Exhausted FA's build 'fort'
 

Details are vague to protect the simultaneously guilty/innocent! On a recent overnight flight (departs late evening, arrives early next morning) on a 767-300, the clearly overworked FA's made themselves a nice fort up front (me being in J). The curtains were drawn across the right side of front galley with carts strategically placed and 'linked' so that pax could only access the rear-most lav and all of the galley (and front lav/cockpit door) was completely sealed. I peeked, and it looked to me like 4 FA's were sound asleep though I'm not 100% positive on all of them. One of them was snoring - on the floor! He had grabbed duvet's and pillows and was sprawled between the door and jumpseat.

Ironically - service was EXCELLENT! They did a great job during boarding, were super active during the meal service, everybody got the A+ treatment! Somebody must have set an alarm clock because breakfast service was the same - fantastic. My only issue is I slightly prefer the front lav for the bit of extra room as I'm tall and kinda fat.

So...no complaints here! I wouldn't mind the crosswords, people magazine reading, gossiping, etc if they at least make a major effort during the important periods - boarding, meals, descent. Gonna send a complimentary letter to AA, leaving out the 'fort' part.

Misogynists - this was mostly an all-male FA flight. Discuss.

I am appalled that AA excluded female FAs from this flight.

Since it's late at night and you said discuss:

How can a group of four people be "mostly all male"... perhaps you meant "all mostly male" with one or more of indeterminate gender?

I've seen FA's link carts and block off that section before, to allow cockpit crew secure access to the lav and galley. Maybe they left it that way so the cockpit crew could access those areas overnight without waking an FA?

Blocking the second lav would be my only real complaint, and if I'd had to go and the first one was blocked I'd have been a bit peeved.

How did you know they were "clearly overworked?"
Being tired might not have anything to do with work.
So, you are saying, outside of meal service, they weren't proactive in attending to the passengers. Blocking the front lav is not something that should be done.

This really doesn't sound like good behavior.
Are the FA's supposed to be sleeping at this time?

I'm left wondering why four FA's would be sleeping in the front galley instead of using the four seats in row 17 designated as crew rest.

Pilots were sacked out in 2 H,J (well, at least one pilot, seat H generally held FA 'supplies'). Maybe the four row 17 seats are reserved for only the Y crew? How many J/Y FA's are there on an 8.5 hour 763 int'l flight? And I'm not 100% sure all four were up there and snoozing. I saw the one, and saw some feet on another, and after dinner the four of them were all up there, some playing cards, having their own dinner, etc. Don't know why they would have blocked the entire access if only one or two were crashed out. And again - excellent service!

In principal this behavior can't be described as good or even OK, but in practice it had no effect on pax - I may have been the only person to notice it as everybody was seriously zonked out. I'm too tall (and fat) to sleep for more than an hour at a time in the NGBC's, so I usually wander around a bit. Never saw anyone else up and about. Maybe I shoulda snuck around real quite-like and moved everybody's carry-ons to different bins!

There were lots of female FA's - in Y. It appeared that all of the J FA's were male, though there was one female who went back and forth somewhat regularly but I never saw her provide a service in J - I just assumed she was assigned to Y. One of the J male FA's traveled to the back also. So, I'm not 100% sure that the assigned J FA's were all male. The ones I saw dole out drinks, food, PED's, snoozing, etc were male.

I don't sleep on planes either (as long as I can remember I've not slept more than 45min at a time, including lie-flats on 10hr flights) which means I tend to spend the night drinking and watching movies. And last I checked, my glass didn't refill itself...

Fortunately on my last redeye (LAX-LHR) the crew was about the best I've had and none of my glasses ever ran dry. No fort-building going on north of F on the 777, can tell you that!

We should do some MR's together! I hate the 763's because no built-in A/V - I spend all my time watching whatever crap is available and plowing through the drink supply and it bugs me when it takes an hour to get the PED in, and then they yank it with more than an hour left. I did manage to sleep like a baby in one of UA's rear-facing lie flat business seats LAX-SYD. For some reason that one was even more comfortable to me than the AA 777 F seat which I've flown ORD-NRT a couple of times. Plus the duvet actually covered my feet.

Yea, that LHR flight I went through an entire bottle of champagne, some red wine and some Bailey's along with three movies before getting a 35min pre-breakfast nap. And while I've never had to do a redeye on one I hate the 763 J seat too; ability to lay flat or not, the old recliner was a much, much more comfortable seat.

+1 Actually they have us yank it. I practically feel like part of the crew.

Let me see if I understand this.

1. Flight service was excellent/to standards
2. FAs chose a flat surface for resting (floor of galley)
3. Rows 17 were unused

If this is indeed the case (OP doesn't say what went on with row 17), then it appears that the crew traded places where to take their scheduled rest.

This highlights the trade-off that AA and the FA's union made on agreeing on the type of crew rest areas available on AA's planes for them (more money to the FAs in exchange for less space dedicated to crew rest area and therefore less cost/revenue loss to AA).

In this optic I think it's very unprofessional of the crew not to upheld their part of the contract.

Personally I think AA did a piss-poor job in its flight attendants contract as AA should have NEVER bargained away crew meals, the size/quality of crew rest areas, and the ability to promote/punish/set pay based on merit and professionalism instead of seniority. Those should be sacred cows as they directly affect the quality of service, hence the profitability of the airline. If AA gained control over these, everyone would be raving about how good AA is, as the 80% of superb employees would no longer be tarnished by the 20% of dufuses out there, or those working under stressful situations (hungry, tired).

Discuss further :)

+1, as much as it is complained about on FT when FA's blatantly "rest" in the midst of passengers, it should always be kept in mind that AA has not gone out of their way to provide spacious, secluded rest areas. (esp. on the 777). I feel bad that pilots and FA's have to use general cabin areas for resting. I understand this is the only place for them on AA planes, but who could honestly rest comfortably on the job when your customers are surrounding you? I probably couldn't.

I love fort building, do that with my nieces all the time. We're going to FCO next month in J. How do I request the "fort crew" to work my flight ?