Diplome
Of course we all aprreciate the value of CC on the aircraft, it is expected and mostly appreciated.
Having just flown home with Ryanair last night the contrast between quality and level of service is profound and clearly inferior in that airline relative to BA. Having said that the staff are friendly and willing if not mostly a little inexperienced and sometimes lacking in confidence. What is noticeable on this airline is how the extent of the crews duties seems to expand slightly each time I fy with them. Apart from having to clean the a/c on turnaround I now notice they have to get out of the a/c and marshall the passengers in and out of the bus/terminal in rain as well as shine. Presumably this reduces the handling charges slightly so is bottom line motivated. I wonder how much resistance was shown to O'Leary when this change was introduced. Oh and coming soon on Ryanair unlimited luggage allowance providing you can get it to the ramp where it will be put in the hold, no doubt the cc will be expected to get involved in that as well, no resistance expected.
I will be travelling longhaul with BA on the 21st and will be presenting my cc with a token of appreciation as indeed I did last time I flew during the strike. Incidentally looking at the schedule it seems to me that BA are maintaining a much fuller long haul schedule than last time. Both LHR DEL flights are running every day, this schedule is said to be conservative and will build through each strike period which does not bode well for the strikers at all.
My earlier comments whilst borne out of frustration do raise some vaild points, we all expect to see cc on the a/c because it is the established Norm. Progress however often means challenging the established Norms. Let us not forget that improvements in technology removed firstly the navigator then the flight engineer from civil airliners. At one time such an audacious move was considered reckless but now it is the Norm. Possibly we are only a couple of generations away from pilotless airliners but I suspect before that they will become cc'less very much along the Eurostar model. IA such as this can only accelerate that process.