A SWISS crew took over the first class cabin to enjoy a meal together. Now, on the surface you might think that this sounds like something you’d expect at a US airline, but there’s a bit more to the story…
In this post:
SWISS crew gets creative during an extended ground stop
A SWISS pilot who shares many aspects of his job on social media recently posted a video of the entire crew enjoying a meal together in the eight seat first class cabin of the Boeing 777-300ER. The tables are fully set with tablecloths, salt and pepper mills, and cutlery, and you’d think the cabin was set up to welcome first class passengers.
The video is captioned as follows:
When the FCGs use a long ground stop to turn the First into a surprise dinner spot for the crew – small gestures that make a long day so much brighter
I assume that this took place during some ground time on SWISS’ fifth freedom flight between Sao Paulo (GRU) and Buenos Aires (EZE), as the crew works that as a direct turn, and there’s around three hours of ground time between the two flights, where the crew stays onboard the aircraft.
It’s great to see this kind of rapport among the crew!
Ultimately good inflight service starts with a good relationship between the crew members. As any flight attendant will tell you, a trip can go very differently based on the people you’re working with, and passengers can often perceive that vibe.
So it’s really lovely to see some crew members set up something like this. Presumably they had more than enough tablecloths to make this all work. So rather than them all being hunched over their meal trays on jump seats or scattered throughout the cabin, they could all enjoy the meal together in first class, and spend some quality time together.
I assume the lead flight attendant (known as maître de cabine) signed off on this. And speaking of good morale among the crew, it’s also worth pointing out that SWISS has the “crew surprise” concept, whereby the lead flight attendant can treat the crew to something special during a layover, assuming it was a particularly tough trip. However, a couple of years ago the airline did have to tell crews to tone it down a bit, after an employee tried to expense a $2,000 dinner at a steakhouse for the 12-person crew.
Bottom line
A SWISS crew enjoyed a meal in the first class cabin during an extended ground stop in Buenos Aires. So while crews would ordinarily have their meals while seated throughout the plane, the first class crew members took the initiative to make it nice for their colleagues, and essentially set up a “team” meal.
It’s always nice to see this kind of a group spirit, and I’m sure it contributed to pleasant working conditions, and a positive vibe that passengers noticed.
What a wonderful thing, especially considering that all that food will go to waste after the flight. Swiss food is tremendous, but there remains divisions between their French and Germanic cultures.
you are spot on about the crew rapport being key....im a 38 year flight attendant and remember working a 747 from dtw to a city in europe as part a special charter for an automobile manufacturer.I was so lucky to have so many fellow crew members on this flight that i always enjoyed working with and the service was professional and lighthearted...so much so that the top level executive at the auto company wrote to...
you are spot on about the crew rapport being key....im a 38 year flight attendant and remember working a 747 from dtw to a city in europe as part a special charter for an automobile manufacturer.I was so lucky to have so many fellow crew members on this flight that i always enjoyed working with and the service was professional and lighthearted...so much so that the top level executive at the auto company wrote to my management that in the future they wanted the same crew.To this day it was my greatest trip and i remember the laughs and comraderie....
Cool- they work very hard so I like that the crew was able to sit in the first 2 rows for once.
I would assume that stop was in EZE not in GRU? The food EZE - GRU is very basic for LX First class standards (not the regular menu) so lets hope they still had some of the good stuff loaded in Zürich.
@ Mike -- Indeed in EZE and not GRU, whoops. Fixed, thank you.
Love this!
That is good to see. Flight crews deserve dignity, respect, and a nice meal together, every now and again. Speaking of Swiss, any word on their new cabins? I recall your post from late-July (a350s later this year, a330s probably next year, all long-haul by 2028). C'mon Lufthansa Group... get it going!
Swiss just got their first A350 delivered with the full new cabin, and from the pics I saw elsewhere it looks 100 times more stylish and better than Lufthansa (even though they’re the same thing).
Yeah, from what I can tell, it's just the different color combination (Swiss with red, black, tan, white, vs. Lufthansa with blue, grey, white.) If/when Austrian eventually gets Allegris seats, I'd imagine those will look more like Swiss (or a somewhat similar color combo).