'There is a feeling within the airline - and outside it - that BA's cabin staff have led a charmed life but now have to face up to reality' Photo: GETTY  British Airways cabin crew lead lives that seem outside the real world, with the sort of perks that would make most of us green with envy – never mind their salaries. So why do they seem to be preparing an extended suicide note?  The roots of the problem – and of much of current cabin crew thinking – go back decades; back to BA's long-lost ancestor, Imperial Airways, founded in 1924 – note that "Imperial" – and then BOAC, a state-owned monolith created in 1939.  "There's still a hangover from those days," said one crew member I spoke to. "It's as if some crew, especially the older ones, feel as if they're somehow part of the Civil Service, waving the flag, with all the old-fashioned sense of entitlement that implies.  "BA may have been a private company since 1987, but many older staff still have a jobs-for-life mentality; the sort of outlook you'd find in more backward-looking parts of the public sector.  "For example, you'd get people throwing sickies if they didn't like their shift pattern. Some would say BA's inflexible rota system forced them into it – but others would call in sick so they could go to parties."  It's not surprising that with BA's losses, there is a feeling within the airline – and outside it – that BA's cabin staff have led a charmed life but now have to face up to reality.  "You have had it too good for too long," an Air France crew-member told one of my BA stewardess friends, reflecting widespread industry opinion.  The crews' view from BA's great rival, Virgin, is similar. The Virgin steward I spoke to sympathised with anyone who had to take a salary cut, but felt BA staff needed to be realistic.  "The BA crews do earn an awful lot of money and they've had it cushy for a long time," he said. I used to share a house with someone who was BA crew and I couldn't believe his salary. He was earning double what I was."  My BA stewardess friend agreed. "Some elements have definitely got to change and most crew accept that. But there's no doubt everyone wants to work for BA because they know their crews get the best deal…"  Another crew member, who has been with the airline for 24 years and is now a purser, said she and her colleagues had been prepared to take temporary pay cuts and unpaid leave, just as they did after the attacks of September 11.  "The last thing I want to do is strike, but the airline doesn't want to listen. It doesn't want to talk," she said. "They want to cut costs at any price. When you join BA now, you're given a number: and from then on, that's how it feels as if you're being treated – like a number."  If the attitudes of some crew are shaped by the past and a misplaced sense of entitlement, then BA's management over many years must take some of the blame.  Never mind the ins and outs of the present dispute, John King, appointed to BA in 1981 in the buildup to the 1987 privatisation, may have appeared ruthless, but he was aware that he would have to take a cosseted workforce with him.  Despite the cuts and tough-talking, King was rather more emollient behind the scenes, and staff were allowed to get used to the idea of generous salaries, perks and conditions. King's successors – Colin Marshall, Rod Eddington and Bob Ayling – all dabbled, but, as the current dispute shows, the good times continued to roll – and how.  Now push really has come to shove and Willie Walsh, current head of BA, means business. The airline is in a hole, and a big one: a vast pensions liability, huge losses, declining business-class revenues, and competition on short-haul routes from leaner, hungrier – and lower-paying – no-frills carriers.  Had they known it, the glory years for BA cabin crew were over a long time ago. Unfortunately, no one told them. Now they're being told. It's no wonder they don't want to listen.  A long-haul pilot who has worked for BA for more than 20 years gives his opinion on the dispute.  "Do some staff still think they're in the public sector? Absolutely right they do. I've heard some people say we can't go bust and my jaw drops – look at TWA, PanAm, Swissair, Sabina and other airlines that were never supposed to go under. There's a perception that we are still somehow the national airline and the government will bail us out and everything will be rosy.  And there are certainly parts of the airline that are still stuck in the Seventies. I heard one of my cabin crew say: "I've been here for 30 years: I must be paid this amount." I said: "well why, if the company you work for can't afford it and goes bust because they are paying too much in wages?"  We have working practices which you would never dream of having if you started an airline today: the fact that we always stay in four- or five-star hotels in city centres, for example – and I'm not complaining: I think it's marvellous.  It doesn't add up, of course, but there is no way they are going to listen. The problem is, people come to BA, stay for 20 years, and have no idea of what it's like in the real world. I've given up discussing it: so many crew are stuck in an unreal old-world mindset."
The Seventies are to blame for the current dispute, British Airways cabin crew    members tell Sara Macefield.