flightpath844

While reading this comment, 2 things come to my mind:
-You have NEVER flown on a 5 star airline
-I understand now better why US carriers have gone down so fast in the last 15 years with outdated products and careless FAs. 3rd World indeed.

brp

I have flown a 5 star carrier - CX F.

The food and beverage were considerably to substantially better than AA F.

The service was marginally worse, overall.

Cheers.

gegarrenton

Truth! I have been US Air free for 12 years now, except one flight last year AA booked me on to get me home from JFK during IROPS. On the basis of that flight I will not be running back to US anytime soon. I will say the TA US had was great though, I would love to have him over at AA.

gegarrenton

I agree with that.

BillBauman

Are you planning to assist your electrician with the wiring and the plumber with the pipes? If not, why are you asking the passengers (customers) of the flight whether or not they have reciprocated the FA's job duties?

elitetraveler

You have one CX F flight in your life as your total sample where you find the FAs were "too attentive" and every thread you want to propose that CX service is inferior to AA?

Plus you regularly deride others who have multiple inferior experiences on AA as regular fliers.

Any agenda?

carlosdca

In my limited experience on international F, I have found good and bad service. When it was bad, I found the same issues the OP posted in this thread.

My numerous experiences in J have been from average to very good.

I think it is reasonable to expect better everything in F.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everybody!

AAerSTL

Really? Just completed two flights in CX F noting but utmost professional service and a spotless aircraft what a novel concept. I did not find the service intrusive, they brought me everything I needed and checked back to ensure all my needs are met and didn't treat me like a nuisance.

Yet another negative about AA F is that the cabin isn't sufficiently designed to maximize customer privacy and block galley light and noise. For example, despite the spacious design of the CX F cabin, unless you make a concerted effort you really can't see your fellow cabin mates if everyone is in their own space. The galley is much better shielded and with fewer distractions than AA F.

AAerSTL

Honestly when I read things like this it makes me glad AA is cutting back and will be imposing changes that will make the FAs worklife unpleasant and hopefully some that don't do sufficient work will want to leave. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior, I'm sure these FAs expect good service when they visit Denny's and stay at the Holiday Inn on their own dime.



The above is consistent with my AA experience. It seems management is aware this is going on but does not address the matters. While AA maybe a union shop there certainly are things they could do to take corrective action and prevent this from happening in the future.

While I'm generally not a fan of unions, I'll say several US Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, and Ritz-Carlton locations have UNITE Here represented staff and don't have the same service issues AA does. Sure the service from US based represented properties isn't as good as non-represented and certainly far behind Asian locations but its still acceptable IME. I hear PM-UA has much of the same as AA as do the PM-NW crews at DL (no surprise there).


Agree completely, many would say its an insult to call the FAs service industry employees. I have and will continue to regard them as such. Many also take offensive to the use of the term Cabin Attendant or Steward(ess) when still to this day:

http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/ca...-appointments/


http://www.jal.com/en/safety/staff/attendant.html



Why not travel from LAX if you enjoy the AA F experience since afterall its an industry leading product renowned for legendary service?

scubadu

Well, I'm afraid I completely disagree with. Please define "many" and where do you come to that conclusion from. Do you have any data to support that assertion?

I'll go so far as to say I'd be willing to bet not even an infinitesimal percentage of fliers give a crap about this. In fact, I'd bet not even "many" FTers care about this (I'm referring to all FTers, not just participants in this thread).

The fact that you and a couple other folks here care hardly equates to "many." I work at a company where a number of my colleagues fly international premium cabins. When returning from their trips and chatting about their experience they will often mention several items; lost luggage, missed connections, tactically chosen seat switched at the last minute, TSA experiences, etc. I've never once, never ONCE, had a single person say, "Gosh, great trip everything was ship shape excepting that the FA never used my name, and I'm just crestfallen."

Nor have I ever, NOT once heard that from friends or family that fly in premium cabins. Where do I hear if from? Just right here on FT.

I disagree. At least as it relates to the airline business. Because as history has clearly taught us in this forum, people who start whining threads, basically just do that DYKWIA whining thing, cast aspersions of "bad business practices, etc" and then what do they do? What specific course of action do they pursue? Well, of course they book their very next flight on the same carrier.

So, if a business is not doing something which apparently has absolutely no bearing, whatsoever, on revenue generation and profitably (you know that crazy concept that many here forget airlines are actually supposed to be doing) and the vast majority of people could care less about it and won't actually change their spending patterns because of it, then please, by all means explain to us how that is bad business.

And if you choose to take up that challenge, please no analogies from another industry; we aren't talking about other industries or businesses, we're talking about the airline business.

Then STOP transferring money from your account to AA's. Yes, it's that simple, no whining, no gnashing of teeth, no FT threads; pick up your marbles and take them to an airline that you believe meets the needs, expectations, and requirements for you to transfer your hard earned money from your account to theirs. Why is that concept so incredibly difficult to grasp in this forum?

People around here love to point out bad business practices and lecture on how AA should be conducting their affairs. But they never want to address the flip side of that coin and their own responsibility as consumers. In a capitalistic, free market economy we have choices regarding how we allocate our money to business. If there are people to whom being greeted by name whilst flying at 38,0000 feet in an aluminum tube is of utmost importance to, then allocate dollars accordingly and move your business to a company that prioritizes greeting people by name. And yes, it's that's simple. If people aren't willing to do that, then enough with the bellyaching already.

Vote with your dollars; that is a GOOD business practice.

Are you even open to the possibility, just even a smidgen, that the reason there is resistance here is because less people care about this that you believe do or should? Is that even remotely possible? Is it possible that in a world of ~7 billion, not everyone sees everything through the prism you do?

Dale Carnegie has been dead since 1955. Societies change, norms change, expectations change. And the U.S. airline industry is in a state that Dale Carnegie could never have imagined.

I find it bizarre that so many here continue to cling to the idea that airlines are a service industry. They are not; they are in the transportation industry.

Nope, I'm good.

Regards

scubadu

So, just to clear, being greeted by name "once" is sufficient, right? (since that quote is being used throughout this thread)

If the FA addresses you once, while on the tarmac at DFW or JFK prior to a 10 or 12 hour flight to NRT, even if they never address you by name again during the course of that long flight, then we are good to go right?

Just trying to clarifying what is important here...

Regards

scubadu

I'm not at all convinced you are in the minority. I suspect you are part of a rather large but silent majority.

Regards

scubadu

So, if sparkling water isn't delivered, no big deal, even though that's a standard of service. But if someones name isn't used, "not even once" then that's a big deal?

Ok...

Regards

scubadu

Yea, it's always useful to draw conclusions about people you know nothing about, but hey at least you incremented your post count by one.

Sure, definitely. The U.S. airline industry is in it's current situation because guys like me sit around liquored up, in their underwear typing anonymous posts on the internet wondering why people have a deep seated need to be addressed by name while flying through the air in an aluminum tube. Yea, that's it.

I mean it probably doesn't have anything to do with the economics of the industry, the price of oil, the unwillingness of most American's to choose to fly based on anything other than lowest price, etc. Nope, couldn't be anything like that...

Regards

Clipper110A

American Airlines' expectation for their own employees is to address pax by name in premium cabin...whether you, or me or anybody else personally thinks that is important to them is borderline irrelevant. AA has been in aviation business longer than most of us have been alive..one long standing component of multiple components they have created to attempt for a decent experience for consumers may be VERY important to one customer, and irrelevant to another. Another component may not matter to one customer and be very important to another.

Not worried about eating on US carrier..these days respectfully decline...what I am saying is that VERY OFTEN on this forum, when someone has an issue with"poor service", there is a band wagon that appears saying, "that issue doesn't matter to me"...

The US commercial aviation experience (thankfully except for most important aspect, safety) is a "Third World Experience"...maybe "it doesn't matter" to so many people because they don't know any better, or have come to expect far less...AA's published service directives for their employees basically call for them to do everything the OP noted was lacking. OP's "expectations" are based on what AA is requiring for their employees and likely what OP has seen before properly accomplished by other AA crews...