Young-ish pax experiences

[AussieBattler]

Just wondering if there are other young-ish FF out there on the forum (<40 yo? Is that fair?!) who travel regularly, and what your experiences have been like?

I am an early 30s QF WP living o/s. I travel a bit for business (~150,000 miles p.a.) and have had pretty ordinary in-flight service compared with my 'more senior' pax in business class a lot of the time.

Certainly not complaining about the class of travel itself, but it seems like if you're not 50+ in business class you either get ignored, or treated downright rudely a lot of the time. This has been my experience on QF/BA/AA, but not on CX.

To be clear, I have had lots of in-flight staff who are incredibly friendly, helpful and professional and who seem to 'get it' i.e. your bum and wallet are on the seat, same as anyone.

I think the in-flight experience can make a big difference when you are getting off the bus to a full day's work, especially if it's in TIP or BEN...but that's another story.

This is NOT an attack on in-flight crews per se - just differential treatment which sometimes seems to be about 'you're too young to be sitting here'....

Anyone other young-ish pax out there with good or not-so-good experiences?

AB

P.S. Thanks for a terrific forum! The tips and tricks are really helpful when planning holiday travel downunder with minimum $/points.

 

[Evan]

30's - check
WP - check
Living overseas - check
Miles - about 100k / year maybe more, i dont want to count.

As an early 30's guy i travel very casually, i will turn up and fly J or F in shorts and a t-shirt in hot Asia, or jeans/polo top, i generally get treated well. BA and QF are good, i am pretty talkative and casual with the staff so maybe thats part of the difference, i am not after the straight business treatment.

But CX to there credit do a fantastic job regardless. So much so that i was tempted to even consider CX as an alternative FF program to QF.

Sadly my business trip are whY !

 

[AussieBattler]

yeah, I do the same Evan e.g jeans/t-shirt on the way home a lot, so maybe it's a transatlantic thing rather than a 'straight business treatment' thing

I've had great in-flight experiences on QF/BA too, tends to be from younger staff though

totally agree re: CX. Is this a cultural difference btw airlines? What do you think?

 

[Evan]

<..>

totally agree re: CX. Is this a cultural difference btw airlines? What do you think?

Very much, but people love SQ and i don't think its that good. I prefer CX style. But JL and the other Japanese airlines are interesting, as a white guy you either get ignored and they are scared of you and look after all the Japanese guys or your a novelty and you get heaps of attention.

LH crews, mostly boring and typical serious German, but sometimes you get some really friendly and fun crews.

I am pretty low maintinance anyway, but i would not stand for poor service when paying the $$ But i have had no issues on any airline to complain about. Just a few average services but not 'bad'.

 

[AussieBattler]

Cheers Evan, appreciate the insights

AB

 

[notzac]

I am an early 30s QF WP living o/s. I travel a bit for business (~150,000 miles p.a.) and have had pretty ordinary in-flight service compared with my 'more senior' pax in business class a lot of the time.

This doesn't echo my own experiences - I'm in my late 20's (and also WP). I've not flown that many long haul flights in J, but where I have I've had consistently excellent service - I certainly didn't notice "more senior" pax being looked after any differently.

 

[Grooba]

I'm also in my early 30's and fly almost exclusively QF and don't leave the Australia / South East Asia region for work. I do however live in SYD.
Also as others have posted above I don't wear a suit and hopefully never will have to. Jeans and a polo shirt are my general wear (occasionally a pair of pants with the polo but thats as far as I'll go).

I also do notice the service can be different from the older QF crew towards the 50+ businessman flyers as opposed to people of my age / dress code.

Doesn't really worry me though but yes it's certainly noticable on QF DOM and INT.

 

[pfish]

In my 30s and WP. I generally haven't noticed a difference to be honest. When i have noticed a difference it has been when the passengers have been high maintenance (rather than to do with age per se).
the one exception is on ba in f when the f/a kept forgetting my requests (drinks mainly) yet was all over the older couple in front of me.

 

[AviationNZ]

I'm in mid-20's and fly around 80,000 miles per year, and similar to others, I haven't noticed any different treatment. I did recently fly VS upper class for a few flights and loved the experience. The crew there seemed to enjoy having younger pax on board.

 

[simongr]

I find the QF crew quite patchy in int'l J and it may have been down to my age. When I started doing lots of travel I was 35 (now 38) and generally travelled in cargo pants/chinos and a polo shirt for comfort. The crews on CX, BA and AA were all fairly good in J/F but QF were just up and down...

 

[jamesatfish]

My wife and I are both in our 20s and are both WPs, mainly from a couple of paid AONE* trips per year (based in Aus).

We haven't really had any problems with receiving less than exceptional service from in-flight staff due to our age - if anything we get the opposite as many of the flight crew seem to enjoy dealing with people outside the stereotype for that class of travel.

On a recent BA flight one of the flight attendants had a quiet joke with me that we were the only people in F on that flight (out of about 8 pax) who weren't a knight, duke or lord of something-or-other, which he quite enjoyed as we also we the only passengers that didn't have the accompanying DYKWIA attitude.

 

[2muchplastic]

Still just mid 30's, and have travelled 150000 miles in the last year, and as a WP (on oneworld) or Gold Elite (on SQ) for the last several months.

I don't really notice any difference in the behaviour towards the different age groups in J (and I too travel casually, it sounds like t-shirt and cargo pants are almost uniform here!), but I do notice that CX and KA definitely do have a better attitude towards higher ranking FFers than is prevalent on QF.

 

[docjames]

Doesnt everyone look the same in the Pyjamas?


QF have been hit and miss the times we've travelled J. One particularly bad MEL-LAX, one average LAX-MEL and the rest I would describe as "adequate" without being anything special.

CX were great in F (age at the time = 19, travelling with Father)
BA were excellent too (F, age 22, travelling alone)
QF were also good (F, Age 23)

I think in most cases, it's got nothing to do with age, race etc, just luck of the draw on the day.

I hope the new "excellence centre" they've created improves their consistency, if nothing else.

 

[dajop]

Still meet your definition of "young-ish" (just) but have travelled a lot throughout my 30s (have been consistently travelling at around 100 flights/year since 2001). Never really noticed any difference in treatment by age in any cabin, the main difference is probably that many crew will jump immediately to assist elderly passengers (especially those less fit looking) put hand luggage in overhead bins, whilst tend not to for younger passengers.

The other thing, that I have seen (for a select few in their 20's), is BOB treatment. Not sure if this is still practiced, but I did know some FA's (from AN and QF) who used to pick out best looking passenger on the plane (M or F depending) for special treatment

 

[jingles]

Mind if i ask what some of you guys do for a living to be flying all around in F/J.

Im early 20's and am in no way a WP FF, though id like to be..
Not that i am going to change jobs just so i can fly around the place.

 

[AviationNZ]

Mind if i ask what some of you guys do for a living to be flying all around in F/J.

I work in the travel and tourism industry, managing all our international wholesale clients that send tourists to Australia.

 

[Cyclogenesis]

Mind if i ask what some of you guys do for a living to be flying all around in F/J.

Im early 20's and am in no way a WP FF, though id like to be..
Not that i am going to change jobs just so i can fly around the place.

Same story
Early 30's NB QC member (35 points short of silver!!!)

I get great service most of the time... In fact when I was traveling in the US on AA I often got comped drinks and exit row seats because I was cheery and nice... and having QC was GREAT as I could chat with the person manning the desk and usually could get good seats...

In fact some of the nicest service I get is when traveling with my 4yo daughter, for much the same reason, she always likes to talk to staff as we board the plane.. "I am going to Sydney to see grandma etc etc...."

 

[Grooba]

Mind if i ask what some of you guys do for a living to be flying all around in F/J.

Im early 20's and am in no way a WP FF, though id like to be..
Not that i am going to change jobs just so i can fly around the place.

Unfortunately I don't get to fly around in J or F but have attained my WP via lots and lots of Y miles. I'm in software and our travel policy doesn't stipulate we get to fly in anything other than Y, no matter how long the flight. :evil:

J is something that I only experience via comp upgrades and F, yea right!

 

[jamesatfish]

Mind if i ask what some of you guys do for a living to be flying all around in F/J.

I'm in IT also, but it's my own company and so when I really have to travel I take my wife and we go in F to enjoy the experience. We average 2-3 RTW trips per year - usually two paid trips and the third booked using FF points. If the reason for travel can't justify the expense of F or J I'd sooner get someone local to do the work for me and just stay at home.

 

[Keith009]

I'm in my earlyish 20s, AA EXP/OWE, travels with jeans and t-shirt, and I've experienced no difference onboard tbh. I've travelled more J than F admittedly.

The CX crew varied a lot but they treated everyone equally well or shoddily rather than discriminating. SQ is generally quite good, a few cultural niggles aside. JL - seems to bow a lot to everyone and makes me equally uncomfortable on every flight. LH is fab in F, had a nice flight with them in C but it was only that 1 flight and i hear they can be up and down in C. QF/BA/NZ - all round excellence.

Only had 1 flight on them in J but MH was truly excellent too, on par with QF/BA/NZ.

I used to think that I'm a picky pax but a few crew have commented on how easy to please I was - so it must be true.

The only form of discrimination I've had is on the ground, when 'helpful' pax or ground staff would try to direct me to the economy lines. And ground staff stopping me from boarding when the announcement calls for F/J/shiny cards - for some reason this only occurs in Thailand.