Reetmafreen

no1cub17

Who's going to have an issue?

The blades aren't sharp, and the fan doesn't spin fast enough to hurt you. I say this as someone who forgot I was using it on a CX flight and when I woke up I smacked my face into it. Lived to tell about it thank goodness.

SamOF

I was about to post, my best flights service-wise by far have been Europe crews out of PHL (and west coast too).

C17PSGR

I think being a FA on the long haul out of LAX would be excellent. Work a handful of days a month, get paid well, walk around talking to people, have most of the month off and have free flight privileges. But, the high seniority folks at LAX who staff the long haul routes there generally prefer to hang out in the galley rather than walking around J talking to people. The newer FA's with low seniority who get popped in from reserve or because of language skills like it much more.

In contrast, the LUS A330 FA's who historically weren't paid as well as AA FA's but with high seniority like walking around talking to people. They usually don't sit in the galley and hide.

skylady

HKG leaves at 0050, do you really want the crew walking around, talking to pax in the aisle?

C17PSGR

TBH .... yes. People in J on the HKG flight are on all sorts of different sleep schedules. Some pax are sleeping, some are working. Unfortunately, when J is staffed by senior FA's, service stops right after the meal. Anything else requires looking for an FA and it often feels like they are annoyed at being bothered.

In contrast, when the HKG or SYD flights are worked by junior FA's (sometimes on reserve -- sometimes language speakers), they walk around the J cabin regularly, don't bother those who are sleeping, but for those who are awake, they continue to check in, bring drinks, etc. It's a much nicer experience and what most pax in J are expecting.

I suspect the difference in service is one of the main reasons pax book CX to HKG rather than AA, as AA's hard product is better IMHO.

SamOF

Not to speak for the other poster, but no, and that's not what makes a redeye PHL to LHR great either. I interpret "talking to pax" as warmly greeting them when boarding, providing more personality during meal service than "chicken or beef," inviting rather than ordering passengers to open their tray tables, etc. Not chattiness, just basic hospitality skills.

Perhaps most importantly, IME the above hospitality skills almost always predict whether the flight attendant spends time (quietly) walking through the aisles during the flight, picking up trash and offering drink refills.

These are the things that I, at least, think the PHL base really shines at, and most LAA bases do not. Not that there aren't fantastic flight attendants on the LAA side—there absolutely are. But it seems pretty clear to me that consistency of the above qualities was a priority for training and management at US in a way that it was not at AA.

On an LAA-based flight, if I draw a great FA, it's at least likely that the other aisle will be having a markedly worse experience.

dls25

I also think part of it is the difference between the transatlantic customer bases of the two carriers. The US TATL network was much more leisure oriented so the FA's mainly dealt with happy people going on a cruise or on a honeymoon as opposed to the stressed out DYKWIA NYC and LA types. This has made the L-US staff more willing to engage passengers because they have not been burned out by "high maintenance" ones. That is my theory.

C17PSGR

Perhaps, but on my last 763 flight out of PHL, crewed by an excellent mix of senior and more junior language speakers -- presumably legacy AA -- most of the J cabin were seniors who weren't used to flying and needed a lot of hand-holding. In contrast, most of the people I see hanging out in the QF or Flagship Lounge before heading to the HKG or SYD gates are pretty chill.

A better description of what I think describes excellent service in J. Frankly, it seems to me it would be a lot more fun for the FA too and not that difficult. For example, as I was working away on the laptop on a recent TPAC flight out, the junior FA (she was on reserve) was walking around, offering a refill, chatting quietly with pax who were awake, -- just basic friendly American style hospitality. The service was as good as on CX or QR but a little friendlier. Of course, that's what I normally see on the LUS A330 fleet but seems like more the exception on the LAX based TPAC.

golfingboy

Flew LHR-JFK recently - crews were not good. I haven’t flown the AA 772 in three years and when I went to the lav behind my seat only to find the lav occupied the purser happened to be standing just outside of the lav. I proceed to ask if there was another one opposite the mid cabin galley or if I needed to go up to the front the purser just shrugged and raised her hands gesturing I don’t know. I was speechless.

Then half hour later they began collecting headphones (1h15m before landing) and when pushing the cart up she slammed hard against the shell of seat 4A - I was in 5A - and just backed up and rolled up without saying a word.

During boarding I went up to the front left lavatory and as I was about to close the lavatory door an FA walked up with a coffee pot full of water presumably to drain out in the lavatory. She stopped in her steps when she realized that I was already in the lavatory then gave me a mortified look as if I was extremely rude for not coming out and offering her to use the lavatory to drain out the pot first.

I have several more examples but I am sure you get the point. I don’t know if it’s the JFK base (my first time), but for both of my flights they were easily the worst international AA crew that I have come across.

On the other side my connecting JFK-PIT flight on envoy E-140 the FA came to me before departure thanking me for being an EP and asked what beverage I would like to have when we get in the air. She also proactively brought out a few snack options asking what I would prefer. Wow! Night and day. She also did a full beverage service on this short 1h10m flight. I think the JFK mainline base will benefit having her join their crew.

enviroian

Envoy crews are top notch. At least in my experience.

AAdamE

Yea, try not to take anything personal. Also re:business class prices. Yes, it's priced at the maximum people who can expense travel are willing to pay, which creates more revenue than setting the price to a level leisure travelers would pay for the upgrade.

C17PSGR

Good point on business class prices, but they are also set on the competitive prices. J from LAX to HKG will generally be cheaper than ORD to LHR, even though its longer because of the competition. ORD to ATH will also be cheaper than ORD to LHR, even if it connects in LHR.

Antarius

Fundamentally, the system of crewing is broken. Staffing on routes should be performance based, not seniority based.

C17PSGR

Well ... that's not gonna happen #AAFA

In general, the new flight attendants are better. I'm on a long mid con and the FA in F is great. Predeparture drinks, walking through the F cabin, she's enjoying her job and we're all nice. The Compass, SkyWest, Envoy FA's are great too.

But, there are many good senior FA's. The solution is that the AAFA needs to engage and understand that pax are flying other airlines they are getting better service. And ... if pax preferred AA metal, AA would have flights to MEL, another to HKG, etc which, in turn, means more preferred routes for FA's.