Strange First Class Service
 

Flight 1740 from Charlotte to San Diego April 19, 2022. There were three flight attendants that I noticed, one male and two females. I was seated in 5C (you should avoid this seat at all costs as it barely reclines). Flight attendants very welcoming as we boarded and boarding process went without a hitch. We took off on time. As soon as was safe the female FA came through with her list and took drink orders and announced the offerings for the meal. She then left for the main cabin. The drinks never came. The male FA started serving the meal which were on trays. He seemed completely overwhelmed with trying to serve 20 people who were expecting something better. Not sure if he was a rookie, but it sure seemed to me that needed help.

It was very disappointing service.

I've often seen the #2 FA take initial drink orders while the #1 FA gets the meals pulled together. The #2 then goes back to coach as there is only one FA for First these days. However, he shouldn't have forgotten to bring them. Did you ever get them?

AA's crew staffing cutbacks are really annoying sometimes. There is really no way 1 FA can be both the galley and cabin attendant for a F cabin with 20 people on a transcon, and complete service efficiently and not be completely stressed out. It's bad enough on the Flagship transcons with 1 FA in F...I can't imagine how annoying it is to have to serve 20 F passengers all by yourself.

First world problems.

Recently flew the A321T service in J from JFK-SNA. The FAs worked the cabins as a team and I often interacted with different FAs. Only after we were served our meal do I believe that they started sandwich service in Y.

Interesting. Some of my recent experiences in F have been that one FA does the entire meal service, both galley can cabin service. In J it was the same two FAs consistently. I'm not sure what the new protocol is with the reduced staffing, and what the staffing flow is throughout the aircraft.

The same can be said whenever an airline cancels your honeymoon tickets to Paris.

This is a forum dedicated to first-world problems. Flyertalk's active membership is a diverse community of the lower-upper-middle class, the middle-upper-middle class, and the upper-upper-middle class (with many middle class and a few bona fide rich guys mixed in).

My seat mate didn’t get his drink either. I finally had to ask for my drink as the FA was serving the pax across the aisle. Seat mate asked for a club soda at the same time. I get my drink. No drink for Mr. Seat Mate. This FA was woefully disorganized.

I had a flight like that where FA looked overwhelmed. This was way before the pandemic, I was in F on a 738 flight.

Before takeoff, this FA had a problem starting a safety video in IFE, did not know how to operate, and needed help from other FAs. This should have been a hint. During the flight, the drink service was very slow. The FA looked as overwhelmed or his mind was elsewhere. The FA was pleasant, not rude or indifferent. During the meal, the FA asked for a choice but hand out the wrong one. At the landing, the hump of touch down, a shelf door in a galley popped open and cans of soda and juice came rolling out. Once the aircraft was on a taxiway, the FA stood up from the jump seat and with his foot rolled cans to the corner of the galley. For a few cans rolled into passenger seats, this FA did not bother and acted as if nothing happened.

I remember on another flight, CRJ-700 in F. The FA did PDB, a British gentlemen across the aisle from me asked for Scotch, neat. The FA gave Borbon, the British gentlemen kindly mentioned to the FA that it was Borbon, not Scotch. The FA did not know the difference between Borbon and Scotch. At the takeoff, a door of the cart in the galley popped open and the cart itself started to slide out. It was CRJ so the FA could reach the cart from the jump seat sitting down. The FA hold the cart till we were leveled off enough that FA could stand up from the jump seat.

I think in both situations FAs were rookies. I think most rookie FAs do just fine, but once in a while, there are rookie FAs who are not ready for a prime time yet. These two flights were memorable enough for me that I still remember.

Today’s AA 1740 is operating with an A321, which has more than 150 seats, and accordingly requires a fourth FA. I obviously can’t speak for the day that the OP traveled, but I find it hard to believe that AA would violate the FAA mandate of one FA for every 50 seats, or fraction thereof.

There is a zero percent chance that the flight went out with less than the required number of FAs.

It is definitely tougher, but AA used to have the 757 with 24J as well. Not to mention that BA manages a full meal service in Club Europe with a CE cabin that can be equally large or bigger.

Agreed. There are multiple checks where such a thing would have been caught.

But two FAs did the F meal service on those 757s, didn't they?

There was also a time when the AA/APFA contract required higher than minimum staffing on certain flights; I believe at one point in time M80 dinner flights with the "deluxe dinner" (longer midcon) service contractually required an extra FA.

This just emphasizes what I've said all along - there was no good reason to reconfigure 321s from 16J to 20J. The added row of uncomfortable seats is crammed in in such a way as to take legroom out of every J row. Also service is degraded when the same FA assigned to work the front cabin has to serve 20 as opposed to 16 passengers.

I am guessing that what OP has observed has nothing to do with the number of FAs in the domestic F (J) cabin. What OP described sounded like the FA just was not competent enough to do domestic F service. If FAs are not competent to do the service, then one FA or two FAs would not have made the difference. Yes, one can argue that if one FA is not competent, then second FA can fill the hole and maintain the service.

I don't want to play devil's advocate, because I am under no circumstances AAplogist, but looking from the corporate side. LGA-DFW dinner flight, after drink service and meal service, the second half of the flight, pretty much most of the time FA would simply sit at a jump seat reading People magazine. It will not be an easy argument to assign a second FA to domestic F (J). I do think FA who is not performing to a set standard then needs to be pulled off from the duty and retrained. After repeated retraining does not improve the performance of the FA, then the job of FA is not for this particular person, needs to be let go. I understand that such is the standard at many non-U.S. airlines, but most U.S. airlines do not practice this.