Firstly pd2, you say you were at the overwings, was the seat you had, the one listed on your boarding pass, or had you moved there because you could see the flight wasnt busy?
I recently had a very similar incident to that that pd2 described, coming out of LUX on the 737-400. The gentleman in question acted in exactly the same manner as pd2! Don't think it was you though!
At BA we are given a list of blocked seats just before the doors are closed, and as has been explained before, these seats should nt be occupied for take off or landing! The weight and balance of the aircraft is finally calculated once the 'flight has closed'. Which is why you hear of passengers who have virtually no knowledge of aviation complaining when they are denied boarding, and stating they were only 4 mins late from checkin closing!
This calculation process starts then!! And the blocking of seats begins, when it is a light load! On this particular flight I operated, we even had ballast of sacks of sand in the hold to maintain the crucial weight and trim of the aircraft!
I was once told that we have this particular problem at BA rather than any other operator of the B 737-400, as we only have a max of 147 seats fitted as opposed to some who have 172!! How true that is I don't know, maybe one of my BA flight Crew boys or girls can confirm or deny!
As for pd2.. Look at it another way, if it wasn't a problem for you to stay where you were do you think we d have let you stay there... YES, we would. As cabin crew these days, we get so many amateur pilots who think they know best, and can be quite vocal in their distain for our role sometimes, that we really don't go out of our way to pee you off you know!!
Still say each gate area should show a short video on a loop " Fundamentals of Flying", to explain simple things like why we do a demo.. Etc etc!,
But hey what do I know.. I'm just a simple hosti!
Last edited by bunnygirl; 11th September 2010 at 12:54.