What irritates me the most is that I have seen positioning crews flout the rules in one way or another. Then they come on these forums and preach to us pax.
No excuse for positioning crew talking through the demo. Most crew I know will make a point of paying attention... I certainly do, even when in uniform.
For many CC crews it's purely a job and they actually know near to nothing about aviation. They simply enforce - parrot fashion - what was taught them in their training course. For obvious reasons these training courses are, with the exception of some of the more major carriers, somewhat simplified just to meet the regulatory requirements. Many new CC then come to the job honestly believing that THEY know it all. Their lack of real knowledge and their patronising attitudes to hide this fact can easily encourage regular pax to rebel.
Give me a break. Crew know more about their role than what you do....fact. True, many spotters know stuff regarding such matters as flap settings that your average crew member wouldn't have a clue about but don't say that spotters know more than crew about their job.
That said, there are technical matters that crew know that your average spotter probably wouldn't.
What happens if there is a decompression specifically in the flightdeck?
How can the flight crew of an airbus escape if the door fails and evacuation throught the windows is not possible?
How long does PSU oxygen last for?
How long does the emergency lights last for?
How do you use a deflated slide on the overwings of an airbus?
I could go on. Sure, you may know some of what a crew knows but you don't know the manual like a crew member does. It's not rocket science by any stretch but unless you are or have been crew you probably don't know more than crew.
I came into this role 7 years ago thinking that I had superior knowledge. In many ways I did but it my knowledge wasn't something I could put into every day use as crew. However, what I learnt on training was stuff that knew nothing about.
A matter I've brought up a couple of times with CC on BA is that in the A319 and 320, the automated briefing tells you to vacate using overwing exits in the case of a water landing. "Other exits may be opened if above the waterline...." However, when a manual briefing is done, this is not mentioned.
The response, give them credit, is that it is a valid point that they will raise with their supervisors.
From my days at GB, the BA video is incredibly long winded and detailed. That isn't always a good thing. IMO going into variables such as what exits to use if above the waterline and how to manually inflate the slide if it fails to inflate automatically can, in a non-derogatory way, confuse people. Keep it simple, to the point and get the vital pieces of info in the demo. The rest can be detailed on the safety card and when there is time to prepare such info can also be specifically targetted to those who need to know.....the ABP's. That is why we have specific criteria and "like to have" for our ABP's as they are likely to be able to take in specific info and act on it.
The BA manual demo never mentioned the fact the bag of your oxygen does not inflate which IMO is far more important as there are many instances where pax have said they weren't receiving oxygen simply because the bag doesn't inflate.