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#1 Emirates, grade I since spring, from Karachi, and the business course threads describe the course and the promotion thread describes the path. The first months in the business cabin have not been written honestly and they were harder than the course suggested. Here they are.
The first business flight
A 777 to Frankfurt with a senior business crew member watching, as Ruby described for Qatar. I had done the course, I knew the sequence, and the first dine on demand service with twelve orders at once undid me in twenty minutes. The pad helped. The galley sequencing I had practised in the mock cabin fell apart with real passengers who changed their minds and a colleague who had her own method. I finished the service late and the purser said nothing until the ground.
The mistakes
The wine poured before the water. The tray placed from the wrong side. The passenger in 7K whose special meal I confirmed and then served the wrong one to because the seat map in my head was wrong. The bed set up with the duvet the wrong way. Small things, every one noticed by the purser and two of them by the passengers. The business cabin is the cabin where everything is noticed, exactly as Josh's A380 thread warned and I did not believe.
The passengers who noticed
The regular in 2A who has flown the route for a decade and corrected my wine presentation politely. The upgrade in 10K who was thrilled with everything and whose joy I will remember. The one who complained about the meal timing on the feedback form, which went on my file as a note and which the purser explained was normal in the first months.
The purser feedback
At the ground after the third flight, the purser sat with me and said three things: the sequencing is learned in the body and not the head, the mistakes I was making were the mistakes of everyone's first month, and the thing that would decide my first appraisal was whether I asked for help in the galley or hid the errors. I asked for help on the fourth flight and the fourth flight was the first good one.
Month three
The sequencing is in the body now. The pad is a backup. The regular in 2A said 'better' last week, which from him is a medal. The file has the one note and the appraisal says 'improving fast', which the purser told me is the best thing a first quarter can say.
For the grade II crew waiting for the course
The course is the words. The cabin is the body. The first month is bad for everyone and the pursers know it and are watching whether you ask. Ask. The regular in 2A will say 'better' eventually and it will feel like the wings.
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#2 Qatar, business since the summer, and Fatima's first flight is mine with Frankfurt instead of London. The twelve orders, the colleague with her own method, the purser silent until the ground. Month three is the body. The regular in 2A exists at every airline.
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#3 Emirates business, four years, and 'whether you ask for help in the galley or hide the errors' is the first appraisal in one sentence and the pursers say it to everyone. The ones who hide are the ones still making the mistakes at month six.
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#4 Upper deck, and the wine before the water is the universal first month mistake and the regular in 2A has corrected every new business crew member on the fleet politely. He is a kind of trainer. Fatima has the first months honest.
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#5 Grade II, Joburg, and this is the thread I needed next to the promotion one: not the path, the first month after. The body, the pad, asking. Saving for the course.
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#6 Qatar business, and the special meal served to the wrong seat because the map in the head was wrong is the mistake I still have nightmares about from my first month. The pad by seat number. Every time. Fatima is right that the course is the words.
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#7 Cathay business since spring, and the Cathay first months are the same with the dim sum instead of the dine on demand. The purser silent until the ground is a universal purser method. The asking is the appraisal.
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#8 Grade I, Newcastle, and 'improving fast' as the best thing a first quarter can say is what my purser told me too and I did not believe it until the second quarter said 'consistent'. Fatima is a quarter ahead of where I was.
