eqeqeqx

Perhaps the captain was getting feed up with lazy flight attendants announcing turbulence as the reason for not doing their job, and used an announcement of his own to show what he thought of them.

AsiaTravel2019

"Turbulence" = we want to play on our phones in the galley with the curtains pulled

unitedbusiness

Can’t begin to tell you how many times Delta FA’s on flights from ATL have blamed “turbulence” or “weather,” but rather it was their sheer laziness to get a beverage service knocked out… particularly ATL-MCO, ATL-FLL, ATL-TPA!!

Billy Mumphrey

Had this happen last week where the FA announced that because of turbulence, only the F cabin would receive service. So it was ok to deliver a few drinks by hand but not ok to roll the cart down the aisle.

Lav Inspector

Without knowing all the details, absolutely that’s ok. Serving the F cabin by hand takes significantly less time, especially when you add in the preparation time for the cart, both before and after the service, not to mention how much longer it takes to serve the entire cabin. Just for perspective, even if they start the service in coach but have to suspend service half way through, it takes about 15 mins for the carts to be completely put away and the galley secured. That can be a significant amount of time if you encounter moderate or worse turbulence.

Besides that, those carts are extremely heavy and can be quite the hazard in turbulence, both for the passengers and F/As.

The Situation

When one of my friends worked for a regional carrier (not a carrier that flies for DL) this was a common discussion and FA's would put a lot of pressure on him to say there would be turbulence so no cabin service. Not surprised this has spread.

The national weather service has an "aviation weather" map. It shows reported turbulence/wind shear and the severity and height it was reported at. I have had enough lazy FA's that use the turbulence excuse, I always look up the map before the flight. It can also be helpful to show this to the FA in certain situations as well...one flight I encouraged the FA to discontinue service after seeing the map and another flight I showed the FA the map so she could calm a nervous flier a few rows ahead of me that after the bumps on the climb, it would be a very smooth remainder of the flight.

Adam1222

I have not had this happen on any of 30 legs in the past 10 weeks. Go figure.

Lav Inspector

With all due respect, I would be careful with that approach for it doesn’t really show the entire picture. The resources the DL pilots use are a lot more in depth than that chart and brief the F/A’s before every flight about the weather/turbulence forecasted. As we all know, weather is very fluid and constantly changing. While weather fronts shown on that weather map are easy to predict, there are many other hazards that can potentially cause turbulence that isn’t shown on a map updated 2-4 times a day.

JAXPax

I have a friend who is a 30-year seniority Captain at a ULCC (though half the Atlantic City base still is senior) whose pet peeve is flight attendants making announcements he thinks of as over the top or customer-unfriendly. As soon as he hears a scolding starting over the PA over someone got up to get something from overhead or had to go to the bathroom with seatbelt sign still on, he takes the opportunity to flip the sign off mid-way through their announcement and start his own. He will do the same if they start making "no service" announcements on short flights. I mean, come on, on like FLL-MCO with 5 flight attendants and everything for sale you know sales won't be so high they can't at least walk the cabin with a menu asking if anybody wants anything, if even to take to-go. However, they did have to stop making the so-called "Roadie" announcement advertising that their liquor combos were cheaper than a hotel minibar or many hotel lobbies so before landing buy one for the road.

thatmikereed

And this morning: https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2...re-turbulence/

drminn

It is kind of surprising that Swiss can serve breakfast on a tray on their 45 min flights from ZRH to STR. I guess the turbulences are a little smaller in smaller countries.

AsiaTravel2019

US airlines are really a chore to fly, especially bad domestically with low/no service, bad attitudes and being ghosted after takeoff.

Meanwhile, I'll get a 3-course meal on a regional Asia flight out of Tokyo on NH. Of course, this has always been the case.

JAXPax

Back at Midwest Express we used to serve a hot plated breakfast to the entire plane between Milwaukee and Omaha or Kansas City... both were sub one hour. When we outsourced some of the RJ/Connect flying to Skywest on the CRJs, the Skywest flight attendants hated it and did not want to be MKE based (I think most who operated were actually ORD based and limo'd up). We made them bake and serve cookies as well as do a beverage service (sometimes just water, coffee, juice, milk) on like Milwaukee to Appleton or Grand Rapids. Lot of hustle for a 20 minute usable time in the air.

dmarge18

Yep. Recently had an ATL-BWI trip where the seat belt sign was off the whole trip (for good reason, hint) and at the end the FAs apologized for no drink service due to unexpected turbulence. They even ignored the FA call light for 10-15 minutes as they walked past several times. Ultimately I had 2,500 miles in my account before I even made it to baggage claim, but would probably have rather had a drink of water.

unitedbusiness

so now, in addition to the 20-minute domestic bag guarantee, there’s a main cabin drink guarantee?