I was on 181 JFK-LAX yesterday and instead of the usual 9 FAs, there were only 7. Service, at least in J, didn't seem to be impacted adversely.

I was on another JFK-LAX flight last year and the FA serving our side of J didn't show up until 5 minutes before they closed the door. I got into a friendly conversation with her and asked her about her tardiness. She explained that she was on reserve and wasn't called until 2 hours before departure. Although she was anticipating a call and was out the door 10 min after receiving the call, there was an accident on the Van Wyck that backed up traffic for miles. Once clear of the accident, she said she sped all the way to the employee parking lot because AA apparently does take "progressive disciplinary action" for being late or missing a flight as well as not answering the phone when crew schedule calls (didn't go into detail). I gave her an AAplause cert for her effort which she really appreciated.