Grade-A b**tch FA's at AA

[Dornier 335]

The F/A's at AA are angels when compared with their gate agents....

From a personal experience I must say this is true. There's a reason they are being nicknamed "Eva" ...

 

[satpak77]

1. It was paid ticket

2. I re-affirm that attitude towards paying customers is a poor way to represent the company

3. They were major b**tches

 

[Giggity]

Vote with your feet.

 

[CA1900]

Vote with your feet.

I do. Whenever possible, I'll trade in my AA tickets home and buy one on Alaska or Southwest.

 

[imacdog]

...another ditto

......coming from another person who can't read.

 

[B727FA]

The real problem is the flight attendant position was never meant to be a full time career, just a temporary job like being a waiter. Unfortunately the politically correct types demanded an end to weight/age/fitness/etc. requirements and so forth, and now I wish all those soft boiled legal brains the bad service they deserve on which ever particular flight they happen to embark.

Again...WHO CARES what the job "used" to be? Again, WHY do YOU care? Why do pilots INSIST on pointing that out all the freakin' time? What's your point? It doesn't matter what it USED to be...it's what it is NOW.

Sociologically speaking MOST early "careers" for women were intended to be "temporary" until they "found a man" and dropped out of the labor pool. Even women who were nurses, teachers, secretaries have transitioned their jobs into careers; so why not FA's, too? (There are some pretty heavy/old/out of shape/etc nurses, teachers, secretaries...and dare I say pilots!?!?!?) Move on...

It's not a problem that FA's are making a career out of it. The REAL problem is that people who have no reason to judge WHY a person CHOOSES to be an FA (for life) shoots off their uninformed traps.

Answer the question: WHY do you care that people make a career out of being an FA?

Next.

 

[B727FA]

Do the multiplication....

Irrelevant. $ for $ you get more work out of your FA staffing than you do your pilot staffing. Careful: I'm not quantifying value of the job; that's usually what pilots do to belittle FA's. The jobs are vastly different...I get that. I'm saying you get more workers for the money...there's a difference.

 

[B727FA]

It's a job that can be done with a GED and a weeks worth of training. They are basically qualified to be a "Merry Maid" outside of AA.

I've got to hand it too them.
Just dem facts'

Is your GED working for you?

I'll put my BA, MDiv and MA up against your education any day pal. It may only REQUIRE a HS degree but many carriers are requiring much more...and you know that. Don't be thick.

Why do I do this job with so much education? I WANT to. You shouldn't care.

 

[B727FA]

why do they need GEDs? That seems like overkill for a job that involves opening cans of soda. . .

Tell you what Raoul, when you drive one in I'll leave you get yourself out. And no, I won't open a can of soda to pour on the fire that's on your a$$.

 

[B727FA]

Notice also that my problem is with certain members of that group who provide documented crappy service, yet have been paid near the top of the industry for over a decade.

Agreed.

Note that I also stated pure fact regarding skills and qualifications and that I have total respect for Merry Maids and many other entry level jobs,

But apparently not career FA's. Qualifications aren't skills.

If you're making a point of the minimum qualifications, your point is true. But it is simply NOT true that MOST people who possess the minimum qualifications for a job have the skills to do the job.

Think of it this way: a pilot is required to have their tickets and a Class A --(and contrary to popular belief, a 4 year degree is NOT required to "be" a pilot...You don't even "need" a GED; I dare say lots of us got our private ticket before we graduated from HS.) They may possess the minimum qualifications; but they likely, with "just" that, don't have the skills required to be successful in their career. Same thing for FA's.

If we're going to take this to the level of QUALIFICATIONS/SKILLS then company REQUIREMENTS has to be worked into the mix, too.

Fair enough?

And again...WHY do pilots care so much about why FA's choose this as a career? SOMEONE, please answer the question.

 

[Flopgut]

1. It was paid ticket

2. I re-affirm that attitude towards paying customers is a poor way to represent the company

3. They were major b**tches

If there are two levels of service available, why don't you pony up some money for the higher service level? Or why don't you charter a jet? IMHO, first class on my airline is a darn fine product. And we do treat those customers better. They pay more.

The harshest critique we get in the airline business is from corporate guys riding around on tickets somebody else is paying for.

Fill out a comment card, will ya? At my airline [CAL] that card has to be answered by a VP if you're a Onepass member. We're really trying to clean house on our worst customer service FA offenders. (most are pretty good) But seems that it's more fun to whine on FI. Maybe you're more interested in going back to the days when customers were allowed to beat the crap out of airline employees? Frankly, that seems to be what customers miss the most these days. Sad.

What i'd like to see happen? (not that you've asked) I'd like to see airlines stop selling tickets to ALL fractional and corporate pilots. I'd like to see how cost effective those things are when you can't use an airline ticket to get the help moved around to fly it. It's not like the customers in the back of those things are going to stop traveling. I'd like to re-acquaint them with the airline.

 

[wrxpilot]

If there are two levels of service available, why don't you pony up some money for the higher service level? Or why don't you charter a jet? IMHO, first class on my airline is a darn fine product. And we do treat those customers better. They pay more.

You shouldn't have to buy a first class ticket to be treated with mutual respect. Just because I travel on coach DOES NOT mean I expect to be treated like crap. That is ridiculous.

The harshest critique we get in the airline business is from corporate guys riding around on tickets somebody else is paying for.

I highly doubt that. Most of us corporate guys understand that things happen, and we do know that most US airline employees are treated like crap. Honestly, I feel pretty bad for a lot of them and go out of my way to thank everybody on the way out (both cabin crew and pilots). More importantly, the number of us corp/frac pilots traveling on revenue tickets is nothing but a small fraction of the tickets sold. There's absolutely NO WAY we could be the ones doing most of the complaining. I'd say it's most likely the Orbitz crowd that is your biggest critic... They want champagne service for peanuts.

Fill out a comment card, will ya? At my airline [CAL] that card has to be answered by a VP if you're a Onepass member. We're really trying to clean house on our worst customer service FA offenders. (most are pretty good) But seems that it's more fun to whine on FI. Maybe you're more interested in going back to the days when customers were allowed to beat the crap out of airline employees? Frankly, that seems to be what customers miss the most these days. Sad.

Nobody here has suggested that have they?

What i'd like to see happen? (not that you've asked) I'd like to see airlines stop selling tickets to ALL fractional and corporate pilots. I'd like to see how cost effective those things are when you can't use an airline ticket to get the help moved around to fly it. It's not like the customers in the back of those things are going to stop traveling. I'd like to re-acquaint them with the airline.

Ah, yes that would certainly be a brilliant move. Stop selling tickets to some of your best paying customers - brilliant! When we travel, it's usually at the last minute and we pay whatever we gotta pay to be there. Trust me, your airline would MUCH rather have me than an Orbitz traveler.

Your bias is quite clear now... I bet I know where you stand on the subject of user fees as well.

 

[NEDude]

The airlines learned long ago that the exact opposite is true.

Which explains why the airlines are so "successful"...

 

[satpak77]

If there are two levels of service available, why don't you pony up some money for the higher service level? Or why don't you charter a jet? IMHO, first class on my airline is a darn fine product. And we do treat those customers better. They pay more.

The harshest critique we get in the airline business is from corporate guys riding around on tickets somebody else is paying for.

Fill out a comment card, will ya? At my airline [CAL] that card has to be answered by a VP if you're a Onepass member. We're really trying to clean house on our worst customer service FA offenders. (most are pretty good) But seems that it's more fun to whine on FI. Maybe you're more interested in going back to the days when customers were allowed to beat the crap out of airline employees? Frankly, that seems to be what customers miss the most these days. Sad.

What i'd like to see happen? (not that you've asked) I'd like to see airlines stop selling tickets to ALL fractional and corporate pilots. I'd like to see how cost effective those things are when you can't use an airline ticket to get the help moved around to fly it. It's not like the customers in the back of those things are going to stop traveling. I'd like to re-acquaint them with the airline.

another airline employee who doesn't "get it"

 

[NoJoy]

Just flew AA a few days ago, MD-80, DFW to MMMX. Superb, grade-A, b**tches as FA's on that flight.

WTF is wrong with your FA program. The pax are the reason the company is afloat, and the FA is the primary face of the company.

Were you in uniform? I find that sometimes when I am in uniform, the FAs think I am "jump seating" and treat me accordingly. They may not know that my ticket was paid for and sometimes costing over $500.00 one way. My first experience out of JFK on jetBlue was not the "blue berry merry" experience I was hoping for. I introduced myself to the first FA like I always do by saying hi and my first name. I did not get much of a responce back. I always let the FA know that I can help them out if they need someone, and thank them for the flight. Most of the time it is a good experience.
So far Southwest and Alaska are tops as far as customer service in the back.