The crew photo at the aircraft door: the etiquette, the good ones, and why some pursers ban it
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#1 Italian, five years, and I have been in maybe four hundred crew photos at the door, on the stairs, in the galley, in front of the engine. The crew photo is a whole culture and it has rules, and some of them are being argued about right now at my airline. So let us have the argument here.
When it is fine
After the last passenger is off, before the cleaners, at the door or on the stairs with the aircraft behind. Everyone in uniform, everyone groomed, nobody holding a phone in the photo. The classic. Every crew member has fifty of these and they are the ones your mother has on her fridge.
When it is not
During boarding. With passengers visible. In the flight deck without the captain's permission and the door rules followed. On the wing (yes, it has been done, and no, the person is not flying any more). With anything that shows the airline's operational information.
The purser who bans it
Some pursers say no photos, ever, and the reason is usually one of two: they have seen a photo end up somewhere with the wrong caption and become a disciplinary, or they want the crew off the aircraft and on the bus. Both are reasonable. Both are annoying at the end of a good trip.
The social media part
The policy at most airlines: in uniform, no airline name in the caption, no disparaging anything, no operational details, and a general understanding that if it would embarrass the airline on a newspaper front page, do not post it. The crew who lost jobs over photos did not lose them over the door photo. They lost them over the caption, the wing, or the drink in hand in uniform.
The good ones
The whole crew on the stairs in Cape Town with the mountain. The 3am galley shot with everyone exhausted and laughing. The one where the captain photobombs. The last flight before someone leaves, with the hat swapped for a party hat. Those are the ones that matter, and none of them needed to be posted.
Where does your airline draw the line, and which purser do you agree with?
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#2 Emirates, and the rules are the rules you describe almost exactly, and the caption is where people fall. The photo of the crew at the door is never the problem. The 'another day in paradise' with the airline tagged in a week of bad press is.
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#3 Purser, and I am the second type of banning purser: I want you on the bus. I will allow one photo on the stairs if everyone is ready in sixty seconds. It is a negotiation. I usually lose.
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#4 Ryanair, number one, and we do not have time for the photo, ever, the turnaround is 25 minutes and the next passengers are at the gate. The crew photo at Ryanair is a selfie in the crew room at sign off.
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#5 Condor, and the good one for us is the crew on the beach in Cancún in the hotel's crew corner, out of uniform, on the layover. That is the photo I keep. The door photo is for the mothers.
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#7 Korean Air, and the crew photo is practically a ceremony for us, with a specific pose, and the purser takes it, not a crew member. Different culture, same fridge.