Visconti

LOL...Shouldn't all of this be like in some new Airplane comedy movie or something? Or, at least a skit on some late night funny-hour show. Admittedly, I haven't flown as much as some of y'all here, but I can't ever recall during my lifetime of flying (since childhood) to have seen anything even remotely to what's being described in this thread. It's utterly remarkable.

PDXPremier

To be fair, I would have probably been functioning at the same skill level as these 2 FAs.....I can't honestly think of a time in my life where I've ever had to open a bottle of wine.

olouie

Fair enough. But if part of your job was to open bottles of wine you would probably be able to do it. It does take some practice with the corkscrew that AS provides, but you would think AS would at least teach the FAs how to do it. Im guessing they just get shown a video or something as corporate think it can "enhance" that cost away too haha. I think most of the blame lies with corporate in not training staff well, on the job training doesn't work so well if their senior crew also have little to no training and/or little time or incentive to help.

Ultimately this crew was really very good. Friendly and trying hard so I still give them a positive review. The new FA even asked how she did and I chatted with her with some friendly tips. She was super nice and really excited to be doing her first rounds of transcon flying. She commented that she had never even had a chance to really try the wines or drinks on board so had no idea what to recommend or tell passengers when they asked. Thats a real shame.

rune87

19 Flights in this year already and yes...without a doubt...FC service is all over the damn road. I've had excellent service, and I've had some service that really made me go...... are you thinking? Are you qualified to be doing the job assigned? Its one of the things I commented about a while back. Delta is solidly consistent on their service. It's part of their culture. AS at this point wants to charge those prices, but the service isn't even in the same league.

olouie

I guess on the plus side I clear F upgrades very often on AS. Way more than I do with AA EXP or DL platinum. With the cash rates in the same range as UA/AA/DL lie flats its not hard to see why AS doesnt fill their F cabins with cash customers. I mean if Im going to spend $2000-2500 flying LAX/SFO-NYC I much rather do it in a lie flat seat with seatback IFE. But hey I'll take the 100K upgrades all day long.

rune87

Thats kinda where I'm at. When AS is charging $1800 for ATL-SEA....I know I'll be clearing into FC. Its 5 hours. I'll survive. It just doesn't bode well for how upper management is thinking. As a stockholder it really make me wonder what they are doing.

scklumb

My friend graduated Alaska FA school about 9 months ago. He often works First. They do get a premium for working first. I know FA are there for our safety, but what we see is their service level. Service is front facing, not safety. So I assumed since service is what customers see and what we base our views of the airline on, I thought that was part of the FA schooling. He said no not at all. Nothing about service at the school, it's all about safety. Service training is all onboard, which he said they have two flights and that's it. Their tablet is detailed on what they are suppose to do and in what order. He said they deviate from that order all the time. For example, AS does not want flight attendants to take drink/food orders on the ground. They want them to be attentive to the boarding process and look for "safety" concerns (whatever that means). It also says they are to do PDB. They have a few exceptions when they do not have to do PDB.

olouie

That would explain a lot. Its like hiring a waiter and only teaching them how to put out a candle fire, but not interact or serve customers. Penny wise, pound foolish corporate idea. Had a good friend who was an FA for an airline in asia and they had lots of customer service, meal, wine, dining etc training in addition to all the safety trainings and would usually put their most senior FAs in the premium cabins - after all if you are paying $10-20,000 for a premium class ticket the airline rightly expected their fAs to be able to recommend wines to go with customers' meals, know where silverware was supposed to be placed etc. I dont think US domestic airlines have to be at that standard, but its kind of shocking that Alaska doesnt do any training for service at all before they serve paying customers.

Eujeanie

While I applaud safety first I find it hard to believe they have no "food/drink service" training. Especially how to work in such tight quarters, how to run the ovens, coffee machine, etc. And I've never noticed what type of wine openers they use. Although I've been drinking wine for over 50 years, I can still only handle the "rabbit ears" - the others are beyond my ability, but if I had to do it for a living I'd certainly learn how.

sullim4

I've only ever seen them use a traditional waiter's corkscrew.

To be honest, if there was one thing I could change about AS catering, it'd be the wine program. They have a ton of options at their disposal in their neck of the woods in Washington, Oregon, and California and the choices always seem to be very... uninspired. Would it kill them to have serve Red Mountain cab in F for a month, or a zin from Lodi? When was the last time an Oregon pinot made the list?

They don't have to go particularly crazy, either - something widely available like St. Francis Old Vines Zin (widely available at grocery stores) or Michael David's lines out of Lodi would be an upgrade over what they currently offer. Goose Ridge's g3 lines would offer a similar upgrade from Washington, under $20 per bottle retail and right next to Red Mountain, in the newly christened Goose Gap AVA.

FenwayTim

Yes…. They could absolutely create a wine niche with a crowd that probably knows quite a bit about wine.. I think having more than 2 selections would be the place to start too which would allow to always have something interesting (not counting that sparkling wine passing as….).On international flights it is always fun comparing curated wine lists.. No reason a slimmed down version cant be had for Alaska.

futuramadramallama

Lol similarly I once experienced this:
FA: "What would you like?"
Me: "Could I have a Woodford, please, neat?"
FA: "..."
Me: "..."
FA: "What is neat?"

Otherwise the service so far been pretty good this year (IME).