of Neasdon Comprehensive or Penrif ‘igh isn’t ready to work First Class. Quite recently I sat in Row 3 of a full First Class cabin and, (I can only assume, along with every other passenger in the cabin), was treated to a far too detailed account of the recent events in the love life of the Grade 1 sitting in her jump seat at L1 as the aircraft made its approach for landing.
Last row in Business class in an A345 on a mostly night time13+ hour sector? Rest? Forget it. Between talking amongst themselves and (it seemed to me) constantly crashing the bins in the Business Class galley back into their stowage places (with absolutely no attempt to be gentle) as they prepared for the breakfast service, the crew kept everyone in at least the last row of Business Class awake.
I’ve had the occasional flight where the service to the cockpit has been near to non-existent and what has appeared has been very poor, even slapdash. It’s been my experience that if we in the cockpit are receiving poor service, you can almost guarantee the pax are receiving similar poor service. However, I have to say the opposite is usually the case, but unfortunately, the examples where it’s poor are more frequent lately.
It’s not human nature to write about what pleases you, only what upsets you. I have to say that the vast majority of EK cabin crew do a damn fine job and deserve the many awards they have received. But they are let down by the few, and not just the few poor performers on the line, but the few supervisors who have allowed those few poor performers on the line to remain in place. A good Purser is worth his or her weight in gold. It’s been my experience that a good Purser can get good results even out of an inexperienced crew. But it seems to me it can be damn hard work for the very good ones on some occasions, and for too long now, IFS Management have put two or three people back on the line after Pursers have reported incidents that should have merited at the very least, a huge kick in the tail and perhaps termination for the crewmember involved. But the faces re-appear on the line because of (I suspect) the very reasons TD has taken the rather drastic step he did in sacking his immediate subordinates – the ‘habibi factor’.