I fly mostly sUA planes, but probably 30% sCO. I've noticed that, pretty consistently, the sUA flight attendant(s) in F are up and busy -- opening the galley, serving, etc. -- usually at 6,000 feet or so and always at the 10,000 foot double chime.

sCO cabin crews tend to sit much longer, often until the seatbelt sign goes off at cruise altitude.

Anyone else notice this? I prefer the sUA practice, as I get a drink faster in F and the sUA flight attendants appear busier and professional (i.e., not chatting in the jump seats). It doesn't appear there is a safety issue with the sUA F/As up at lower altitude, but what do I know.

Is this a difference in training? Culture? Because the sUA flight attendants are accustomed to thinner staffing and needing to work a bit harder? Or am I just off base in my basic observation?

Mods - I tried to find a thread where this fit -- but didn't. If I missed something, please move this post where it belongs. Thank you.

Yes. I have noticed the same.
Also I've had many pmCO flight attendants who don't bring any drink before the meal. So paxs wait about an hour to get anything. I've even had the nuts provided on the meal tray.

That I have never had happen and would be very disappointed by that unless it was for safety reasons (turbulence or something that prevented the FA's from moving earlier).

I have not noticed this with sUA or sCO FA's as a group. Now that is not saying much since I am not the most observant person in the world. Individually I have very attentive FA's and very what appears to be lazy FA's. Very inconsistent service. Sometimes a Pre Departure Drink and sometime not.

Noticed this as well.

Flew sCO LAX-LAS (**wasn't a big deal**), but still we never got a beverage service because of this. Deplanning I said "thanks for the service" and the FAs all laughed and responded "what service?"

Concurrently sUA on the same route on a bigger plane (757 vs 737) got multiple refills.

Keep in mind, too, that the work rules between the two groups are significantly different.

CO FAs work longer hours than UA FAs. Maybe the CO FAs are exhausted and need the jumpseat time a bit more than their UA counterparts.

Noticed this yesterday MCO-ORD on a PMCO 737, we were delayed in boarding due to late inbound aircraft. The "hurried" boarding process meant that we did not get PDB at all.

They didn't get up to take drink orders until nearly at cruising, and took them alongside lunch orders. Still brought drinks out separately with nuts but I'd estimate we didn't have our first drink until being on board for nearly an hour and a half.

Contrast this to what was probably the BEST service I have had in domestic F, on the way down on a 757, where drinks and dinner orders were taken on the ground (and got a PDB) and served drinks almost immediately upon it being safe to do so. Served a double without asking. When I asked for seconds was also served a double. Decided to have "just one more" about 45 minutes prior to landing and was given not only one more but 3 for the road.

Lesson learned: if you want me to perceive your service as memorable, liquor me up! Well, but not too much or I might forget the whole thing.

If I remember correctly, most CO FAs work longer in the jumpseat to read magazines. I know its' really tired to read so much.
Remember that FAs' main job is safety. As long as they sit in the jumpseat to read magazines, they are safe.

Yes, experienced this as well, including the "everything" delivered in one swoop on the tray...drink, nuts, meal...and well into the flight.

And a pretty significant service degration, in my opinion.

True statement. I have personally stayed away from comparing CO and UA Flight Attendents but after my last three flights on PMCO planes, I have come to the conclusion that PMUA had much better training for attendents when it comes to CR. What bothered me most is soon as the service is complete the COFA hide behind the curtian in the gallley, never to be seen until trash pickup before landing.

Wow, a drink plus three for the road. I hope not literally!

OK, as much as I would like to agree, it really depends on the person. I've had a few fantastic CO crews who were up as soon as 10K feet. It also depends on weather, the Captain will inform the crew before the flight if they expect any kind of turbulence or chop. I'd rather have the crew be safe then serving me a drink quicker.

The best crews are WN. They are up as soon as the wheels leave the ground. I've seen a few crews out of DEN bounce around pretty badly. Flying out of DEN, they should really stay seated a bit longer.

Whereas I flew LAX-LAS on a PMUA 757 a couple of weeks back and FAs did full beverage service with glassware, and a couple of refills.

BOS-IAD 1/23 on PMCO 737 - very hurried drink run with no glassware, and a biscoff cookie. FAs conversed the rest of the time.

I think it will be very positive when the two work groups of F/As are merged and there can be some hands-on mentoring/cross-fertilization.

On a sCO flight a couple weeks ago, I actually asked a flight attendant about why the practice on sCO was to wait so long to start serving (cruise basically). I was trying to be neutral and adopt a "just curious" tone. Anyway, this flight attendant said it was a safety issue, and was aghast that on the sUA side the F/As were empowered to get up so much earlier (absent turbulence or word to the contrary from the flight deck, of course).

I've noticed this.

On an sCO 764 yesterday EWR-IAH, the FA didn't make the "you can now use electronics" announcement until about 15 minutes after leveling off at 32,000 ft cruise.
They only had 2 runners serving drinks to the 39 seat cabin, so the drink service took a while. The meal service didn't start until over an hour into the flight, maybe trying to push it closer to normal meal time (3p Eastern departure, 630p Central arrival).

As a big fan of former CO, I am very disapointed to see that the service in domestic F is much better on sUA flights than it is on sCO flights. I am now doing all I can to book my trips on flights whose numbers range from 200 to 999. All others have sCO crews. Someone should tell the FA on the CO side to let go. The merger has been consomated and the new UA looks a lot like the old CO, so why hold grudges? If anything, it should be the sUA people for whom the world have turned upside down, yet they continue to remain gracious.

An appeal to all sCO flight attendats -- where is the customer-friendly attitude we used to see during Bethune and Kellner? Can we have that back please? Thanks!

ADDENDUM: After writing this I noticed that UA no longer differentiates between sUA and sCO flights based on the numbers. See page 95 in this document:

http://www.united.com/CMS/UADocument.../timetable.pdf

So it has become very difficult to know the legacy career origin of the crew. No way to avoid the grumpy sCO crews now... :-(