British Airways has updated its uniform guidelines in an interesting way, and this is proving to be controversial among employees.
Continue reading: British Airways Bans Flight Attendants & Pilots From Drinking Coffee In Public
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I was about to post some dumb quip about it only being proper to reject coffee for tea as a british business, but this is just dystopian and I surely hope this clowns version of totalitarianism is against UK labour laws and promptly abolished.
You forgot to mention your customary WOW in the title. Please don’t try and compare this to US airlines as they don’t really have standards that resemble rules. I appreciate that BA is trying, but they may have overshot the mark
I don't care at all if the crew drinks coffee or not. If you want to be professional then make sure the crew is not boxed into the forward galley all of the time avoiding to work - which this is doing the opposite of as they would be allowed to drink coffee in there if they close the curtain. Thanks a lot BA..
Yup, very silly idea. Everyone in the UK walks around at work with a coffee cup/flask or water bottle all day long. Hardly affects the image of an FA.
It’s about professionalism and also safety. There was an incident where a Swiss passenger slipped on coffee spilled on the floor in I believe terminal 5, causing life changing injuries. BA lost a case, even though it was not even at the gate as it was considered as “ during boarding”. US crews already look unprofessional with drinks, food and phones as well as being badly dressed. They want you to be seated when drinking.
There are good views and there are bad views.
Many years ago I was in FCO departing on Lufthansa. Their airport was a chaos, but it was not clear why, and as we were waiting for the delayed boarding the pilot came walking by with a large order of coffee for the crew. As you are standing there waiting to board, hoping to catch your connection in Frankfurt, while likelihood is rapidly dwindling, seeing the captain shopping for crew coffee is probably not what you want to see.
As it turned out, Wizz Air had decided to have their landing gear collapse on the runway in FCO on a diversion from CIA due to a landing gear warning. So there was plenty of time to get crew coffee, but with no passenger information it was not a pretty sight.
BA is a crap airline. Fix the issues with the company first.
And banning staff from drinking water in public is probably illegal, banning them from drinking coffee is just management being morons.
Treat them like robots, that's what BA will get. They're human, and need to drink.
Probably has to do with the fact of these ridiculously sized coffee cups. Everyone and their mother has a Stanley or some massive metal vessel. Super sus.
Sit where and drink a coffee in LHR T5? Terminal A has enough seats for less than 20% of passengers at any one time.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from decades in management and managing people it’s this; “pick your battles”. And frankly this isn’t a battle worth picking. None of this will do anything to increase the “glamorization” of British Airways. It will only piss off the employees who frankly aren’t all that happy to begin with.
US crew are there primarily for our safety? What a joke. 99.999% of their work involves serving food and drinks or picking up trash, but that 0.001% of the work is their primary job? That's ridiculous on its face, nevermind the fact that some 60 year old lady who can't lift help with luggage for fear of injuring herself is going to do anything but get in the way in an emergency.
I used to work as an engineer in a manufacturing plant. We had to do occasional safety training every few years. Actually I thought I was an engineer at the time, but I guess my primary job was actually safety!
The primary reason they are there is government mandate, that is all.
Photos from layover hotels should indeed be banned. It is a security issue.
How this is not obvious is beyond me. I wonder when will this ridiculous narcissism end.
Drinking coffee? Are these bots or people? Because if they latter they get hungry, thirsty, tired and need to go to the lav from time to time. A crew member grabbing a coffee, or water or bite of food inflight is perfectly acceptable between duties. I guess management wants people that can go 12 hours plus without the need for food, liquids or "bathroom" movements.
The banning of posted "selfies" while on duty makes sense. You're there to do a job, which includes layovers, not tout yourself on a Youtube channel.
Agree with you on most points except that it’s not 99.999 percent, it’s 100 percent. During an incident these women care about their lives first! Period! It’s human nature!
As an ex-British Airways cabin crew member, I’d like to say that while I understand the reasoning behind the new no-hot-drinks policy, it’s worth considering the effect on crew morale. Cabin crew and pilots often work very long and anti-social hours, and a simple cup of tea or coffee can be a small but meaningful refreshment. Taking that away might just make hardworking crew feel less appreciated. Just something to think about.
WOW! This brings back memories of my career with a US Airline in the 1970's. We could not drink, eat or chew gum in view of public/passengers. Smoking was done only in the terminal while seated, not while walking. Conversations with passengers inflight was not to involve religion or politics.
BA is a carrier with AA style service, SQ style prices and LH style hard product that clearly wants to look like EK. Good luck.
The coffee story brings back memory of an international flight on a US airline last year. Peak of summer, all passengers by the gate with no AC sweating, flight was delayed by almost 2 hours because crew was stuck in traffic. Could the crew have planned better and left their hotel a but earlier as heavy traffic was expected? After a long delay, crew starts to arrive by the gate. 90% of the FAs carrying their freshly brewed Starbucks coffee that they just waited in line to buy inside the terminal. Many of them were also carrying duty free shopping bags that they had just purchased. WTF! So they were late for the flight but still had time to buy coffee and do some shopping? Passengers were pissed, some started screaming and the contracted people managing the flight at the gate were in disbelief. One of them came to some passengers and said they were also furious to see that the crew arrived super late but were carrying fresh coffee and shopping bags. She said she took pictures of the crew and was going to report them to the airline. Oh well!!!
As a retired pilot from a major U.S. airline, I remember crew members jokingly referring to their careers as “living the dream”. It now seems that more and more management geniuses are turning the dream into a nightmare.
My hunch is this less about appearance and standards, and more about making the employment experience so unbearable that people choose to leave on their own.
BA is acknowledged as being in the top 15 of world airlines. By comparison only one U.S. airline just scrapped into the top 50! Call BA all you like frrp, however, the real airline passengers of this planet who have been surveyed by CNT, Forbes, NY Times, SkyTrax, etc, etc, know far more about the facts than you obviously do frrp.
Put some time in on various airlines flights, furthermore, learn something about EU and UK Health and Safety Regulations, before bumping your gums like a deranged school kid.
Wow. Just because they do other things doesn't mean that's their primary job. Firefighters do very little firefighting during a typical day but I'm sure you are happy to know that they are there for the "other" .001% of their work. And frankly, despite the fact that you have a very ignorant view of the physical capabilities of a 60-year old woman (and they, like 20-year old FA's refuse to lift your bag because of work injury issues typically mandated by the airline itself), I would rather have a plane full of experienced 60-year old FA's in times of emergency that have seen it all rather than a bunch of young new hires that panic in the face of any chaos and have little experience in dealing with in-flight emergencies of any type. The FA is responsible for opening emergency exits, maintaining order, and getting people to safety during accidents. This does not include doing a fireman's lift of passengers down the aisle and tossing them off the onto the slide.
To be fair to British Airways (BA), one of the reasons I've not favored them is the way their flight attendants conspicuously consume coffee and other beverages in public. Not to mention the fraternization!
I know I'm much better served by BA when they really drill down on micromanaging the small off the clock behaviors of their crew, rather than say, providing clotted cream with tea on afternoon Club Europe flights
I have never flown BA but this might make me never want to fly with them. They wonder why there is always a disconnect between management and front line employees, doesn’t matter what company you’re talking about. You have people dictating what to do that have never even done that job or if they have then they’ve completely forgotten what it’s like. Honestly it’s so petty on BA. There job is hard enough to begin with now they’ll have to skulk around trying to have a coffee. Hey BA get over yourself and quit trying to micromanage your employees and treating them like children.
World standards of behaviour are dropping everywhere.
World standards of courtesy towards our fellow human beings are dropping everywhere.
World standards of dress and expression are dropping everywhere.
The race to the gutter has been spearheaded by a certain country which lies to the left of the pond, the citizens of that country have nothing to be at all proud about presently.
As an ex-BA staff member, this was the case when I joined. It was relaxed to some degree after T5 opened. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a recent incident that has resulted in this being tightened again.
Unless their intent all along is to create a culture that makes people want to quit.
Coming from someone who has no class. Smh what an ignorant comment. A country who effectively doesn't have free speech has no place talk.
I use t5 frequently and never had any issue finding a seat at various times of day, often near the Pret A Manger.
At least we haven’t criminalized prayer. When we outlaw silent prayer, please feel free to call us uncivilized.
Thank you Jieschmke, for providing the necessary evidence as proof of the observations in my post. The words of ignorance exemplified …. 🙂 Xxxx
Lisa, maybe that’s what those women are “supposed “ to do, but in reality just like the op said, they are a bunch of out of shape 60 plus year olds who in the time of a real emergency just freak out and value their lives over ours. Sorry, but it’s just a fact.
When I started flying at Delta in 1989 we were weighed in every month, had strict hair and no beard policy, and Barry Nogle, head of HR at the time, asked me directly if I had a girlfriend to make sure I was straight before hiring. A ban on drinking coffee in public is a new one though.
So, no drinking coffee in public—but English tea still gets a free pass? And really, how can you even tell if it’s tea or coffee in the cup? I guess that’s where you class-oriented English folks step in—because we non-class Americans wouldn’t know the difference.
What a load of bullocks
In the US you're lucky to get a friendly flight attendant
British Airways is as pretentious as the elder members of the royal family
Try flying a 100 hr month! Flight Attendants I worked with routinely HAD to fly "hi time" just to make ends meet.Sock eyed bedraggled and always tired.Dragging their wiped out jetlagged self to a Tesco so they could sustain themselves on a day old piece of chicken.American carriers basically had carte blanche with scheduling of FA's due to the National railway labor act.How does a nice Lhr turnaround sound Ladies and Gents
Your Captain speaking. Sorry folks, we'll be Delaying our flt 30 minutes while I get my COFFEE!!!
So many commentators have a very low reading comprehension skills. IN PUBLIC VIEW. BA is not banning coffee or other drinks, just not IN UNIFORM IN PUBLIC VIEW. That was the rule when I got hired at my airline.
Honestly I applaud BA for a switch to premium. Have you seen an Asian or Southwest Asian crew walk through the terminal? Heck, even Aeroflot. Wow, stunning. Now look at a senior international Delta crew, they look like slobs compared. Or UA or AA.
Reminds me of a (possibly mythic) prohibition of female flight attendants eating/consuming an ice cream cone/hot dog in public !
Can one infer that no conversation involving religion or politics was allowed but, sex, as a topic was permitted ?
... lol
Indeed, there is the complimentary BA restriction to this policy limiting uriniation/defecation while proudly wearing the BA uniform ! ... That applies in public view or the privacy of a stall ...
... lol
So much for a 'security issue' ... Do these crews change into civilian clothes before leaving the airport & are admitted to the layover hotel through the back door ?
Even a moron can figure out where an airline crew is laying over ...
Your entirely vapid comments concerning safety and security are without a doubt moronic. It was flight Attendants who reported the events on 9/11and prepared to protect their passengers. The live calls concerning seat numbers, descriptions of the perpetrators and the ensuing chaos as they hurtled to their deaths. You have absolutely no clue as to what initial training and yearly mandated emergency training involves and what is required. No one is there to stow your luggage. They are there to ensure that your bag does not become a flying battering ram. That a burning aircraft can be evacuated in 90 seconds. Engineer?! I wouldn’t let you hang a painting.
With your comment "lucky to get a friendly flight attendant" and "pretentious" The problem isnt the FAs, but you.
Name one incident where the flight attendants bailed before passengers or otherwise put themselves before passengers. It doesn't happen.
Just because you know *you'd* bail and put yourself before everyone else even if you said you wouldn't doesn't mean everyone's so fickle...
Really ! Is that all BA management can focus on, banning crew from drinking coffee in public.
Easier to bash their crew rather than deal with issues confronting BA ! Investment for one.
Their elderly beach fleet of B777 aircraft based @ LGW are decrepit 23, 25, 26 years old and showing it !
Some of their aircraft interiors are definitely in need of a deep clean and spruce up.
No let’s ignore that one and tackle real meaty outstanding management issues !
Crew drinking coffee in public, wonder how many consultant led focus groups @ Waterside came up with gem of an issue to tackle.
Former TWA Flight Service Manager 747 here. You try this in the States, you'll have a strike of the F/A's so quick you don't know what hit you. Suing for restricting your (entitled) personal freedom. And the cockpit crews will join the cabin crews in solidarity.
As a long retired pilot I always did everything I could to keep passengers informed of reasons for delays, before and after boarding.. I saw it as a common courtesy at the very least.
I hate flying BA. Avoid it whenever I can. But, on the bright side, this just released.....
"British Airways has also banned employees from farting."
Honestly I find this completely ridiculous. Flight crews (and I'm not one) have a hard enough life as it is. Can you imagine being stuck in an airport in a city for hours during, say, a weather related delay, where you don't have access to a flight crew lounge, being told you cannot eat or drink! It's perfectly normal to me to see airline crew at 5:30 in the morning having their coffee while walking to their job (AKA - the plane). Just completely ridiculous. And largely unenforceable. As one other person commented, pick your battles BA. Your staff are already largely disgruntled.
Seems to me they’re trying to get some discipline into employees’ general behaviour, in the hope that it implies an improvement in the airline performance to the general public. It’s a better approach than permitting sloppiness throughout the organisation. Appearances matter a lot.
Given that they’re allowed to drink water (access to which being a ratified human right and all) the crew response is obvious and easy: every crew member will just put water in coffee cups and walk through the terminal sipping their water - with an abundance of discretion, of course.
*shrug*
BA management thinks their airline is "Premium"? Surprising, but BA execs also insist UK farmers put lipstick on their pigs.