roneyc

Had an inter-island flight yesterday and booked F since we were bringing two weeks worth of luggage along.

We boarded just after a family with small children only to find that a transferring HA flight crew was already on board and sprawled out across the first class area.

Only after standing in front of the woman occupying the row with our (paid) seats for a couple of minutes, did she finally acknowledge this was not her seat and moved across the aisle to sit next to another crew member.

Then we tried to find overhead bin storage for two carryons. These same crew members had filled every overhead in F plus the 2 sides of first economy bins. None of them had a single thing beneath their seats. We had to walk our bags back to row 5 to stow them. Of course that deprives those passengers of available overhead space near their seats.

Come on FA. How about some courtesy to your revenue-generating pax, the ones who keep you in business??

Grog

What was the purser's response when you addressed it? And why would you wait "a couple of minutes", not saying anything to the individual in the seat (crew member or not)?

Maybe it feels good to vent here, but it doesn't accomplish as much as active engagement does on board the aircraft.

747FC

How come you are more judgmental with a fellow FTer than with the behavior of the crew?

rubbernyc

I didn't interpret that as being judgmental towards the OP. It simply makes sense that in order for anything meaningful to get accomplished, you need to address the situation then and there. Venting on here is good, but it really gets you nowhere for the most part.

Hopefully someone else in the future will be better informed and request the purser to address the issue at the time of the incident.

Alex909

You just experienced "coconut wireless" in action and the flight crew might not have been aware that they are offending. There is always a bit of a jolly "meet, greet, and hug atmosphere" in the galley in front of the F cabin of those interisland flights and, on very few occasions, it can spread out into the F cabin itself. This seems to be one of the few areas where different disbursed members of the worldwide HA flight crew tend to run into each other and so there is always a bit of "meet and greet auntie X/haven't seen you in a while/ what is uncle Y doing" going on. The interisland F cabin is a bit like the water cooler in an office. Sure, management could stamp this out in the name of "customer service and efficiency". But I think that the culture of the company, and ultimately customer service, would suffer. You would simply end up with all of those "robot smile" flight attendants so familiar from Delta and United planes. Just consider accepting it as a cultural experience of air travel & Hawaii

tdowl5757

I'd have no problem with the group hug but the bin space is another matter....

formeraa

The bin space situation is offensive and the crew knows it. I would write a letter to Customer Relations and let them know the fight number and date. They should be able to pull up the records and let those stupid (yes, really stupid) employees know that they seriously offended paying F passengers.

I worked for AA and never saw anything as offensive as filling up every overhead bit in First Class. I would be outraged as a paying passenger and, no, I wouldn't have put my bags in Y. I would have approached the lead FA and said that I needed to have my bags close by in case I need to get medication. They can't really deny that.

747FC

And, unfortunately, this appears all too common when flying not only HA, but UA.

Alex909

Yes, the tight baggage situation in Interisland First can be annoying. In 40% of my flights in F, my bag ends up over row 4 -6 in economy instead of over my seat. You have to worry about retrieving it "against the stream of flyers" when everybody behind is eager to get off the plane. In addition to the flight crew taking space occasionally, I also see a few other causes:
* There is not enough F overhead bin space in the first place. Some of the 717 planes have safety equipment over row 1. The 717 is somewhat narrow in front and so wheelie bags end up over row 2 (or, more often, over economy row 4-6.)
* Interisland flights are heavily booked recently. (HA reduced some of the outer islands frequencies, while the number of travelers seems up.)
Not sure if there is an easy remedy. In any case, I would not recommend booking first just because you have a lot of carry on baggage. Row 4 or immediately behind (row 4, the first row in economy, requires $10 fee) is most efficient for people with a lot of carry on

747FC

You somehow forgot to mention the most obvious solution: FAs keep their bags out of the F area.

Alex909

I agree, of course. Just that, in my case, this wouldn't fix the more general problem that there is not enough F overhead space on interisland 717. I just don't see that many FA bags there. It has not been a repeatable cause for me (I see them often over the "extra comfort seats" in row 11-14 in my monthly ICN/HND/PEK-HNL flights, though.) But, of course, I totally agree that it is super annoying if you do spot them there on crowded flights.

The only solution to the problem of tight overhead storage in HA interisland F might be to put a third F row in place. (At least, during economic upturns.) And, consider increasing flight frequencies to the outer islands somewhat.

Grog

I just asked a couple of questions to gain clarification while suggesting an action that might've actually led to an instantaneous change in crew behavior as well as a change down the road.

Could I have written my post like a customer service reply, expressing dismay and saying no one should ever have to experience something like that? Or just straight out slammed what, from the OP's post, sounds like a boorish crew? Sure, but I wasn't there to witness any of it, so what right would I have to judge anyone, OP or crew, on that aircraft that day?

I chose what I thought to be a neutral path of writing. You, on the other hand, were clearly judgmental of me, a fellow FTer. But I'm okay with that, because at the end of the day--all things considered--, I'm usually judgmental.

Grog

...which might've occurred had the OP brought it up to the crew immediately.

747FC

Which might have occurred had the cabin crew used a modicum of common sense regarding customer service. It should not be a customer who has to remind an employee who is being served.

TheTakeOffRush

Agree, it shouldn't be the customer's job to remind employees.

But until the day that "should" happens automatically, it's useful to remind fellow FTers that they have the option to immediately raise the issue (politely and directly) with the purser.