bostontraveler

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.

PGFlyer85

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.

Etheereal

Going for great™

olouie

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.

bostontraveler

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

FiveMileFinal

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.

Antarius

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.

jerseytom

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!

nachosdelux

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

metallo

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.

fotographer

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

Pickles

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

FLL88

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

BearX220

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.

Etheereal

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.