Who's in charge on BA flights?

[Mr.Bloggs]

The CC seemingly. Once we were all seated on our late shuttle, our somewhat limp-wristed Purser Craig announced that "I am in charge of tonight's flight" and that "I and my crew will get us to Manchester as quickly as we can." No mention of Captain or pilots. This was greeted with stony silence from the passengers. To be fair, most PA's are given this treatment. But the thought of a flight reaching its destination more expeditiously as a result of drinks and snacks being distributed rapidly beggars belief.

What utter nonsense. What on earth are (some) senior BA Cabin Crew thinking? I believe this type of nonsense has lead to support of their unions' ridiculous demands, and subsequent strike threats. Most unfortunate.

[Pony Poo]

What's the world coming to eh?

[Lord Spandex Masher]

Too right, it should be "My crew and I..."

[FLCH]

Wasn't there a thread about the same thing except it was about Jet Airways ?

Either way, in the past I've had a gate agent tell me he was in charge while the aircraft was on the ground, I promptly packed my bags along with the other two pilots and walked off the flight.

We came to an understanding in the jetway very quickly.

[stepwilk]

Can we at least dispense with the homophobia? (Yes, I'm straight.)

Perhaps it's a bit like the way passenger railroads operate, at least in the U. S. Everybody assumes the the conductor is the halfwit who punches your tickets. Actually, he or she is in charge of the train. the engineer works for him (or her).

[411A]

Who's in charge on BA flights?


One might then ask...who cares?
With all the incidents BA have had recently, not to mention the daft CC going on strike at the drop of a hat, many folks just give BA (and indeed, LHR) a pass.:rolleyes:

[kappa]

I know it has no correlation to an aircraft, and properly so, but I am from both railroad and seagoing families. From my grandfathers I am steeped in the lore of the absolute authority of the Conductor on trains, the Stationmaster in terminals and the ship Captains on water.

I have the brass knuckles of one of my grandfathers who was the Conductor on the first/last leg of an East Coast to/from Chicago overnight train. He and his assistants may have punched tickets, but the train did not move until he raised his hand and he had the power to apply the brakes at any time and literally remove a passenger from the train.

As an airline pax I have often heard lead CC use the PA mic to try to establish their "authority", usually citing "the Captain" and various government bodies. Obviously the CC cited by the OP cited neither!

[stepwilk]

Ah...that's exactly what I said.

Oh, and as for the seafaring family. I -am- the seafaring family. Former merchant seaman.

[VONKLUFFEN]

...who cares! You never saw the PAX in the first place and you will never do at the end of the flight. Why bother if CC plays with the words from OUR point of view. Dump those BIG EGOS from the past. If you go out to greet the PAX they KNOW who you are and that's it. Make a safe landing, go home and talk to your pillow. " Hey you, IronMan you did a great job today...Well donne!"
Those are the words that have a real meaning in life.

[protectthehornet]

all things considered, I'd rather be in Peoria.

[lilflyboy262]

Technically the Gate Agent is in charge of the aircraft while the aircraft is still attached to the Jetway. Basically they are the eyes, ears and mouth piece of the guys in operations.
I never pulled that one on the tech crew until they came out and had a go at me for having a go at the CC for dragging their ass and holding boarding.
And even then I was still directing it at the CC, that what I say goes while the bridge is still attached, not at the techies as I find it rediculous to tell the captain that!

The type of cabin crew you described are the worst people to work with. Its their little world, and for those few hours, they are the king of it and want everyone to know it.
They work at their own speed and to their own demands, rather than working with the people like the tech and ground crew to get everything away smoothly.
Also, not a attack on sexuality, but it does tend to be the people of the limp wristed disposition. With the odd school teacher mistress thrown in there too.

Aaah well. Those were the days, soon will be seeing it from the cockpit side of things!

Also vonkluffen, pull your head in, without the "Ironmen" you wouldn't be going anywhere and you would be a waiter or a waitress getting to point out where the exits in the bar are.
And before you go into the whole "thats not all we do, we do things in the event of an emergency", just remember who's trying their best to keep the plane pointed in the right direction and right way up in a emergency.

[TightSlot]

Here let me help you out.

All Flight Attendants are Wastrel-Uppity-Lazy-Bastard-Faggot-Sluts-From-Hell.

Now, I've said it so that you lot don't need to find other ways to do so - We're nice like that in here!

[flapsforty]

Folks, a number of you have taken the above literally, and have taken offense.

Perhaps because you did not read the opening post of this thread?
Perhaps because you did read the thread but did not notice the thinly disguised digs at cabin crew?
Perhaps because you are not regulars on this forum you do not know that all Mods here are cabin crew themselves?
Perhaps for some other reason....

So to clear up the confusion and lower various high blood pressures; TightSlot´s post is ironic.
speech or writing so devised as to express a meaning or lead to a conclusion opposite to the literal meaning of the words used.

TightSlot, like flyblue and myself, is cabin crew. And just like you, sometimes we get annoyed with endless posts portraying cabin crew as lazy, slutty, stupid, ravingly homosexual, incompetent, power mad, fat, money grabbing and useless.

Posts containing those opinions rarely say so outright, they mainly just insinuate or imply it.

So to make clear that yes we know what they are insinuating, and no we don´t agree with them, TightSlot used irony (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irony).

Time to put away the righteous indignation for another day. ;)


flapsforty