I'll see
james318's long-winded post and raise you this:
On a recent DL flight, I was in the boarding door exit row. I had two carryons: a large backpack and a small "rucksack". asked kindly and jokingly to the FA if I could stuff my bag under
my seat since there was no seat ahead of me and the overhead bins were full (the FAs obviously weren't paying attention to the bins since I was the first in the entire row on both sides of the A/C to arrive and our bins were completely stuffed already).
She snapped back at me "Absolutely not! You're in an exit row, sir, and you're expected to maintain a level of professionalism. You'll have to find a place overhead." After this, she walked away to chat with another FA. I went to the to the coat closet and asked the nearby F attendant if I could put my larger backpack and my rucksack in here since the overhead bins above my row were full. She just shrugged and walked away.
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This was one of several just "stellar" DL flight attendants I've encountered. Another time on a ATL-SYR flight, a FA
told me to move from my window exit seat so that a soldier in uniform could have the entire right exit row to "stretch out". She didn't ask, but she "told" me. The soldier spoke up before I could reply and said thanks, but he wouldn't need that much space and he was fine. The FA served him and everyone else around us with a smile, but when she served me, her questions and replies were cold as ice, as if I had insulted her children or something.
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Not that we're venting or anything...
Moral of the story is this: you're going to receive everything from superb service to piss-poor service if you fly a lot. Much of it is just luck. I'd say of all my NW flights this year, perhaps only 5% had any issues worth writing home about, if even that much. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I don't see the attitudes from NW FAs that I hear about from some of you. I would agree that many GAs need some work, though.