Unlike some parts of the world, the United Kingdom celebrates Mother’s Day (or as it’s officially known ‘Mothering Sunday’) this coming Sunday. It’s normally a day for mother’s to put their feet up and relax but British Airways has decided to recognise this special day by getting five pairs of mother and child cabin crew to work together for the day.
Yes, that’s right – not only do all five pairs of mother and their offspring work for the same airline and do the same job but BA then put them all together to work the same flight. This is either incredibly cute or an absolute nightmare waiting to happen. In many cases, the mother’s decided to follow in their children’s footsteps after seeing how much fun they were having as cabin crew.
Last week, the 10 crew members worked on the same flight to Abu Dhabi before celebrating Mother’s Day early when they landed – British Airways says that many of the crew will be separated from their families on the real Mothering Sunday because of work commitments and in reality they very rarely get to see one another at work, let alone work with one another.
“It was lovely to work together, once the customers realised we were mum and daughter they thought it was amazing,” explained mother Maria Bygrave who got to fly with her daughter, Leah.
“The whole flight was like one big happy family.”
Mother Alison Hannah was encouraged to become cabin crew at the age of 64 by her daughter Camilla after she started looking for a new direction. “She assumed she would be too old but she gave it a good shot and was hugely successful,” Camilla explained.
It was a similar story for Margaret Eastaugh who joined her son, Mark at British Airways after a 30-year career in the Civil Service. “As Mother’s Day treats go, this will take a lot of beating,” Margaret said of the flight.
If anything, this just goes to prove that age doesn’t have to be a barrier to becoming cabin crew – a point that BA’s director of people, Angela Williams was keen to stress.
This kind of themed-flight has become a bit of a ‘thing’ at British Airways. It started last May when the airline celebrated the marriage of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle by finding a 10-strong team of cabin crew made up entirely by Harry’s and Meghan’s. The pilots and cabin crew operated what must have been quite a confusing flight to Toronto where the then Meghan Markle is originally from.
And in February, British Airways decided to pull a similar stunt for Valentines Day. Yes, that’s right – one romantic flight to Buenos Aires was crewed entirely by couples who all work for the airline as either pilots or cabin crew. For three of the couple, it was love at first sight after meeting in their roles at British Airways.
