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#1 Two years in, just got grade I, and while it is fresh I want to write down what the promotion path actually looks like because the recruitment pages make it sound like an escalator and it is not.
The grades, briefly
Grade II is economy, where everyone starts. Grade I is business class. Then purser (in charge of a cabin), then senior purser and so on. First class is a separate qualification within grade I. People say 'grade II' and 'economy' interchangeably.
How long it took me and the people around me
Me: 22 months from joining to the grade I course. Fast by current standards. Most of my batch are between 24 and 30 months and a few are still waiting past 36. Two batches before mine it was closer to 18. It moves with how many business class crew the operation needs, which moves with the fleet and the routes, not with how good you are.
What actually gets you the course
Three things, in this order from what I can see.
- Your appraisal scores. Every flight the purser can leave feedback and every few months you get a formal one. Consistently good, no serious negatives, is the baseline. One bad written report can set you back a year.
- Your attendance record. Sick days and lates are counted. The crew who get promoted early have almost none. Not zero, but almost. This is the one people underestimate.
- Applying properly when the window opens and being visible. Pursers put names forward. If no purser knows who you are, you are a number on a list.
What does not get you promoted
Being the best at service. It helps, but I know crew who are brilliant in the galley and still grade II after three years because they were off sick eleven times in a year and once argued with a purser in front of passengers. Being 'good on the aircraft' matters less than being reliable and easy to work with.
The course itself
About two weeks. Service standards for business, the wine and menu knowledge, the bed set up, the specific tablet functions, and a lot of role play. Pass rate is high, it is not a filter, the filter was getting the place.
Does the money change
A little on the basic, more on the layover allowances as you get different routes, and the profile of the flying changes: more long haul, fewer of the 3am Gulf turnarounds. The lifestyle change is bigger than the pay change.
For the people in year one
Be reliable. That is the whole advice. Turn up, do not be late, do not call sick for a hangover, be pleasant to every purser even the ones you do not like. In two years that record is what the promotion is made of.
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#2 Grade I after 29 months, so the slower end, and the attendance thing is exactly what held me. I had a bad winter with two proper illnesses in year one and it followed me. Not unfair, just how it is measured. Now I am religious about it.
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#3 Grade I, three years total, and I want to add: the appraisal feedback from pursers can be requested. Ask to see it. I found one from my first year that said I was 'quiet on the floor' and I had no idea, and I fixed it. Nobody tells you it is there unless you ask.
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#4 Three years, still grade II, and I know exactly why: I had a written warning for a passenger complaint in year two. It was unfair in my view but it does not matter, it sits on the file. Tommy is right that the filter is the record, not the service.
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#5 @faisaldxb that is rough and you are not the only one. Warnings expire from the promotion consideration after a period, ask HR exactly when yours does and put your name forward the month after.
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#6 In training now and saving this. 'Be reliable' is not the advice I expected but it makes sense that it is the advice.
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#7 Grade I from Auckland, and I would add the visibility point is real and slightly uncomfortable. I got my course partly because a purser I had flown with four times put my name to the manager. It felt like favouritism. It was just her knowing my work. Fly well with the same people when you can.
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#8 Ex crew, six years, was a purser at the end. From that side of the desk: I put forward people whose names I remembered for good reasons. Reliable, pleasant, no drama, and they had asked me once, politely, if they could be put forward. That is the whole mechanism.
