mctaste

I do like the claim that the FA is there primarily for safety, when 99.999% of flights happen with no safety issues for them to manage. This means their job in almost all cases, other than to get butts in seats, is to serve food and water.

Adam1222

Only 1% of my doctor's patients are at risk of death in the next year, so his job isn't really to save lives.

I think this thread just shows us that there are a lot of travelers who have very little respect for service professionals and very high expectations for them, and are looking for reasons to complain.

cmd320

This is hardly a valid comparison, though yes. When I go to my GP I don't really think of his job as 'saving lives' most of the day.

Holding a service professional to a standard and having very little respect for them are two vastly different things. As in the OP's case of this thread, the service professional failed to achieve the general standard set by his or her colleagues. This is why I choose to fly DL over AA often in the US, because the general standard of DL service is better than that of AA where the FAs often announce they're "here primarily for your safety" which is code for "I have no intention of offering a PDB and you'll be lucky to get what I give you in the air." A company who thinks that is an acceptable way to treat premium customers and allows it to continue is not a company I want to give my business to.

If you think a complete lack of standards is acceptable then I would argue that you have very little respect for the service profession itself. There are many service professionals who take great pride in what they do and rightly so. These are they people I want to give my business to.

Adam1222

Well I think it's ridiculous to say flight attendants aren't there for safety because planes don't crash.
As to your strawman, I never said I have a complete lack of standards.
But this thread has included people complaining about....the brand water served, flight attendants saying the forward lav is for first class passengers only, etc. If you complain about everything, complaints that otherwise may be valid are taken less seriously.

I respect service professionals enough not to say they are lazy if one doesn't telepathically know I spilled something.

MSPeconomist

If you turned left upon boarding, it was a 757. FC is in front of the door that's usually used for boarding.

At least the FA asked if anything else was wanted before disappearing, but he still should have walked up to the front to check on everyone periodically rather than being gone for 30-60 minutes IME.

Don't be afraid to ring your call bell, although if I'm in the galley and I see that what I need is out, I'll often just serve myself, assuming no turbulence at the time. I won't dig through the carts. Some FAs don't like it if you serve yourself and I think you're not supposed to serve yourself anything alcoholic.

cmd320

I think it’s equally ridiculous if not more so to suggest FAs are on board primarily for safety. The reality is that FAs are on board primarily as a customer service professional unless some kind of safety issue arises in which case that becomes their primary role. FAs probably do not care for that reality however it’s pretty accurate.

Well obviously Dasani is crap but obviously this is also not the FA’s choice so that’s a pretty irrelevant complaint in that context. Also the FA absolutely should protect the F lav for F customers so no disagreements there either.

That’s great but they should be around the premium cabin frequently enough to be offering drink refills as they get low. Providing one drink service on a 2 hour flight to the premium cabin is simply unacceptable.

MSPeconomist

I think it shows respect for service personnel to hold them to a high standard. Otherwise, you're implicitly admitting that they're too lazy or too incompetent to do the job well and you've just given up on them.

Adam1222

That's great but there are a lot of other complaints in this thread.

MrHockey

LOL no, finance here. I wouldn't make it as a FA, my mouth would get me fired telling pretentious flyers where they can stick their empty glass.

MrHockey

Hmm, so would that be like an Abe Froman "the sausage king of Chicago" type of person? Maybe it's the Blues Brothers dining room scene. Not quite sure which high standard I need to emulate.

mctaste

Most doctors do not save lives on a daily basis, just like flight attendants do not execute critical safety tasks during most flights. Thank you for proving my point.

Adam1222

I imagine you treat your doctor with the same disdain.

DLdweeb

Slightly OT, but what is wrong with Desani? I admit, I'm not a water snob, but it's water. Ignoring the infused fads of the day, isn't it all pretty much the same?

mctaste

I have no disdain for doctors or flight attendants, just realism for their typical workload.

Adam1222

Perhaps you don't think you do, but your comment suggests otherwise, as does the airing-of-the-grievances tenor of this thread as a whole.

Are some FAs not as attentive as ideal? Sure. Are some lazy? I bet. On any given flight may there be something going on I as a passenger don't realize? Obviously. It could be a bad day, a personnel issue, a catering issue, who knows. Do I time appearances of flight attendants on short flights? No. A short flight, even in first, is primarily there for transportation, not for me to feel pampered and guzzle as many drinks as possible. If I really want a drink, I have a call button. In hundreds of flights, I've pressed it once or twice.