When I first started going to orientations, training, and shadowing other workers, I very much had a feeling of "drink the kool-aid" in this company. Everyone told me that British Airways was the best airline and I should believe it too. Now, I understand that this helps employees provide great service because they believe they are truly great, but the way they talked about the family they made here made me feel like it would be hard for me to get to the same level.
Now fast forward almost a month and I just experienced my first delay. Our flight from LHR (London) to DEN (Denver) was hit by lightning, but the captain made the call that the aircraft was still performing well and decided against an emergency landing. The plane landed without incident and we were able to unload the passengers without undue problems.
Now what does an airline do when an airplane is hit by lightning? Well, we send it to a mechanical check that takes about three hours to make sure we don't put around 300 people on a plane that is not suitable to make the long flight.Now a three hour delay is not much especially when we are trying to ensure your safety, but people were acting like it was the end of the world. They were going to miss a wedding...tour..court...car they booked... you name it and they were pissed.
Through all of this, however, we were able to keep each other sane. BA provided $9 meal vouchers for each employee and we were told to take a break during the night to go have some food and sit down. We joked about the group of 30 that came through. And on top of that they all have at least one bike each. At the end of the day we were wired and couldn't help but laugh about how excited we were to go home.
Today I walked into the office and was told that BA was buying everyone coffee today as a way to say 'thank you' for yesterday.
"BA family" doesn't only stand for British Airways, but also Bad Ass family...because truly they are. Between my wonderful coworkers and the sweet Swiss people with whom I enjoy speaking German, I have found myself falling in love with my job.
