-
#1 Number one at Bergamo, six years, and I am one of the higher sellers at the base, so I get asked how. Sector pay threads explain that commission matters. This one explains how it is made.
What is sold
The trolley: hot food, sandwiches, snacks, drinks, alcohol. The duty free and the gifts: perfume, the branded things, the model aircraft. The scratch cards for the charity. And the announcements that drive all of it. Commission is a percentage of what you sell, tracked per crew member through the tablet, and it lands on the payslip a month later.
What actually sells
Hot drinks on the first wave. A 6am Bergamo to Manchester sells coffee to nearly everyone who is awake. Alcohol on the Friday and Saturday evening sectors to the party destinations, and on the Sunday return the hangover cure combination of water and a sandwich. Sandwiches on any sector over two hours at a mealtime. The perfume on the return sectors from the sun when people have not bought a gift. The scratch cards after a good announcement and a smile, and honestly the scratch cards are where the difference between crew is made.
By season
Summer: volume. Full flights, holiday mood, the beach routes, alcohol and snacks. Winter: coffee, sandwiches on the longer sectors, less alcohol, and the ski flights which sell surprisingly well on the return. The week before Christmas is perfume week.
How the top sellers do it
They do the announcement properly: standing where people can see them, with a specific recommendation, not a list. 'The chicken sandwich is actually good today and we have two hours' outsells 'we have a range of hot and cold food'. They go down the aisle looking at people, not the cart. They ask the row, not the aisle. They remember that the passenger who said no to coffee might say yes to water twenty minutes later. And they treat the scratch card as a fun thing, with a joke, rather than as a chore, because passengers buy the mood.
The low sellers do the announcement reading from the card, push the cart looking at the floor, and treat the scratch cards as an embarrassment. Same cabin, half the commission.
The numbers
At my base the range in a summer month between the top and bottom seller in the same grade is roughly three to one. That is several hundred euros a month for the same sectors and the same hours. Over a year it is a holiday or a car.
The honest downside
Selling is tiring on sector four. Some crew hate it and would rather have a higher basic and no commission. That airline exists and it is not this one. If you join Ryanair, learn to sell in month one, because it is a third of the money.
-
#2 Dublin, and the 'ask the row, not the aisle' is the single best selling tip on this forum. It is the difference between a question and an announcement. Marco's three to one range is right at our base too.
-
#3 easyJet, our commission is smaller but the same logic. The specific recommendation beats the list, every sector. I learned it from a Ryanair crew at a hotel bar in Alicante.
-
#4 Wizz Budapest, and our trolley works the same way. The top sellers look at people. It is that simple and half the crew will never do it.
-
#5 First month on the line and I have been reading the card for the announcement. Tomorrow I am recommending the chicken sandwich. Thank you.
