Same plane, same seat, two experiences
 

On Friday I flew AC 121 from YHZ to YYZ and then a crew change at YYZ to YYC.

On the first leg the J cabin was staffed by a friendly FA with a good sense of humour who went out of her way to make everyone happy including an elderly lady who needed help with the menu etc etc. All in all a very pleasant experience and folks left the flight with a smile.

At YYZ the crew changed and so did the tone of the flight. This time the J cabin was staffed by two FAs. Neither very friendly, just that brusque efficiency we have come to know on AC. It started with the IC refusing to take outer jackets (only suit jackets) for the closet. The service was fine otherwise but just a very different feeling.

It was instructive for me to see how a flight can be altered by the tone the staff on board sets. Even though I know that to be the case it was more apparent when you are in the same seat.

Don't worry, you get the same experience on westjet.

Wait, no J seats, different corny jokes.

At least you had a nice seat!

We had quite a long thread last winter about AC having a policy about not accepting outer coats. Something to do with safety I think...

What are you talking about?

It amazes me that the very best of companies manage consistent execution across their entire operation while others can't or won't try for the same.

For example, Four Seasons hotels consistently demonstrate a refined atmosphere along with near-perfect service no matter which aspect of the hotel it is you're experiencing. Now FS also charges stratospheric prices for this experience, but for those who can and do indulge, they are virtually assured of a consistently good experience no matter which FS property they may find themselves at. And FS is not the only hotel where this is true - there are other worthy competitors where the experience will be just as good.

So why is the execution so incredibly different sometimes? AC obviously has standards which are created by management and they likely have printed guidelines that go out too. I wonder though, how often do the creators of standards experience them themselves? How much "field testing" of service standards are there?

Same flight (YXU-YYZ commuter, Monday morning), same seat, two different weeks

FA on flight 1: (smiling) no sir, I don't need to see your bp; you clearly know what you are doing.

FA on flight 2: (glare and self-righteous tone): Sir, you cannot board the plane without your boarding pass. I need to know where you are seated.

Little things make all the difference.
Consistency: would be good.
Surly assertion that there is consistency when clearly there isn't: bad.

This seems to be AC's problem. Incosistency. You can receive great service on one flight and receive dreadful service on another on the same day... No consistency. Some seem to think, it is the norm and it is acceptable to be inconsistent.....

I think it has to do with a few things... they're unionized and 2, there's no sense of ownership/pride/commitment to excellence in the particular FA, oh, and they're just having a piss poor day.

I've been in a union before and it's great for people who just want to do the bare minimum. Sadly, this does reflect poorly on the entire union's member base as there are those that will do more than their fair share and strive for excellence at all times. I mean short of completely physically attacking a pax, aren't the FAs allowed to do whatever they want in the name of passenger safety? Maybe I'm totally off base with this. Unions do serve some purpose but as long as there are lazy slobs in there, well, you'll always end up with mediocre service.

2, during univ, I worked for a grocery chain and though we were unionized we had secret shoppers that would evaluate us. Do the airlines have such a thing? I know I kept up my customer service skills and heck, the fake smile, as I knew it'd eventually reflect well on me and in return the company I worked for.

Oh and finally, the FAs all just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. SOmetimes hard to ignore personal issues just to make someone else feel welcome - particularly when you know you're just gonna see them for a 30min flight or whatever.

Still I agree with the OP that these ppl do set the tone and are the face of the company... I wanna see their "oh yah baby yah" face and not their "grr" face :P

I'd like to think that based on my interactions with AC people, this union mentality doesn't hold true for the vast majority of them. From a pax perspective I'm not sure that AC sans union would be much different. Let's be fair - AC Management has made some pretty boneheaded moves in past. (And arguably, even recently with the quickly-reversed Preferred Seats issue.)

Wrong side of the bed - well, that's always going to happen in any organization. I seem to recall having a few of those days myself. Professionals try hard not to let that interfere with the day's tasks but it can be hard sometiems.

The ownership / pride / commitment thing though should be addressable. And the best outfits have done just that. I took a cooking class the other day and everyone there from the receptionist to the chef to the assistants to the guy manning the cash register in the retail store knew their stuff, were invariably polite and helpful and made my 3 hours there a very pleasant experience. And that's exactly what it was like when I was taking another class there a few years back. Completely different people, completely different course and a new lineup of cooking products to boot but the service and experience were just as pleasureable.

It can be done.

You mean "every winter"? ;)

It was not my intention to turn this into the 2009/10 overcoat thread. For those who would like to see a recentone here it is: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...vercoat-j.html

My point of course was the overall demeanor of the two different crews. :rolleyes:

I agree with your OP. YMMV.

i was offered to have my jacket taken twice to YYZ-LHR and LHR-YYZ

Very good point, although AC can't really do anything to unionized employees without going through the worst kind of ordeal they might want to have a program that allows frequent flyers to provide feedback that not only incents customers to provide feedback, but to incent the employees to provide better service. It's amazing what a little compensation will do to get that feedback.

If your local Harvey's can do it with almost no information on their customers, why can't AC do it knowing full well who the customers they want to keep the most are? I'm pretty sure if they posted on FT with a link to provide feedback most of us would do it for free, judging by the number of posts on the Feedback for Calin thread.

The biggest impediment to consistently good service, is poor management. Having a union does not absolve management of the responsibility of managing their staff. A company typically gets the union it deserves.

If one's management philosophy is treating one's employees poorly, the company will probably offer inconsistent service. The only way to effectively manage such a large group of employees is to treat them well and rely on the majority to police the minority.
I've been on both sides of the fence and the above fact has always been a no brainer.

A lot easier to do when your employee base is smaller then the 20000+ at AC.

I think lot depends on the general manner and demeanor of the FAs.

The same thing can be said in different ways and with different eye contact, poise and tone. The better FAs do create a sense of personal attention and concern though they may not do that much differently. A smile and positive tone doesn't cost AC or the FAs anything and it is greatly appreciated. AC needs a culture of excellence in this regard - consistency, consistency, consistency.

As a common J passenger on international but more in Economy on Domestic it surprises me that the FAs serving Economy seem to take on an entirely different approach that appears to forget that the entities in the seats before them are actually human beings who have paid several hundred dollars to fly with AC. Without the passengers the airline dies, but they are too often treated as a mass that has to be simply managed. Flyers with BA and some of the Asian airlines will know that you can create a sense of personal attention and helpfulness in Economy.

Instead of adding more charges - genuinely helpful staff to all passengers is actually a very sensible direction for AC.

As a flight attendant, I can tell you that it's important for the FA to see the boarding passes as sometimes there are more than one flight going out to the same destination at adjacent gates or within mere minutes of one another (while one may be the non stop and the other being a one stop flight). So viewing the boarding pass is really to double check the flight number and destination and not so much for the seat. It has happened more than once when the FA at the main cabin door hasn't checked the boarding passes and the count is wrong, because someone got on the wrong plane. I also greet people coming on the aircraft with a smile and friendly greeting and gently ask for the boarding pass if not already presented to me!

This very issue has been discussed in previous posts. As identified above, customers somehow manage to get on the wrong flight from time to time. Not every individual like the majority of you on FT are seasoned travelers - many need guidance and directions to their seats. It would surprise you to know how often customers are in search of Row 1 :eek: !! From my perspective, it's my first opportunity to initiate both status (SE/E/*G) and name recognition with customers that I'm about to spend 10 hours with - also discussed in previous posts. It might also interest you to know that the "asking for boarding card issue" is a current topic on our in-house blog, all in the name of consistency.

I was actually on a plane once to YYZ and a woman had boarded thinking she was going to YUL! I have no idea how they got passed the gate, but, the FA caught it checking the boarding pass.

I have no problem showing my boarding pass. It is the consistency issue again. Sometimes you show it and the FA looks at you like you are adding work to their day and on the next flight you get asked to show it so you dig into your pocket to produce the #%* thing! If every time I new the FA would want to see it I would have it ready. AC just needs to have everyone doing the same thing.

Point well taken. I hesitated before posting for precisely this reason. But I agree with scapaflow - a request with a smile is a whole other matter, and it is actually the inconsistency and the surliness that bug me, not the request.
By the way, this is the 6 am flight to YYZ- the terminal is dead quiet, no AC departures for a good half hour (maybe more)

which would have been resolved if all gate agents consistently scan the barcode (which contains flight info) and just typing in the seat number or seq. number.