As crew on the big blue plane I can honestly say that our long haul product is second to none these days, having joined in the old days of “BY” our service long-haul is far more superior to what it was.
Long haul aside and on the subject of short haul…. All I can say is perhaps crew wise you caught them on a bad day, we all have bad days no matter what profession we work in (we’re only human), perhaps that’s what happened on your flight??? There’s days when I don’t want to be in the big blue tube and days when I have a really great day – great crew + great passengers who really appreciate the service and the banter and all that. Yes our short haul has changed, it’s adapted to a changing market of low-cost everything thanks to the arrival of FR and EZY and the likes. Our fares are lower and you get what you pay for – gone are the days of running out with hot bread rolls on short haul and squash for the kiddies – in has come “apparently” what the travelling public wants, which in all fairness on a 2hr journey do you really expect to be dined and wined and treated like an Arabian prince for £24.99 including taxes??? Try popping into the Ritz in Mayfair with £25 in your pocket and see where you get.
Just a couple of other points of interest…..
– Upgraded cabins – are long-haul only, short-haul 767’s have been fitted with leather seats but these aircraft are highly utilised sometimes 3 rotations a day in the Summer months to keep fares low so maybe that answers why aircraft become a bit shabby. They are often on the ground an hour, that’s disembarking and boarding in that time, would you really appreciate hearing “flight TOMXXXX is delayed for an hour due to heavy cleaning of the inbound aircraft?” I understand your delay was for other reasons but aircraft + on the ground + delay = ££££.
– IFE – Ok sometimes things go wrong, did you ask for a refund, no one would have refused. As for selling headsets, I can assure you that I wouldn’t be selling them if it was broken (I’m after an easy life it wouldn’t be worth mine or anyone else’s time), maybe they sold them and then it didn’t work??? Again no one would have refused you a refund. Tech issues happen, planes, trains, cars and TV’s they all break down from time to time. Again do you want to sit a further 2 hours + whilst an engineer fixes the problem so you can watch re-runs of AB-Fab??? I guess not.
– Catering – or Aldo Zili to be precise. Meals have received a very warm reception with the exception of a few who have turned their noses up saying “I don’t like foreign food” or “I’d rather pie and chips” however the best I had on a recent flight- “I don’t eat curry!”. I didn’t have the heart to tell the lady it was Italian – bless. You can’t please everyone, but having seen 10 years of in-flight catering on both the big blue bird and many others – it is a vast improvement.
– The Tui takeover – Ok the company has changed from back in the day, however in terms of crew many of us “BY lot” are still here we’ve not changed. When Tui marched in they didn’t march us all out and march in a whole load of blue clad robots.
– Seat plans – There does seem to be a problem with the layout shown on all tickets at present. I think (and it’s only my guess) that the method used to produce these is being updated with the new configs as all flights seem to have this problem. PSU are fully aware and realise that we don’t just fly 757’s so when you call them they will advise you different. Did you call them pre-departure to arrange seats???
Well hope this may offer some help to your questions or gripes, I can only say I have had good and bad flights with say Virgin, but I don’t refuse to fly with them from a couple of bad experiences, the good ones will always out way the bad.
😉
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