Living abroad with infrequent visits to London I found that when one added the membership subs to the cost (if you could get one) of a room it was cheaper to stay next door at the Hilton, so I cancelled my membership.

The RAF Club should be reported to advertising standards!

Their title should read "The Senior and Retired RAF Officers Club".

I haven't been a member for years. I cancelled after I found out the Diners club was only open to Wg Cdr and above.
Racist ... that's 'rankist' ! :sad:

The quality of the bedrooms leave a lot to be desired though and it's not that cheap any more. Nice atmosphere there mind.

I stayed there a few weeks ago. We had a black tie dinner in one of the private rooms for a retiring boss of mine - not somethnig I'd ever attended before and doubt there will be many more since. It was excellent. The staff were nearly all Eastern European in origin - much like the splendid chaps from Poland who flew so well all those years ago. They were polite and efficient and I can't fault any of them. The dining room for Saturday breakfast was, as ever, superb. Ever-helpful staff re-arranged tables so our group could sit together and the food was up to the usual highest standards.

I suggest grumpy members contact the committee with their gripes. I'm sure AVM Wiles would appreciate a note regarding experiences over the virtual bumping of gums on an anonymous forum.

Combat blunty, the point being made is whether members have experienced similar issues or whether some of us simply happen to have been unlucky.

The staff with minimal English with whom I had contact were assuredly NOT from Eastern Europe. Most workers who come from Eastern Europe who work at point-of-sale do indeed have a good understanding of English. These people didn't....

Well, you get Geordies everywhere since the pits closed BEags.:)

Royal Air Force Club.
 

BEagle
Your opening remarks give the impression you are a racist. I commented on this but my post was deleted by mods. You now tell us:

You appear to be in a hole.

Stop digging.

Mike Rondot (one of the elderly clientele)

There is a difference between 'racism' and a statement to the effect that many of the staff do not have an adequate grasp of English.

Those Eastern Europeans who work in London generally have very good standards of English - go into any bar or restaurant in Town and that is evident.

Whether they are pink, green or sky-blue pink or from which country they come from is utterly irrelevant; what is relevant is that employment of staff who are unable to communicate satisfactorily is unacceptable.

How on earth you can deem such views as 'racism' is frankly beyond me. Race and communication are totally different things.

Beags, PM for you.

If we're name-calling...

Relic-of-a-bygone-age - if you have something to say regarding the RAF Club (which I guess you have been a member of for quite some time), proper form would be to address the RAF Club. You bang on about standards and their terminal decline, yet pick and choose when you tell us how an Officer should behave and when you whinge on an open forum.

I say again - take it up with the RAF Club. I can help address the envelope and the cost of a stamp if you wish!

Beags......
 

...I think that the Tapas restaurant is nocalled El Piratas (or something like that) not cheap but v good, always end up there if can't be bothered to carry out an Ascot shuffle.
In-laws stayed there on Tuesday - no problem booking room - no complaints yet - they should be arriving on my doorstep soon so will no doubt receive full debrief - Yanks! oops racist!!

Mr C, if on my next visit I find the same thing, then I will probably do as you suggest. However, it may have been that on the last couple of visits there was perhaps an influx of trainees, so may have been a temporary state. Hence the trawl to elicit whether others had experienced the same - or was it just one of those things which sometimes happens....

Rgds, Bygone Relic....:p

EESDL - Thanks for your info. Having googled 'Tapas Down Street', I found that it's actually 'El Pirata'.The pig? No wonder it's rare......

You can stay in a proper hotel for similar money.

Shy, no doubt, but I don't enjoy proper hotels to that extent. There was an exception where I went about very 6-8 weeks but it was really a BinB village hotel.

In a proper hotel the staff do not recognise you which, in the club with infrequent visits they do. As I said to someone in a PM, there car parking arrangements are excellent too.

Are you likely to meet like-minded individuals or even old aquaintences?

Club has it all. Oh, and a proper library.

Only if on leaving the service you can actually let go and become a civilian :ok:

Can't comment of the O's Club but I used the VSC last year and it felt no different to the Sgt's mess at Valley back in 87 or any other I have subsequently been in.

I leave the RAF in Nov 12 after 38 and a bit years and I have told Mrs SFFP if I ever express a desire to put on a blazer, slacks, black lace up's and a Sqn tie so that I can join the crusty old feckers wingeing on about how the bar shut early or the staff were not very good she is to put domestos in my tea :p

Does that work like bromide? :)

SFFP, I haven't had the urge to buy grey pants yet either but my late father in law became involved in the Royal Naval Association and later the Charybdis Association after he retired and some 45 years after he left the Navy. Never say never.

PN,

Sorry but when I ever I see mention of the O's Club I am always minded of this "guest"

Oh dear oh dear oh bloody dear...
 

...why is it that a thread starts off reasonably and within a very short space of time degenerates into abuse? Racism is a strong imputation.

I have hesitated to join in this thread beause I have not been a member for many years and when I do stay it is as a guest of a friend. Years spent in the maritime world meant that visits to the smoke were very rare.

Beagle started this thread partly as a response to a passing remark I made in another thread. He then said that he wouldn't hijack that thread but would start another,this one.

I think one would have to work quite hard to find anything racist in his comments in this thread so far. But then, as we are all aware, there is always someone around ready to take offence at imagined slights of themselves or of others.

My direct experience is of having 5 attempts to sort out a bill in the dining room. The chap was from one of France's old African colonies; and when in an effort to finally resolve it I offered to do it in French, he grasped my hand and almost burst into tears of relief. He was at the end of his first day/evening in the dining room and his more experienced colleagues had dumped on him to do the last of the clearing the room of BOFs and tables. The real problem lay in inadequate staff training.

On another occasion I watched an Italian lass struggle to direct the staff and take orders from crusty old bs and get tables relaid at breakfast. One of the lads was Polish and was struggling to get cutlery in the right order, again his first morning in the job. I indicated to him to come over and suggested he took a mental piccy of our untouched table and imitate it. Off he went, and when he finished the first table he looked over with raised eyebrows: a surreptitious thumbs up and on he went to the next, looking monumentally relieved.

The staff turnover I'd take a guess, is pretty high, so the training part of the job needs even more attention.

So, to the tender offence-takers, may I suggest you get off Beag's back and stop throwing serious imputations around.

The Ancient Mariner

Well I like it:ok:
I regularly travel EMEA and the usual hotel chains.
Thoroughly enjoy working in London - when I can get a room booking in the club I do. Makes the stay much more relaxed IMHO anyway.