air1jdg

Last night I flew on my first A321 from Delta. I couldn't count the total number of FA on the flight but when service started they had 1 serving F and 2 pushing a cart serving the whole of C+ and Y. When the pilot came on to announce initial descent and 25 minutes to ATL they stopped service.

1. What are the FAA rules for when service must stop?
2. How many FA staff an A321?
3. What is normal service, 1 or 2 carts for Y, on this aircraft?

My next flight was an A320 ATL - SDF. This flight had 4 FA and they did 2 carts for service in C+ / Y and finished service in 322 miles vs. only 1/3 service on the A321 for 400+ miles.

Thanks,
John

flyerCO

There's no rule on when it must stop. However they have to have

1)everything stowed (everything put back in the cart) and trash collected
2)passengers checks to ensure their items stowed, seats/trays upright, and seatbelt fastened.
3)be in there seats for final landing.

FAA sets rules for how many FA are needed. Basically over X seats and under 100 need 2. Add 1 for every 50 or portion thereof.

Distance isn't what really matters. Length of flight is what matters. A 400 mile flight can be much shorter then a 300 mile flight. Also if there's turbulence service can take longer.

Finally number of carts isn't truly what matters. 2 FA using 1 cart can still serve as many as 2 FA with each having their own cart.

Bagels

- Staffing is FAA minimum (1 FA: 50 PSGR), or 4 FA.

- FAA publishes guidelines for takeoff and landings, not service, thus airlines have flexibility as to when they can end service.

- Normal service is 2 carts on Y.

- The single Y cart + early service termination could've been a derivative of a bumpy ride or lazy flight attendants. Maybe they're reminiscing over the days ATL/TPA was a fast break route.

Super80Fan

Just lazy FA's, if DL can successfully serve a full 757 flight worth of passengers on this route they can serve everyone on an A321, unless of course there was some abnormal like turbulence/weather.

AANYC1981

sounds like lazy FA's

flyerCO

A 757 will have more FA working then a 319/20. Yes some are just lazy, but most times its more a matter of it being a really quick flight. Also FL gets weather and wind regularly.

nystateofmind

For all planes with more than 19 seats, not 19 passengers, FAA requires 1 FA for every 50 seats or fraction thereof.

20-50 - 1 FA
51-100 - 2 FA
101-150 - 3 FA
etc.

Silver Meteor

I have flown this route a gazillion times over the years. Trust me, this route is so short, that at least 50% of the time, I did not get my beverage service being in coach, and the FA's were hustling. By the time the seat belt sign is turned off, and by the time the FA's get everything ready to serve, you are only minutes away from starting to descend.

Yes, maybe you had some bad FA's. But like I said for the most part, it has been hit or miss with me over the years.

formeraa

Sometimes it is not lazy FA's per se, but SLOW FA's. As with every industry, there are people who are faster and others who are slower. On these short flights, if there isn't at least one FA who is fast at beverage service, they oten won't be able to finish the service properly. Also, they have to set up the carts quickly.

On the OP's flight, I bet that there must have been an additional FA serving from the back of the plane. That is often the case.

Slow learner

Lazy FA's - really? Did you really just type that?

This is a 67 minute leg, by the time you reached cruise altitude and then begun descent for approach you're lucky to get a 20 minute window for cabin service - ignoring ATC, turbulence, where you are sat, or load factors. It's about a 50% hit rate on this route whether you get cabin service or not.

If you really want cabin service try a really long one way flight somewhere.

Super80Fan

You must not fly much then. I have gotten service from less FA's on full flights sub 50 minute flights.

Widgets

From my observation, the limiting factor can just as often be slow passengers who can't make up their mind or ask too many questions about what "Coke products" means. Sometimes, I've heard FAs make announcements to get your order ready because they don't have time to .... around.

mpheels

I was on a WN flight last fall with that type of announcement - they went through the cabin service announcement before take off, and said we should go ahead and look at the drink list in the in-flight magazine, because they were "fresh out of 'I'm not sure' and 'What do you have'." If you didn't know what you wanted when they reached your row, then you weren't getting a drink. This was on an ORF-BWI flight, which is only about 45 in the air, so I was impressed that they even try to do a drink service. They also ripped open sacks of peanuts/pretzel packs and told people to take what they wanted then pass them back.

readywhenyouare

^ Exactly.

Once I was on a 767-400 from MCO-ATL with a very quick flight time of 48 minutes. The flight attendants managed to get everyone served.

I think it depends a lot on the crew bases. My last trip on DAB-ATL we had DTW based flight attendants and got no PDB and only one drink during the flight in F. We had a NYC crew on ATL-MEM who worked their asses off to get everyone served. I got three drinks in F and ATL-MEM aid shorter than DAB-ATL.

N639DL

I think it has to do with the flight plan. Would not be surprised if the OP departed TPA to the north and then went straight into ATL thus reducing the flight time significantly.

Flew this route on a MD-90 in the mid-afternoon almost a year ago. Young NYC based crew. Was sitting in row 16 and was served. We did depart to the south so that increased the air time a bit. I believe everyone was served (I would recall an announcement apologizing about service being cut) and it was almost a full flight.

Seeing a 321 TPA-ATL today that departed to the north and still had 1h3m of air time. Based on FlightAware there was about 25 minutes at cruise which should be enough with 2 carts to serve the whole aircraft given that the FAs can legally prepare the carts when climbing and can close up the galley during descent.

I've flown BOS-LGA a lot recently and that route is often too short to get more than 5 rows of Y served, even considering before the snack change that the only offering was that mixed nut package.