Originally Posted by
flyerCO
1)It's up to the purser or lead FA what each member does. .
That is actually not true. There are certain positions and when you work which position does depend on seniority, at least on international flights.
Take a trans-oceanic 763ER flight with 8 FAs for example. There is the Purser (or often called the "A" line) and the Customer Service Coordinator (often called the "B" line). These are positions which FAs can bid on in their monthly bids (if they are Purser-qualified for example, they can bid on the "A" line). These are the only two positions that are fixed in the same cabin coming and going. Delta has a guideline/rule that the regular FAs (i.e., non-A and non-B) have to work one cabin one way, and work the other cabin on the return (so if you worked Delta One on the outbound, you are supposed to work Coach on the return). When you choose to work which cabin will depend on seniority - and all that is determined at report/sign-in time.
The language (LOD) speakers follow similar rules. Let's say on this 763ER, there are two speakers - each will work one cabin one way, and when they choose to do so (e.g, who works D1 outbound and Coach return) depends on their seniority. If there's only one speaker, then s/he is supposed to work in Coach both ways.