Totally agree that FAs on some airlines routinely provide better service than others. I connect this to the point JerryFF made upthread: employees who are treated well by management serve their customers well, employees who are treated poorly struggle. The "some airlines" where I find weaker service all have histories of management/labor strife, significant reductions in benefits, bankruptcies that wiped out retirement plans, etc. The airlines with reliably better service, in the USA at least, are those with recent histories of growth and relative cooperation between management and labor.