coswellnc

I have a question about snow storms and commuting crews.

If a commuting crew member cannot make a flight due to weather effecting the flight(s) they were counting on taking from their home to their base to start a trip do they get into trouble? Is there any accountability or recourse for that crew member from the company?

While the snow and ice certainly effected the Charlotte flight ops this week, I'm sure crew shortages from pilots and F/A's commuting in to work from other cities in which they live could play a big roll in how fast normal ops recovery happens.

And if all the flights are full of distressed and rebooked revenue passengers how the heck does the commuting crew member get to their base to start work? It would seem that this would make ops recovery even slower.

GalleyWench

From reading our company Facebook pages it seems like there are more problems with crew members that live in base getting to work than those flying in. Airport buses not running and employee parking lots unplowed, and secondary roads that are still impassable. A lot of the commuters flew in a day early because of the forecast, only to end up not going anywhere. A lot of crews layover in CLT that are based in PHL, DCA and PHX so I doubt there is a shortage of crews. Once operations start back up and more crews are trying to commute in, they will be riding jump seats on full flights or driving.

Lp89CG

Question about general spousal benefits

Can a spouse fly on a flight that their flight attendant partner is working on? Are they able to layover with them as well?

BoeingBoy

For US, yes - it's no problem. I'd be surprised if AA was any different. In fact, US and I suspect AA have a deal where the spouse can get positive space non-rev passes to accompany their husband/wife on their last trip before retirement for at least pilots. Personally, my wife and daughter made several trips with me over the years, mostly back when the trips had longer layovers - LA, San Fran, SEA, BOS, BWI and DCA come to mind. For my final trip before retiring, they both accompanied me on the last day of my trip although my daughter was old enough that I had to purchase her a buddy pass.

An added benefit, at least under the US non-rev policy, is that family members are considered as traveling with the employee which gives them the same priority for seats as the employee would have. The normal policy is that family members traveling without the employee drop one step in priority.

Jim

hellyea

Opinion: The credit card offer spiel is so tacky. I feel bad for the FA's having to be salespersons.

Question: Are FA's forced to make this pitch? I remember last year they would come down the aisle dressed in "Hawaiian" wear. Is there any commission based on applications received?

FWAAA

I think the commission is about $50 per approved application. Don't need to force low-paid FAs to do anything if they can get $50; they're more than willing to sell credit card apps for that potential reward.

BoeingBoy

There were, and I presume still are, FA's that more than double their pay thanks to the commission on approved applications.

The number of FA's that participate varies from flight to flight and by staffing. Sometimes all the FA's take part (and split the completed apps among themselves) while at the other extreme no FA's in a crew wants to participate and you get a break from the spiel. Since most airplanes have at least 3 FA's, normally at least one participates though. My limited experience is that the spiel happens less on TATL flights - the opposite of what would be expected - presumably because they have a mix of nationalities among the passengers and the apps are for U.S. citizens/residents.

Jim

phllax

Have they recently changed the policy to clear lap children into an open seat before any standby's? I know that used to be the policy on mainline and it was on the website, but I can't find it anymore. Before we get into the lap issue as a whole, only doing it because ticket prices are really high, and no more mileage tickets available ( we got the last 3, but we are 4 total.)

BoeingBoy

It must have been quite a while back. I wouldn't expect them to put a lap child, who by definition doesn't have a paid seat, in an empty seat ahead of a revenue passenger. If you use lap child to keep from buying another seat, and I mean legally, no claiming an older child qualifies, and you get what you pay for.

Now if the flight isn't full, asking that the seat adjacent to you be kept open if able might get you an empty seat. But on the other hand the seat next to you may already be taken by a passenger who was assigned that seat in advance.

Jim

GalleyWench

I've never seen or heard of that policy as long as I've been flying. Standbys always trump lap babies.

Flying Gator

I hear many of the children coming in through the border are being flown in commercial flights to their destinations. Is USAirways, excuse me, American flying any of them? I know Southwest is.

phllax

GW & BB,

As of 2012 that was the policy, and it was printed on the website and the gate agents in both LAX and PHL both knew of it when I asked. I know it sounds crazy that a lap would trump a standby, but it is/was true.

BoeingBoy

1990-2006 with US (PI before that so don't know about US) and I never heard of that. Of course, loads were lower back then for the most part so it'd rarely make a difference. I do remember that if you wanted to use a child seat you had to buy the seat to be sure it would be empty though.

Jim

GalleyWench

In 30+ years I've never heard or seen it either. I'd be pretty mad if I was denied a seat because they gave it to a lap child

blindy

I thought I will post it here instead of starting a new thread in the hope that FAs might have better opinion.

I have a bunch of TATL flights coming up on US. I have typically flown BA because the cabin crew are very helpful and also BA do a very good job with special meals.

I am flying in business from DUB-PHL, CLT-DUB, DUB-PHL and PHL-LHR. I typically opt for a Hindu meal. But apparently I have to call a number in the US to request a special meal. Really?

Anyway, any thoughts on the quality of special meals is appreciated.