why do flight attendants in North American carriers have such a bad attitude
 

Are they not being paid enough? Is management asleep at the switch, are passengers too afraid to fight back? It seems to be a common complaint among us airline passengers. I live in Asia so some of the things I read about us flight attendants puzzle me. The only European carrier that I have flown is aeroflot, I have flown on qantas but I was too young to remember what it was like, but the aeroflot's cabin crew was actually quite ok compared to China southern or Cathay pacific. I flew on Philippines airlines to Vancouver last year, and I am wondering if I should make a detour to Hong Kong just so I can fly air Canada and try it out, although I am unnerved by what I read so far about their flight crew, which leads me to wonder why na flight crews are so bad compared to asian carriers, and British airways and lufthansa.

Because the service industry operates on tips, but flight attendants don't get any?

I dunno *shrug*

Do Korean air, Eva air, or Lufthansa flight attendants get tips too? Shrugs back? [Inappropriate remarks deleted by Moderator.]

Mostly happens when they have to deal with adult children who can't shut up and sit still for a few hours.

Easy. The US seniority and union hiring system greatly penalizes long-time employees from switching to a job at another airline or quitting altogether. And it is fairly difficult to fire most surly but otherwise competent employees.

So you end up with a workforce that is much older on average than say the Asian carriers, who can terminate employees once they lose their youthful vigor and have a life outside of work.

^^

US unions would call that gender discrimination. But it is nonetheless a fact of life. Young, enthusiastic FAs on SQ, their grandmothers are FAs on UA.

It's not purely age. FA is not a great job. Lots of hassles handling jerk passengers, schedule changes, customer whining, etc. Those can wear on you after a few years. People who stay in this for more than a few years can easily develop an "attitude". And I can't say as I blame them.

I don't really blame them. Say you're two years from retirement and hate your job. No way are you going to give up non-rev benefits for the rest of your life. You're going to stay employed and just phone it in.

I think it's very similar with government jobs.

I don't think this is really worth complaining about. I'm a pretty active flyer and only once did I have a customer service issue so egregious that I felt compelled to make a big deal out of it. And it was just a gate agent who happened to be having a bad day and took it out on me. I think service shortfalls are much more prevalent in bars/restaurants rather than in the air.

edit- also, if the OP isn't based in the US and mostly sees US long haul flights, he's not really getting a random sample of crews. Those long flights are attractive for various reasons so typically only the most senior crew members get to work them.

Part of the surliness amongst older workers at legacy carriers stems from the fact that their employers have been through bankruptcy proceedings (more than once in some cases) that significantly reduced the benefits they were promised when they hired on and wiped out their retirement savings. This created bitterness between workers and management that bleeds over into how employees treat their customers.

It sounds as if the OP has never flown a US carrier and is basing his suppositions on FT rants.

OP, FTers like to complain. Much of it can be discounted.

I rarely run into bad FAs. If I do, I just ignore them, and it really is very infrequent. Most of the time they are pleasant and do their jobs efficiently.

Any ideas on how to fix this? Lufthansa and British airways also have their fa unions, and so do Korean air and Cathay pacific, maybe lccs do not have them.

To clarify, on my flight with aeroflot, the service can be called competent but reserved.

Aeroflot is an outlier of its own, though I've never flown with them. You really can't compare them with North American airlines.

Haven't flown a non-US air carrier, but I have always had decent if not excellent service from FA's here in the US. I do recommend everyone avoid flying UA though, apparently some of their FA's still think Continental exists.

My chief complaint on female flight attendants on US carriers is that they should tie their hair back neatly like all Asian and European attendants. After all, they do serve drinks and "food".

I'd think a hijab would be even better...;)