airplanegod

I can attest to that. Skywest has some fantastic crews.

tyroner

My datapoint: LAN-(home airport)-ORD-LAN on Expressjet. Flight comes in at 32 minutes. Occasionally water. Otherwise nothing. They used to make an announcement that due to the short flight duration, there would be no beverage service but one could ask for one. I haven't heard that in a while though. It is a pretty short flight so it isn't a big issue for me. Given how unreliable this route is, usually I am just happy to be in the air on the way home.

craig66

Same experience as tyroner CID-ORD-CID. Flight time is usually 35 mins. Water or nothing, regardless of operator: Republic, SkyWest, ExpressJet, Trans States, or GoJet. Mainline UA managed to do a full beverage service, but those days are long gone.

Live4Upgrade

My experience is it totally depends on the FA. The later in the day the flight is, the more likely the FA will be lazy and come up with some excuse.

I was on ORD-SDF recently where FA refused to serve anything other than regular Coke, Sprite, and Water. I asked for Diet Coke and was refused. Then, I watched as FA stuffed her bag with no less than 5 cans of Diet Coke.

I tweated @United with flight number, etc and was told...."it's not policy" and record has been forwarded to UAEX for notation in FA's file.

My suggestion is to complain each and every time FA is lazy. The more complaining, the more likely the FA will get forced out.

BlackMountain

I flew this segment today, and agree. Water offered, "anything else on request." FA and the gate crew in Carlsbad were very nice. Totally appropriate service for a flight scheduled at 42 minutes gate to gate - and the FA confirmed that yes, she was fully catered if I wanted something besides water.

rduer

It is a matter of physics, in the US 45 mins is much shorter than 45mins anywhere else in the world. LHR > MAN Food and hot drinks on a 35 min flight.
DOH >BAH 20 mins drinks passed out before take off
I'm with you, if you can read Cosmo cover to cover you can probably serve drinks.

It's Me!

On Express Jet DBA United Express service guidelines are based on milage.

< 219 miles= No scheduled service
220- 399 = Full beverage service
400< = Full beverage service and snack shop.


Yes, the plane is always catered regardless of destination. One fight flight may fall under one service guide line and the next flight another. We don't always go back and forth between the same city.
Yes, I agree that service guidelines should apply to traveling employees as well.
No, the flight attendant not doing a service on a flight under 219 miles is not lazy. He/she is doing what they are supposed to do.
Yes, I agree that inconsistently is frustrating.
Yes, the milage is printed on our schedule.

I try really hard to be consistent. But then I'll run into a situation like this morning. I worked an EARLY flight and during my service only about 4 people were awake and got something. After a while people began waking up so I decided to take the cart out again and I served a lot more the second time. So if someone takes the exact flight with me a week from today and I don't have a bunch of sleepy passengers I probably won't take the cart out a second time and have most likely depleted my stock on the first run. Does this mean that next week I'm lazy or should I have never taken out the cart a second time today? Again, I agree that inconstancy is frustrating but sometimes I'm doing the best I can with the current situation.

Hopefully with the posting of the guidelines you will know better what to expect and can consider anything extra as a bonus.

restlessinRNO

You have been lucky. I fly UX RNO-SFO frequently on 50 seat CRJ. There is no scheduled beverage service. One morning I did ask for a coffee, but was told coffee pot was not on. I was offered a glass of water though.

BTW My last flight RNO-SFO cost $317, but no coffee.

BlackMountain

Very helpful, thanks. I think generally, the FAs on the 50 seat runs work very hard - they have to do everything with no help from gate to gate, the flights are short, and for those 220-300 mile segments, they have to work pretty fast to cater a full plane. All that said . . .

Late last week I went ORD-LEX (323 miles, just under an hour or so wheels up to wheels down) on Express Jet, on a 98% full flight. The FA insisted she only had time for water and Pepsi. Asked very politely for something other than water and Pepsi, and was flat out refused. No special circumstances like turbulence, the FA didn't bother with the cart, just ran a tray of filled water/Pepsi cups. There was a solid 15-20 minutes available in level flight and after running a tray through the cabin that involved studying something in the galley not visible to me from row 18.

I would say we get the guideline service you mention on this flight and others in the 220-350 range, about 80% of the time, just a gut feeling.

wanymayold

In order to provide a 2B friendly sky, FAs are currently encouraged to not provide beverage service with friendly excuses. Those FAs managed to help achieve the 2B goal will receive bonuses in the form of Diet Coke.

CMK10

I've flown almost every narrowbody aircraft there is between RDU and IAD and in my experience, the best chance I have at getting a drink is on an ERJ-145 or Q400. On mainline? Forget it. I seem to hear fewer excuses about short length on UAX though I guess YMMW.

goodeats21

Thanks for this great info. Really nice to have UA and UAX staff participate on FT. Know that we appreciate your insights here and your service on flights.

Just this weekend had another "over 220 mile flight" on ExpressJet with no service provided. Not even a water run.

Unfortunately, any complaints about it are just met with a generic "not always possible due to turbulence or other flight factors" from the (fake) 1K desk.

JerseyCityS

I fly EWR BUF several times a year on expressjet. 90% of the time it's full beverage with an ocassional lazy FA.

Out of boredom, I have timed a beverage service on the flight, and an enthusiatic FA has done a full 50 seats easily in 15 minutes. More than ample time to do it.

I ordered a cocktail once, and the young girl spend 5 minutes explaining how long it took to get the charges done, etc....on and on and on. I could have served the whole cabin myself while she tried to explain how she couldnt' use sell a drink. Ultimately she sold me a drink, finished the service, and sat for 15 minutes after before landing.

The only short flight on mainline I've flown in years is SFO LAX on a full 737-900 with a flight time of 55 minutes, and they served a full beverage service with no problems.