Poopdeck90210

Flying my bi-weekly flight home SEA-MSP today. Was UG'd to FC and was looking forward to a much needed flight home. Our aircraft was an Airbus A320. We boarded early and I observed that our Lead FA and her assistants were legacy NW FA's. As the coach PAX filed on board, it was apparent that the Lead FA and the other FA's up front were not going to give us a pre-flight drink. Okay.... I guess we can let this slide. After we are boarded, there is talk and discussion up front. FO makes an announcement that there was a "teany, tiny" computer glitch and we would be delayed for a few minutes. About 30 minutes later, FO makes another announcement that they would have to disconnect from power completely and have us sit in the dark for 7 minutes to allow the computer system to "reset". We would be failing back to a secondary system which keeps the tail wing lubricated / wet. All this time, the lead FA and the other FA's are doing NOTHING. No offer of refreshments or anything. Okay.

Very predictably... over one hour later... after "dinking" around with this problem, the FO makes another announcement that we will be switching aircraft. Great, just great. I know that the crew knew darn well at this time that our new aircraft (also an Airbus A320) had NOT been catered. Also, this was red eye time. Okay. Did the Lead FA and the other FA's offer any of the PAX on our flight pop or water out of our catered drink carts as we deplaned? Nope. I wonder if they will take any for themselves? Hmm..

By the time we boarded our replacement aircraft, it was apparent that we were waiting on catering. I believe the Lead FA (motivated by making this delayed flight even easier for herself and the other FA's)... takes a verbal "straw poll" of the PAX up front. She pulls a 40 minute estimate to be catered out of thin air and asks the upfront PAX, "Do you want to wait 40 more minutes to be catered or do you just want to leave?" She does disclose to those of us partaking in this poll that we have NOTHING on board, including water, and that if we wanted water during the flight - we would have to get that water from the sink in the bathrooms. Predictably, everyone around me opted to just leave. I wanted to wait the extra 5 minutes it would have taken to get the carts moved over, but given the general dauer atmosphere in our plane, I wasn't going to take up that cause...

So we have the safety briefing and are waiting to back away from the gate, when, and I kid you not... I hear the lead FA crack open a couple of softdrinks for herself and the other upfront FA. WTH???

I'm going to hold out for $250 in compensation for this. Let's see what I can get out of DL.

-A

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa\'s PWP wonderous poster: BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.304 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

South of expected...

ControlTower

Darn, those red wing FAs are Mad Men now !!!
even those Saab 340 doesn't leave anywhere with out at least a bottles of water.

Task Force DL

Actually, bathroom tank water is non-potable on most aircraft and FAs know this. For laypeople, "non-potable" means "not fit to drink". i.e. DIRTY. Did the FA actually say what you stated above? If so, she is an idiot (she sounds like one anyway) and I would make *THIS* the basis of my complaint to DL.

A broader comment on your post - This is unusually bad service that is highly atypical.

TFD

BusinessElite

Welcome to the New Delta.

The NWers lost their union, so guess who they're going to take it out on......

HWGeeks

Dude if they didn't hvae drinks for them they wouldn't of left its in their contract that they get to do no work and drink your drinks.

MastaHanky

At least they didn't steal your banana.

davetravels

I remember when US tried charging for water (not that I flew them) - but weren't the FA's instructed to tell people to get water from the bathroom if they didn't want to pay for it?

I can't believe they would EVER leave on a 3 hour-ish trip WITHOUT water, or proper catering! People have medical problems and other needs! An hour-ish flight - maybe!

DL Sky

Wow! The FA said to drink the non-potable water? That's just asking for people to get sick. That is seriously wrong and should be reported.

Bicostal

I think, that as top tier fliers who either buy or earn their way up front, letting poor service slide today means poor service becomes acceptable as the standard for tomorrow. I am tired of not being offered a PFB while watching the FAs chat amongst themselves. If the plane is catered and boarding on time, there is NO reason not to extend the "courtesy" of offering a drink to the FC cabin. I for one have begun to ask for one - perhaps if more of us would, Delta FAs will realize that they aren't doing us a favor, they are actually doing their job.

Rant off...

cheesewiz

This is incorrect, lav water from the sink is potable, numerous procedures and sanitation measures are in place to prevent contamination of that water.

avidflyer

That may well be but here is a warning placard in every Lav I have been in that says it is NOT potable.

SeaClay007

With only one or two exceptions, I've seen improvement over the last couple of months in PMNW FA performance as I've been flying through DTW, MEM and MSP mostly of late. Preflight drinks have become the rule instead of the exception and they seem more happy / less grumpy than in my past experience.

Robert Leach

Random musings:

1. Back in the day before bottled water, there was potable water on the plane. Not sure if it went to every spigot, but it did exist.

2. I don't recall seeing the non-potable sticker in the bathroom, certainly not to any widespread/universal degree.

3 Doesn't everyone use the amenity kit toothbrush furnished in international J to brush one's teeth toward the end of a long haul international flight, using sink water to rinse?

Arthur Randolph

150 paxs lining up at the lavatories to contort in the sink for a sip of blue tinted water. Oh yeah. Awesomeness.