invisible

This is kids, how you can make <redacted by moderator> of yourself for the whole world to watch, even if you are CEO of multibillion and successful airline:


"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." (C)

Wilbur

Objectively, the statement that US airlines employ some flight attendants who are also grandmothers is not wrong.

However, the disdain in which this individual clearly holds grandmothers tells you all you need to know about his personal integrity.

invisible

I probably will be one of the last person defending UA and other US airlines based what they have done last decade - most of us here seen and experienced it - no point to go further, but my let me tell you that during my last UA flight on SJC-IAH on question why I was reseated I was told 'don't give me troubles unless you want get them'.

But what he said is NOT the way you should say the obvious and well known. Because you are making <redacted by moderator> of yourself.

If he instead says:
"- I think all of you have experienced outstanding service quality at Qatar Airlines. We put a lot of effort to train our staff and moreover - we have certain fitness requirement for them so they can be ready for any emergencies. If you look at our competition in US, you would agree that it is not the case with them'.

Nobody, I repeat - NOBODY would say a word.

RustyC

At the risk of moving the thread to /PR, I'd also point out that a certain POTUS has commented on Mar-a-Lago hostesses not being pretty enough and wanting the A team working if some foreign dignitary was coming to visit. Same mentality, really. I guess the businesses in Qatar have more "freedom" than the U.S. ones do to age-discriminate and "reassign" people out of planes at 30 or so because they're too cranky or slow or might put on weight. Political correctness is killing us! (or leading to grandmothers on flights!) MAGA!

wendyg

I personally greatly appreciate seeing older FAs. I figure they're more experienced, and should a crisis arise that will be a good thing.

wg

pharmawalk

I had a very refreshing conversation with a FA recently. Her opinion was that if the older FAs (gender neutral except most FAs are women) kept up a nice demeanor and weren't grouchy, continue flying. However, her (the FA's opinion) is once the FAs become jaded and crotchety, they should hang up their wings. I would tend to agree with her and i have experienced both.

enviroian

On the flip side I've seen US flight attendants that are huge and that have to waddle down the aisle (god forbid they have to do a service!) and barely fit down the aisle. Is that the type of person you want assisting in an evac?

Didn't think so.

That's not a good thing.

WorldLux

Age is no guarantee of experience. One could argue that a younger employee would be more familiar with the rules given that he only recently started working.

In any case, I judge F/As by the service they deliver, not by their age or looks.

AAB has done just that years ago and continues to do so in his rows with Airbus and the US3.

RustyC

Same here. Though in their defense I'd point out that the system they signed up for if they were in their 20's back in the 70s was different from what they ended up with. Pay has always been low and the lifestyle and benefits were important, but more germane to this is how the system they went into pegged an awful lot to seniority.

So they invest 20 years on less-desirable short routes for less pay and finally have gotten to the long-haul big time, and then the industry gets rocked, they get asked to take pay cut after pay cut through the aughts, pax are grumpy as flying gets much worse, and morale is low. Now that it's an oligopoly they may have gotten some of it back, but if so it was like 20 lost years.

The point being that if someone has 20+ years already invested in a system set up to reward seniority with plum positions or good retirement benefits or finally good pay, expecting people to just up and quit and have those irreplaceable invested years as a "sunk cost" just isn't realistic. I once worked in a large company that was once a "set for life" proposition and had a lot of structures tied to seniority. It hit rough patches starting in the late 90s and went through repeated downsizing rounds, crushing morale. But there were many risk-averse types with a full load of family obligations in their 50s or so who just wanted to hold on for retirement eligibility (or an early-retirement offer).

The older FAs are probably a lot like that...the cruise they'd signed up for turned into a "poop ship" 20-25 years in but they're too deeply invested in time and life energy given to the old system and just have to ride it to port. And any young ones see that and are FAR less loyal and more jaded. To them, a benefit promised after 10 years' service might as well be a con job.

Ayoob Latif

On my last flight from SFO to SEA a United flight attendant called me "son" and I am 58 years old. I am not sure how old was she but I am sure Grand Mother label will be appropriate on her. QA CEO was absolutely on the mark with his comments. Why everything has to go through a political correctness test before it is justified here? I wholeheartedly agree with his comments about airlines in US. Nothing but lousy service and mean attitudes.