It seems beyond implausible to me that any pilots would conspire with "lazy" flight attendant's to deny service to passengers.

Particularly when that conspiration would require the pilots to do (just slightly) more work themselves...

I mean anything is possible but if you take any random pairing of pilots and flight attendants what's in it for the pilot to make the FA's job "easier"? If FA's don't "want" to do a service (or feel that it's unwise or unsafe) they don't need the a PA from the front office to get them out of it and a customer sufficiently irritated by a lack of service is going to complain to customer care with our without the PA -- and customer care isn't going to do the research required to determine if a PA was in fact made and reach some different form letter in their "sorry, sometimes you can't drink, we'll try better next time" response.

(I will say most of my recent flying has been Express and flew my first "mainline only" itinerary in a while -- CLE-IAH-MSY-ORD-CLE and the FAs were more proactive and enthusiastic than I can recall in a while. MSY-ORD the snack basket was more like the endless snack basket and kept making rounds through the cabin with the FA excusing herself to "get more from the back" when it was starting to look thin...

More of a 'want' than a 'need' in most -if not all- cases.
Then again, pretty sure no one would actually starve to death nor die of thirst without being served food or drinks even on UA's longest flights.

The lack of a contract is not an excuse for poor service. If the FA doesn't want to work, don't. There are plenty of applicants vying for an open spot.

You're mixing up between DL and UA. ;)

It is not an excuse but, for some, it is a reason.

Yeah, why are DL FAs so much better than UA's? Are they getting paid more? I'm now logging about 100K miles on DL and 50K on UA per year, and the difference is stark. I also do about 10K on AA per year and it seems like their FAs are just as unmotivated as UA's.

Its not that DL fa’s are so much better, but they have been been treated better by mgmt & given multiple raises since Covid while all the other airline fa’s have been in dragged out negotiations for 3-6 yrs since their contracts have become ammendable.UA is making record profits with record load factors etc, buying back stock but dragging their feet while negotiating with fa’s.


EWR-BOS & most other super short flights being discussed here are usually staffed with the most jr fa’s who have been flying the least amount of time. The turnover rate is pretty high, esp in high cost cities like EWR, SFO,DCA.

The job & benefits isnt (what) it used to be.

Well, I certainly appreciate your perspective because I don't know anything about the collective bargaining situation at the airlines. I really don't like anything Kirby has done at UA and know that his primary consideration is cutting costs, thinking that he has a captive customer base. However, those of us who can easily shift our business have certainly noticed the "Kirby Kwality Kuts", and are taking our business elsewhere went it's convenient.

true & UA is making record profits with record load factors so SK doesnt have any motivation to pour money into improving the product & taking away from exec bonus’. Mechanics contract is coming up soon & cabin write ups are being defered at a much higher rate than usual.

I didn't say I needed it, I said it was awesome. At 5:30 am, yes it was nice to have a cup of coffee during the flight.

Sarah Nelson sent out a message to members this week predicting that getting a FA contract done soon is unlikely now, with the upcoming change in administration. Wonder how long this is going to drag out, and how this will (continue to?) impact service for some.

I thought UA FA contract negotiations were between UA management and the flight attendants. What difference should a "change in administration" of the country's government make?

Airline, and railroad, employee labor relations and negotiations are governed by the Railway Labor Act of 1926 (RLA). The RLA established a role for the government in those negotiations through the National Mediation Board (NMB). I believe that her point is that political trends in the government can affect what actions the NMB will take.

My, admittedly limited, understanding of the state of the negotiations is that there is a very large roadblock revolving around how schedules will be allocated. If that could be resolved, an agreement would be within reach. I don't want to go into more detail because my understanding is limited and it is sure to be more complex than what I know.

This. The fact that I'm no longer a UA hub captive has really allowed me to see how other airlines operate, and while the UA hard product is still competitive, the soft product just isn't as good - in part because of Kirby's continual focus on driving costs down. It has to be demoralizing for those many dedicated UA employees out there, and I feel bad for them.

I believe what Sarah Nelson was pointing out is that a strike will be basically off the table, and with that goes much of the union’s leverage in negotiations.