Earlier I wrote about how American Airlines can be great again in part by offering more consistent and professional service onboard. Here’s a perfect example: flight attendants cannot barricade themselves in the galley after meal service. It’s time for a paradigm change.
American Airlines Flight Attendants Barricade Themselves In Galley After Meal Service? Not Acceptable
A passenger was flying from Salt Lake City (SLC) to Miami (MIA) in American Airlines First Class this week and shares the following experience:
I took the MIA – SLC flight last night and my wife and I were in 1A and 1B. Flight started well and service through the meal service was fine. For the last three hours of the flight the FAs literally barricaded themselves in the galley with the drink cart blocking any access to the bathroom unless asked to move it. Four people had to take their glasses to the front as the FAs did not come back after initially clearing the dinner. They offered water shortly before we started descending, but otherwise were talking to each other the entire flight.
This is beyond unacceptable. And yet this story is not unique…I’ve heard it over and over. I’ve even witnessed it personally.
Hey folks, I’m not talking about a 15-20 minute break after the meal service. I know it’s tough to be on your feet for hours at a time and no one is saying that flight attendants cannot rest here and there, even on shorter journeys.
But there’s a big difference between the flight attendants who frequently monitor the cabin and proactively offer drink refills throughout the flight and the flight attendants who literally barricade themselves away from passengers.
It’s little things like this that can (and must) change at AA if it ever hopes to be premium again.
How? It starts with communication. Frequent memos should not just tell flight attendants what not to do, but tell them what to do (i.e. check for empty glasses and refill requests every 15 minutes in first class). Annual safety training and new flight attendant training should include an entire day dedicated to service, not just an hour or two. From a warm welcome to addressing passengers by name to thanking them for flying American Airlines…these are such easy things that are so often neglected.
Change starts by laying out an alternate vision. While every flight attendant is not going to read every memo, if this protocol is communicated often enough through every possible medium, more and more will catch on…and I’m convinced that when flight attendants feel that management has a vision, they will work harder to deliver better service.
How else would United flight attendants (generally speaking) provide such excellent service when they still do not have a contract? At least the folks at United feel like the carrier is moving in the right direction…they recognize United is moving toward profitability and success. Delta achieved that long ago.
CONCLUSION
This is not a “pick on flight attendants” article. I think it’s fair to say that some barricade themselves in the galley because they do not know better. But it should not be that way…if AA ever hopes to be premium again, that must change immediately.
> Read More: Make American Airlines Great Again: A Five-Point Blueprint
Hey , the paid passengers Choose their airline , no ?
The headache or the dreamland is a result of the passenger’s choice , no.
He who pays the money can make the decision beforehand .
And that changes whether their behavior is acceptable, how?
Well , if the consumer buys a used car from “Joe Schmoe”, the consequences are on the customer .
Loser! Get a life and a real job , stop expecting extra service by paying with your miles probably earned by complaining like a little bitch you are mss LA … sick of peoples like you that make up stories did you talk to the crew ? Nope so please don’t comments on shit you don’t know !!
LOL. People like you are the problem at AA. Sad!
I came here for the FA comments and attacks. It’s precious. Thanks for not disappointing me, Del. That is in confirming exactly what Matthew is saying.
Get out of the galley Del, and do your fkn job, you lazy slob.
Unless pax start complaining about this behaviour and providing photographic evidence, nothing will change. Report laziness, rudeness, and other unprofessional behaviour to head office. Being cabin crew is a customer service job, not some high-and-mighty annointed-by-god safety angel who can do the bare minimum unless there’s an emergency.
I’m so exhausted by the stupidity of people who can’t think for themselves. Quoting Trump when he was obviously the president during this accident, is not only silly but seriously questions your ability to undetstand the value of self research.
Ooooh I think someone here is a flight attendant!
you and Sarah Nelson deserve to be in a labor camp, so you can learn what work is
Because it is clear you do not know what work is
Sorry “Del”, flew Biz from AUK to DFW…saw exact same thing. Hell the FA even told us there was no front lav. (just so we would not enter into their front galley sanctum).
:))
Some FAs should be fired.
Most of management should be fired first.
“But it should not be that way…if AA ever hopes to be premium again”
English is not my native language but I manage to understand the world “again” in this sentence.
It asssume it means AA has already been premium.
Which actually and historically has never been the case. At least from a European prospective.
I think it would be more relevant to say: “How AA could start/pave the way to become a premium airline?”
I
In the 1990’s AA was indeed a leading carrier and offered a product that was consistent and competitive to many foreign airlines.
I am old enough (63 this month) to remember the Bob Crandall era at American (mid 80s to late 90s). It feels like a century ago. American under his leadership was innovative and disciplined. Cost focus was relentless (removing an olive from every salad to save $40k annually would have been meme-worthy had memes existed then) and labor relations with pilots as well as FAs were strained at best, but flying American felt like entering a disciplined and well-maintained ecosystem. I once wrote a letter to customer relations about a particularly good flight in coach and received a personalized letter and a stack of drink coupons in response. So whether or not American in that era was “great”, there’s no comparison with what it’s devolved too today.
Absolutely correct. Bob and Herb were both fierce competitors with each other to gain and retain new business.
This is the irresponsible behavior of children. Taking a break is fine when rotated. Stunts like this should be investigated and the crew questioned. How can they be trusted with the safety of passengers?
And this is why AA is my last choice, even behind the ULCCs. I’m not saying AA is worse than Frontier and of course it isn’t. But with other airlines I generally get what I pay for.
I live down here in south Florida. This is typical behavior here. I would be willing to bet that it was a Miami based crew. There is an only in dade instagram account which says it all. The joke you will often hear down here is that ” I love Miami, it’s the closest country to the USA”.
I live in Miami, few up here too. Nothing could be closer to the truth.
“I think it’s fair to say that some barricade themselves in the galley because they do not know better.“
Please…if they’re that vapid, then they need to get a different job not in a customer service environment.
Matt, the article was fine until the conclusion ” fair to say that some barricade themselves in the galley because they do not know better”. Not providing any service or caring about the passengers experience is lazy, placing the service cart as a barrier is a deliberate act to prevent access to the bathroom and tell passengers ” DON’T BOTHER US”. I think you missed on that one.
I’ve found that you should never conclude something is malicious when it just as easily might be ignorance…some people are very dense…
If you’re blocking the bathroom, you should know that you’re messing up.
Waiting for the excuses and the comment: “Flight attendants should be allowed to do this because two of them died a few weeks ago when an incompetent Biden Administration employee plowed their Blackhawk into an airplane “
They were technically a Trump administration employee when it happened, Chris. Try to have an ounce of critical thinking when you post engagement bait next time
Lobach worked for Biden in the White House. This makes her a Biden Administration employee…….”oh but but but she was in the Army so she works for Orange Man Bad”
Yeah, I get it.
Maybe if hegseth beat her up like he did with his wife she would have been too injured to fly and the crash never would have happened
No helicopters crashed into aircraft when Biden was in office. As soon as trump gets into office not only does that happen, another plane nosedives into the ground in Philly. Maybe if trump had some DEI hires in his administration, those people would still be alive.
And when I thought the ignorant comments reached the depths of stupidity here you are going deeper into the abyss. Congratulations.
Trump firing all new hires from the FAA will surely make flying safer!
Hope you get that cancer McCain got.
Helo was flying too high and possibly did not hear the ATC amd the ATC did not confirm that the Helo heard them. Many miatakes by numerous people. Those Helos fly that route all the time and know what the max height is every time.
You had to go there?
All I can say is that’s why I fly Delta. Customer service and attention to detail are common practice.
I don’t know when American Airlines was great for it to be great again, but I only use American Airlines now for short domestic flights to stage connections with quality international airlines. The American flights are all free with points earned on my credit card, so if they want to give me a Coke on a 2 hour flight, it is all good.
I don’t know but maybe they’re burned out by random crazy people attacking them on the planes and then maybe the attacker gets a slap on the wrist. I think the management at AA, should care more about their customers AND their employees. Now that’s a trickle down theory that always works. Management treats employees like crap and guess what? Employees treat customers like crap. Now that’s sad.
And if so it’s time to find other employment
Typical AA experience. I stopped paying for flights on them, especially to Asia in the mid 2010s because of the down right terrible and outright lazy FAs in biz. Not worth the money at all and just pathetic. I won’t even redeem miles on AA unless it’s a short haul flight when I expect nothing but getting from point A to B.
AA is complete garbage. You seem to be bending over backwards to make them a viable alternative to United
Bring back At American Airlines your the reason we fly. And mean it.
Matt, unrelated to the post I know, but the fact that you haven’t publicly called out trumps ethnic cleansing plan, after having defended isr so forcefully, kind of tells me all I need to know about you. And it’s not good.
Look harder.
Yup, seen that exact same thing twice in the last 6 months. Inflight service has certainly taken an odd direction. They were polite enough but I found it REALLY weird, basically terrible manners like imagine you had people over for dinner and then left them alone in your dining room for 30 minutes. Same feel.
As a Registered Nurse in an Emergency Room working 12 hr shifts often missing .meals and on my feet the entire shift, I have NO sympathy. Doesn’t matter where you work, young people these days have no concept of customer service.
Correct. This behavior would never be tolerated. Absurd!
Being a Flight Attendant begin to decay when the government set the standards with which the airlines were required to hire. When an airline wished to portray a certain image it was no longer allowed by government mandate. There were no more grooming, etiquette, customer service or safety (in name only) to the high standards in previous decades.
I live in Charlotte which means it’s hard to escape AA. It is discount airline service at mainline carrier prices. Actually, the service is often snottier. At least on Spirit they know they are trash and have fun with it.
Actually, customer service in every single occupation has been horrendous since the pandemic. I thought it would improve, but it hasn’t. It seems like customer service does not care, even a little. I’m not sure why people stopped caring about their jobs but they did. I’ve really had a good FA experience on any airline. They all do seem to think like they are better than the rest.
It is more likely because you are a nice, kind person, and the crew will do their best for you.
I am a flight attendant, and I know I work my butt off and I am good at my job.
But most of these fools are too cool to even say thank you while deplaning.
You people are very disrespectful, rude, unappreciative, ignorant, and it is not just on American. All the other airline and entire service industry is a reflection of how nasty, entitled, ignorant Americans have became.
Just look at who they elected. Loving the entitled, ignorant, racist criminal became a norm, what makes you think we will treat you like a king? Whether you like it or not, we are all equals. And treat people the way you want to be treated.
Besides you are in a free country, everyone have a choice. For the author of this article, you have a choice to fly on another airline. We do not need your business. Obviously, you are one of those who complain about every detail. I have seen your previous posts.
DEI hired flight attendants!
“For the last three hours of the flight the FAs literally barricaded themselves in the galley with the drink cart blocking any access to the bathroom unless asked to move it.”
What a load of BS. Taking some “passenger” fake story for likes and views. How come they didn’t take a picture of the “barricaded” galley to make the “story” more realistic, they had 3 hours to do it.
Plus the “picture” posted to gain view is obviously in the ground during boarding process with cockpit door open.
If you are going to post something, Atleast show prof, not some random fake story without any substance or proof.
Klint wont/cant respond because you hit the nail on the head… he wrote a similar “story” about UA fa’s blocking a lav on a 767 for the entire flight for crew use only based on what a friend told him. All hearsay. Someone got turned down by a FA years ago & has never gotten over it. Bitter, your seat for 1 is available.
Oh give me a break. There were many things I wanted in life, but being a flight attendant was never one of them…
Aww, you can reapply again..Delta is opening up soon. American probably won’t open soon. Maybe United?
On AA, with all the non-revenue pilots sitting in F (as they are contractually so entitled), do the FAs just assume everyone in F is either a non-rev or a FF upgrade and therefore they do not have provide any service?
And the Wall Street crowd wonders why AA cannot make an operational profit, while the others seem capable of doing so. By choice, this LT Plat, and almost 3 Million Miler has had exactly 3 flights on AA in the past 14 months because of stuff like this and staff like Del. Someone on their BOD needs to Make American Great Again and management need DOGE the entitled staff IMO.
Omg, of course
People like you must take an IQ test before commenting, voting, etc.
Unintelligent idiots have always been loud but incompetent.
But now they have the technology to use it for their competency, but still pathetically unintelligent. DEI
as revealed in your “advertiser disclosure” the largest source of industry profit comes from cobranded credit cards. the playing field is not measured by quality of service, but the number of credit cards applications distributed per flight.
until the measure of success returns to quality of the travel experience there is little incentive for change.
In theory, a free market response would simply be to take your business elsewhere if you’re disappointed with the level of service AA has.
If you continue to patronize them, aren’t you just enabling their behavior?
In flying for over 40 years I wound up switching loyalty several times.
I may not have reached the pinnacle of elite, but I also didn’t spend a lot of time grousing about not getting “what I deserved”.
With regards to AA, I’ve only flown them twice. Once 40 years ago. Disappointed. Flew them again 20 years later. Disappointed again. Never flew them again.
But I started with Delta, until disappointed. Switched to United until disappointed. Now I’m with Southwest.
I only reached one of the higher elite tiers once, with UAL. It was nice, but after enough disappointments, I’d rather switch than grouse.
In my mind, it’s their loss, not mine.
But then, I also think “elite” today isn’t quite the same as it was a few decades ago.
Personally, what you get today isn’t worth the effort.
There seems to be a total lack of supervision and accountability onboard.
They do whatever they want, or choose to do nothing at all. No manager or supervisor is there to call them out and colleagues dare not speak up, for fear of union retribution or being labelled a snitch. Their work culture is so broken, I think it’s impossible to fix, at this point.
Who in the hell asked you? Just enjoy your flight and mind your business you can always book private! And leave the blogging to the bloggers this isn’t for you!
American is such a bottom feeder airline. I’d rather connect through Atlanta or Denver to fly with Delta or United before I give American a penny. No seat back entertainment even in FIRST! Their food sucks. Premium economy is garbage. Lounges suck. Terminals suck (DFW C terminal, ORD 3 terminal, LAX, CLT, etc. it’s actually unbelievable all their terminals are dated crap). Frequent business traveler, I’ll never fly American again.
Terminal C is now being gutted…will be brought into the 21st Century very soon.
As an FA who has been a passenger in the 1990’s when hot meals were served in main cabin on domestic flights, I have nothing but warm memories of flying American. I have nothing but pride as I think back on coming to this country and seeing the planes, the decal, and the United States. We are one of the oldest airlines in the world, we have been through 911 and pioneered many “firsts”. We carry the flag on our plane, and the only airline to do so. I have flown with wonderful flight attendants who go above and beyond and care deeply for their passengers. Most Americans simply have not experienced luxury air travel, and if they have, the “standards” would have been raised. I wish every person at American Airlines could truly comprehend where we came from as an airline and what it means to some people and I mean it.
Entitled much? I don’t even grasp how you can be such a self-absorbed brat with a law degree and argue so poorly, blog or not. Myriad airlines are available. Fly one you approve of. I do not have the experiences you do. Maybe FAs see your self-absorbed Ken posts and do not care. Maybe Reddit et al is not fact. Maybe outliers are not reality. Or maybe UA and DL also have bad flights. But you are a whiny baby who cries over your perception of imperfect coffee. I am flabbergasted by the posts today.
Just wow.
Do you hide from passengers in the galley so you can play on your phone?
D.A. if you are PLAT as you state, then you should know better. What do I have that tells me everything I need to know about you? Also, please enlighten me. What is a LT Plat? Maybe I missed that memo. As far as I know, we have PLAT, PLAT PRO and EX PLAT.
Urrr, that’s Lifetime Platinum
Thanks FritzDFW. I’ve never seen the LTPlat on my paperwork. We only get info on the Gold, Plat, Plat Pro and EX Plat. It would be nice to recognize those that earn a Lifetime status but we don’t get that info on our devices…yet.
Flew CLT- SEA in First. I was offered beverages once during dinner service! I hopped on Alsakan Airlines from there to ANC sat in Coach and was given drinks 3 times! LOL the service is really hit or miss. But if you’re paying extra for the ticket you should be offered water more than once every 5 hours.
Read your comment; how is service related to safety idiot
Hopefully things turn around for you! I know bottles are $5 at the airport but if you cut costs somewhere else you too might be able to afford one.
I have witnessed the same multiple times. Up until about a year or so ago, it was rare. Now it’s common.
I recall the only time I have seen the front galley blocked temporarily by the flight attendants is when one of the pilots is in the restroom. They have to leave the cockpit door unlocked in these circumstances, and the flight attendants are required to do this as a security measure. Are you sure this was not the case? Seems everyone here just feels like they need to complain about something and assuming the worst.
Did you ring the call button for more drinks ?? It’s there for a reason . Or you’re the driver type that yells through the window instead of blowing horn . Don’t they block the kitchen when pilots come out ?? I don’t fly 200K miles per year like the writer does, but even I know that . Also, did you get to your destination ?? (The reason why you bought a ticket right? ) Now, if you wanted to be served like majesty in the air with top notch whit glove treatment , you can lease planes . Ultimately you got to point B . Journalism is based on drama now . At least bad journalism .
There is a balance here.
Unfortunately as years have gone by passengers and to some extent airline bosses have wanted to turn flying into a luxury dining experience and think that’s what FAs are there for.
The original and indeed current requirement for FAs is safety driven only, like it or not.
Passengers have grown to overlook this and dislike being instructed to do anything safety related and focus more on being provided with hotel/fine restaurant level service. That’s where never the Twain shall meet. Flying is still an incredible feat of engineering and a multifaceted operation. At the end of the day its transportation,
Some of the Asian and Middle Eastern airlines have muddied these waters by kowtowing to this nonsense at the expense of poor terms and conditions for staff which they accept for only so long.
Identical thing happened to me in first on AA from Barbados to Miami this past December. At first I thought it was to allow access for the pilot or first officer to use the washroom but in the end no, it was just so they were not bothered. Even the ‘premium” Delta the same can happen maybe just without the drink cart blockage. Last May I flew in business from ATL to HNL which is a route that supposedly is to be the same experience as trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific. Plane left ATL 1030, lunch served fast and furiously on one tray at 1100 and then taken away by 1130. Then the flight attendants totally disappeared for 7.5 hours before finally returning about 45 minutes out of HNL to serve a pre-arrival snack that one barely had time to eat given how quickly the tray was collected again.
I have earned Gold Elite status on UA, AA, NW, CO and DL over the past 45 years. For a 5 year period during that time (during the recessi0n of 2008-2013) I was an international flight attendant/acting Purser on UA and then took a job with BA based in JFK for 6 months before I said “Enough!” and returned to the corporate world from where I retired last year. I provide this mini resume to illustrate that I have spent a fair amount of time on both sides of that barricade/drink cart and from where I am sitting, my first thought after reading this account of what occurred is that there is probably grain of truth in what is otherwise a clearly embelished story. Did the flight attendants in first class use the beverage cart to block the access to the galley. Of course they did. According to Google Flights, American’s nonstop flight from SLC to MIA is 4 hour 42 minute flight. During that time, the flight attendants will be required to open the cockpit door to deliver and collect meal trays as well as drinks as requested. They are also required to peform a two-person task of allowing the cockpit crew access to the lavatory. One cabin crew member must take place of cockpit crew in a cockpit jumpseat to the cockpit is occupied by two people at all times and the other must guard the entrance to the galley/lavatatory/cockpit area by standing behind the barricade/drink cart facing the cabin while this movement of personnel is taking place behind their back. There are two cockpit crew and sometimes more than one comfort break is required on a flight of nearly five hours. So, while your gin and tonic glass may have been empty for much longer than you thought was acceptable for a premium airline, your cabin crew and cockpit crew were engaged in safety procedures designed to ensure the that no potential terrorist st0rms the cockpit and overpowers the captain or first officer, takes control of the aircraft and – well you know the rest. As a recognized elite business traveler and a working new-hire flight attendant I am in a position to call BS on your story. It defies logic. Even if, as you say, the cart was blocking access to the lavatory the whole flight unless someone asked it to be moved, wouldn’t that be more of a hassle to the lazy F/A than simply leaving access to the lavatory open to minimize the contanct with the passenger? They would be making more work for themselves and creating additional reasons for passengers to ask them for things. Just becasue there is no surveilance of crew behavior inflight does not mean that individual crew members are not held accountbale for lapses in service or safety that can be documented and reported to management after the trip. The majority of crew are there to do a good job, monitor activity in the cabin, offer water in all cabins at least once an hour if for no other selfish reason that to stave off the boredom of doing nothing at all. It is very easy to find fault in procedures you know very little to nothing about. Trust me, there is no conspiracy at the beginning of the flight during the crew briefing where we plot how to avoid refilling your dring just to make you angry and get even with the company. We are far too busy doing our jobs to plot ways to not do our jobs.
Oh look, glorified waiters attack.
How soon you forget.
I flew SriLankan Airlines in economy from Colombo to Paris overnight last night. The crew walked through the cabin offering glasses of water pre-departure and water or juice at least three times that I saw between the two meal services.
They are not without their faults but “3rd world” SriLankan crews could teach many “1st world” crews a thing or two about service.
I hope Elon goes after the Labor Department so we can start going to war with unions.
I flew American for 30 years. Cashed out all my miles last year. Typical union employees.
Have not flown American in 20 years and doubt I ever will again.