fotographer

I have just come to accept that on some flights.. FA's are great and serve without question... and unfortunately most FA's seem disinterested...
8 flights this year.... 2/8 service was wonderful... after all remember AA is gong for something

enviroian

Let my photo be the inspiration for all your future flights daniel san

wetrat0

On a widebody (not transcon) domestic F flight yesterday, FAs were literally walking through the aisles topping off wine throughout the entire flight. Their attitude was so warm, it was jarring given the current standard.

​​​​Clearly not every FA is on board with the idea that COVID is transmitted primarily through good service.

enviroian

What airline was this?

ijgordon

Totally depends. On a short redeye, absolutely, serve it all at once, and quickly, so I can sleep. On a longer/day flight, courses help pass the time, encourage me to not eat as quickly, and help the food remain at the right temperature.

ijgordon

Let's be real, this is the (pre-COVID) DeltaOne meal service, which is/was a nice service. I mean after they gave you the tray with app/salad/soup bowl/bread they poured the hot soup from a thermos. Then tray removed and main hand-delivered. Then cheese & desert cart (you can have both!). So yes, it's more than acceptable on Tower Air (which I flew in J CDG-NYC in 1996...), but no, not for international F.

SkyTeam777

As someone who flies weekly on AA, I would say I can count on one hand over the past three years the times AA FAs have not been indifferent and disinterested in service. They might go through the actions, but never with a smile or conversation (Im talking about before Covid, too). Delta FAs make a point to have brief conversation if it seems invited. AA has a major culture problem, and it's only getting worse.

FAs think that on any flight, they can do an initial service and then no service the rest of the flight in F. DL passes through with water walks in Y and through F every 15-30 mins. AA FAs pause their own conversations or barely look up to say hello on half the flights during boarding. Before someone says, go fly DL, well I do. But, I also fly AA because the loyalty program is better, and it's a tradeoff I accept. Doesn't change the service/culture problem AA can't seem to shake though (and I dont think they ever will/can).

AAway

Well said and I would say it goes back decades. I remember this contrast existed even back in the DL DFW hub days.

CLT

It's funny because I hadn't really thought about it before but I haven't had any outwardly friendly FAs (i.e. willing to have a conversation) on AA within the past several years. I've had FAs that were friendly/nice, but none that seemed genuinely interested with their passengers. Some may say that's a good thing (personally I wouldn't want a FA to be chatty and bother me constantly during the flight) but I find that a friendly, brief conversation adds an empathic feeling to an otherwise sterile, cold organization.

Within the past year, I have had FAs on both UA and DL exhibit such behavior...from compliments ("nice jacket"/"nice shoes") to small chats (on two separate occasions both a DL and UA FA noticed I was writing with an AA pen and asked what I liked about DL/UA over AA).

AADFW

I flew two segments yesterday on an A321 (not transcon) in F over a total of around 9 hours and was very pleasantly surprised, especially on the first. While there were no PDBs (fully as expected), all crew members were professional and attentive. One in particular was quite enthusiastic and jovial. What I did find completely odious, however, was the abhorrent cold food. The person flying next to me remarked that he had once been briefly incarcerated and that some of the food he'd eaten whilst in jail was marginally better than what AA is currently serving in first class for thousands of dollars. It also seems rather silly that the meal trays are served fully encased in plastic wrap, as if that's actually a legitimate way to prevent the spread of Covid. Aside from that, it was a far better experience than I had expected overall based on all the recent news on this and other travel forums. Maybe I just got lucky?

bchandler02

Flew back DFW/OKC last night. I was convinced that we were not going to get any service in F (on A321). Two FA's sat up front chatting away even as we passed 10k. Just as I was about to start hitting the button, captain announced that we had leveled off at 23k feet and they got up and took orders.

We had the drinks for < 5 minutes before they picked them up due to landing. Hope their conversation was worth it.

On a positive note, this was my last booked trip with AA. I still have $300 in travel credit I'll have to suck up and use at some point, but at least now I can hop over to UA and have basic things like service, and beer when in cattle class.

Catbert10

OKC-IAH and vv should be enough time in the air for UA to provide service. Just be aware that I find UA to be worse than AA in not providing FC service on short hops. F typically gets a drink DFW-AUS. I haven't gotten a drink in F on IAH-AUS in years.

bchandler02

I've never not had service in F on AA for OKC/DFW (or DFW/AUS and DFW/IAH or HOU). In Y, it was about 90% of the time prior to the beer virus - even if sometimes just a water/juice only to keep it simple and fast.
I've never flown IAH/AUS.

Catbert10

I meant IAH-AUS on UA. The point I was trying to make was that AA is better at providing short hop service than UA.

Fanjet

I did a 4 segment trip a few days ago, and all flights had FAs in F who were happy and didn't hide out in the galley. The best service came on a late evening flight (which normally would have a meal service during meal times). The FA did 2 drink request runs (as well as repouring wine and water glasses) and 2 runs of the snack basket. And honestly, I enjoyed the snack basket items more than the crAApy lunch and dinner meals on 2 of the flights (and were actually same two options). The breakfst flight meal was actually good.

It's kind of sad that this service should just be normal and not an anomaly.