Hi

I have experienced staff priveliges a couple of times.

My bro-in-law is a BA pilot -

I was delighted to get a Club upgrade on our honeymoon.

One of my ex-service friends also flies for BA - when we found ourselves on the same flt in March a few words were enough to allow me to join him in Club.

On the first occasion I think we got First service in Club seats (never been out of Economy before so I wouldn't know - but walking off in SFO with a bottle of Champers seems a bit beyond normal service!).

On the second, as far as I could see we were treated exactly like the others in Club.

I hope we were no trouble!

Both were hugely appreciated, many thanks BA.


The only time I've had better service was when 32 Sqn gave me a lift once in Maggie T's reserve HS125 ...


Sven

I ask for an aisle seat, first two rows from the front. If I needed to be, I would be there. I would hope others would be in my role.

Only benefit is to be first off!

I have been flying for 14 years and am a csd/ifs.

For me its chinos and shirt for shorthaul, tie and jacket aswell for longhaul. I get there early, I'm always ultra polite even when staff are being really grumpy and rude.

I'm always happy just to get on. Upgrades are nice but not expected. I drink water , decline the meal unless I'm starving and try and keep my head down.

My worst nightmare when in charge is the staff family ( normally flightdeck have to say) who manage to get on the flight but are seperated. They get on and and then try and revise the whole seating plan to get themselves together. Then they wonder up to business and see free seats and start demanding an upgrade for themselves and their family who are all dressed in jeans and t shirts..

twisted diamonddolly, I have to agree, it's almost always "flight deck" staff who are the worst offenders. Most are courteous and sensitive to the time constraints under which we operate, but a small minority are very inconsiderate.

It may not seem like much to them, but every request makes a difference to the time available for us (on short haul) to serve the full fare paying passengers.

2 of the best requests that I have ever overheard….

Captain there are 27 Air X Crew presenting their ID cards seeking upgrades.
Captain I have worked for this company for x years, im suffering from cancer and this is my final flight, I would like to know whats first class is like….

Mutt

I dont see the problem with helping out fellow staff with upgrades when on stby travel - unless it is against company policy. What is wrong with identifying yourself and asking if an upgrade is possible? We are all in the same job after all- granted that if a staff member or, his/her family then wants the moon on a stick and kicks up a fuss - well throw the book at them by all means. However some of the comments here about ' usually flightdeck' suggest to me that there is some resentment towards the sharp end crew when the CC are wielding the power!
Personally speaking if I am flying longhaul as pax (sometimes but not always) I would tell the CC I am crew and would ask politely if any upgrade was available. Surely the worst that can happen is an equally polite reply that it is not available - or not company policy- then you just take the seat allocated to you. - no damage done!!
Is this such a crime??
:confused:

:D

Of course, if economy is overbooked then a staff/ fellow crew upgrade frees a seat in peasant class thus allowing a standby fare payer to travel.
Contentment all around? Above all, keep it low keyed and polite and try not to let fellow passengers twig.
I usually identify myself as crew at the gate or to the Chief Purser immediatley upon boarding. Once down the aisle as it were on a full flight; I usually find that the poor overworked cabin crew have enough on their plates.;)

The worst offenders for staff travel in QANTAS are our management.
Every flight I get on these days has some upstart! and they are they are very painful, they simply have no concept of staff travel.
However I must say that Nothing beats the Captains wife!
Faaark are they that suppressed at home that when HE finally takes them away on a free trip they act so uncouth!

Positioned as crew more times than I care to think of with BA. I never had anything other than the same care and concern for a passenger that the crew give to anyone else.

On one occasion going home having been injured in an accident the gate got me pre-boarded and the cabin crew got me off last. The angel who took me to the rear galley and let me spread myself out in the available space will always be remembered by me as the very best of a superb crew.

Once in Miami the former mrs VH and myself were trying to get home after a wedding. BA was full, we were offered flights via JFK. Needing to be home for work we jumped at the chance. At JFK we were sent to staff travel. The chap on the desk apologised for the fact we had had to go via JFK (I was just grateful to be moving in the right direction!) and told us we would be on the first available flight. We were, and in first with the full service.

A letter of thanks to BA elicited the response "you were probably the only ones who were polite!"

Thank you to all the crews who have looked after me on my many flights either fare paying or ID90s. I hope I made sure you knew I was grateful at the time. Upgrades have happened more often than deserved especially on ID90s where my links are tenuous (and about to be cut) but thanks for this.
A tip to others in my position: Politeness and courtesy are rarely rewarded with anything less than pleasure ... and genoristy.

The only time I'd go to the CSM/Purser and tell them I was crew is so they would know I was there should I be needed to help out in an emergency etc...

Saying that, I see no harm in people advising they are crew, esp if they are paxing to a duty, then the CC can try to minimise any disruption to them etc...

You sound proud of it... :rolleyes: I know a place where you can get silhouettes painted on the side of your cabin baggy, if it makes you feel better.A privilege??? WTF?? No it's not, it's part of the deal and half the reason why most hosties are even in the job. Management love it when people think the way you do, but the truth is:

-You do the job, they pay you.

-You put in a few years, they give you pension benefits/long service leave/whatever

-You purchase (PURCHASE!!) a very cheap ticket, and they fly you from A to B - but only IF there's a spare seat.

It's all part of the deal, kiddies. It's even in your contract but some people fill your heads with this BS about it being a golden privilege and you all believe it.

Being on staff travel doesn't mean you have to grovel and kiss everyone's a$$, just behave like a regular human being. Why TF is that so hard to understand??


Since everyone here agrees staff are rude sometimes and no one admits to being one of them, then just who the heck ARE the bad eggs?

And it's amazing how QF staff have such a bad rep for being rude to everyone in the cabin (and at check-in) including, it seems, their own crew, and then they start whinging that their own staff are being rude to them. Ahhhh, the irony.



(PS You people whinging about a staffy being painful should try flying to/from the sub-continent.)

Just to defend myself, at my airline it is a privilage, it is not in our contracts. As for getting concessions taken off people, then yes I have no problem with my actions, why am I expected to take cr@p off people who work for the same company as me, yet feel that they can be rude, abusive and ignore all the basic rules of staff travel?:confused:

Mr fiddy - A most interesting rant. lexxi has sussed you bigtime in that with her airline it is a privilege. You owe her an apology.

You also bollock people for having the decency to show good manners.

When I was last in Mosman it wasn't too bad a place apart from delays getting there from Dee Why caused by the booze buses on the Spit Bridge -- but if people with your surly and contemptuous attitude have moved in then its gone downhill. :oh:

Pip pip!

fiddy
I assume you are staff and that this is one of your 'sometimes'!

Your ESP, evidenced by your knowing what is in others' contracts, should be telling you something just about now!

I used to work for BCAL years ago, and am still involved in travel though, sadly, no longer able to get concessions.
However, whenever I did fly on staff tickets, we were under the strictest orders to be on first class behaviour at all times, not just on the aircraft but on the ground too. We also had to dress immaculately, no jeans, trainers, etc, etc.

A couple of years ago I was on a full flight to MIA. There were a number of staff passengers boarded at the very end. I was in Premium Economy - seat 17A - nice bulkhead with space on 747. I'd booked online the day before to get just that seat! A few minutes after boarding a lady (?) approached in jeans and trainers and asked if I would move to a seat at the back of the cabin. I politely refused saying I'd really wanted to sit there. Her response - "I wouldn't want to sit next to a bitch like you anyway". Nice! Stupid woman though - she made her comment right in front of crew member who immediately reported it to CSD. I later saw him talking to her in no uncertain terms.

Had I done that as a staff member years ago, I would probably have never got a staff travel ticket again.

I just had a staff pax like that tonight, he was a captain for another airline and when i asked to see his boarding card he drew me a dirty look. I'am sorry but a uniform is not a boarding pass ( you can buy them on e-bay). When we were going out with drinks he asked are they not comp? with an attiude. When i have crew onboard i alway offer them a crew tea or coffee but he didn't even get offered a glass of water, even the pax next to him looked embarssed.

However i have also been on the other side when i was going on holiday and the crew did not know i was crew. Everything was fine until i wanted a soft drink, i waited till after they had cleared in the meal service and went to the galley to ask for it only to meeted by such a cheeky member of crew. She huffed and puffed and informed me that they were about to talk a break even as she was standing next to the drinks cart. i told her i would wait but that drink service never came so b4 landing i asked if i could have that soft drink now to be greated by a hand in my face basically telling me to stop speaking, she also had her back to me the whole time. i was fuming, when she did give me the drink i told her to keep the change as not wanting to make things worse and i walked away. They gave me a questionaire to fill in and i had given them a good report up till then. I went back to me seat and wrote that i was crew and i would never speak to a pax like that and wrote her name down. A few minutes later she came over and apoligised for her behaviour and gave me my change:yuk: So she thinks it's ok to speak to pax like that? := That is just a few thing that happened that flight i would bore you still with the petty things she did. I was told by other people that she had a stressfull day but that is no excuse for speaking to pax like s:mad:

In my experience it is the operating crew that seem to have an attitude with staff passengers. I have been mortified on more than once occasion by my operating colleagues and their treatment of staff passengers I have had onboard. I also have had my mother who was traveling on a trip with me treated like a leper by a colleague of mine while I worked down the back!!!

In my airline there does seem to be a percentage of crew who seem to think that staff passengers in general are a burden yet these people are probably the first to expect the best service when they fly on standby.

I firmly believe that if you cant look after your own then you are not fit to look after anyone else!!!

But dont worry, I am not niave...yes I know there are some difficult staff passengers out there!!!

I love seeing crew I know travelling on my flights!! They are usually the first to give me that "knowing" smile when dealing with painful passengers. Just warms my heart!!!

No, it's the flight deck SPOUSES!!

They're the rudest pax ever - especially when their husband is operating the flight. The demand the earth - whether i've been crew or on the ground.

I remember just a few weeks ago a FO's wife got all stroppy becasue she didn't know the address of where she would be staying her first night in the US, and the system wont check you in without it.

From the moment she stepped up to my desk she was rude and aggresive as if she was above everyone else because her husband was helping flying the plane and she didn't like it that she'd been made to ring him and find out the address as it apparently it made her 'look stupid'.

Was i bovvered? Was i hell.