The Very Best Flight Attendants In Our Industry

[Flyboy4u]

And the letters keep coming!!!!

Mr. Tiliacos:

As a Washington D.C. flight attendant, and a former FSM, I am unable to let your recent letter pass without comment. Certainly, it is in the best interest of American Airlines and all employees to consider the publics opinion of our service. With that in mind, I find it unrealistic that these corporate accounts made not one positive statement concerning American Airlines. I also find it entirely in keeping with the Companys past employee relations practices that all the negative comments were cited in your letter and fashioned into a corporate hammer to seemingly beat us up and shape us up.

I would like to offer for your consideration, as well as that of Ms. Curtis and Mr. Arpey, some comments and questions:
My first question to you, Mr. Tiliacos, is this: Are YOU qualified to fly so that you have experienced what we experience on the line and in the air?
Your letter generally stated our attitude is poor. Mr. Tiliacos, when was the last time you experienced a 2 or 3 day trip, 3 to 4 legs/day, with a minimum layover of 8 hours and some change on one of those nights? Do you think that perhaps our smiles are a little less brilliant, our energy somewhat diminished on the day following such an abbreviated rest time? Did you submit that possibility to these corporate accounts and offer to them that American Airlines is able to extend to them reduced fares because AA is maximizing the use of our F/As to the point of dropping?
When was the last time you had a 14-hour duty day and absolutely ALL of your between-flight ground time was eaten up by ATC holds on the runways. The result is that the F/As virtually power-walk through the airport to their next flight and, in an effort to keep an ON TIME PERFORMANCE RECORD, they do not stop for food or drink. Additionally, when they reach the connecting gate, the agents literally board the waiting passengers on the heels of the F/As going down the jetbridge. Did you explain to them that the F/As concern for on-time departures does not allow room for their own nourishment or rest in a very long day?
When was the last time you worked a 2+ hour leg with only a glass of soda and an embarrassingly anemic bag of pretzels to offer the passengers and then experience the passengers verbal abuse of YOU because there is absolutely nothing else to offer them? Do you not feel that an explanation by way of stating we are unable to meet their request due to cost savings is entirely appropriate? How WOULD you suggest we respond?
Did you share with the corporate accounts the elevated verbal abuse the F/As experience, often by our CORPORATE clients ? (Please keep in mind that with the advent of electronic check-in, the flight attendants are more and more frequently the ONLY human contact passengers experience. Consequently, we are routinely the focal point of yet more venting and disrespect by the passengers.)
When was the last time you, Mr. Tiliacos, worked a 2.5+ hour leg on a FULL flight where the passengers collective disrespect and disregard for crewmember instructions was so prevalent that the captain, upon taxi-in, pulled over to the side of the taxi way.
Your letter stated these corporate clients have also suffered pay cuts and do not want to hear our laundry being aired. Yes, Mr. Tiliacos, it is agreed that many corporations have cut the pay of their employees. I have to wonder what percentage of those polled actually commented that F/As attempt to discuss this with THEM. Yes, our bitterness runs deep we were snookered, Mr. Tiliacos! The F/As were, once again, made the fall guys and told that WE (and WE ALONE) would drive the company into bankruptcy if we did not change our votes to accept the concessions. We all know the history of the Carty debacle, so I will not belabor it here. But, I must remind YOU, Mr. Tiliacos, the F/As 15.6% pay cut, revised work rules, loss of ALREADY EARNED and IN THE BANK vacation days, comprised a major portion of the cost savings. Perhaps the fact that many of us are flying over 100 hrs/month in order to compensate for the pay loss is a significant contributor to the loss of our bouncy step.
Your letter also commented that these corporate accounts are afraid of us. I, personally, find that ludicrous. However, I wonder if you reminded these corporate clients that the F/As are the FRONTLINE of defense. Did you remind them that the cockpit is behind a reinforced, locked door? Did you remind them that some cockpits are armed? Did you remind them that the FAMs jobs, when onboard, are solely to protect the cockpit? Did you remind them that the F/As are ever vigilant for any out-of-the-ordinary behaviour? Did you remind them that it was the F/As who quashed the shoe-bomber? Did you remind them of the bravery of the F/As on 9/11 calling in identifying information on their cell phones? Did you remind them that we are armed with only coffee pots, ice mallets and intuition? And, lastly, did you remind them that we DO NOT receive HAZARD PAY for this?

I have to wonder, Mr. Tiliacos, in light of your letter, if you, and/or whatever upper management was present at this meeting, "defended" the flight attendants of American Airlines to these corporate clients at all? Or did you simply walk away with this information implying to them that you would "shape us up"?

Personally, Mr. Tiliacos, I find your recent letter to be a scatological rag. It is truly reprehensible. Ms. Curtis has posted a form of apology for you on JetNet. While her ownership and "the buck stops here" philosophy as YOUR superior is appreciated, it falls far short of the personal apology that should be forthcoming from you.

 

[mweiss]

What I find interesting about that letter is how it starts out denying that the problem exists and then spends the remainder justifying the problem that supposedly doesn't exist and blaming that nonexistent problem on managment.

 

[L1011Ret]

Denial and rationalization are the best defenses.

 

[mweiss]

They work much better separately than together, though.

 

[CHQDRVR]

After spending several years lurking here, this post has finally drawn me in to replying. I spent 3 years as an AA F/A while working on my pilot certificates, and resigned in May 2001 to pursue my flying career (great timing, huh?). As such I still have several friends working in flight-service at AA. Believe it or not, I loved my time at AA. It sickens me to keep in touch with my friends and here some of the things y'all go through. By and by I have a much better QOL at a regional carrier then what you have on the line at AA, and I hate to see that. All that having been said, I've got the following observations:

1) The conditions described by the OP do really exist, at ALL of the carriers (including, occassionally, WN). I have the opportunity to fly AA quite a bit, and the comments and attitudes described are seldom the norm. But they do happen, and really one time is too many.

2) I really like the posts by Dea Certe and AAStew. All the hardships and BS the F/As have to put up with really do exist; but the attitude with which they are dealt makes all the difference. It is never an individual customer's fault that AA no longer carries milk, or feeds anyone in coach, or has reduced everyone to 8 hour layovers.

3) See above. For those of you who responded by saying, in effect, "tough sh!t if the passengers don't like it, my life sucks and it's all AA's fault".... again, that may be true. It's still not the individual passenger's fault. As I've grown older I've lost pretty much all tolerance for that attitude. It's over-simplistic to say "leave if you don't like it"... but everyone knows the work conditions when they come to work and put on the uniform. It is still up to YOU to be the professional... if you feel you can't do that due to the new working conditions, there really are alternatives . And you have hundreds of furloughed co-workers, (including the ex-TWA people) who would love to be able to come back to work and put up with the crappy conditions.

Lastly, good luck to everyone still at AA. Not only do I have many friends still there, it's still a dream of mine to be in an AA cockpit someday. I wish you all the best in making AA once again "Something Special in the Air".

 

[AACREWMEMBER]

3) For those of you who responded by saying, in effect, "tough sh!t if the passengers don't like it, my life sucks and it's all AA's fault".... again, that may be true. It's still not the individual passenger's fault. As I've grown older I've lost pretty much all tolerance for that attitude. It's over-simplistic to say "leave if you don't like it"... but everyone knows the work conditions when they come to work and put on the uniform. It is still up to YOU to be the professional... if you feel you can't do that due to the new working conditions, there really are alternatives . And you have hundreds of furloughed co-workers, (including the ex-TWA people) who would love to be able to come back to work and put up with the crappy conditions.

AMEN!

Well said.

 

[FlyzAlot]

AAStew and Lauri and Tilacos are seeing the trees! Hooray!

Jetison the past and it won't act as 'drag' on your fuselage.........

Accept the change from negative to positive thinking and it will act as lift in your entire airline.

Open your smile and your eyes will see the bright future you can individually help craft for your company.

I'm flying next week from DFW to MIA and looking to see if any of the FAs have gotten this new spirit.....I hope I can report back to this forum, a very positive experience.

Best wishes, positive energy and light to you all.....sincerely!

 

[AAStew]

This place is a forum. An anonymous one at that. I think and maybe I am just naive, people come here to vent when they have no where else. Hence all the negativity.
I want American Airlines to make it though. Tiliacos was right in that for alot of passengers we are the only human contact most passengers will have nowadays. I can't do anything about the prices, the food or lack of, but my attitude towards them I am in total control of! I don't ever want to hear again from a neighbor that the JetBlue flight attendants are always pleasant as opposed to us! I can't imagine doing anything else for a living. Even though there are alot of things I could make alot more money at, I enjoy the wandering spirit our job offers.
Yes it sucks at times but come on FA's out there, there is a reason why you have stayed, and I can't imagine it would be money!!

 

[L1011Ret]

How refreshing, someone who can take responsibility for their own attitudes towards others no matter what is happening with labor contracts, AA, APFA or the industry. You are right, a lot of posters just externalize their misery on these boards. They chose to be miserable because they haven't yet figured out that they are in control of their attitudes. They blame everyone else.

 

[TWAnr]

Compare this letter to John Ward's meek response:

TO: John M. Tiliacos, NE Regional Manager Flight Service

FROM: Tommie Hutto-Blake, LGA Flight Attendant

RE: March 30, 2004 Tiliacos letter to BOS/JFK/LGA/EWR/DCA Flight Attendants

We have never met and I wonder how many of the above flight attendants you have met personally. You are new to our department and yet in your above referenced letter I feel that you have managed to insult most of your work force. In my 30 plus years with AA I have never been so stunned by the approach you have chosen to take in this said communication.

It is ironic that the three bases that fall under your jurisdiction
(BOS/DCA/NY) were the hardest hit flight attendant bases when the downward spiral of our company began in the fall of 2001. Foremost, I suspect there was not one flight attendant at these bases that did not personally know one of our fallen colleagues on either September
11 or November 12, 2001. Simply put we are still in mourning for both our lost colleagues and the loss of a work environment that has been changed forever.

We, as a collective workforce, were further personally hit this time last year with the deep cuts to our wages, benefits and workrules. We are working more days, longer hours, with reduced rest and staff, carrying our own food around the globe, with significant wage and benefits reductions. We, as normal human beings, are both exhausted and frustrated by these changes. The flight attendants believe (and you can correct me if you can point to one example other than those AA workers who have been furloughed) that no work group has been hit with more significant changes.

At the same time we see the media reports that our senior management is still holding on to their golden parachutes no matter what the outcome of our company. If AA goes belly up or is purchased by another corporation, senior management will still reap huge lump sum benefit packages, currently protected in trust accounts. In past months, we have watched as some of these senior managers made their exit from this unsteady vessel called AA taking these lump sum "rewards" with them.

I am making no excuses, but if there is some cause and effect resulting from all of this rather recent history - it is management who should be focused foremost on how do we regain our employee's loyalty? This company of ours needs a real employee incentive plan BEFORE management and labor can focus together on customer loyalty.

In my opinion the flight attendant's "spirit" has been broken. Communications such as yours only further exacerbate an already difficult working relationship. The question remains how to "re- spark" a group with lost wages and benefits, working more hours, with far less available tools, and new responsibilities added almost daily?

Currently, it is our perception that senior management is not leading this company by example. It is labor on the front line of our product and we do want to be a part of the fix. Our careers and livelihoods depend on a solvent company. We do NOT want to personally experience what happened at Eastern Airlines, when labor became so disillusioned in the leadership of their company that huge numbers walked off the property for good.

To have such a communication as yours reach the front line of your army in the midst of our shared challenge is very unsettling to say the least. In one person's opinion, before management can blame the "worker bees" on losing the customer base, management must make certain the employees have the tools we need to do our jobs. I believe our company is in need of leaders who will listen to the employees. Thousands of flight attendants have taken the time to give specific examples of needed changes that could be instituted without hurting our product.

Instead, some "statistical wizard" from the GO allows overbookings on our flights and undercuts our catering by a magic percentage in a premium cabin. How do you expect the employees to explain some of these decisions to our customers?

It is my suggestion that you choose to again communicate with the flight attendants in your region, and not just with an update of your title. A question that I would like answered in any future communication regarding these focus group sessions would be was there a flight attendant voice representing our position with these representatives from corporate accounts?

To me it seems that you have painted the flight attendants you represent with one broad stroke, in one unsightly color. We are a very diverse workgroup with many talents and skills. We serve a hugely diverse population of passengers who go through quite an ordeal to just board one of our aircraft. Once the customer is on board many times what they see is a rather worn cabin, with broken equipment, an understaffed and under catered crew with far less overall amenities available than what they remember from their last AA flight.

And yet, most times it is the flight attendants that make these customers of ours feel welcome and safe in an unfamiliar environment. I do agree with you that this company is in crisis and we need a plan that will engage the employees to be a part of the solution not a part of the problem. If this overall plan is not disclosed to the AA employees soon, I am concerned about all of our futures.

What your communication has brought home to many of us is that the approach we take in our communications with each other is very important. Relationship building and trust is needed between labor and management before a "turn around" can be accomplished. I urge you and those other members of management reading the flight attendant responses to your March 30 memo to be a part of designing a better working relationship with the employees who are most often the "face of American Airlines."

cc: JBFourie, HFried, LCurtis, GArpey, APFA

 

[L1011Ret]

Unfortunately, the AA F/As were bashed rather severely today in the New York Times business section. I quote, "As a general rule their F/As are arrogant, unfriendly and appear to be bothered when asked to provide a basic level of service" and "However, over the past several years I have noticed that the more senior AA F/As rather than demonstrating maturity and experience, are seemingly bored with their jobs, surly with passengers and studiously unresponsive. While those problems are not limited to AA, at AA they are epidemic." The article continues on, "Like most experienced business travelers, I am enormously sympathetic to F/As, and I think most of them do a first rate job under what many of us would regard as intolerable conditions. But the passenger sentiments above are an accurate representation of most of the responses from fliers to last week's column. Mr. Tilicaos's memo, clumsy as it may have been in execution, made a valid point, many readers suggested."

Whatever the real evidence may be, this must be worisome for AA and certainly for those AA F/As who take pride in their work along with being accountable and responsible.

 

[nyc6035]

I hesitate to write this...but this is how I truly feel. I no longer like flying AA. I feel & my family has felt as if we were 'suspected criminals' while on board many AA flights. (To be clear it isn't as if we were treated differently than other passengers on flights...it was the pervasive atmosphere on board). I've been on a number of long hall segments (JFK-LHR; JFK-West Coast, etc.) over the last 2.5 years where the 'security tension' in the cabin made us feel very uncomfortable.

What I find most troubling is the use of the 'security card' as a default for being 'controling' in the cabin. I've been on flights where Captains have come on the PA and announced 'more or less' that everyone better 'behave' or he'll do what he has to do to protect his crew and his plane. This is followed (fairly inevitably) by stern announcements from the Purser about no movement between cabins; no congretating at the rest rooms (one at time...'almost' raise you hands for the hall pass'); and minimize your movements...and absolutely no getting up while the seat belt sign is fastened. This is followed by a transcon or transatlantic journey where the Captain 'decides' the air to too rough to turn the seat belt sign off at all...over a 6 to 8 hour flight (in clear skies). Have you ever asked a 4 year old to hold it for 6 hours. It can't be done. This is of course followed by the FA yelling at a mother and her daugther about security violations...well you get the point.

I will say without a doubt that the crews at AA have been through a lot in the last 2.5 years. It must take a lot to get up in the morning and get dressed and go to work knowing you could be a target. It appears for some crews it has become an all consuming obsession worrying about what might happen next.

I will say this...from a passengers perspective. I used to fly 100K miles a year. I've stopped flying unless it's absolutely necessary. Why? Quite simply because I don't want to be subjected to the hassle and 'angst' of crews that have become wardens on "Conair." It has taken a lot for the traveling public to become comfortable enough to 'trust' the process of flying again. I suppose, right or wrong, the flying public has chosen to 'forget' about that horrible day in order to 'get back on the horse' so to speak and fly again. Well often, when they travel on AA, they are immediately reminded of what the world has become because it's slapping them right in the face. I'm not sure the 'security experience' is as pronounced in flight on other carriers who weren't so directly effected.

I guess the crews at AA could pass this off as, well sorry this is the world we live in and that's the way it is. But on some level you're bringing the company (and by extension your financial well being) down by maintaining this 'posture' particularily if the competition isn't maintaning the same level of tension on board.


Although it wasn't specifically stated in the original letter regarding the corporate accounts...I strongly suspect (reading between the lines) that this is a major source of the angst that these travelers are frustrated with. Lack of meals, beverages, pillows, etc notwithstanding.

 

[WingNaPrayer]

From the New York Times:

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

Grilled Flight Attendant, Anyone?
By JOE SHARKEY

Published: April 27, 2004


L ast week's column, focusing on a memo from an American Airlines executive scolding flight attendants for poor service and bad attitudes, brought an outpouring of reaction from flight attendants and passengers. Here is a sampling.

On a recent American flight from Phoenix to New York, "actually there was very little contact with the flight attendants, the main reason being there is very little service on AA flights," Adela Oppenheim wrote. The meal service consisted of a bag of pretzels, she wrote, adding: "Perhaps passenger discontent with the flight attendants has to do with poor amenities rather than the flight attendants themselves. And of course the measly meal service is chosen by the same corporate bigwigs who now feel free to attack the flight crews."

Catherine A. Simmons, a flight attendant for 34 years who works the once glamorous international flights for American, described the grind it has become.
"We gave up 33 1/3 percent of our vacation days, 27 percent of our salary, and all of our onboard meals, even on long-haul Asian flights, and much of our rest," she wrote. While flight attendants agreed to givebacks, American had to battle to stave off bankruptcy by cutting back on food and onboard service.

"My fellow professionals and I spend a good deal of our time in flight apologizing," Ms. Simmons wrote, sounding weary even in an e-mail message.

"I'm certain that I say, 'I'm really sorry, sir, but ' more frequently in one leg to Tokyo than most people say in a lifetime."

The ruckus involving 19,500 active American flight attendants began after 5,000 of them based in the Northeast got a memo from John M. Tiliacos, a regional managing director for the airline. The memo, which a large number of recipients considered insulting, quickly found its way onto InternalMemos.com, a Web site that publishes internal corporate memos that are sent to it by employees. The recommendations in the American memo included having flight attendants regard each encounter with a passenger as a "client meeting."

American defended the memo after the flight attendants reacted to it. The company said it wished to be "open" with its employees and that the memo was just feedback. Mr. Tiliacos said he based his memo on conversations with corporate travel managers who said they were considering switching airlines because of the attitudes of American's flight attendants.

Suffice it to say the flight attendants aren't mollified.

Jimmy McGovern, a flight attendant for 20 years on another major airline, had an interesting reaction: "Remember that heroic American Airline flight attendant who nearly had her thumb bitten off by her shoe-bombing client, Richard Reid? Did she get the nasty memo, too?"

But customers who sympathize with the flight attendants also made some points. "Until recently I traveled extensively on business using United, American and Delta," Vana Lyttle said. "Sadly, American indeed is the worst of the lot. My heart always went out to fight attendants who were so clearly unhappy. They had given their fair share, maybe even more."

"But I was tired, too," she added. "I was giving up my weekends and evenings to travel for my employers," who kept a "tight leash" on travel expenses. "And on top of it all, I had to spend hours and days on American Airlines being treated like a nuisance."

Similar sentiments came from Clyde Miller, a corporate security director who is a frequent flier on both American and Continental. Continental's flight attendants were "helpful, friendly and kept a positive attitude" during the airline industry's travails over the last few years, he said. But of American he said: "As a general rule, their flight attendants are arrogant, unfriendly and appear to be bothered when asked to provide a basic level of service."

James W. Montanari said: "For over 30 years I have been a loyal AA customer. However, over the past several years I have noticed that the more senior AA flight attendants, rather than demonstrating maturity and experience, are seemingly bored with their jobs, surly with passengers and studiously unresponsive. While those problems are not limited to AA, at AA they are epidemic."

Like most experienced business travelers, I am enormously sympathetic to flight attendants, and I think most of them do a first-rate job under what many of us would regard as intolerable conditions. But the passenger sentiments above are an accurate representation of most of the responses from fliers to last week's column. Mr. Tiliacos's memo, clumsy as it might have been in execution, made a valid point, many readers suggested.

Of course, these complaints about declining service come in an environment where air travel is increasingly a commodity, and the only thing that matters to huge numbers of passengers (and some corporate travel departments) is how to find the absolutely cheapest ticket anywhere, anytime. With major airlines losing billions and fare wars intensifying with the low-service, low-cost carriers, the present environment in domestic air travel is obviously not conducive to a flourishing of passenger service.

A reply from Jodi Hess, an American flight attendant for 12 years, said that "flight attendants at AA have a new slogan: If you can't afford the bus, fly us!" She added:

"They don't complain about JetBlue and Southwest and other Wal-Marts of the sky because there they expect no frills. On the larger carriers, passengers are still under the impression that they will get playing cards, magazines, peanuts, meals, and pretty stewardesses at their beck and call. Ain't gonna happen."

 

[woztwa]

After spending several years lurking here, this post has finally drawn me in to replying. I spent 3 years as an AA F/A while working on my pilot certificates, and resigned in May 2001 to pursue my flying career (great timing, huh?). As such I still have several friends working in flight-service at AA. Believe it or not, I loved my time at AA. It sickens me to keep in touch with my friends and here some of the things y'all go through. By and by I have a much better QOL at a regional carrier then what you have on the line at AA, and I hate to see that. All that having been said, I've got the following observations:

1) The conditions described by the OP do really exist, at ALL of the carriers (including, occassionally, WN). I have the opportunity to fly AA quite a bit, and the comments and attitudes described are seldom the norm. But they do happen, and really one time is too many.

2) I really like the posts by Dea Certe and AAStew. All the hardships and BS the F/As have to put up with really do exist; but the attitude with which they are dealt makes all the difference. It is never an individual customer's fault that AA no longer carries milk, or feeds anyone in coach, or has reduced everyone to 8 hour layovers.

3) See above. For those of you who responded by saying, in effect, "tough sh!t if the passengers don't like it, my life sucks and it's all AA's fault".... again, that may be true. It's still not the individual passenger's fault. As I've grown older I've lost pretty much all tolerance for that attitude. It's over-simplistic to say "leave if you don't like it"... but everyone knows the work conditions when they come to work and put on the uniform. It is still up to YOU to be the professional... if you feel you can't do that due to the new working conditions, there really are alternatives . And you have hundreds of furloughed co-workers, (including the ex-TWA people) who would love to be able to come back to work and put up with the crappy conditions.

Lastly, good luck to everyone still at AA. Not only do I have many friends still there, it's still a dream of mine to be in an AA cockpit someday. I wish you all the best in making AA once again "Something Special in the Air".

WRONG!!!!!!!-TWA "PEOPLE" don't want to come back to those "crappy" conditions.
We are not "begging" to come back to this ####t. Ya'all have at it. We told you so....... <_<

 

[AAquila]

There's growing evidence that this latest wave of passenger discontent will not go away anytime soon. Americans in general have grown impatient with the lack of service while at the same time wanting to pay even less for it. JBLU has a new niche, less service and less money for fares, that's what the customer wants, that what he/she gets. It's a simple business plan. Infact JBLU runs an ad where the F/A says something along the lines, the passenger wanted a blanket, and I gave him one. AA on the other hand wants to give the passengers the WORLD, then hands the passenger a bag a peanuts.

TWA or at least the logo, is still a valuable commodity that AA owns. It's time to separate the company into different services, because even in good times ahead, the passenger will continue to use the internet to search for the cheapest fare. The Genie is out of the bottle. AA is becoming it's own worse enemy. The time has come for AA to move to create a lighter version of herself, a mini me, sort of.

Give the passenger their peanuts on American and their caviar on Trans World.

Ted, Song, Jetblue and Southwest Air are here to stay, we just can't wish them away.