Are flight crews in VA lounge regular visitors?

[PERLHR]

Just a curious question as noticed at MEL in the lounge chilling and having a coffee etc. does not bother me and assume they are (although then why is there not more of them?) For example I believe BA crew and probably many others are not permitted in lounges.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Just a curious question as noticed at MEL in the lounge chilling and having a coffee etc. does not bother me and assume they are (although then why is there not more of them?) For example I believe BA crew and probably many others are not permitted in lounges.

Tech crew, as in pilots… yes. I think in one of the other threads our VA pilot explained they are permitted entry. I see them regularly in Melbourne, and occasionally in Sydney. The number of pilots doesn’t equal the number of flights… so not sure why they are there… extended time between flights, or first flight of the day?

 

[RooFlyer]

The number of pilots doesn’t equal the number of flights… so not sure why they are there… extended time between flights, or first flight of the day?

Or killing time after the airline changes their schedule ...

 

[PERLHR]

They were positioning to SYD. Non flying.

 

[elanshin]

Just a curious question as noticed at MEL in the lounge chilling and having a coffee etc. does not bother me and assume they are (although then why is there not more of them?) For example I believe BA crew and probably many others are not permitted in lounges.

Don't crews usually have a separate down time space? Maybe that area was full or the coffee machine there broke.

 

[p--and--t]

Don't crews usually have a separate down time space? Maybe that area was full or the coffee machine there broke.

Might be a question for the ask the pilot thread. In years gone past Im pretty sure I’ve seen crew from the flight deck getting special privileges not accorded to cabin crew.

 

[Saab34]

Do they need to ‘de epaulette’ and so on?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Do they need to ‘de epaulette’ and so on?

My captain and FO were in the lounge prior to my flight to SYD a couple months ago. They were in full uniform. All the tech crew I’ve seen have been in full uniform, although there may be others that aren’t, and I wouldn’t know (but none that obviously looked like a uniform sans epaulette)

 

[jb747]

In my time it was a complete no-no in uniform, unless you were visiting officially (i.e. a delay or saying hello to your passengers). You could put a jumper over the uniform, or a bin liner, whichever was appropriate. Actually the QF uniform is so terrible, anything to hide it is good. You could otherwise only visit the business class lounge (irrespective of ticket class) as long as you were paxing on duty.

 

[Saab34]

I would have thought the crew room areas would be more attractive vs mingling with the dozens or hundreds in the lounges. Peace and quiet and staying away from pax would be important in my book!

 

[elanshin]

I would have thought the crew room areas would be more attractive vs mingling with the dozens or hundreds in the lounges. Peace and quiet and staying away from pax would be important in my book!

Most plausible answer, the coffee machine was broken

 

[jb747]

I would have thought the crew room areas would be more attractive vs mingling with the dozens or hundreds in the lounges. Peace and quiet and staying away from pax would be important in my book!

What crew room is that? If you look around, you will generally find any transiting pilots in the various coffee shops.

 

[AviatorInsight]

The lounges are usually in a better spot than the crew rooms are. Before administration it was blasphemy to wear our full uniform in both the lounge and business class.

After that, it was deemed ok to not have to put a jumper on (although I still do).

The lounges are not to be used for our first flight of the day unless we are paxing. If we have an extended turn around or a significant time between flights (I had 3hrs yesterday in BNE) then we can also use the lounge.

It is all monitored by big brother and we have a card to swipe in that logs each entry.

 

[Ade]

From what I know (talking to crew, ground staff & pilots at CBR) - staff members are not allowed to use the lounges at anytime, except of course, now I learnt that pilots can do in some circumstances.

Ground/airport staff and FAs buy their meals from the bars/eateries in the airport