MarcoPolosFootprints

JJLA35

Speaking of window shades... I was in WBC LAX-HKG-LAX a few weeks ago in the wonderful 73-A on the upper deck. As soon as the lunch/dinner service was done, the lead FA came through the cabin and lowered all the shades and said, "good night, see you all in Toyko." I thought she did a great job during the service but thought that closing all the shades was a bit strange. And i never saw her again until the breakfast meal was served before landing. I guess she was on a looooong break.

MarcoPolosFootprints

The purser or lead FA doesn't work upper deck.

sbagdon

That's plain wierd. I fly a lot of 9am flights north/south, and prefer windows, so I end up on the sun-side more often then not. A few times I've seen the sun shining into other people's faces on the other side of the plane, and I lowered the shade enough to take it out of their eyes and/or book/laptop. The ones who recognize what I did usually give me a thankful nod.

Just when I think I'm a pita anti-social grump, I realize how low the bar has been set, and I can get away with so much...

Steve B.

nwacked

>>>>>>FAs putting up with pushy, egocentric, holier-than-thou travelers with a chip on their shoulder and an unreasonable sense of entitlement treating the tromped on staff like so much worthless apartheid hired help.

Not only that, I also have bad breath.

DCAflyer81

Why ? Are you condoning FA's disappearing for hours at a time? Think we need an explanation here...

yogimax

I think we are off-topic

macoz

How about in mid flight, cabin full of folks with a variety of shade conditions, and you are compelled to change only YOUR shade, and when you ask why, you are threatened with arrest?

I don't know if it is a big deal or not...but it was certainly scary for me. It could've happened to me, or to you. Perhaps with me it will be my Bose headphones, or my 'evil' looks, or that I am improperly probing their brain with my remote viewing powers.

Of course, the 'official' report will be that I threatened the crew or compromised the aircraft safety. We operate on the premise that FA won't simply lie about us for personal vindictive reasons. There is goodness in humanity and professionalism in the employee. For the overwhelming majority of the time, this works. But what about that 1 in 1000 FA with mental illness?

Where are the checks and balances? Or, is the victim in this case just collateral damage...part of the program. It happens, it will continue to happen, and it's just an acceptable mathematical cost of doing business.

The scary part is wondering that if this happens to me, will I be railroaded into a guilty verdict, with no recourse, no appeal, no one checking facts...forced to miss my flight, or be locked in the box for a day?

Maybe so? The fix? Cross my fingers.

All that said, I have only seen something like this once.

My rough estimate of my FA experiences:
2% - are in immense love with their job (or with life in general) and it shows (I TTU these)
18% - fun, effective, sense of humor, personable
72% - perform their job, which is fine
8% - have performance issues, vanish for hours without minimal water service in FC, sit and read magazines, or gossip (I recall one that had a little portable video game keeping them busy) for most of the flight (I also TTU these)
and
the one crazy window shade incident.

MikeMpls

That's a whole different matter than having them up at takeoff and landing.

florin

No, that's not what I meant. I don't expect wait staff to kiss up to me. In fact, too much service gets annoying. I expect to be served within a reasonable amount of time and to be checked on every once in a while - not by coming by every 5 minutes, but at least glance at the table every 10 mins or so to see if the cups/glasses/plates are empty or if I indicate that I need the waiter/waitress to come by for some reason. If the food or drink is late, come by and let me know (don't let 20 minutes go by). Be familiar with the menu and be able to answer some questions about the offerings. And get the order right. That's all I expect. Get that right and you get ~20% (in the US).
Europe has different standards (not better or worse, just DIFFERENT). The service is much slower as people are expected to enjoy their restaurant outing, which is often in excess of 2 hours, as opposed to a 20 minute eat-pay-leave pitstop. I went to a pricey restaurant ($150 for 2 ppl) in Hawai'i and the check was on my table an hour after I sat. I HATED that; I really wanted to sit, talk and just enjoy the experience. If I wanted drive-through service I would have gone to a fast-food place. Service in Europe is slower (because it's supposed to be!), but it's also less attentive. In most cases the tip is peanuts, which deprives me of the possibility to express "thank you for the good service" or "crappy service... don't spend it all in one place". Tips motivate the wait staff.

Oh, it's not THAT bad. If the cashier at a grocery store had a conversation with every person in line, it would take forever to get through. If FA's talked to every pax (especially with the NW minimum staffing levels) they'd never reach the back row.

About the FA's who abuse their power and screw pax over: in most professions one is not allowed to mistread clients/customers becase there are some self-entitled bad apples. If I treated my clients badly because 1 in 10 was unfair I would get fired. If a teacher treated all children badly because of a few bad ones, he/she would get fired. And so on.

RichMSN

The check on the table means nothing. I'll ignore it and stay as long as I want. It provides me the flexibility of ending the meal at any time and I actually appreciate that.

I don't mind s-l-o-w-e-r service. I do mind having an empty wine glass or an empty beer and a server not coming around for another 10 minutes or more. It happens all the time. I can wait for food, etc. It's the seeming lack of attention to detail that drives me crazy. And the inability to get anyone's attention quickly when I want it.

Personally, I have no problems with FAs. If I want something, I ring the call button. I have gotten dirty looks in the past, but I simply don't care. They may be there primarily for my safety, but they're also there to bring me a drink, too.

Especially in F, if I want a drink, I ask for it.

RichMSN

And one can immediately see the downside of union protection and giving airline crew almost unlimited and virtually unquestioned power on an airplane.

MarcoPolosFootprints

asnovici

Very true, sadly. I seriously feel helpless in case there comes a time when a FA would want to report me for something like window shades (or along those lines), and I would have to deal with authorities upon landing. There seems to be no recourse for the passengers. FA "are always right", and will back each other up.

OhSoBlessed

Right on. Somebody was bringing up this topic from another thread...