Qatar Airways economy on the A350 and 787 day to day: the service flow, the crew ratio and how a 200 seat cabin is actually run
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#1 Economy purser, seven years, and there are threads on business and the QSuite and very little on what most new joiners will do for their first two or three years: run economy on the wide bodies. Here it is, the actual flow.
The cabins
The A350-900 has around 250 economy seats, the 787-8 around 230, the 777-300 over 300. The economy crew ratio depends on the type and the load, typically one crew member per 40 to 50 passengers in the cabin, with the economy purser (my job) running the cabin and the galley.
Boarding
The part that decides the flight. Bags, seats, the family who booked separately, the passenger in the wrong cabin, the wheelchair passengers boarded first, the unaccompanied minors, the special meals confirmed. A calm boarding is a calm flight. A chaotic boarding is a flight where the first meal service is 40 minutes late and the cabin knows it.
The first service on a long sector
Drinks and the first meal, two carts per aisle working from the front and the back to meet in the middle, or from the middle out depending on the galley. Two choices of hot meal, a special meal list to hit first, and a lot of 'we have run out of the chicken' at row 38. The purser's job is to sequence the carts, to move crew between aisles when one is slower, and to solve the run out before it becomes a complaint. On the A350 this takes about 90 minutes for 250 people if it goes well.
The quiet middle
Lights down. Water runs every 30 to 40 minutes, the crew rotating. The galley organised for the second service. Crew rest in rotation on the ultra long haul. The purser does the paperwork and the walk through and handles the medical if one happens, and one happens more often than passengers think.
The second service
Breakfast or a light meal 90 minutes before landing. Faster, one cart per aisle, and the cabin is waking up cross. Then the landing preparation: the cabin secure, the seats, the bins, the count.
What makes a good economy crew member
Speed with a smile. Memory for the special meals and the rows. Noticing the passenger who is quiet in a way that is not sleep. Not taking the cross passenger at hour eleven personally. And the ability to work a cart with a colleague you have met three hours ago as if you have known them a year.
Why I stayed in economy
I did the business course and went back. I like running a cabin of 250 with a team of six. I like the boarding puzzle. I like that nobody in economy expects the caviar and everyone is grateful for a second bread roll. It is a different craft from the front and it is mine.
New joiners: you will do this for two years at least. Learn to love the puzzle and the years go fast.
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#2 Two years in economy, business course confirmed, and I am going to miss the boarding puzzle. Omar is right that a calm boarding is a calm flight. I learned that from him on a Manchester sector.
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#3 Economy, from Sudan, and the 'run out of the chicken at row 38' is the single most universal experience at this airline. Every crew member has a row 38 story.
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#4 Business now, economy for two years first, and the memory for special meals is the skill that transferred most. In business you remember fourteen preferences. In economy you remembered forty special meals. Same muscle.
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#5 @ibrahimdoh mine was row 41 on a Lagos flight and I still think about it.
