American Airlines flight attendants are crying foul over a senior vice president who complained about in-flight service. In fact, they accuse him of lying. But there are some inconsistencies in the story that I think we should consider.
Flight Attendants At American Airlines Are Angry At Brady Byrnes Again After In-Flight Service Complaint On DFW-DEN Flight
First, let’s take a look at this story, as first shared by aviation insider JonNYC. Below is a summary of what occurred as told by the union representing flight attendants at American Airlines. I’m quoting it verbatim because I think every detail matters, as I will discuss below.
Yesterday, we had Brady Byrnes, vice president of inflight service on our flight from DFW-DEN. He lied and reported us to the company that we did not do service on the flight.
Here’s the story. Prior to the flight, CAP informed us to remain seated for 15 mins due to turbulence and there’ll be light turbulence the entire flight. After CAP called us it was safe to get up, the crew made an announcement that they would not serve hot beverages but they would serve juices, mixers, and coke products etc etc and they started the light turbulence procedure onboard service. When the crew got to his row, Brady, who traveled with his family, asked for Coke Zero and cranberry for his children and he even asked the crew to pour cranberry for his daughters.
After the flight, he contacted the company saying that we did not do service. We all got emails at 4 am about it and the company needed an explanation to why. Is this the person who represents us and has our best interests?? From what I know and experienced, he lied about us and tried to get us in trouble when we SERVED him and his family. He was so nice to our faces and thanked us for our service. During the flight, we talked among ourselves that he seemed so nice. But boy, were we wrong.
https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1766243263780983282?s=20
Some thoughts:
- Brady Byrne is AA’s Senior Vice President of Inflight and Premium Guest Services
- Dallas (DFW) – Denver (DEN) is 641 miles, so there is no meal service onboard (i.e. the problem was not that a meal wasn’t served), but did the flight attendants neglect to offer the snack? (Snack basket in first class, biscoff cookie or pretzels in economy class)
- Did the captain turn the seatbelt light off?
- It is mentioned that “juices, mixers, and Coke products” were served, but what about alcohol?
- Are flight attendants upset Brady had the audacity to “even [ask] the crew to pour cranberry for his daughters”? That seems to me totally reasonable: the girls did not want the entire can so yes, a flight attendant pours them each a cup to reduce unnecessary waste
- What service did Byrne accuse the flight attendants of not doing?
- Did the complaint actually come from Bryne?
JonNYC further shares service guidelines for periods of expected mild turbulence and it does appear that the suspension of hot beverages was warranted:
But on a serious note: pic.twitter.com/dSv2qDYaKM
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) March 9, 2024
If the complaint did come from Bryne, what concerns me most is the allegation that he was nice to the flight attendants to their face and then reported them after the fact. Speaking generally, that is bad leadership. There is a time and place for correction, but you do not thank someone for their service when you are about to report them for bad service…
We don’t have Byrne’s side of the story and I’m not sure we ever will. Since I don’t know Byrne beyond the Gucci controversy, I cannot speak to his character, but it does seem odd that he would fabricate a story when there would have been a plane full of witnesses (if the issue was indeed about the beverage service).
All of this points to the sorry state of relations right now between flight attendants and management at American Airlines.
CONCLUSION
Flight attendants have accused an American Airlines SVP of lying about in-flight service on a flight from Dallas to Denver. I’m not sure we will have any follow-up here: it is an internal matter now. But I would love to hear Byrne’s side of the story or better yet, see the complaint that was sent “at 4:00 am” to flight attendants over this incident.
Poor service on AA … who’d have thought it. What a surprise.
@viapanam … poor management … who’d have thought it ? … what a surprise .
$17 per hour pleb not doing their job and acting like they’re the “victim” of poor management. SHOCKER
They wouldn’t have to act like you say if they were covered for injuries! FA safety comes first according to AA management! So if Captain says it’s not safe & they need to be safe until they hear from Captain again. My God, people can’t go without a drink? Shame on you!
Flight Attendants are not onboard to be a waitress. The FAA requires them only for Safety Reasons.
Get a clue !!
Ridiculous way to handle the situation, couldn’t he just email middle management so that they could investigate the matter by having a chat with the employees involved? It’s not rocket science.
@PM … +1 . Likely he pre-planned to boast and preen to his fellow managers that he Showed Them !
Poor flight attendants. They perform poorly and are held accountable for their actions. American needs to fly more testers so flight attendants know they are being watched and will be held accountable by people empowered to do something about it instead of passengers whose complaints are ignored.
Airline management gets us in this mess by signing contracts with unions that prevent airlines from hiring non union flight attendants. They will always be at the mercy of these flight attendant union extortionists until they man up and say no at contract time to those provisions. They could have thousands of wonderful young people in the pipeline from the middle of the country ready to serve for 5 year contracts with the contract stipulating no one will be resigned after 5 years and no one will be hired if ever a flight attendant previous. Having 30 year career grinches in the air doesn’t help us.
Exactly how is that poor service? They are following company policy by serving but discontinuing hot liquid services.
@David … +1 .
Yeah, from their side, it seems like they followed the correct protocol, continue serving, just not serving hot drinks.
@Aaron .,.. +1 .
Also, there are thousands upon thousands of amazing “senior” flight attendants. What an ignorant comment. Maybe if the company didn’t treat employees like sh!t, they wouldn’t treat customers the same way.
David Arnett, sounds good to me. Two way street. All people traveling on business need a secret follower at least 8-10 times a year to see how they are acting while representing their company. Also, at the age of 30 you should retire and stay home. You are too old to travel and do a good job anyway. Great idea David!
WOW I hope you’re not over 30. Because you should be home retired, your too old to do a job.
“They perform poorly and are held accountable”
Sounds like you’re using this as a springboard to launch into a favorite tirade. In this particular instance, how did the flight attendants provide poor service? Be specific, please.
@Phil how did the FA’S perform poorly? Everyone got a drink!
@David, you have no clue. If management would actually act like they cared for employees maybe employees would feel valued. Instead of acting them and treating them like slaves and not real people. Remember if you treat people like you like to be treated you’ll get more out of them.
@KW … +1 .
Found the Trumper. You must be in management, probably a REMF who shuffles paper.
In other words, “No one wants to work anymore.”, right?, you pompous corporate clown jackass .
Byrnes is a senior vice president. Who is he reporting “Bad service” to? The CEO? Byrnes should be coaching his employees to improve the poor service and morale.
I concur.
How are you supposed to coach service standards and improve morale when the company has done everything they can to lower and debase flight attendants on a daily basis? How can flight attendants provide standard service when the Captain in this instance asked them to remain seated until he advised it was safe to resume duties? The flight attendants followed procedure.
As for service in general, most flight attendants would agree that service standards have gone down, not because they don’t want to provide the service; sometimes the answer is, “with what?” Supplies are routinely out of stock, and even when reported, it can be weeks, months, or longer before the issue is corrected. Didn’t get your pre-ordered meal? How is that the fault of the flight attendants? The airline wants flight attendants to provide service, all while removing supplies, and the tools to do it. Why? Maybe listen to Robert Isom himself talk about record profits: “If I could do everything in dollars and cents, I would.” Airline management does not care about it’s employees, let alone it’s customers.
Speaking from experience, Mr. Byrnes is a master at the art of spin. If you call him out, he responds in talking points. If he doesn’t try to intimidate you himself, he sends Inflight management after you. The man spits at the feet of the flight attendants on a regular basis with hollow messages expressing gratitude, while at the same time fostering a hostile corporate culture. If you don’t ask, he will definitely remind you of his “humble beginnings” as a flight attendant to make it seem like he’s on level. He flew for six years before going into management – the guy wouldn’t know the job if it hit him in the forehead. You won’t ever hear him admit wrongdoing because that is not how he operates.
Final point, write about what you know, not what you can speculate off of one social media post. This is how you attract the haters and make flight attendants’ jobs that much more challenging.
@BaronSauerpuss … +1 .
Sure he doesn’t handle the disciplinary actions, he probably leaves that to the other management staff, as in the FAs direct managers. So likely, those are the people who would have been emailed.
” it is an internal matter now” Hmm. If a complaint is made of one’s work, the adult response should be to answer the accusation internally and work it out. Running to a outside party is not professional and a poor choice. Behavior like this will not improve contract negotiations.
@Maryland … Problem is managers will always back-up fellow managers . If the aggrieved employees take it out of the chain of command , for a fair resolution , I say good for them .
Alert it is unprofessional.
Thurs March 7. I am on AA1330 from DCA-PHL-PHX. I get tp PHL, the inbound flight is delayed “20 minutes” so we are delayed 20 minutes. I could have rerouted in DCA but it was “only 20 minutes.” In PHL, the delays rolls until it is a 3 hour delay. Apparently a mechanical and an aircraft swap but we had no way to tell. if they had shared that at check in in DCA, there were multiple re-route options. The damage is done. No information provide by AA.. No way to recover now.
Finally depart on a 5 hour trip. ONE beverage service the entire time. F/A were invisible for the majority of the flight. I arrived at my destination at 1:30 AM. 8:00 am meeting.
AA is a total disaster. While the delay was not the F/A’s responsibility, the lack of inflight service absolutely was on them. No sympathy for lazy F/A’s.
@RJB … why didn’t you go non-stop on AA from DCA to PHX ? Philly has a lot of bad actors and those sandwiches .
The procedure for flight attendants is to pour a drink unless the passenger request the can.
That is in correct. Main cabin service standard serve a full cab with a napkin and a cup. Ice upon request.
This kind of leadership helps to explain why everyone working for AA looks so annoyed.
I don’t believe the flight attendants. If you have flown American Airlines even once in the last 5 years, you know the truth. Team Brady.
Flight Attendants are not Waitresses.. the FAA requires them on board only for Safety.
Get a clue !!
First of all I agree the action by a senior manager left a lot to be desired. Extremely unprofessional way to have handled the situation by using his elevated God complex. As a store manager with some well learned /and earned people skills, this pretty well explains the culture within AA and why things like this are not working. He had an amazing opportunity to talk with these FA’s about what he experienced ON the aircraft, privately with them. Instead this God complex took over and he went behind their backs without enough information to “report” them. He could have made a huge dent in understanding what he obviously does not know about the job and actually listened to the FA’s – which it seems the company has no respect for doing. It’s never a good idea to think you know everything because you’ll always learn things if you listen instead of react. I had sales people under me who would trample each other to get a sale when I stepped in as store manager. It took nearly a year to change that culture but we did. You have to talk to people if you want better, not only of them but to have a cohesive team. If this is how AA does things it’s no wonder everyone is unhappy. It always starts at the top and if this story is true (even partially) they have a significant downhill slide going on!
@Hashi … +1 . Your excellent comment is ‘spot on’ . Management must be collegial ; the Army understands this .
The complaint should have mentioned specifically which drinks were denied by the crew to each witnessed event. There is a significant difference between one pax not getting their preferred drink and 100 pax being denied diverse cold beverages.
American airlines has never provided anything other than perfect service to anyone. The FAs work so hard they make Qatar look like Ryanair. That’s why AA not only dominates JFK and LAX, but has premium hubs in CLT, PHX, AND PHL. UA is adding illogical routes like EWR-RAK because they know they’re losing the premium battle. This exec is crazy. He should move to Atlanta and work for their local LCC.
While we obviously can’t know what really happened, based on company culture I’m inclined to believe the flight attendants. Not that many years ago American Airlines invested a huge sum of money and time into Elevating the Everyday Experience. Sadly, under Isom people – customers and employees alike – seem to be an inconvenience. AA must make enough money from cargo and credit cards that they just don’t care about flying passengers anymore and it shows. They treat their employees with disdain and it unfortunately trickles down at times. That said, many employees still show up and do their best. It sounds like the flight attendants followed procedures here. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were in fact reprimanded behind their backs for it afterwards by senior management. That sounds exactly like a normal day at work.
Are you sure theses FAs weren’t based from MIA? In the past, I have found them the most militant when it comes to lack of service.
As an example, several years back on MIA to MSY, the FA in coach sat on the armrest on the last row for the entire flight except for one brief moment. No “fasten seat belt sign”, no turbulence, no service, didn’t move for the entire one hour and 50 minute flight. Then an announce was made about AA credit cards and the FA in question could not do enough to assure all had an application with her initials on them pushing to have them completed and turned in before deplaning!!
“Speaking generally, that is bad leadership”
American has management, not leadership. They haven’t had leadership since the whole AmericaWest ULCC management crew took over and went to work to worsen pretty much everything good about AA.
I would FIRE HIM if I were his boss. They don’t need a low moral executive.
Brady Byrnes is right, glad someone internally is noticing. Ever since merger with US AIR, service and any customer care has steadily decreased. WN use to be the cattle car. Not any more! Very disappointing UA and DL have way more consistent care for their customers!
Businesses should be allowed to ban unions from their companies and fire people who try and organize them.
I was a flight attendant worked in an Airline in the Middle East At the start Airline did take care of the flight attendants very well. Then comes 911 as an excuse to say they need to cut down some allowances. Because the upper management was doing the stealing company money. But the inflight standard of service remained the same.strict safety standard. Compared to what we did in flight Service All of American Airline Staff does nothing. The only flight we served a preflight service to entire cabin Bahrain Dahran because the flight time duration is 10 minutes. Even that passengers get a glass of water or an orange juice or an apple juice.
In All the American Airlines DL AS AA all these Airlines even a 6 hour flight Passengers do not get more than one drink non alcoholic drink rest of the time FA spend time sitting at the back. It’s not their fault that is what the management told them to do.
They also don’t get paid till that aircraft door closes to push back.The management expect them to be at work on time. They expect them to bring their own food there are no restaurants on board the aircraft for them to buy food. First treat the worker nice then you can ask them to be nice to the customers. Don’t treat the employees like trash and expect them to be nice to passengers. You will say to staff we have bad operations due to whatever but you can’t go home at time you are off but never consider the staff meals they have to pay money and buy unhealthy expensive food at the airport
Why not treat the staff with a treat for staying for OT.
Management you are crap. You never come to face the guest when there is an issue.you stay sitting inside your little office and expect everything to be perfect? Sorry first do your job correctly as a Manager. Your job is to train the staff no complaint.
Brady is a notorious scum bag.
Us Flight attendants are onboard for safety.
If it is not safe to do the service is not safe to do the service and you all need to get a clue, shut up about it and comply.