Purser or main crew?

[spoilers yellow]

In the company I work for there are alot of people who for a variety of reasons have no desire to go for a promotion of any sort.
What I was wondering is what do you see as the main differences between a puser/ifs/csd etc and a main crew member?, why would you want this challenge, money aside? and other than an easier life why would you not go for promotion.

Many thanks in advance.

[emmathestar]

pursers have more paperwork?!

[DELTABOY]

Well its rather a lonely place to be once your incharge, that go's for any management/ supervisory position i guess. To be an effective manager you have to earn respect from your fellow crew members & knowing what a bitchy & somewhat artificial industry airlines can be you have to be quite hard & insensitive to survive in this role. Personally, I enjoyed it on the whole, but i viewed the senior cabin crew management & training dept with suspicion (a nest of vipers if you will) & kept my distance, just didn't have it in me to act the part & get a brown nose in the process. You also have to take all the crap from pax if it all go's tits up or some stressed out ccm down the back decides to have a go at a punter & it all gets nasty & again the SCCM has to take the brunt & mediate. To be honest I liked a few dust ups onboard & stressful situations, it kept me on my toes & stopped the job getting too repetitive & dull. But looking at the salaries alot of airlines pay their SCCM, it isn't much of an incentive & I can understand why alot of crew would decline promotion. Also, some ccm probably feel they haven't the confidence in them to work in a supervisory position, not all of us are natural leaders. I certainly never viewed myself as one, I was just very knowledgable, reasonably calm in a crisis & always respected my fellow crew members.

[flapsforty]

Hey Spoilers, interesting subject!

I was what you call 'main crew' for many years before I made promotion.
The advantages of being main crew as opposed to Purser I see as follows:

• You can pass the buck upwards when pax get too difficult
• Your responsibilities are well defined and by and large 'doable'
• You can follow the boss when going to the bus/gate/check-in/hotel/bar/safari camp/car rental desk without having to think about it.
• You can be slightly disobedient when it comes to uniform rules and just count on the boss not wanting the aggro of telling you off.
• NO paperwork!!!!

After 6 years as Purser/CSD/No1 I know that I love that job and that there are many aspects that make it so excellent. Here's why, for me personally:

• Once the doors (cabin and cockpit) are closed, it's my 'show'. My actions decide the atmosphere on board; if I do good, everybody's happy. No more suffering under lazy incompetent Pursers, YeeeeHa!
• When the sh!t hits the fan, I can consult with the Captain and suggest a plan of action regarding the passengers. Most Captains are very happy to let me get on woith it, so often get the chance to try a novel approach.
• Doing the pre-flight PA, I get the opportunity to set the tone for the pax and to make sure they know we're out to make them happy with the flight, we're not a bunch of automatons but a group of FAs who care about them. Having the pax smiling before take-off is half the battle won.
• If a boarding pax makes me feel uncomfortable, the only person I have to convinve to off load him/her is the Captain. No more dragging across half the globe with a drunk aggressive pax because the P was too weak to take action.
• I get the opportunity to coach new FAs, to lend a listening ear to FAs in trouble, to actually help colleagues who have to go to hospital down route, to make it all a bit less awful.
• When a colleague gets sad news from home; I will be the one to break it to him/her and that way can be there to soften the blow, dry the tears. lend a shoulder. That might not sound like an advantage, btu I consider it a privilege.
• When an angry pax ask for the boss, I can tell him he's speaking to her. I have the authority from the company to make a wide range of decisions. When I f*ck up I will have to live with that. But at least I will be living with the consequences of my own mistakes, instead of having to live with the Purser's mistakes.
• I can stand up to pax who think they can abuse my FAs or their fellow pax, and tell them to shut it or face the cops after landing. Instead of having to grin and bear it because I don't know how the No1 feels about stuff like.
• More money on my bank account at the end of the month.

Errmm... well.... I could go on but I guess you catch my drift?

[LOTflyer]

That is exactly how the Purser should feel about his/her role. I do feel the same!!!!!That makes me happy in my job!!!!

LOTflyer

[exmax]

It's about how you handle the stress and pressure in any job.

Anyway, I was a purser too, thoroughly loved it but to answer the original question and for everyone who is/was a purser then the reasons why you enter into that role aren't the same as everyone elses. Make sense? I entered into that role because the opportunity was there, I felt I was ready for it and I wanted to expand my knowledge that bit further and I wanted a challenge. It changed me somewhat, for the better and opened my eyes that bit wider.

Differences? Once the doors are closed, you're in charge and if it all hits the fan, well you have that big responsibility. I had 2 aborted take-offs in my career and when the aircraft stopped, it really dawned on me when all the pax looked to me to see what to do. Luckily everything was fine but I put that down to experience and a great team, including the flt deck.