Alpha LSG’s OMG! Awards honour Thomson Airways cabin crew : Moodie Davitt Report

UK. Thomson Airways cabin crew were recognised for their exceptional customer service and commercial results at the inaugural OMG! Awards organised by Alpha LSG this week. The event follows the initial launch of the OMG! Awards with Monarch Airlines in January this year.

The gala dinner and awards ceremony closed the two-day conference (2-3 December) for Thomson Airways cabin crew and management at the Tortworth Court Hotel in South Gloucestershire. The evening event was attended by over 150 cabin crew, inflight retail suppliers, Thomson Airways and Alpha LSG management (The Moodie Report attended the gala night).

The Thomson Airways cabin crew award winners (and Alpha LSG team) celebrate

As reported, the awards and conference form part of a strategic initiative to help drive inflight sales, as well as enabling the airline to publicly reward top-selling crew.

The conference included a programme of team building activities, including a “˜Catwalk Challenge’ that showcased the brands sold onboard, and training sessions that studied the importance of brand and visual merchandising.

Special Recognition Award for OMG Event Participation winner Gary Forbes (left) and Salesperson of the Year winner Stacey Gemmill-Walker

The event’s entertainment included “˜The Singing Policemen’, a trio of opera singers dressed in police uniform and a pre-dinner Drinks Reception sponsored by Bottega.

Alpha LSG Chief Operating Officer Alex Forbes said: “We are focused on working in partnership with Thomson Airways to develop a profitable inflight retail offering that delights the customer. Acting as our front-line sales team, cabin crew have a crucial part to play in this objective and we are committed to supporting their endeavours through our training programmes, and recognising their success together through the OMG! Awesome Awards scheme.”

There were a total of eight awards presented at the gala dinner, culminating in the night’s most sought after award, Super Incentive Winner. For this award, a cheque for Â£10,000 was presented to the crew member that sold the highest amount of Kettle Chips and Authentic Cocktails to the largest number of customers throughout the summer season.

Award winners were:

Sell Yourself Selfie Award – Nikki Griffiths (Exeter)

Best Customer Service Award – Lynsey Owen (Newcastle)

Special Recognition Award for Dedication to Incentives – Caroline Parratt, (Gatwick)

Most Improved Base for Incentive Participation – Dublin

Special Recognition Award for OMG Event Participation – Gary Forbes and Melanie Curtis-Clements

Salesperson of the Year (Runner Up) – Nicky Strutt (Manchester) and winner – Stacey Gemmill-Walker (Birmingham)

Super Incentive Winner – Stephanie Metz (Gatwick)

Super Incentive Winner: an emotional Stephanie Metz collects her Â£10,000 cheque from the Alpha LSG team

Lynsey Owen receives the Best Customer Service Award

Overall, Thomson Airways has seen a +20% increase in boutique sales year-on-year, while spend per head has grown by +6%.

Thomson Airways Director of Customer Services Carl Gissing commented: “Alpha LSG has created an inspirational initiative in the OMG! Awesome Awards & Conference. We firmly believe in motivating cabin crew to sell and it is vital to reward and recognise our top performers. We are working together closely with our partners at Alpha LSG to ensure that our cabin crew have all the skills and tools necessary to provide a top notch inflight service which has proven to grow onboard revenue.”

Gissing added that the conference and awards would not have been possible without the company’s suppliers and the years of support, dating back to when Thomson operated as Britannia Airways.

Alpha LSG General Manager Management Services Alan Hayes, who emceed the event, said: “I truly believe that we are at the start of something exciting, we have a special relationship between Alpha LSG and Thomson that will continue and I believe that the OMG! Awards will continue to grow.”

Alpha LSG provides inflight services to 60,000 flights carrying 10 million passengers annually from Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, East Midlands, Stansted, Newcastle, Bristol, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Doncaster, Luton, Leeds, Aberdeen, Belfast and Dublin.