username

I fly regularly on some very short haul flights between 25-35 minutes. On the 35 minute flight, I get served a drink most of the time -- except when I run into this particular flight attendant.

Last time, she just got herself a coffee and sat down in the back to read her book.

This time, she sat in her seat and dozed off and on for the entire flight.

First, I thought it was really bad and was going to write UA about this. It is one thing being lazy and another to be sleeping on the job. Then I thought about the lives they have - long hours, low pay and etc. If I were her, I've got to serve the drink to keep myself awake

I am curious....is this simply a customer service issue or it is actually a compliance issue? Is there any FAA rule that says at least 1 flight attendant must be awake at any given time? I can see there are situations where a sleeping FA would not be able to react promptly for emergencies.

All that said, she was on-cue for all the announcements she was supposed to make.

Also, if I took a picture of her sleeping (or any interesting things the crew does - like pulling the circuit breakers on the A320 in-flight), would I be violating any TSA or FAA rules?

Thanks.

Critic

Considering the short duration of the flight, I'm surprised there'd be time for a drink service, even on an RJ. But assuming there's normally a service, is it possible the pilot instructed the FA to stay seated due to turbulence?

restlessinRNO

You get served a drink on UA/UX 25-35 minute flights! Amazing! Clearly you're not flying the RNO-SFO route.

MikeMpls

TSA cannot prevent you from photographing anything, although they claim to prohibit photographing their computer screens and have been known to trail people taking photos & to harass them.

Above 10,000 feet, photography would not be violating any FAA regulations. Below 10,000 feet, since most of today's cameras are electronic, they cannot be used.

Some airlines have policies prohibiting taking photos of their equipment, work areas & personnel, but enforcement of that is a civil matter. I suppose they could ask you to step out of the plane at 30,000' and threaten you with arrest for trespassing if you return. Once the photo is in your camera, they have no authority to view it or delete it unless they are backed up by a court order.

username

You are right, not SFO-RNO.

As I said, this was the 35 minute flight.

On the 25 minute flight, the drink service is usually in F only (70 seater CRJ). Once I was on a A319 or A320, they actually served the whole aircraft.

On the 35 minute flight (50 seater CRJ), the drink service is pretty consistent - except with this flight attendant, it seems. They don't necessarily finish it every time though. I mean this FA is consistent too - she just does not serve.

Both times with this FA, there was no turbulance. The first time this happened, the plane was actually pretty empty. She just announced right after takeoff that "due to the duration of the flight, there will be no drink service".

On the return this time, we had very strong headwind and light-moderate turbulence. We had almost a full load and the flight took 55 minutes. The FA, who was great, served the whole plane.

Flaflyer

How is she going to see and bust you when she's asleep?

Yes there may be other Authoritarian figures onboard who might see you. A non rev airline employee as your seat mate would be visible in their uniform. A FAM next to you should not break cover for observing you photograph but things happen.

However if you are seen by a once a year Kettle Sheeple pax who is terrified by the "It's Condition Orange, Al Kidda spies are doing dry runs everyday, if you See Somthing, Snitch" Chicken Little messages they listened to in the airport and your skin is any shade of brown darker than 94 bright copy paper, well it's hurricane season in Gitmo. . .

KansasMike

Who cares that the FA does once she has passed out drinks?

If there is an emergency, I'm sure she'll wake up. The one emergency landing (and evacuation) I have been in, the single FA was more of a hindrance than a help.

sirdatary

I assume s/he is dozing off above 10,000 feet? If not, there's this...

FAR 121.542(b) No flight crewmember may engage in, nor may any pilot in command permit, any activity during a critical phase of flight which could distract any flight crewmember from the performance of his or her duties or which could interfere in any way with the proper conduct of those duties. Activities such as eating meals, engaging in nonessential conversations within the cockpit and nonessential communications between the cabin and cockpit crews, and reading publications not related to the proper conduct of the flight are not required for the safe operation of the aircraft.

N965VJ

At least they should pretend to be doing a sudoku puzzle or something, and not be obvious. Here's an example of incorrect snoozing procedure:

RichardKenner

I asked my friend who's a FA at Skywest and works solo about this. She said that sleeping on the job is grounds for termination and people have been terminated for it. As to beverage service, the policy is that there's service for flights over 220 miles and not for under. For fairly empty flights, many FA's will sit in an empty back row seat if they want to read or eat so as to be more profressional than doing it in the jumpseat (though I personally don't see anything at all wrong with reading if there's nothing else useful to do), but sleeping there is not OK.

flightattendantsteve

I have a friend that works for UAL.. I asked her about it.. UAL Service Guidelines for UAX are 221 Miles or greater.. Beverage Service... Less then 221 by request only. Whats the distance of your trip?

username

gc.kls2.com shows 222, really

mozgytog

I seem to see FAs sleeping a lot on flights that I actually stay awake for. Had one sleep in the galley the entire way from PIT to DFW, waking up just long enough to do the whole trash collection and seat belt check before going back to sleep.

I think that was the laziest FA I ever saw.