As
Air New Zealand , aka Air Sheep, only operate a 737 from Brisbane to Christchurch - whereas
QANTAS run a 76 - AND because I have
always found the QF cabin crew far more genial and less despotic than TE's, I decided to give my family a break from the
sun,
sea, and
sand, of the Gold Coast, and fly across to the Shaky Isles for a couple of weeks.
(There's a great little town called Hanmer Springs about 130kms north of Christchurch, that offers fantastic scenery, great restaurants, thermal pools, jet boating, etc).
We were fortunate enough to have enough FF points to get an upgrade to Business Class, and perhaps that was ONE reason that the cabin service was
par excellence, along with pretty good solid and liquid consumables!
The time in Hanmer was relaxing, and not expensive as the NZD runs at around 2:1 to the USD, and the flight back to Oz was fairly much on a par (from the cabin service aspect) with the one going over.
However, on BOTH occasions the Captain made the PA, and in EACH case there was not a mention of the
First Officer's name.
Likewise with the "Welcome" PA made by the cabin crew prior to flight - the Captain's name, and that of the Senior cabin attendant and one or 2 others is given - but no acknowledgement of the second-in-command's presence.
If nothing else, I would have thought that
common COURTESY would dictate including the F/O's name in at least one of the PA's - probably the Captain's.
It IS something that I, as a
full fare-paying passenger/customer notice.
