osubeavers01

Flying for Fun

AS449 JFK-PDX Boarding 6:50 am

Water bottles and blankets at seat. FA actively offering and serving choice of water, orange juice or sparkling wine while Main was boarding. Hilarious Captain too.

Light load, 3 empty F seats.

James

BOB W

sltlyamusd

AS 1141 PHL-SFO 1/26/19

Water bottles at seats, no other PDB offered. Clearly, with 40 minutes to board the plane and a total of 5 occupants in F and maybe 1/2 full at most in the back, taking beverage orders would have interfered with departing on-time...

Eastbay1K

@:-) Looks like you've been properly trained!

pcoll

Noticed that lack of PDB seems to happen a lot with pmVX crew associated with SFO. Wonder what training those crew members are receiving,( roll eyes.)

Flying for Fun

There is a big difference between receiving training and a willingness to implement.

James

jrl767

Eastbay1K

I'm sure they've received training. It appears that many are having tantrums because they had to change their uniforms and aren't feeling as stylish, notwithstanding a substantial raise, much better working conditions, and perhaps even a nice bonus announced yesterday.

VegasGambler

This seems pretty unlikely.

Eastbay1K

Plenty have quit for those very reasons. More pay and better working conditions weren't as important as being all stylish and hip.

williwaw

jjmadison

This is what I'm realizing is a contributing factor. Many of the veteran pmVX crews have left and new hires have replaced them. The Airbus and Boeing crews are still, as of this date, kept separate and not yet allowed to merge or swap flights. As of December, all FAs have been trained on both types of aircraft, so perhaps soon they will be allowed to intermix, but no word on when that will be. This means 100% of the replacements for departed VX crews are newly trained hires.

Most of the flights I've had without any PDB are with FAs I didn't recognize. On two occasions since August, I learned from friendly convos with the FA that they were new, post-merger hires. That means their stance on zero PDB comes from their relatively recent Alaska training.

This past Friday, I had one of the veteran pmVX crews on LAX-SFO and they enthusiastically served full PDB (including mixed cocktails). This crew has been around for years and I recall flying with them last summer.

I think Eastbay1k is right that at least part of the problem is coming from the new hires that were trained in the last year. They never served full PDB in the past and now see it is a nuisance.

VegasGambler

I think he is saying the exact opposite -- that it's from old employees who are unhappy with the regime change (at least, that's how I understood the post -- apologies if I misunderstood)

What you are saying seems much more likely -- that these are new FAs who don't know how to do their jobs.

Any former VX FA should be more than used to serving PDBs, since in the VX days it was always a full open bar before takeoff in F. If you drank fast enough they would bring you two.

Eastbay1K

You're all right. Kumbaya.
Some old employees who remain, remain bitter. (Others are not bitter, and know they've got a good thing going).
Compound this with those who departed because of "regime change", and you've got new hires.
Compound this with new hires (that otherwise may be eager) being guided by bitter remnants, and you've got a recipe for the heights of excellent service.