It is supposed to be that way … but service in the front cabin seems wildly inconsistent.

On my YYC-DTW flight last week … I experienced amazing service. Simply fantastic. The FA introduced herself, she addressed me by name, and gave me a lovely and sincere “thank you” for my business as a Platinum customer. She checked in on every passenger - always by name - throughout the entire flight. And she took my meal order first - discretely and professionally. (And she then thanked me again as I left the plane — with a knowing “I know we’ll see you again soon. Mr. FlyerJ. Thank you again for your business. We really appreciate it.” One of my best flights in ages. She was awesome.

On my return DTW-YYC, the FA was friendly enough, but did nothing more than go through the motions. It was just a “whattaya want to drink, whattaya want to eat, whattaya want to drink, here’s a snack box” kind of experience. Food orders taken front to back, 1A to 3F. The bare minimum Premium product provided — a meal and drinks, but really no effort. No Platinum recognition. Never introduced himself. Then, two FAs spent the rest of the flight commiserating over “bad passenger” stories in the galley — within earshot of my row 1 seat. Really not appropriate. Sure I’ve had much worse Premium experiences (ie my box o’ gas station snack food in lieu of a meal on PHX-YYC) … but this one didn’t impress.

What a difference between the outbound and the return.