Qatar Airways economy purser after seven years: what running a cabin of 300 actually involves, and why I chose it over business
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#1 Jordanian, seven years, economy purser, and I said in another thread that I chose economy over business after doing the business course. People asked why. Here is the job, properly, because the economy purser is the least glamorous senior role and, I think, the most interesting.
The cabin
On a 777, up to 300 people in economy. On the A350, around 250. A crew of ten to twelve in the cabin under me. Two galleys, two full meal services on a long haul, a bar run, a second drinks run, the duty free, and everything that happens to 300 people in fourteen hours, which is everything.
The job in the briefing
Positions, galley assignments, the service plan adjusted for the load and the route (the Manila flight is not the Frankfurt flight), the special meals count, the passengers to watch. The economy purser's briefing is the one where the plan for the next fourteen hours is actually built, because the front cabins run themselves and the back cabin needs a plan.
The job in the air
The service timing. Getting two galleys to serve 300 people in 90 minutes without the aisles colliding is choreography and I run it from the aft galley with a watch. The problems: the seat that will not recline, the child that will not stop, the man who has had too much, the woman who is unwell in 47C. All mine, all at once, sometimes. The crew: a mix of second month and fifth year, from ten countries, and my job is to make them a team by hour two.
Why I chose it
Because the business cabin, as Layla wrote, is one man's steak and my name on a complaint. The economy cabin is a small town and I am the mayor. The problems are bigger and less personal. The crew are more junior and I get to teach. The passengers are the whole world, not the wealthy part of it, and I like the whole world. And, honestly, the economy purser who runs a clean service on a full Manila is respected by the cabin manager in a way that the business purser is not, because everyone knows which is harder.
The path
Economy crew, then the business course (you need it, for the promotion, even if you come back), then the purser assessment, then the purser course. I did the business course, flew business for a year, and asked for economy purser when the position opened. The cabin manager said 'nobody asks for that'. I said that was why.
For crew deciding
If you like running things and teaching, and you are not precious about the cabin, economy purser is the best senior job on the aircraft. If you like the craft of service and being noticed for it, business. Both are real. Nobody asks for the first one. Ask for it.
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#2 Business, and I said what I said, and Omar is right about which is harder. The economy purser on a full Manila is the hardest job on the aircraft and the cabin managers know it. The mayor of a small town. Yes.
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#3 Business, from India, and reading this I remember my economy years with something close to nostalgia. The Kerala flights, 300 people, the service choreography from the aft galley. It was harder and it was more fun. I might ask for it back one day.
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#4 Economy, three years, and I have flown under Omar's kind of purser twice and it changes the flight. A plan in the briefing, a watch in the aft galley, and a crew that is a team by hour two. That is what I want to be.
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#6 Economy, Sudanese, and the 'the passengers are the whole world, not the wealthy part' line is why I am still in economy at year five and why I will apply for the purser role when it opens. The whole world is the point.
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#7 Business course next month and I had assumed business was the goal and this thread has complicated that in a good way. Do the course. Then decide. Noted.
