BA PA's

[mealie puddin]

Why is it on BA shuttle flights (UK domestic)there is a constant jibber of PA's from the flight deck and cabin. Which are condecending to say the least. On a recent 0655am take off, 1hr10min flight there was 6 Flt deck and atleast 5 cabin PA's. Flt deck, welcome aboard, taxy out, top of climb, flight progress, TOD, and taxi in!!! Who cares that the lights on the left side are Newcastle its dark!! The flights full of business men/women and (commuters) who want to sleep. Also if we managed to remember the flight number to get to the gate then we might manage to remember it to get our bags from the baggage reclaim!! The local time dosen't change much going north/south in the UK. Though the temp 'on the ground' does seem to change between the flight deck and cabin crew!

There must be a dept in BA that says, lets make lots of PA's, now theres a good idea, can I get promoted?

You provide a good service but please shut up a bit.






:ugh: :ugh:

[Airbubba]

>>Who cares that the lights on the left side are Newcastle its dark!! <<

It's probably so you don't look out the right side and see the fighters following you...

[FlyUK]

Must have had a very talkative crew....On a recent trip from HKG to LHR the Captain said welcome aboard speech then said 'i'm sure you don't want to hear me, so i will let you all go to sleep....' That was it till about 20mins before landing...So obviously it varies from crew to crew. But to be quite honest most pax like to be kept informed about whats happening. On a recent holiday to Austria we were sitting on the ground for about 50 mins....nothing said atall...I'm not going to say the airline but as only two package companies travel there this time of year i'm sure you can guess. That has always been the good thing with travelling with BA. They always keep you informed. Even if you only 5mins late, they will talk to you. Well on all my flights they do.

Expedite.

[Scottie]

Mealie Puddin, spot on. You remind me of the time back in February last year when I was on a flight into LGW connecting to an MCO flight.

On taxiing in the FO thanked us all, blah blah blah and then proceeded to thank the crew for a wonderful day so much so that I thought she was going to come out of the flight deck and have a group bonding session with them. :rolleyes:

A bit OTT I thought.

But as Expedite Climb says it is nice to be kept informed. But most airlines I think do this.

[White Knight]

Scottie - I was Cityflyer @ LGW, and must admit that when we were "integrated" at BA found the PA thing totally OTT. Mainly though one had to thank the CC otherwise something nasty may have happened to the tea and coffee that the pilots had asked for....:uhoh: :uhoh:
You're right though, having sat in the back a few times I do think that the FD are over ingratiating towards the CC at BA. There's saying "thanks folks !", and there's saying "thanks :yuk: :yuk: folks !"

[Khaosai]

Welcome on board PA, Inroduction, flight time, enjoy the service and that's it. Landing PA with temp, local time and ETA. Both a max of 30 sec's, Rgds.

[AJ]

There's a good point here. Whilst most pax like the odd PA from the Flightdeck when appropriate, the constant jibber from the cabin PAs visibly irritates many pax - with the volume set on 'high' and a noticeably fatigued voice not helping matters.

It's even more noticeable on low-cost carriers - some cabin crew are so sick and tired of getting promotional PA memos that they simply don't bother anymore...I say leave the propaganda to the inflight magazine dept....

[Boss Raptor]

I have a copy of a some years old book of the BA PA's issued to flight crew, hence they all sound the same :E

However I think communication from the Flight Deck is necessary and enhances the passengers' confidence/experience...long may it continue :ok:

[easyflyer]

When delays occur, frequent updates from fd very important methinks.... however, under normals ops (and with BA's wizzy moving map display) all we need is a hello, TOD and bye one.

Same goes for preplanned cabin announcements, adding in dinner info of course!

[Recover]

Mealie,

You think you've got problems; try doing the same PA 4 times a day.

Unfortunately we are required to do certain PAs (although, I agree, it is outrageous on some of the LH flights when the same thing gets said in about 5 different languages; enroute USA!). Besides welcome aboard-type stuff, we're also meant to introduce key members of the crew, give basic details of the flight, add another welcome to those codeshare pax travelling (allegedly for legal reasons), tell everybody to pay attention to the safety briefing, get 'safety & security s BA's primary concern' in there somewhere and tell everybody to stay strapped in when they're seated. The en-route PA is pretty much standard across most airlines and yes, we're supposed to remind everybody about their flight number when we taxy to the gate (you may well remember, but you'd be surprised how many people don't). I think we talk too much but, apparently, we're supposed to be standardised in what we say.....yeah right :hmm:

[MarkD]

Am frequent on London-Canada routes and have no problem with PAs, generally on topic. Last trip routed near Niagara and flight deck let everyone know, except I was strapped in for landing and on wrong side!

Wish that bloody wellbeing video was optional though, DVT liability CYA I suppose.

[Globaliser]

Good earplugs will keep some of the PAs out (although unfortunately many of them are done before it's sensible to put them in). The Top of Descent announcement often serves as an alarm call for me, maybe because my brain is expecting it and knows that it has to wake up - but I do sometimes manage to sleep right through until the cabin crew are securing the cabin for landing.

The extent to which DVT videos are being shown - undoubtedly for legal liability reasons - is getting ridiculous. I've become used to seeing them on SYD-CBR flights, flying time about 25 minutes.

[keithl]

Why not go back to the old "In Flight Bulletin"? I still have one from c1957 - London to Birmingham - BEA Pionair (DC3). Nice, colour printed sheet, filled in by hand of pilot with where we were and when, wx at destination, all that stuff.

Sure, pax numbers rather greater now, but printing facilities are also better. Those interested could read it, others pass it on. Problem solved! Progress? What progress?

[Self Loading Freight]

Nah - the only sensible solution is to ensure proper Internet connectivity from the seatback and then the pilot can communicate with the great unwashed via Pprune...

R

[Maxrev]

I think the most ridiculous are the promotional PA's. I flew on EZY recently and after landing they hadn't even stowed the speedbrakes before we were subjected to the longest PA I've ever heard about the 'Easyjet sale and to check the website for great fares blah blah blah...'

Also they said 'to help us with turnaround times and to keep our fares low please check around you for rubbish and place it in the bin that the crew will bring around in a moment..' I've never been asked to clean the cabin before getting off before.

[Carnage Matey!]

I think you're spot on MP. Too many PAs are a right P in the A. I think you may have had a particularly verbose flight crew on that particular trip. Top of climb PAs are the preserve of long haul, so possibly a new Captain? Generally a welcome on board, one in the cruise and welcome to XYZ should be sufficient. Minimising the flight deck PAs gives some welcome respite from the endless chatter from the cabin crew - I counted 12 PAs on a recent 45 minute positioning sector.

BTW love the username, but you just can't get good ones down south.:(

[AtlPax]

I always like it when someone on the flight deck gets the intercom/radio switch backwards, and you get a call to ATC in the back. :8

Heard it happens the other way, too. :O

[BEagle]

"Sit down, shut up, cling on. Eat when you're fed, don't annoy thr girls, we'll get there when we do..........!"

Most UK-Europe flights seem to be:"vfdj xvb xx oz nzorfz BRUSSELS jdgr dkx ihc`g........" What would they do without Brussels? It seems to feature in every LH PA!

Tidying up the cabin? Why not. RyanAir has the CC going round shortly before top of drop with a big poly bag asking politely whether the pax have any rubbish. But the state of the Business Class cabin after a LHR-FRA flight on a Friday evening is disgraceful - what utter pigs some people are!

[normal_nigel]

The worst is thanking the cabin crew. It is usually Gatwick crews and new cadets that do it. Must be after a shag.

[Jordan D]

I have to say I do like my inflight PAs ... infact to the extent I really get annoyed when a pilot says "as this is a night flight, I won't be speaking to you til ..."! I like to know what's going on, where we are, what interesting feature we're over, what the route is, etc. I haven't flown United, but I've heard the feature to listen to comms from the cockpit is supposed to be good. Maybe BA will follow suit.

Jordan

[Avman]

But the state of the Business Class cabin after a LHR-FRA flight on a Friday evening is disgraceful - what utter pigs some people are!

Come on BEagle, what do you expect? It's one of the perks of having to pay vastly overpriced Business Class fares. ;)

[Final 3 Greens]

BEagle

Not only Brussels, but LIEGE too.

Do you think they fly IFR (I follow railways?) Eurostar to Brussels (tough that bit over the channel) and then onwards ;)

[BEagle]

Funny you should mention 'overpriced business class tickets'.....

One of the advantages of the Amadeus website is that you can find out the cost that the company paid for your ticket. I normally fly biz-class, so queried it recently when I was booked economy-class. But first I checked how much they paid for 'flexible economy' - and found out that booking myself 'business restrictive' on the web was vastly cheaper! Mentioned it to them - but they re-booked me on 'flexible business'!. Which was barely 10% more expensive than 'flexible economy' - and no $odding Lufthansakaesebroetchen either.

After HAM-FRA, the best bit was FRA-BHX. Obviously the cabin crew were a happy team as after the usual 'Welcome to Birmingham' PA, there was a click followed by a little giggle, then 3 of them sang "Ve vish you a Merry Christmas" over the PA. What an utterly charming gesture from 3 lovely ladies! :ok:

[davethelimey]

There's no harm in asking passengers to have a look for rubbish etc. Not only does it help with turnarounds but it leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Even with BA (where, frankly, I expect a bit of being waited on) I tidy up before I leave -you'd be surprised how messy one can get on a 7 hour flight.