username

I had an interesting experience today...my flight had 3 trainees working the cabin. It was an A319 flight.

Since they are not yet qualified (and this flight was part of the FAA qualification), the "real" flight attendants were still on the flight and sat at the jumpseats during takeoff and landing. The 3 trainees sat in Y + an instructor also sat in Y+ during takeoff/landing.

Some of my thoughts and observations:

• You would think UA would pick a less busy travel day and less busy route to do this. 4 revenue seats taken. The flight was full. I had a U fare and was #5 on the upgrade list at departure. The standby list had 34 people on it!
• I was surprised at how unprepared they were. One would expect "fresh out of school", they would do the exactly the same things during the safety demo. The front and mid-cabin flight attendants did different things. I guess like many companies nowadays, OJT starts when they start flying for real Hopefully they are good with the really important emergency stuff
• The real FAs did not do much work. The one in F actually took the instructor's seat in Y most of the flight. The instructor spent a lot of time in F helping the trainee in F
• It is interesting that we take it for granted that FAs would be well flown. I think flying was relatively new to them. None seemed to be from the regional carriers
• They did not know the GS/1K free drink/meal thing. Maybe someone forgot to send that memo to the training school
• They were pretty slow bringing out the cart and going down the aisle. It was crazy to see how uncertain they were on where to park the cart and who does which rows. They basically did the meal/snack and drink carts down the aisle together - which is different from what they usually do (meal/snack is way ahead of the drink). Not sure if this is the SOP and other FAs just adjust to make things easier in practice?
• It seemed to me that it would have been good for them to do some "fly and observe" flights (maybe with an instructor) because how new and uncertain they seemed
• They were in middle seats in Y+. That meant the passengers on the aisle had to get up to let them in and out while the plane was still climbing / well into the descend with seatbelt sign on. It seems UA could have blocked aisle seats for them

Figure I share this

LaserSailor

The first time you do any job we all look like rank amateurs. Most of us get to work out our bugs invisibly, not under scrutiny of people looking for a free drink or flash their status

JOSECONLSCREW28

These are class 1606 sUA trainees who are doing their observation flights before graduating this coming Tuesday. Most of them are being sent to IAH & DCA with a couple getting EWR. Also with a planned hiring target of 4,000 FAs there will be trainees on various flights every week. Graduations will also be every week.

Xyzzy

Every FA was a trainee at sme point. There's no substitute for a real life situation. I think we should welcome these trainees to the Friendly________skies!

Baze

To the OP:

I don't understand what them being in revenue seats has to do with your position on the upgrade list and how many people were on the upgrade list, which is your first point.

And I think it is good to show them the busy days, that way they know what they are getting into instead of giving them a half empty flight and making it easy on them.

And how prepared were you for your job at the same stage?

And I have trainees sometimes and it is better that they do the work and I observe so I see nothing wrong with the "real" FA's not doing much work. You learn more with hands on than sitting back and watching.

I am Master Training Specialist qualified from when I was in the Navy so I do have a clue about how to effectively train people.

And students are slower, that is the nature of the beast. They will get faster with experience.

Everyone has to learn sometime. Nobody is perfect their first few times out.

MSPeconomist

Were they wearing FA uniforms? If not, what was the dress code for the trainees?

I'm asking because I've been on training flights with othere airlines that had far more than three trainees. The men wore dark jackets and ties and the women were isntructed to wear solid color pastel dresses.

username

Yes (as far as I could tell), only the badge was different.

username

I am sorry to have shared my observations. No need to attack me. Standby list had 34 people, not upgrade list. I was just trying to show it was a busy flight without disclosing the route.

JerseyCityS

''
Give them a break, my God. They're new. It's not going to be perfect Anybody new at anything is going to need some time to get efficient. I applaud them.

username

Again, I was not complaining about them but I do think UA put them out a little prematurely - like many of us are put in front of our customers without all the training and tools.

Just my observations and thoughts.

JAaronT

I once flew UX in F on a Q400 EWR-MYR with a trainee on board. Most attentive UX F service I've ever gotten. The "seasoned" FAs embarrassed the trainee over the PA a bit and asked for a round of applause for him when we landed. ^

JOSECONLSCREW28

Those trainees are graduating on the 22nd and have been in training since Feb 10th. There will be trainees on various flights thru the end of the year with graduations and New classes every week. Class 1605 just graduated this past Tuesday and class 1606 will graduate this upcoming Tuesday classes 1607, 1608, 1609, 1610 & 1611 are in the training center now with 1612 & 1613 starting the next 2 weeks . Classes will be every week thru the end of the year.

SFO 1K

JOSE, since this was a 319, these are sUA crew, right? Of the 4000 or so - how is the split between subsidiaries? I had a 789 between DEN-IAH recently and there was a relatively new FA with a really lovely personality, big smile, but very lost on the aircraft and struggled with taking meal and drink orders. Her crew-mates had to come and double check everything and update their manifest. Bless her, I think it was her first time on the 787.

JOSECONLSCREW28

Yes the A319 would've been sUA the 787 sCO. Like last year's classes most trainees are being hired on the sCO side with a few classes being sUA. Each class has over 100 trainees sCO class 1605 which graduated this past Tuesday had 105 trainees graduate.

1601 - 1605 sCO
1606 - 1613 sUA
1614 on up sCO

1613 was originally supposed to be sCO but was switched to sUA a couple weeks back.

EnvoyBoy

Had a trainee recently and it was a train wreck. It was his first flight as a full-fledged FA. At the end of the flight the cabin service director (so was sC0) gave out sky kits to offer compensation.

I was actually annoyed with the airline and the CSD and not the poor FA who looked absolutely terrified and it only got worse as FC pax got angry with him. It was immediately obvious to everyone this wasn't going well and the regular FA who was working the galley should have helped him out. When service was done in Y, someone from the back should have come to help him out. The crew just let him stumbled his way through the meal service with everything going in rapid decline.

I'm not sure your premium cabin out of a major hub (SFO) is where one should start, at least not unless the crew is overstaffed.

If you were a first time UA pax in FC that day, I can assure you that you'd never come back.

Poor kid.