dayone

A successful college football coach once said, "The best thing about freshmen is that they turn into sophomores."

the42ndstate

Over the years, I’ve encountered 2-3 rogue FAs that serve from the cart. Always feels south of expected up front.

Nothing takes the cake like a flight on Valentine’s Day several years ago. Mrs. the42ndstate and I were flying on a transcon somewhere, and the F FA decided to do drinks and serve all the women in F before the men. I have some sense of chivalry, but it would have been nice to toast Mrs. the42ndstate on V-Day, rather than wait 45 minutes for my champers.

CAVU

I was on a 4 hour morning flight. The FA served breakfast quickly then sat down for two hours and was on her phone. I emailed customer care who responded saying they were sorry but it must of been because of turbulence. Absolutely smooth flight. This is the top of the house making excuses and not taking an experienced flyer seriously. This was my only email to customer care in a long time.

Delta is definitely more consistent up front.

jhawk737

I call it the “great divide”: my experiences so far this year have been either really good, attentive and relatively speedy flight attendants in first, or … mediocre, slower, chatty with peers, behind the curtain a lot flight attendants in first. It’s either or! Quite inconsistent from one flight to the next. And honestly - not sure “level of experience” has anything to do with it.

olouie

How dare you interrupt the FA’s social media and web browsing time. They only get paid for safety not service 😂. Sadly most of the time when the pilots or FA emphasize they are here primarily for your safety it’s likely going to be degraded service.

kileysmom

Recently I was in Row 1 and had to listen to a young woman FA telling her colleague all of her personal business for hours (it was a transcon) while they sat. Started during take off, continued for a couple of hours while they sat and did no service, and then continued during landing. When leaving the plane, I did say that she would probably like to speak more quietly because I heard every word of her personal problems. For about an hour of no service she was on her phone. Why are they letting/encouraging FAs to be on their phone to do anything? Honestly, if they are on a break then fine but when there are 2 FAs sitting in the F galley on their phones, who's tending the ship? If I was in a restaurant hoping to be served and saw my server sitting and using their phone, I'd walk out. My biggest hope is that they are not so engrossed in whatever they are doing on their phone that they cannot react timely to a situation. Second biggest hope is that they are actually knowledgeable about what they have to do in a situation. Then there are the professional crew....service without a flaw, regular check ups so to speak, timing the dessert, the snack basket etc. to be nice interludes in a long flight as opposed to let me drop this on you now so I can sit for hours type of service. I actually enjoy those flights and feel that the airline wants my custom.

olouie

Labour “shortage” and unions are major cause of problems IMHO. Asian and ME3 airlines have much higher consistent service levels as does Delta (which isn’t union IIRC). Not much incentive to perform well if it’s just time based for promotions and no real consequences of poor performance.

Eujeanie

A while ago I was on an AA flight where I was next to the (exit row) jumpseat with a FA. On the landing end, several things had happened during the flight that I was curious whether they were just AA things that I was unfamiliar with compared to my usual AS. Can't remember exactly, but they did have to do with service and even whether the lights were on/off in the cabin. The older FA in the jumpseat answered all my questions stressing that "the main FA was new, and no one wanted to correct what she did because we didn't want to discourage her". ????? Wouldn't it have been better to correct her as she went along so she didn't make the same mistakes over and over?

And thinking more about your disgusting dinner - really, NO common sense at all that serving congealed glop might be a mistake?

AS Flyer

all determined by seniority and, if the person holding that position calls in sick or has to be replaced, a reserve FA (usually the more junior FA’s) will be called to fill in. First class doesn’t necessarily mean senior FA’s

PDXPremier

So by that do you mean the most senior FA gets to pick which cabin they work or does First Class automatically go to the most senior whether they want it or not? I think my preference if I were a FA would be main cabin to be honest.

Eujeanie

Really? Why? I don't think I've ever been in F on AS where there were demanding/rude/difficult people (or coach for that matter). Nothing like the stories you hear about other airlines. Even our recent fiasco with the black plane there was no, none, not one bit of complaining or grousing or anything. I'd rather have 16 than 100+.

olouie

Currently on transcon watching 2 FAs trying to open bottles of wine. They have up and punched through the cork and poured it out that way after chipping away enough to open a small hole. Volunteered to help them but was told passengers aren’t allow to assist. Nice FAs but training isn’t there, I ordered a scotch on the rocks and was asked if I wanted ice, lime/lemon/grapefruit with it. Not a big deal but just strange. After that I asked for water and they just poured it into my almost empty scotch glass. Not picky and it was fine but it’s clear that Alaska is skipping a lot of training service wise.

They finished Econ service and the senior FA came to help but also couldn’t open it. Now they are trying to arrange food onto the cart and discussing if they should or shouldn’t serve from the cart.

At least it’s only 1.5 hours in. But the 2 hour departure delay doesn’t help.

PDXPremier

Serving 16 passengers a full meal and multiple rounds of beverages by myself compared to serving a maximum of 2 rounds of beverages from a cart instead of walking back and forth along with having another FA to work with along the way sounds way better to me. The main cabin FAs have WAY more sitting time than most FAs in First.....1/4 of the main cabin typically has been served by the time the first First Class passengers get their first beverage.

notquiteaff

Think of it as inflight entertainment

Perhaps AS should buy screw-top wine bottles. Or boxed wine

olouie

On the plus side the food was nice and hot, no food poisoning this time. And service was quick as we hit turbulence so they got meals out and cleaned up super fast. Always appreciated on a night flight. FA said it was her first few weeks as an FA and the senior crew had less than a year. Very friendly and enthusiastic crew so hopefully they get the hang of things soon.