Originally Posted by
TheMoose
And you know that the FA was "def NWA" how? Did you ask? You're aware that there are now PMDL and PMNW FAs operating all types of aircraft now due to cross-fleeting right? .
OP said this was a DTW-FCO flight. DTW-FCO is staffed by the DTW FA base, which, since FA cross-fleeting began, only has PMNW FAs.
There are only a few FA bases which are common to PMDL and PMNW - among them, BOS, LAX, and NYC. For international, in BOS, PMNW currently does both BOS-AMS flights; in LAX, PMDL does LAX-SYD while PMNW does LAX-NRT; in NYC, PMDL does most international (including NRT, TLV, FCO, MXP, ATH, all of which are on PMNW aircraft) while PMNW now does some 757 TATL such as JFK-AGP and JFK-MAN.
Originally Posted by
TheMoose
DL just doesn't have the cultural/sensitivity training down, it seems, at least on those specific occasions. .
Delta has way more cultural sensitivity training for crews than most people would care to stomach. Before TLV started for example, all FAs had to go through sensitivity training if they wanted to work that flight. For Japan flights, there are reams of material on how to present things to Japanese and other Asian passengers (including how one should always present a tray or item - with both hands). Many FAs (PMNW and PMDL) simply choose to ignore them.
Originally Posted by RealHJ
It seems that DL just puts pm-DL crew on the A330s without actually training them in how to work it. .
Actually, during the first month of FA cross-fleeting, there was an NW "mentor" on every PMDL-operating-PMNW-aircraft flight; similarly, there was a DL "mentor" on every PMNW-operating-PMDL-aircraft flight. So for example, the A333 on JFK-ATH and JFK-FCO for the whole month of June or the 744 on JFK-TLV and JFK-NRT for June each had a NW "mentor" FA to instruct the PMDL FAs.
Originally Posted by RealHJ
and always have at least one, if not more, native destination/origin country speakers on-board.
PMDL has at least two (sometimes three) LOD ("Language of Destination") FAs on each transoceanic international flight (including Ukranian for KBP, Turkish for IST, Greek for ATH, Hungarian for BUD, etc.) Heck, they even put a Japanese speaker on their ATL-LIM and ATL-GRU flights because those carried so many through pax from Japan (connecting through ATL).