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#1 Six years, purser, Leeds originally, and the question I get most in DMs is some version of 'what is it like working the A380'. So, properly.
The aircraft as a workplace
Two decks. Main deck is economy, around 400 seats depending on config. Upper deck is business (76 seats in the older config, fewer in the newer) and first (14 suites), with the bar at the back of business. Crew complement is around 22 to 24 on a full long haul, split between decks. The galleys are bigger than any other type, the stairs are a workout, and the upper deck has its own rhythm.
Upper deck business, as a working crew member
You are looking after a cabin of people who paid a lot and who mostly know exactly what they want. The service is long: welcome drinks, the dine on demand, the bar, the bed making, the wake up service. On a 14 hour sector you will do something for almost every passenger every hour. It is physically less brutal than economy (fewer people, more space) and mentally more demanding (every request is specific, every mistake is noticed).
Why some crew hate it
The passengers. A minority of business passengers on the upper deck are the most difficult people you will meet in the job, and the cabin is small enough that one difficult person changes your whole flight. Also the standards: grooming and service are checked more, purser feedback is more detailed, and if you like the anonymous rhythm of economy you will find the upper deck exposing.
Why some crew never want to leave
The bar. Honestly. You spend part of the sector talking to people from every country on earth who are relaxed and interested and slightly drunk, and it feels like the version of the job you imagined when you applied. Also the first class galley, when you are rostered there, is a quiet, careful, almost restaurant kitchen environment and some crew genuinely love it.
As a purser
My job on the A380 is about half service and half management. I am responsible for the whole cabin crew on the flight, the paperwork, the passenger issues that escalate, the medical if one happens, the coordination with the flight deck. On a good night I do a bit of first class service and walk both decks. On a bad night I never leave the front galley because a passenger has fainted, a bag has been lost, and a crew member is in tears, at the same time.
What I would tell a grade II economy crew who wants upper deck
Get the grade I promotion first, obviously, then volunteer for the bar duty when it comes up. Do the business class course properly, do not just pass it. And go in knowing that the difficult passengers are part of the deal, not a surprise.
Ask anything. I have done most routes on it and I am not going to pretend the A380 is a dream, it is a workplace, but it is the best workplace I have had.
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#2 Business grade, four years, Chicago. Agree with all of it. The bar duty is the thing that made me want to stay. The 2am conversation with a Nigerian oil engineer, a Japanese grandmother and an Australian rugby player, all at the bar, all getting on, that is the job at its best. The difficult passenger at 4am is the job at its worst and it is usually seat 7A.
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#3 Five years, mostly upper deck now. The grooming point is real. On the main deck nobody checks your lipstick at hour ten. On the upper deck the purser does, kindly, and so does the passenger in 10K. It suits me. It does not suit everyone and that is fine.
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#4 Economy grade II, two years, and this is the clearest explanation of what I am working towards. The 'volunteer for the bar' tip is not something anyone told me.
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#5 @marcusdxb the bar is rostered but when someone swaps off it, be the person who takes it. Pursers notice.
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#6 Also a purser, from Nairobi, and I want to add the stairs. Nobody mentions the stairs. On a 16 hour sector you will do them thirty times. Your calves after a year of A380 are a different shape.
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#7 Rejected at the final in July, reapplying in January, and reading this is the reason. Thank you for making it a real workplace and not a brochure.
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#8 Ex crew, left after eight years mostly on the 380. The bit that stays with me is exactly what Josh said: a workplace, not a dream, but the best one I have had. I miss the bar. I do not miss 7A.
