5 MARCH 1965, Page 28

Airy Fairy

By LESLIE ADRIAN

Sorry, chaps no travel guide for you, but the ladies need special advice about flying to con- vince them that airlines are not 'mysteries that only experts—or men—can understand.' Miss Kelly speaking on behalf of Captain Milward and his crew. No news yet, by the way, about these experts who are neither men nor, pre- sumably, girls.

But the Training and Education Manager would like to say a word, several in fact. His book, Airline Management (Allen and Unwin, 52s. 6d.) came out yesterday. Dr. W. S. Barry begins his book with a chapter on customers, which shows that he has got his priorities right, even if his corporation hasn't altogether. He is not keen on discriminating between passengers simply because some are more important than others. 'In many cases,' he says, 'the extra atten- tion seems to be a carry-over from the days when the colonial governors and embassy staff were the most influential customers.'

But, says he, 'there are certain sorts of pas- sengers that clearly need special attention, be- cause without it they might get lost or suffer injury. Small children travelling on their own, invalids and old people are examples. The prac- tice of discriminating on these grounds is less contentious than that described above.' Hear, hear, Dr. Barry. And I would add, what a jolly farce if the railways did the same (as the airlines do now), and every time anyone who had ap- peared on Tonight stepped on to Euston Station,

the station-master donned his top hat, laid out the red carpet and railed off half the platform.

Now that BEA has monopolised the routes between London and Scotland and Northern Ireland by squeezing out British Eagle, the poor old customer does not even have the sanction of turning his back on the corporation. All he can do is complain and hope that someone will listen.

I receive an intermittent flow ot grouses about BEA and its indifference to, for example, mothers with small children. They are a nuisance, let's face it, clamouring not to be split up and getting in the way of those cosy business groups who do the journey regularly, know the routine per- fectly and the stewardesses slightly, and can take care of themselves in every sense ot the phrase.

One reader, on a BEA flight to Italy, had to be on the qui, vive literally for hours just to get the baby's bottle warmed. He testily refused offers of drinks and magazines in order to make his point. Eventually (about half-way) he made it. Another experience is that of a mother who is compelled to move her brood ot three by air from Glasgow to London from time to time to stay with her parents for a holiday, She re- ceived positively- no attention or help at all when her four-year-old was being sick during the glide in to the airport—except from her fellow pas- sengers—although she had- pressed the call button. She recalls that when she was eregnant and was also carrying an infant in arms neither stewardess helped with her cabin luggage (they are no longer allowed to carry babies since one was dropped). I realise that economy flights are economy flights, but courtesy (they used to say) costs nothing. Once again I recall the BOAC slogan (for internal use only) that pas- sengers are the object of the exercise and should not be regarded as a hindrance to it.

According to Barbara Kelly (if she wrote that part of the Women's Air Travel Guide), 'Flying means sun, fun -and everything taken care of.' I'll wager she's never flown to Nutt's Corner in winter. Aldergrove is -better, admittedly, but how simple do our national airlines think we are, pro- ducing stuff like this, with pictures of Teddy bears to assure us that 'children love flying' and that the stewardesses will heat up the baby's 'ready prepared [sic] milk in the plane's galley.'

And talking of sic, just what has ,the, ideal holiday make-up kit got to do with flying? I'd rather get back to those boiled sweets they used to hand round. No wonder the PRO forgot to send me a copy of the Kelly opus with my handout.

The doorstep salesman is only doing his job. I'm told that, quite 'often, he is a welcome variation in the monotonous daily life of the housing-estate housewife. But the very fact that he is welcome makes him an even greater menace from the point dl view of hard selling and getting families into debt, sometimes for rubbish the quality of which is no concern of the county court.

Welcome, then, to the Consumer Council's eight-page gatefold leaflet on 'How to say "No" to a doorstep salesman.' The basic rules are budgeting, planning, consulting (in the family), reading the small print (if it gets to that stage) and ignoring irrelevancies like not wanting to shut the door on the rain-soaked pedlar. And taking time to think about the purchase, especially if it's hire purchase.

Free copies (in packets of fifty for Women's Institutes and such) from 3 Cornwall Terrace, London, NWI.