This announcement was made on a recent Spirit flight. It got me thinking as to what exactly the Flight Attendants do these days...

- The safety announcements are now mostly automated. With the video screens, they do nothing; with the audio automation, they mime the part. With none of the automation, they still do the spiel.

- As soon as the plane pulls out of 10,000 feet, out comes the food and beverage (if there is any). That seems to be a priority, like to get it out of the way early. No matter if it's a long haul flight, they want to get it done and be done with it.

- "Bistro" service, i.e. where you're handed a bag of snacks as you walk on the plane seems to further reduce the amount of work for the FA's.

So, as the gentleman from Spirit said, if they are there for our safety, what exactly are they doing? It doesn't make me feel any more safe or comfy as they sit in the back and chat, while the whole notion of service has evaporated. Heaven forbid you DO ask for a second drink. Heaven forbid if you don't have exact change (heard an announcement recently on TWA that if you don't have exact change, no tickie, no laundry).

Is this a union thing, or what's going on? I remember when not too long ago, the FA's in the aisles were always there, constantly refreshing beverages, etc. Now, it's one pass through, and that's it.

So, if they are there for my safety (which I don't deny they are highly trained in the case of emergency), and there are no emergencies readily present, what do they do?

This is nothing against FA's, but it seems that somehow they've leveraged a "less work", more attitude policy somehow.

Sad but true!

I'm not sure about Spirit, but my experience with other carriers (UA, NW, AA, DL) is that service has declined "somewhat" over the past several years. However, the variability is significant. Some flight crews are outstanding and very service oriented, while others perform the disappearing FA thing as quickly as possible.

Recent United flight from London to Chicago bore this out. Had to go and ask twice for another glass of water. The FAs were in the galley, but conversing.

Having said that, I've received GREAT service on many shorter flights.

The 'ready to serve' attitude is in general higher with non-US-based crews (even when flying North American carriers) but

the differencies from crew to crew is what astonishes me more than the (expected) mental/cultural/geografic-background differencies and

when only looking at UA-service, than the (several times now) experienced lowest levels (even in business class, worse then with other carriers in eco and I just don't tolerate this anymore and avoid these routings to the best by switching to other StarCarriers like NZ) are the UA transpacific segments to/from Australia. Even (very tolerant) Gisela will never again 'ride' UA transpacific (in buisness).

Hmmm, you start out at $1,200 a month, go years without a contract, work your butt off, have your rest area removed, do many things that passengers never see, listen to complaints about things you have no control over, everyone wants first class service on $400 international fares and are expected to be happy and full of energy the whole flight. Even given these conditions, my experience on AA (160,000 miles in the last 6 months) has been outstanding. The level of professionalism is very good. Improve the working conditions and you'll see better CS as is the case with all fields.

And yes, they are there for your safety and I for one appreciate this service more than food and beverage.

drtravels...

I certainly agree with you about the FA's on AA! I think they are fantastic and with very minor exceptions, I give them all my highest accolades.

Based on your description of the life of a FA, my question is: Given the low pay, constant disrespect and abuse, organized labor problems, etc, why in anyone's mind would one want to be subject to these conditions? There have to be better jobs out there paying greater compensation and providing higher degrees of respect. When I heard a passenger state behind a FA's back on a recent AA flight that FA's are glorified "waitresses" and he does not respect them because they did not have to go through the extensive training that he did for his job, I wanted to pop him first...then educate him (I took the latter approach-discretion over valor). Did I convince him? Probably not.

If this schnook is indicative of the opinion and attitude of many passengers, I sympathize with the plight of the FA's even more...even if each flight had one or two of these kind of people on board...these people make their jobs even more challenging and when they become empowered, it would probably make many FA's want to change careers.

There are many careers I have personally selected that I would never participate in...a police officer, firefighter and airline flight attendant all come to mind. Personally, I am gratified there are people who choose to make these tough positions as their career...and I deeply respect them for doing this.

Perhaps this is the big problem today with some people...taking things for granted and not giving the respect that people really deserve.

The next time all of us are out and about, interacting with society, think about this:

Look for someone performing a job that you would not even consider doing because it was maybe not your calling in life...or even beneath you for doing it...then thank the person for giving 100 percent because their job just enhanced your life...this is what a police officer, a firefighter, a trash collector, a public school teacher in a rough area and yes, even a flight attendant deserve (and there are thousands of other careers in this category).

People who take honorable jobs which come with the disrespect are my personal heroes...so it does not bother me if one of those people are having a not-so-good day and I have to get out of my seat once in awhile to ask for a drink of water on a flight. Generally, a smile and a show of gratitude works wonders to perhaps make their day a little better.

Many times I wonder, how do these people put up with so much for such little compensation? That fact alone makes these people very special in my mind! And...no, I am not married to a flight attendant nor do I know of any personally...I just have a great deal of respect for them...and the rest of my fellow working stiffs!

When did it start to matter how much fare a customer paid for getting different service? So if we get seat sale fare... we deserve crappy treatment? Does it take a full fare to get FA's attention?

The dramatic variance in service quality on UA flights has always astonished me but I usually try to understand that a specific FA might be having a bad day. A couple of years ago, I was on a five hour flight in F from PDX to IAD and the FA hid behind the curtain, by herself, for all but a half hour of the journey; just about enough time was allocated for a very quick meal service before retreating back to her galley of solitude. I was not in a particularly ornery mood and I thanked her for her service as I deplaned, as is my custom. This was not a sarcastic thanks but a sincere, if not overly heartfelt, one.

I think that I caught her off guard because she knew the service had been lousy and, I guess, could not imagine why anyone would dream of thanking her. I don't remember all of the details at this late date, but she told me that she didn't feel well, or there were some personal problems, or some combination thereof. After we chatted for a few minutes, she felt better and so did I.

On the other hand...UA boasts entire routes in which I always seem to enjoy consistently inferior service. As has already been pointed out, UA's trans-Pacific service is typically quite mediocre. But my personal nomination for the route in which I nearly always endured subpar and indifferent service are my flights from IAD to MIA. Over the last six years or so, I have flown this route over two dozen times, and except for a couple of occasions, FA's do not bother with a pre-departure drink, taking my jacket, returning my jacket or even smiling. After spending an entire five minutes feeding and watering the passengers, the FAs hide behind tightly drawn curtains for the entire duration of the trip. My last such journey in January prompted me to write my little love poem to UA entitled "50 Ways to Lose Your Flyer:"
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum50/HTML/004576.html

The scary part is that I am scheduled to do this trip again on April 17. One curious observation is that flights from MIA back to IAD do not seem to be nearly as bad.

I actually had my best flight attendant experience on a United Express flight a couple of weeks ago from Rochester to Washington Dulles. She was funny and laughing with people... and coming around and talking the whole time.

Was the first time I actually felt compelled to mail a thank you letter on behalf of a flight attendant.

William

I agree that the FAs are not bartenders, babysitters, etc. There is a growing "attitude." Last month on a flight I saw a FA working, but not in uniform. He did have his ID clipped to his belt. He worea T-Shirt proclaiming, "Flight Attendants are here to save your a**, so kiss it."
I wrote to the airline with more specific information and received a reply that it would be "looked into."

I usually bring my own snack and bottle of water. I suppose I shouldn't have to, but since the quality of service in coach is poor, you have to take care of yourself.

(BTW: Bringing enough to share is a great way to make friends with the folks around you )

Moremiles: "When did it start to matter how much fare a customer paid for getting different service? So if we get seat sale fare... we deserve crappy treatment? Does it take a full fare to get FA's attention?"

I think that different service based upon how much you paid might have begun on the first vessel charging a fee, probably well over 2000 years ago, and has been consistently applied ever since. You should never get "crappy service" but I think the expectations far exceed the amount paid in most cases. You don't get the same level of service in coach as first and the environment that employees work in directly relates to the level of customer service they provide. If you are nice and reasonable so will 96.8% of the peole you deal with.

I am very happy with the return for the money spent.

No one is getting the point. Yes, they are poorly paid. Yes, they deal with jerks. But...

Their pay has not gone down, but the service has.

As to their pay, they have chosen their job, and as I recall, they probably knew what the pay was.

And, to my point, based on what they did just a few years ago, they are doing considerably less work now, and with a whole lot of attitude thrown in.

Sorry to be a "killjoy", but these folks are required to do a lot less, hence the point of the posting.

What we have here is some tension between FAs and passengers. What we need is a basis of comparison otherwise both sides are just complaining senselessly.

If you have ever flown an Asian carrier today or an American carrier 5 years ago, you will remember how today's service was different then. Several us were debating why American carriers are great for customer service but lousy in cabin service or provide wide swings in attentiveness. If airlines provided a superior product in the air, you wouldn't have to answer letters from irate customers. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Overall, I think service is simply fair in the air, however, if you request anything out of the ordinary, you receive an outright expression of bothering them. I have found that the FAs are busy and if you ask them for another glass of water or anything else equally normal, you will get the signature sarcastic eyes rolling or an exaggerated sigh. I don't believe my requests are demanding much nor do I make demands for that matter. I also fail to understand the let's clean up all the meal service quickly so we can go and hide in the galley and complain about passenger in 15D who wants another Sprite. It is okay to go back into the cabin, no one is going to bite.

Secondly, FAs may treat passengers differently according to their fare paid. I have been openly passed over for meal selection because I was upgrading using miles. The idea management should distill in FAs is to provide equal service amongs its passengers. I also remember when FAs in F would pronounce your name before meal taking.

I respect the FA position considering all of the training involved. In Europe, it is a professional position. In the US, it appears to be less so as you have younger people enter and you can even work part-time!

Advice-
FAs- Be pleasant and polite and the world will respond in kind.
Passengers- Ditto!



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"Fly me to the moon and let me earn alot of miles."

drtravels,

I think the comment about the service received vs. fare paid was not complaining about the different levels of service between first and coach. The issue is that once you are seated in first, the level of service should be the same, regardless of whether you paid full fare, got an upgrade, are using a free award ticket, or bought a discount premium ticket from the airline during a fare sale. Some airlines are notorious for providing different levels of service to passengers in the same premium cabin based on the fare they paid. Others don't even list this information on the passenger manifest, making it impossible for the flight attendants to do this, even sub-consciously.