Originally Posted by Max Angle
I just don't get involved in wheelchair requests anymore, we are not allowed to make company radio calls or PA's once we have left cruise altitude anyway. It's normally on the telex/pbi to the destination and if it's not then we will sort it once we get there. To be honest it's one of those things I always felt was "not my department" in the first place and the rule about company RT in the descent gave us the perfect excuse to stop worrying about it.
I can appreciate what you are saying there Max Angle, but when you work for a low cost airline with 20-30 minute turn arounds, you can't just sort it out on arrival. At LGW quite often OCS will give a lead time of around about 45 minutes before they can get to your aircraft, if the assistance hasn't been pre-booked. This obviously means you are late for your next sector as you will not be able to board or complete your security checks until the assistance pax have been removed from your aircraft.
And unfortunately a "not my department" attitude means it's the cabin crew who have to bare the brunt of the quite rightly disgruntled pax's complaints, when a quick radio call before leaving the cruise could ensure that the pax receive the assistance that they require.