I expect to be fussed at a bit here, but I recently had a DFW-SAT was delayed due to awaiting flight attendants. Evidently the inbound crew was so late AA found another crew and posted a short delay.
The gate agents kept announcing that the new flight attendants had landed at DFW and we were just waiting on them to get to the gate for boarding to start.
They made the announcements a couple of times.
Eventually one flight attendant showed up and went onboard.
The other two showed up shortly thereafter with bags of McDonalds.
Apparently they had stopped between flights to get food.
They gate agents eyed the bags and just shook their heads.
I know everyone is entitled to a break but it seems kind of crazy to delay a flight for the flight attendants to take a break at McDonalds but hey...at least they got it to go
In all seriousness, what is the AA policy here? Are they suppose to go directly from one gate to another when a whole planload of people is waiting to board.
Do the flight attendants feel show unappreciated by the company they really don't care enough not to stop and get on their new flight as quickly as possible?
If some inflight supervisor found out about this, could the crew be disciplined, or is it not worth messing with the union?
Also, their late arrival to the aircraft (increased by the food break) of course made the return flight back up to DFW that much later thus jeopardizing the return planeload's connecting passengers.
I also place a bit of blame on AA.
It seems short sided of them not to provide some kind of crew shuttle on the ramp at DFW. If the inbound crew arrives D30 and departs C19, isn't it cheaper to pay some guy $10/hour to drive around a van for "hot" crew connections rather than let them wander about the terminal having to use SkyTrain and then walk to the gate with certain detours like McDonalds?
It seems the reroutes and misconnects would be far more costly.
Also, isn't is cheaper to provide a sandwich or two on board for each crew rather than have to pay out for missed connections and other delay related costs rather than having the crew make a delay worse for a food stop?