Its a cost equation too... how much do mini's or alcohol cost? Compare this to the cost of the Northern Bites... (hint they are sold nearly at cost)

Does AA offer a product as good as AS' Northern Bites? I have no idea.

PDX, sorry. Fat fingers. Too much salami.

Eggs Benny yesterday morning from pdx to phx

You can always order some yourself.

Just curious - a couple of years ago I was served Eggs Benny on an SEA-ATL flight. The meal consisted of a single English muffin half with some scrambled eggs and a bit of H sauce. Oh yeah, there was a small wedge of tomato and a sprinkling of parsley flakes. That was it.

Is the meal still this pathetic?

Last time they served that on my flight in F, it was exactly like you described.

AS 686 (PDX - ORD)

BBQ chicken salad with raspberry vinaigrette on the side and cheese on top. Honestly, this was bad and I expected much more on a 3.5 hour flight.

AS was able to save face with a warm, mixed nuts service on our descent.

Wish someone would have warned me not to put dressing on the BBQ chicken!

I originally posted this in the "discussion" thread. Guess I shouldn't be posting on FT after sitting in the sun drinking beer.

Anyway...

6/12 SAN-PDX 645a departure: some sort of egg thing. I didn't partake. The FA took forever to get the meals out (and F was only 3/4 full), but I attribute that to her being new. First time with a SAN based FA crew.

I must've missed something here...

Aren't Alaska's FA's trained - assumedly well and thoroughly trained to Alaska's service standards - before they're allowed to even work a flight? Assuming the above referenced FA had been trained in how to work the galley and serve drinks and meals, how then does serving a 3/4 full cabin even become problematic? Oh sure, perhaps something in the galley was malfunctioning. Were this the case however, communication should have come into play as in "I'm terribly sorry, folks, but we've got an oven problem in the galley and it'll be just a bit longer before the meals are served." The OP doesn't make any mention of such an update, so I'm left to assume the FA was just slow, perhaps because she was new.

I too have experienced slow service such as tusphotog mentions above - service slow enough that fellow passengers have also commented. How is it that most of Alaska's FAs do a fine job with a fully loaded 737-800 First Class cabin, but some don't? In the training process, is there like - a performance based test - to determine readiness? What kind of score is required to pass? Why is it some Alaska FAs who've assumedly been deemed "Good to go" by their instructors are too lazy to even serve a meal course by course on a transcon flight? Why is it that a service memo can go out some years ago directing that mixed nuts should now be served with drinks, and yet many flight attendants still don't do so? Inasmuch as lazy and/or inept FAs make Alaska's other FAs who do take pride in their work and service look bad, I should hope there'd be some real self-policing from their brethren, but then that would be confrontational and nobody likes to be like that.

Bottom line - Having logged over one million miles aboard Alaska Airlines, I've mostly encountered a lot of excellent FAs that do Alaska proud and contribute positively to its excellent service reputation. Unfortunately I've also encountered a few truly lazy and shiftless individuals who have no more business serving Alaska's best customers in its First Class cabins than they do shoveling manure on an Oklahoma ranch. How did they ever get through the comprehensive interview process designed to weed out such types? It's a shame these individuals can't quickly be sent back to whatever ranch they came from. Alaska Airlines, its many quality employees - and us - deserve better.

And if a newbie or any other FA can't serve a 3/4 full First Class cabin in a timely manner - assuming everything in the galley is fully functional - Alaska should at the very least ensure that they're not working by themselves.

If there was, I didn't hear it. It wasn't like she was sitting on the jumpseat reading a magazine. She was moving up front the whole time and she did get us watered pretty quickly.

One of the Y FAs came up to help get the meals out after a little bit, so that moved things along. I heard her giving some tips after we landed, so I'm sure she'll get her feet soon.

I read an interview with a flight attendant somewhere recently (probably linked from somewhere on FT, or maybe someone posted it on Facebook or a blog or something), but one comment that stood out to me was that, on American carriers at least, the senior FAs prefer to work the coach cabin as it's much less demanding and so usually bid that and leave the person with the lowest seniority up front.

That's an interesting contrast to the foreign carriers, which usually have a pay differential for working the F cabin, so on those carriers, the most senior crewmembers typically serve up front. Hmm...wonder why the service is often better on those airlines.

I hadn't noticed that- there's one senior gentleman I always notice in the F cabin, he bids for longhaul (I've seen him on MCO, EWR, and he's told me in chatting that those are his favorite routes), and his signature is mentioning that the highlight of the meal service is the mixed warm nuts...

I've talked to several AS FAs who say this. One of my favorites at PDX does this all the time.

This has been a long standing practice on U.S. carriers. I logged a lot of First Class miles back in the seventies when there was a greater emphasis on quality inflight service, both from the standpoint of providing it as well as expectations from passengers who actually PAID for the right to sit in First Class and expected good return on their investment. Just as a stewardess could be disciplined back then for not meeting weight standards, one could also be disciplined for not doing the job well. The crews who worked First Class back then – both young and veteran – were uniformly excellent.

My point with all this is that given the way First Class is marketed, there's really no excuse for any flight attendant - new or old - to not be able to provide an efficient and proper service in either cabin by the time they're finished with their training.

After all, even though the majority of people sitting up front on U.S. carriers are there via upgrade, they are generally comprised of the airline's best and most loyal customers who've earned that perk.

Corporate management has to be aware of the practice of senior FAs preferring to work in the main cabin, but I doubt they're overly concerned. These days the real emphasis is on making money and operating a safe flight, not service.

That said, as I was sitting in coach on a half full plane yesterday fanning myself due to the 85 degree heat in Fairbanks, an FA who'd noted my apparent discomfort took it upon herself to bring me a glass of ice water as we sat on the tarmac. Nice!

There's still plenty of good service out there on Alaska Airlines, which only tends to put a real glare on those few individuals who either haven't yet learned how to provide an efficient and proper service or can't be bothered.