AA 45 CDG-JFK : Confirming AA's lousy service
 

So I flew AA to JFK this week. Underwhelmed. Actually quite irritated and disgusted.

The happy part
1) I burnt 57.5k miles and didn't pay for the 'experience'.
2) Fabrice was outstanding... a class act... sadly he wasn't assigned to us. They should have made him purser and fired pretty much everyone else.

The less happy parts:

1) Flight attendants were pretty universally crass and rude. Boarding the plane I got a loud "TWO..K...." (that wasn't my seat but you get the gist"). No, "good morning" or "welcome aboard"... nada...

2) Purser was insufferable. Making ear-cavity piercing announcements to "MOVE AHEAD" and "STOP BLOCKING THE AISLES" in addition to his pre-admonishment of "STAY SEATED SO FLIGHT ATTENDANTS CAN COMPLETE THEIR SERVICE"... Geesh, sorry to interrupt your flight Mr. Purser! Obnoxious to say the least. Last time I had that kind of a collective
take-down was with Sister Monica in 5th grade. These directives continued throughout the flight....at the highest possible volume.

3) Flight attendant X and Y whizzed by me for initial nuts and drinks twice... yes, I was awake both times. At meal time, when they asked "would you like something else to drink" I told them "I'd like something to drink... you guys completely passed by twice". Normal response = "Gosh, I'm sorry" AA response "I thought HE (pointing at colleague) was taking care of you". Colleague responds "I thought YOU were taking care of him". Big angry stares at me ensue with a sigh followed by "SO... what do you want?" Parallel universe...

4) FAs tried twice to wrench my tray away... with food on it. Both times I said "Not finished". "Oh, sorry" was the surprised response.

5) All eternally long-winded announcements with unnecessary commentary were made by a very bizarre purser... yelling in English....

6) AA's eternally vapid onboard entertainment

It's really sad how low AA has fallen.

This is exactly my issue with AA. There are still some great FAs in the system. Most of the international hard product is solid and the soft product tolerable. But a recent round trip to the US had this attitude at almost every corner including at both CLT and JFK. My JFK to LHR flight had one of the J FAs training a new one about lying passengers and the fact there is always one <redacted> in every flight.

Going for great™

AA FAs are there for your SAFETY. Not to actually provide good (or any) service. They are mostly just trying to get to their destination without stupid passengers hassling them while they gossip.

@plouie yes indeed. Silly of us passengers to expect any form of service. Next time Air Koryo!

This is what I typically see on American but I have to say my last experience on them was actually pretty good. An anomaly, I'm sure.

Part of the reason I'm hoping AA breaks IAM-TWU for their shenanigans is that it could be used on the FA group on the next shenanigans they pull. Seniority is the most worthless way to do assignments - been at a company that basically promoted based on seniority, which meant anyone worth a damn either left or stopped caring.

AA needs a total house cleaning. Start with Parker and the CSuite and take the IAM-TWU and APFA next.

On domestic flights I've honestly had quite good service with AA FA's. Not sure of international is categorically worse... I'll be finding out in a couple months!

this has been my experience. my guess is that (in general), the most senior, bitter F/A's bid the international trips.

They’re often fine on short hops. I mean, how hard is it to screw up service from LAS to LAX or ORD to STL (oh wait, nah, they’ve done that lol).

INTL is really where they should shine, though, and they don’t. I recently flew the 788 from NRT to ORD (which I’ve now flown countless times both domestically and internationally), and it’s actually a decent hard product.

Also, I realize this may be a bit of a controversial statement, but the AC was actually my favorite lounge at NRT on this trip. It was tranquil, well laid-out, and definitely had the best airport views. The JAL F lounge was crowded, seemed generally disorganized, and the sushi honestly wasn’t that great.

The problem at AA right now is the people. There are bitter, sour people seemingly staffing every inch of this operation, and it’s an act that’s getting tired fast.

That is one of the reasons I have been booking my international flights on BA rather than AA
soft product not as good as AA
but service and attitude well worth it

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

Here is an Idea for Mr. Parker:
Put a easy to use, FA rating widget on the AA Mobile APP. Similar to how you rate an UBER driver upon completion of the trip. FAs would develop a score on service. That score would be blended together with the seniority system for trip picking by the FAs. There would be motivation to provide excellent service (or at least better service)

Dreaming ! This will never happen. The UNION will never allow this type of system. Too Bad for all of us!



2019 AA Domestic Upgrades: 15 out of 32

2019 cities: ATH, CLT, DCA, DFW, DSM, FLL, IAH, LAS, LHR, LIT, MIA, MSP, ORD, STL, YWG, YYZ

With all the operational problems AA has right now (OTP, cancellations, Max, etc.) it is amazing that their signature, primary issue has become terrible people.

I love this meme so muuuuch.

They're, unironically, much better than 90% AA FAs.

No, what would end up happening is that FAs that find out they're being badly qualified would threat the passengers with good ratings or else they'll get the flight diverted "for their safety", then pulled out by TSA and/or cops.

This nonsense will continue until a Service Manager with authority over the crew is created. This attitude comes from having a couldn’t-care-less attitude where any old thing will do. I had this on a flight LAX-LHR only two weeks ago. It was not F, it was J but it was abundantly obvious that not one member of the crew was interested. The Purser was clearly extremely senior and didn’t come near the cabin as far as I could tell.

Until someone one is responsible for managing service aboard and to deal with any issues this will never improve.

Union contract prohibits it (one FA reporting on/evaluating/etc another.) AA would *love* to have it otherwise, but it aint gonna happen.

As someone who flies ANA J/F often with hands down awesome service that tries to provide a comfortable service-based experience for the passenger and super friendly FAs, when I have to fly international on AA (usually to NRT or HKG), it's a total let down. It's painfully obvious that providing service to passengers is getting in the way of candy crush or chit chat with coworkers about relationships and destinations behind a curtain.

I suppose that I have in mind something like the Cabin Service Directors that other carriers have - would that come under the rule?

It would.

And thus the vicious cycle of lowest common denominator continues.

Theres that saying about dragging one down to their level and beating them with experience.

Which is why it is absolutely critical that when one of us experiences terrible service on AA, we report it to AA with specifics and NAME NAMES as opposed to starting yet another rant-filled "AA sucks" FT thread.

I'm curious if the APFA contract allows for AA management to hire non-employee "mystery shoppers" to fly on flights and for AA to initiate disciplinary action as a result of their findings.

ding ding ding.......

There’s gotta be a way to publicly “shame” the union for this kind of stuff. Surely the flying and general public weighing in (via the media I suppose ) can shake it up...just a little? Are there any other professions where employees have near-total impunity?!

HA! good one.

College athletics. And any good ol' boys club company/industry.

Other than that, Belarus or North Korean goverment maybe?

I concur wholeheartedly. I have never understood why people are so quick to start threads but never bother to complain to the Company. After all, this isn’t AA Customer Relations. However, it was explained to me that some people just want to vent and posting provides a forum for that...

So I guess it will just continue to be more of the same.

While I hear this time and time again (here in a sarcastic tone). A real question comes to mind. If these extremely senior flight attendants can’t perform their in flight duties satisfactorily, while should I trust them with the life of my loved ones? To me the two are connected.

Why do you assume that people only post here and dont write to AA?

This why I fly other OW airlines internationally. I haven't flown AA internationally since pre Parker. YMMV.

A bit presumptuous rumboj I'd say?
Who said I never reported this to AA?

I used to be hesitant to complain, fearing I'd be dinged in their CRM system as a complainer or that my LTV (lifetime value) would be diminished by the 5k AAPeso dog biscuits they'd throw at my feet...
These days as a lifetime PLT I actively avoid AA (and BA, and IB for that matter). I simply couldn't give a rat's behind what AA thinks of me.

PS-
One thing I unfortunately learned by getting burnt was NEVER to confront FAs onboard. A few years ago on a UA EZE-EWR the crew left their carts in business class for 45 minutes while they had a VERY LOUD and expletive-laden meltdown in the galley. When an elderly couple next to me rang their bell to ask to be served the purser was nothing short of verbally abusive. And I made the mistake of confronting her. BIG MISTAKE. She wrote me up as an unruly passenger such that when I contacted UA's executive office they came at ME. Fortunately I had 3 witnesses write to them and confirm their abusive behavior but never again will I say anything to FAs on US carriers. They invoke "safety" like there's no tomorrow.

I have flown Air Koryo. The crew was pleasant and helpful. I would take them over AA any time.

This seems to be a deplorable state of affairs. The passengers are now terrified of the FAs wrath and the FAs behave as they please. They must report to somebody. Someone has to be in charge of Inflight Services.

OP, I never said you never reported the incident. It was a general statement.

Have you missed the many threads where people don’t want to reach out to Customer Relations for one reason or another, or they have to be coerced into doing so by other forum members who seem to be more concerned about the poster’s experience than the poster is him/herself? I won’t even bother to consider the number of threads that pop where the OP keeps coming back to reply to messages but ignores all the posts from members telling them they should complain. It certainly doesn’t give the impression that they have been talking to Customer Relations.

Do any of the major US airlines have union contracts that allow one FA reporting on/evaluating/etc another?

It's not prohibited by the contract. IIRC nothing like that is mentioned.

This is the state of affairs. The disappearing FAs until the next service comes around. From time to time you'll get lucky and have a crew that roams the aisles from time to time to attend to paxs but it doesn't seem to be the norm anymore. Writing to AA won't get anything other than maybe a few thousand miles. Mystery shopper? Ok are you willing to give up your upgrade so that someone can sit in a J seat and observe the FAs?

You are wrong.

It's a good question, personally I only know that it's not allowed on AA-- not allowed for one FA to evaluate or supervise another one.

So having mystery passengers like mystery shoppers is specifically prohibited by the union contract? Can you refer me to a section number, or page number in the spiral bound edition?

:rolleyes: