Dear Reader

MY ADMIRATION for airline cabin crew has risen experientially following a BA flight last Saturday to St Lucia.

My wife and I were seated towards the back of the bus — she in the middle of a three, me on the aisle — leaving the window free.

Not for long. A 30-something woman, with stained halter top, bare midrift and a deep thirst, joined us. For some reason her boyfriend was sitting in the row in front — and they weren’t getting along.

The alcohol on her breath at 10am was pungent, made worse once the drinks trolley arrived. She sank two bottles of merlot and chased them with a couple of vodkas.

Her boyfriend turned round and told her to stop drinking. She responded by trying to kick him through the gap in the seats. It got ugly.

Whereas my wife was too polite to make an issue of it, the man sitting next to the boyfriend got up and complained to a crew member, who came to check out the situation.

‘Can I have a merlot?’ said the woman. ‘Not at the moment,’ said the flight attendant. Which I thought was good diplomacy. She was never going to get another drink — but the possibility was still hanging from the woman’s perspective.

Shortly after this, she fell asleep with one leg draped over my wife’s left knee — and began dribbling. That was when the chief purser got involved. No fuss. Cool and collected. She simply asked to have a word with us at the rear of the plane — then found two free seats in business class, where we spent the last three hours in comfort.

On returning from St Lucia (pictured), a female passenger collapsed outside one of the loos. Again, I was struck by how the crew handled the situation, with discretion and genuine care. We hear a lot about belligerent airline staff — and not enough about the exemplary ones.