You Are Now Free To Move About (a little later at Southwest)

They should just do like AA and just have their FAs refuse to do service on most flights, stating the reasons as short flight time and bumpiness (even though that's not the case on most flights I've been on).

At least the FAs are smirking and bragging about it when they announce it.
 
ERfly said:
They should just do like AA and just have their FAs refuse to do service on most flights, stating the reasons as short flight time and bumpiness (even though that's not the case on most flights I've been on).

At least the FAs are smirking and bragging about it when they announce it.
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Southwest is already running this play.
 
On FAs, SWA vs other:

Is it easier and/or more efficient to push a drink cart down an aisle, or to use the drink carry tray like SWA does?
 
ERfly said:
They should just do like AA and just have their FAs refuse to do service on most flights, stating the reasons as short flight time and bumpiness (even though that's not the case on most flights I've been on).

At least the FAs are smirking and bragging about it when they announce it.
Click to expand...
Your ability to hold a grudge is impressive
 
ERfly said:
They should just do like AA and just have their FAs refuse to do service on most flights, stating the reasons as short flight time and bumpiness (even though that's not the case on most flights I've been on).

At least the FAs are smirking and bragging about it when they announce it.
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Hi, I'm roundout, nice to meet you

WILL YOU MAKE PA THAT ITS GONNA BE TOO BUMPY TO SERVE????
 
hah this reminds me of a leg I had a while back, on a bumpy day (one of those bumpy everywhere ones), and the CA had advised the lead/A that it would be bumpy but that they can do service if they were comfortable. We get part way down the road, and they call us up, asking when its getting better (it probably isn't). They call again shortly, and now they say they are not in agreement about being comfortable doing service and asked whether they should do it or not. I dunno. I'm not an experienced CA (or even a CA), so I'd defer the judgement to others. But my feeling was that they have their own crew management structure, and I'm gonna delegate the authority for that decision to the lead FA. I don't know what the F they are working with, or what any of it entails. If they can't agree, that sounds like an issue with the A. But in this scenario, it was as if they couldn't solve their problem unless they got a direct order from the CA to do service, or some promise that the ride would get batter (hah). Who in the world, in the flight deck with a lap belt on sipping coffee, would make that order? I'm probably way off base here, but it just really didn't seem like our lane. Granted I've never really seen anything of that nature happen again, before or since.
 
///AMG said:
hah this reminds me of a leg I had a while back, on a bumpy day (one of those bumpy everywhere ones), and the CA had advised the lead/A that it would be bumpy but that they can do service if they were comfortable. We get part way down the road, and they call us up, asking when its getting better (it probably isn't). They call again shortly, and now they say they are not in agreement about being comfortable doing service and asked whether they should do it or not. I dunno. I'm not an experienced CA (or even a CA), so I'd defer the judgement to others. But my feeling was that they have their own crew management structure, and I'm gonna delegate the authority for that decision to the lead FA. I don't know what the F they are working with, or what any of it entails. If they can't agree, that sounds like an issue with the A. But in this scenario, it was as if they couldn't solve their problem unless they got a direct order from the CA to do service, or some promise that the ride would get batter (hah). Who in the world, in the flight deck with a lap belt on sipping coffee, would make that order? I'm probably way off base here, but it just really didn't seem like our lane. Granted I've never really seen anything of that nature happen again, before or since.
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Do you even Net Promoter Score bro?
 
ERfly said:
They should just do like AA and just have their FAs refuse to do service on most flights, stating the reasons as short flight time and bumpiness (even though that's not the case on most flights I've been on).

At least the FAs are smirking and bragging about it when they announce it.
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SWA would probably have a more valid excuse. It’s insane that they’re still using “trays” to serve 143+ pax.

Side note, I sometimes read FA’s responses to pax in the comments of aviation stories online and while some responses are well thought out and factual, I’m surprised many haven’t been canned. Also makes it hard to fight the argument of foreign airline service being better.
 
///AMG said:
hah this reminds me of a leg I had a while back, on a bumpy day (one of those bumpy everywhere ones), and the CA had advised the lead/A that it would be bumpy but that they can do service if they were comfortable. We get part way down the road, and they call us up, asking when its getting better (it probably isn't). They call again shortly, and now they say they are not in agreement about being comfortable doing service and asked whether they should do it or not. I dunno. I'm not an experienced CA (or even a CA), so I'd defer the judgement to others. But my feeling was that they have their own crew management structure, and I'm gonna delegate the authority for that decision to the lead FA. I don't know what the F they are working with, or what any of it entails. If they can't agree, that sounds like an issue with the A. But in this scenario, it was as if they couldn't solve their problem unless they got a direct order from the CA to do service, or some promise that the ride would get batter (hah). Who in the world, in the flight deck with a lap belt on sipping coffee, would make that order? I'm probably way off base here, but it just really didn't seem like our lane. Granted I've never really seen anything of that nature happen again, before or since.
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This is kind of a problem at the Air Line too, although it's getting better. I'm never going to force a crew to do service both for liability and CRM reasons. My standard answer is "I don't see any reason not to, but use your best judgement". I did get passive aggressive once on a really egregious case. Going up was just a bit of light chop, and the lead FA told me on the ground that if she had known it was that bad they wouldn't have done service. It was a 2hr flight. I replied that it didn't seem that bad to me but they could expect the same thing going back. In cruise i hear on the intercom that she's telling the FAs to not do service. FO thought that was a bit excessive too. So I asked Center where there was a smooth ride and he said nothing really unless we went below 280. Since we had plenty of fuel we went all the way down, I made a PA, and turned the seat belt sign off. I heard the carts coming out after that.
 
We started something similar at UA a couple months ago. The recommendation is for us to give a “prepare the cabin for landing” announcement at 18 although it’s not required then.
 
ERfly said:
They should just do like AA and just have their FAs refuse to do service on most flights, stating the reasons as short flight time and bumpiness (even though that's not the case on most flights I've been on).

At least the FAs are smirking and bragging about it when they announce it.
Click to expand...

Was surprised going between LGA and DCA on AA that they didn’t do any service at all. Maybe cause it was mid afternoon ?
 
///AMG said:
hah this reminds me of a leg I had a while back, on a bumpy day (one of those bumpy everywhere ones), and the CA had advised the lead/A that it would be bumpy but that they can do service if they were comfortable. We get part way down the road, and they call us up, asking when its getting better (it probably isn't). They call again shortly, and now they say they are not in agreement about being comfortable doing service and asked whether they should do it or not. I dunno. I'm not an experienced CA (or even a CA), so I'd defer the judgement to others. But my feeling was that they have their own crew management structure, and I'm gonna delegate the authority for that decision to the lead FA. I don't know what the F they are working with, or what any of it entails. If they can't agree, that sounds like an issue with the A. But in this scenario, it was as if they couldn't solve their problem unless they got a direct order from the CA to do service, or some promise that the ride would get batter (hah). Who in the world, in the flight deck with a lap belt on sipping coffee, would make that order? I'm probably way off base here, but it just really didn't seem like our lane. Granted I've never really seen anything of that nature happen again, before or since.
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Yeah, youre on the right path here. No way are you going to say to serve if they are telling you they arent comfortable, even if it seems unjustified. I brief the expected ride conditions based off of real time data and forecast. Any sort of weather system that are enroute Ill give them a time until we reach that point. And I always say, "if at anytime it gets bumpy and beyond your comfort level, please sit down and give me a call and Ill see what we can do".
 
FlyinSol0 said:
Your ability to hold a grudge is impressive
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Never underestimate my passive aggressiveness!

But now that I buy tickets to fly anywhere, I willingly and gladly spend my dollars everywhere but AA when I can. I dread when I'm forced to deadhead on them. Since their tickets are crazy cheap these days, it makes it very hard to deviate.
 
luke3 said:
This is kind of a problem at the Air Line too, although it's getting better. I'm never going to force a crew to do service both for liability and CRM reasons. My standard answer is "I don't see any reason not to, but use your best judgement". I did get passive aggressive once on a really egregious case. Going up was just a bit of light chop, and the lead FA told me on the ground that if she had known it was that bad they wouldn't have done service. It was a 2hr flight. I replied that it didn't seem that bad to me but they could expect the same thing going back. In cruise i hear on the intercom that she's telling the FAs to not do service. FO thought that was a bit excessive too. So I asked Center where there was a smooth ride and he said nothing really unless we went below 280. Since we had plenty of fuel we went all the way down, I made a PA, and turned the seat belt sign off. I heard the carts coming out after that.
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Kingairer said:
Yeah, youre on the right path here. No way are you going to say to serve if they are telling you they arent comfortable, even if it seems unjustified. I brief the expected ride conditions based off of real time data and forecast. Any sort of weather system that are enroute Ill give them a time until we reach that point. And I always say, "if at anytime it gets bumpy and beyond your comfort level, please sit down and give me a call and Ill see what we can do".
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Yeah, this is exactly the scenario I'm speaking of. Glad other people with more experience think the same way. It really was more of an undertone in this example of trying to play mom against dad to get us to tell them *not* to do the service, and presumably make a PA to that effect. Maybe they were tired/whatever, but that definitely wasn't something we were going to serve them on a platter in intermittent light chop (read: severe for our delta friends)
 
As an FA that usually flies A, it can be such a balancing act. The company itself has gotten extremely risk adverse to any possibility of OJIs, apparently because industry wide, inflight has the highest rate, even compared to fleet service and tech ops. I think that’s why we’re not supposed to lift bags in most circumstances anymore, even though fleet service does it for a living and flights attendants are expected to lift heavy exits in an evacuation. Also, a lot of moderate seems to materialize out of nowhere. I’m fairly comfortable working in most light turbulence, but I can’t ask my colleagues to if they’re not comfortable with it, especially in the face of company guidance. I will say it drives me nuts when we have good reason to be seated (forecast weather enroute, etc) and have indeed been asked to stay seated by the flight deck, but nothing much materializes. Pax are so rude leaving the aircraft. It’s like, believe me I would have gladly pulled the cart out instead of sitting there staring at the bulkhead for an hour.
 
Also morale at inflight at my carrier seems very low for reasons I can’t fully define. Like mid-‘00s, UA post bankruptcy low. Maybe it’s just the grind of dealing with the public in the this era. I can only speculate without hard data.
 
scramjet said:
Also morale at inflight at my carrier seems very low for reasons I can’t fully define. Like mid-‘00s, UA post bankruptcy low. Maybe it’s just the grind of dealing with the public in the this era. I can only speculate without hard data.
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Are you a UA FA? Is it contract related maybe?
 
scramjet said:
As an FA that usually flies A, it can be such a balancing act. The company itself has gotten extremely risk adverse to any possibility of OJIs, apparently because industry wide, inflight has the highest rate, even compared to fleet service and tech ops. I think that’s why we’re not supposed to lift bags in most circumstances anymore, even though fleet service does it for a living and flights attendants are expected to lift heavy exits in an evacuation. Also, a lot of moderate seems to materialize out of nowhere. I’m fairly comfortable working in most light turbulence, but I can’t ask my colleagues to if they’re not comfortable with it, especially in the face of company guidance. I will say it drives me nuts when we have good reason to be seated (forecast weather enroute, etc) and have indeed been asked to stay seated by the flight deck, but nothing much materializes. Pax are so rude leaving the aircraft. It’s like, believe me I would have gladly pulled the cart out instead of sitting there staring at the bulkhead for an hour.
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I think the hardest part is that our little weather vision app isn't perfect by any means. It often predicts areas of pretty rough turbulence, but half the time it says nothing about areas where we do encounter at least some light continuous. I completely agree that none of you should be placed at risk of injury for any reason. But it's also pretty hard to say conclusively on a lot of days, that it's gonna be perfect or even good, for X amount of time. Our crystal ball is a lot blurrier than that. I get the impression with some FAs that they mistakenly believe that we know exactly when it will start, and when it will end, as if it were some waypoint on our flight plan. Which is totally not the case. On the other hand, it's also pretty hard to justify not offering service on a 5+ hr transcon (that's what my story was from) because there were a lot of pockets of turbulence forecast over the plains/upper midwest. However I also wouldn't be comfortable telling a crew that they *must* do the service if they aren't comfortable.
 
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