| Table of Contents Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth Part 1 Page 1 – 2018 – My Return to Work Page 1 – Monitoring Performance Page 2 – My Performance Record Page 2 – Performance Feedback Page 3 – The Early Days… Page 4 – More from the Good Old Days Page 4 – Cabin Crew Life Downroute Page 4 – Pre-Flight Safety Briefings Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth Part 3 |
The Early Days…
In this chapter, I want to take you on a journey back to the early days, where it all began. Back to a time when I couldn’t wait to go to work, and every flight that I operated was a new adventure waiting to unfold. A time when there was a genuine sense of excitement as I drove to the airport, fuelled by the anticipation of what the day ahead would bring.
From the minute the cabin crew boarded the aircraft, there was a sense of camaraderie, and from take-off to landing, there was no shortage of chatter and laughter. But it wasn’t just the thrill of going to new places that made those early days special, it was the people I worked alongside. It was like being part of one big family, and together, we got each other through many long and tiring flights. In those moments, while struggling with jetlag, fatigue and difficult situations, there was a sense of unity that made every second worthwhile.
In later years, the aircraft became my sanctuary, a place where I felt free and fulfilled, far removed from the turmoil I was dealing with at home. Soaring above the clouds in the vast expanse of the sky always felt special, and I never once took my job for granted.
I stayed with the airline for thirty years because I loved my job, believed I did it well and enjoyed working with a great bunch of people.
I joined Thomson Holidays in 1986 after leaving school and left in 1989. Before going overseas to work as a holiday rep, I worked in the head office, but office life wasn’t for me. Upon seeing an advert for cabin crew for a new airline, I applied and was offered a position. My six-week training began a month later.
My first day was June 18th 1990. Apart from a holiday to Orlando after leaving Thomson, I had never flown long haul. During our training, we boarded a Boeing 747 that had recently landed from Tokyo. I remember the sounds and smells of that that aircraft vividly and struggle to believe it was more than thirty years ago.
A couple of weeks into our training, we received our first flying roster. Two of us were going to JFK on July 28th. The number to the right of our names was our seniority. So, at that time, Sarah was the most junior crew member in the company.
In 1990, there were eighteen cabin crew on a Boeing 747. The crew complement was one Flight Manager, two Pursers, and a mix of Senior and Junior Cabin Crew. It was a very different company back then than it is today. In 1990, we were young and enthusiastic, and time away was always sociable. It was a great company to work for, and I felt privileged to be part of it.
With the airline still being small and having just a handful of routes, most cabin crew knew each other and flew together often.
This first photo was taken in 1991 on a flight to Japan. I operated this route regularly and loved the destination. In the second photo, taken on the same flight, you can see the old-fashioned entertainment screen on the cabin partition over my shoulder.
The following three photos were taken during my training. Look at the size of Sarah’s video camera!
The salary was abysmal, but in the early days, we had great benefits and many long layovers. The U.S. dollar was strong, which made shopping in the USA very cheap.
By 1998 I was a Purser. When I was made redundant in 2020, although part-time, my salary was £14,000. I had been a Flight Manager for nineteen years.
From memory, my first flight was pretty uneventful. Although I was excited about the journey, I was more excited to be going to New York. I was expecting to walk out of the hotel into the hustle and bustle of Manhattan but was disappointed to find we stayed way out of the city in Long Island. In those days, you couldn’t Google the hotel to see where it was.
The only thing I remember about our return flight was being asked by the Purser to walk around the cabin during the night while the lights were off to check passengers were okay. As I stepped out of the galley, I saw what appeared to be a used sanitary item on the floor and was told to quickly clear it up and not let passengers see it. Getting tomato juice off the carpet was never easy!
Playing pranks on colleagues operating their first flight was the norm well into the mid-2000s. As the airline’s culture evolved, the atmosphere onboard quickly changed. The pranks stopped because everyone was scared of being reported, and many cabin crew were. That said, I used to enjoy making people laugh, so still occasionally played a prank on a colleague. However, I was always careful because young people get offended so easily nowadays.
On my flight home from Atlanta with Bart on 25 December 2019, I played a joke on crew member Ven while he was talking with Katrina at the First Class bar. After the breakfast service, Ven was sitting with Katrina at the First Class bar showing her how to do some paperwork. Lottie was standing next to them.
The bar can be seen in this next photo. Ven was sitting on the middle stool, Katrina was sitting to his left, and Lottie was standing in front of the toilet door.
The area around the First Class bar, which has toilets on both sides, is not very wide. The arrow points to the galley wall. This is where I was on my hands and knees, sweeping the carpet with a dustpan and brush after the breakfast service, when I touched Ven’s leg. Several customers were waiting to use the toilets.
Even though Bart wasn’t present, I believe that Ven told him what happened, which prompted him to concoct a story about inappropriate touching after receiving my constructive performance feedback.
To be honest, Ven and Katrina should not have been sitting at the bar when surrounded by customers. However, I had no objection.
The following extract comes from Ven’s witness statement. During our return flight to Heathrow, I praised the standard of his work multiple times and thanked him for helping in First. Ven was an experienced crew member who was working in the Premium cabin, which is the other side of the galley, in front of Economy.
After breakfast, the final service before landing, Katrina asked me to show her how to complete the customs paperwork for the drinks bars. I was busy doing other things, so I asked Ven, who was free at the time, if he would mind showing her.
CM5 means Crew Member 5, which is the working position of the First Class Purser, who was Katrina. Once again, note the leading question regarding my alleged inappropriate touching.
You’ll notice that despite his struggles with basic literacy, Ven states three times that me touching his leg made him feel very uncomfortable. As an ex-police officer, Bart would have fully understood the importance of emphasising these words. Bart’s ex-fiancée Anna used the same words multiple times throughout her witness statement.
Ven is a cunning and malevolent individual who had a score to settle. He had been called from standby and boarded the aircraft at the same time as the passengers. When called for the flight by the ‘Crewing’ department, he was told he would be working up a rank as Purser, but because I was not advised he would be joining us until we left the Cabin Crew Check-In lounge, I had already allocated the Purser positions to Tommy and Katrina. I therefore allocated Ven the position that looks after the Premium cabin.
During customer boarding, I was at the aircraft door when Ven arrived. Having introduced himself, we moved into the galley area, where I explained that I no longer needed him to work up as a Purser. I said he would now be working in Premium. This was the position that I was going to work had he not joined us.
From my iPad, I could see that he had been called for the flight to fill one of the Purser positions. Even though his rank was Cabin Crew, he had been told he would be working up as Purser because there were no Pursers available on standby to call.
I asked Ven several times whether he minded not working up, to which he replied, “I don’t mind where I work.” Ven was not a trained Purser, his rank was Cabin Crew, so he was working in the correct position for his rank.
As you’ll see from this extract from his witness statement, he appears to be irritated at not being allowed to work up. Although crew members receive a nominal payment when working up a rank, which he would now not receive, comments later in his statement suggest that he was more annoyed that two crew members who had been with the airline for less time than him were given this opportunity.
CSS = Cabin Supervisor (Purser). CM7 is the working position that I allocated Ven upon finding out that he was joining our flight.
Ven’s witness statement was rude and offensive from start to finish. The allegation that I squeezed his waist is grotesque. Like me, he’s gay, and that’s relevant because of something that I’ll talk about shortly.
Despite proving beyond reasonable doubt not only that he lied throughout his statement but also colluded with Bart and at least one other crew member, both managers who dealt with my grievance and the Head of Cabin Crew who heard my appeal, were not interested.
Crew member Mia, who accused me of touching her leg, also lied, but it was not difficult for me to prove that she and Ven were lying.
Ven had recently attended an awards ceremony where staff with the highest performance scores were nominated for various awards. Many Perspex plaques, like the one I received for thirty years of service with the word “winner”, would have been given out.
Being Cabin Crew | The Ugly Truth 