FA Trainees On Flight
 

I did an FLL-IAH segment with UA on May 3rd. There were four FA trainees on board the 737 in addition to the normal crew. The trainees were allowed to perform many of the duties but had a seasoned FA looking over their shoulder giving tips. The trainees did not wear official FA uniforms....instead they had on normal business attire. They were all young ladies in their 20's and the whole aircraft gave them a round of applause at the end.

The whole experience was a lot of fun for the passengers, crew, and the trainees. I cannot remember the last time I saw an FA in on-board training on any US carrier....maybe 20-25 years ago. I did not realize UA was hiring new flight attendants.

I can't remember the last time I saw an FA in her 20s.

I was on a similar flight a couple of years ago. Several young trainees. Best service I ever had on a UA flight. I guess they hadn't yet been trained in the "United" way. :(

We had three trainees on board a flight from IAH to SJC on Thursday. Very nice and did a great job.

Two young males and a "slightly" older female. Definitely reduced the average age on board. They did many of the jobs on board but certain of the duties "had to be done" by the regular FA's. Opening and closing the main door was one of them. They took turns on the announcements and they sounded very good. They must practice that in training, too. The senior flight attendant was excellent as a coach/teacher, even making several announcements to let everyone know how well they were doing.

They got a round of applause at the end.

I've been flying SNA-IAH a ton the past three months and the trainees are always on my flights. The trainees do same day turns on flights that are long enough for meal service.

UA even makes them fly standby for training! Two weeks ago, I was talking to some trainees before boarding a Thursday afternoon SNA-IAH flight and they were worried they wouldn't make the flight because it's so full.

I'm always the youngest person in first class, so it's kind of awkward to have FA's even younger than I am serving me.

There are even some furloughed PMUA flight attendants that I've seen in these training classes as well. That was interesting seeing a 50+ year old trainee in group of peers all under age 25.

I've seen trainees on a couple of recent UAX flights.

I don't care about the age, so much as the service. Some of the best service around is provided by the more mature FAs.

The problem lies in those middle agers who are bitter. I think the new United has way too many of the old grumpy type.

The beauty of some of the "younger" airlines that aren't bound by some of the same US laws is that they'll actually fire a FA for providing poor service.

PMCO is hiring. PMUA is overstaffed and is offering an early-out package. So you will only see trainees on PMCO metal until the FA workforce is combined.

Hmmm, interesting. I've flown 1mm+ miles on PMCO and have never seen this. Is this a practice that was common to PMUA?

Hey, I'm all for it. More attention to detail is fine and some of the, ahem, not-so-20s FAs that have been flying the friendly skies for many years have lost their touch when it comes to the details.

You saw a "crossover" F/A. There are no UA F/As on involuntary furlough. But because PMUA is overstaffed, in addition to the early out, UA is offering a crossover program where PMUA F/As can go over to the PMCO side. They go through the PMCO initial training and then to the bottom of the CO seniority list at IAH/EWR/CLE until the F/A workforces merge.

If you mean trainees on flights, then yes. (Though I don't think it is unique to PMUA.)

haha firing a customer facing employee for being rude towards customers and holding employees accountable... now there's a novel concept.

I had FA Trainees on a flight last month. I can't remember if it was BOS-IAH or IAH-BOS. It was the first time I've ever encountered them on any flight/any airline. They were great.

Wow! Nuts! when was the last time that PMUA have seen anything like this?! Very cool

IAH-CLE
 

Had the pleasure of seeing five trainees on a IAH-CLE flight yesterday, in short it was delightful and provided some insight on training process.

Details -
I was sitting in 1B so I got good glimpse on two of the trainees that were helping first class pax and were trained by two FAs.

The most memorable thing to me was that it made the atmosphere lively and welcoming. It really reminded me of that flying is special, like those early PAM AM commercials (not that old but youtube.....)

The trainers assisted in showing the young trainees on how to take drink orders, serve meals, to watch for empty glasses and offer refills (by memory), and many other details including keeping a positive professional attitude (smile!).

Overall, I believe this an excellent method to gives the more senior (seniority not age) FA a 'refresher' on how to keep up with good customer service.^

:D That was my first thought too! Maybe it was "bring your (grand)daughter to work day?"

Cheers,
Adam