USA FAs The Best?

[SWA739]

In my personal opinion the FAs in the USA are the best in the world.

I've flown on airlines like BA, SQ, and VS and none of them seem to be as good as FAs in the USA.

What's your opinion?

[kenoco]

You must be kiddin me,they are quite stern???

[CandyBender]

LOL

Love a good joke......

[Xenia]

Remember we all have the right to have a different opinion ;)

[IFTB]

I beg to differ:

Old example but still valid,
GLA-LHR: full meal service with drinks and coffee served on a 1HR 20 (?) mins flight, using real utensils, i.e. not just a paperbags, including tidying up and all the pre-landing announcements before the runway is in sight is a thing I have NEVER experienced in the USA.
A similar short trip on a US airline (IMH experience):
Hand out a paperbag with a packet of crisps and a sandwich plus a paper cup and a can of soda, collect it in another paperbag leaving a lot of the stuff which can not be collected in the first clean-up round and JUST make it back to your station before landing!
That really is not a comparison.

Maybe you are misguided?

[World Traveller]

Depends on what ya measuring. The fact that food service in the US in non-existant is not really the FA's fault - and they've been 'brought up' in an environment where taking 1hr+ to do a drinks round is the norm.

Granted British FA's are more likely to be younger, so if you want to base the judging on looks, fine, hand all the prizes to Ryanair, but with a out of the ordinary query, say something like customs or immigration rules, connecting gate locations, etc., I'd guess the older more experienced 'average' Amserican FA will be more likely to know the answer.

All based on observations as a SLF.

WT
<Fly CO 767>

[IFTB]

Quote: "something like customs or immigration rules" ???
Hè?!
What percentage of US based airlines is outside the US (= crossing borders) compared to Europe?
Why would the average US crew know anything about that?

More likely to be a European one who would know. But never mind that, most people would not ask the cabin crew anyway.

I am not to sure about the young/old comment unless you are ONLY talking about the cheap charters.

By the way, the food distribution was an example of input shown by the crew, not the quality of the food.

[cargosales]

Probably depends on your own nationality to some extent. Plus your expectations.

As a well travelled Brit, in my experience it really comes down to the individual crew on the day. I've had good and bad experiences on airlines in the US, Europe, M. East and Asia.

For me though, I'm afraid the overall standard of service of European and Asian carriers is well ahead of the North American ones. They do seem to achieve so much more in the time available. And IMNSHO they're better looking :D

[TightSlot]

In my personal opinion the FAs in the USA are the best in the world.

Based on an objective sample of, how many USA & Global FA's - If you've met and measured 0.05% of all the relevant FA's I'd be amazed!

There are good and bad everywhere - nationality is not an indicator.

[Delta727-232]

I've flown with an ample amount of European and US airlines. As far as Europe goes, I've been on BA, LH, KLM, and AF. And as far as the US airlines are concerned: DL, US, WN, F6, HP, CO, NW, AA, UA and FL (Airtran). It has been my experience that no one airline has the "best/worst" flight attendants. Certainly, there are bad seeds in every apple, but if Flight Attendants from one airline or another were so bad, they wouldn't have a job. I think that most Flight Attendants are really helpful, and are good at what they do. Of course, you're bound to run into one or two that are cheeky or unwilling to help. SO WHAT!? Deal with it.

[flyingdutchman]

I am a FF with two major airlines, BA and KL, and take around 50 intercontinental and 40 European return trips a year, plus a lot of internal trips in the continental USA.

Sorry, SWA and Delta, but my experiences with US Airlines, AA, UA, NWA, have mostly been pretty average at best.

A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that US Airlines' actual onboard service is either non-existent or compares poorly with onboard service in other parts of the world.

Some of it, lack of onboard product, very poor seating, such as 2-5-2 on NWA DC 10's between AMS and BOS, antiquated aircraft with accompanying lack of facilities, has nothing to do with US flight attendants, but a lot of it has to do with plain and simple bad attitude and lack of interest.

I know North-American, as well as other, passengers can be downright abbrasive and rude, with even well-known, self-appointed gentlemen of the clergy abusing FAs, but the lack of courtesy and assistance from a large cross-section of the FAs I have come across in the USA has been downright shocking !

On my last internal flight, MCO to PHL, the FAs came out of their galley at the back of the aircraft once (!) only during the flight, carrying a large plastic container filled with Diet Cokes, threw one at each passenger, rebuffed all requests for any alternatives and disppeared again.

Some weeks ago, I took a flight from Indianapolis to DTW, all of 25 minutes or so, and all the attending FA did was to give my carry-on bag under the seat in front of me a large kick, "because it sticks out too far". No 'could you', 'would you' or any other questions or niceties, such as a 'please' or a 'thank you'. When I complained I got a big sigh and only when I mentioned the word 'sue', and not in the girl name meaning of the word, did I get an apology.

This is not to say there aren't any excellent and outstanding FAs around in the USA ! It's just that the average FA seems to show a complete lack of interest.

However, I stand to be corrected and look forward to many wonderful experiences in the future.

[flapsforty]

FD, nu we weten wat je niet goed vindt, graag je suggesties over wat je wel aanspreekt op deze "draad" (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=67738) . ;)
Want daar kunnen we wat mee!
Met dank.

[nojacketsrequired]

:D FD great posting and to the point.As a F/F do you collect milage
on ID90's?.

Regards,

The very 'junior' NJR:D

P.S. Is your international HQ at JH,CC or SPL?

[christep]

Just in case anyone was wondering what this meant I put it to one of the online translation machines...

FD, nu we weten wat je niet goed vindt, graag je suggesties over wat je wel aanspreekt op deze "draad". Want daar kunnen we wat mee!
Met dank.
and the answer is:

"FD, now we know what your not well, readily per find suggestions concerning what this "wire" addresses you. Because there can we what!
With thanks. "

So now you know why no-one else attempts to speak Dutch :)

[waco]

.......no.......

[IFTB]

FD and FF,

Maybe we can start a Dutch speaking forum somewhere else?
Christep can join in and learn to do a proper translation?

Groetjes,
:D :D

[Evacu8]

Not too sure about their service levels.... but the USA airlines Long-Haul crew have to be the oldest I have ever seen.

I am constantly surprised by the age of crews, from the States, that I bump into at airports such as NRT and HKG ... they make QF crews look young ;) and thats sayin something :)

But I am sure they provide great service none the less :p


<<<no agest sentiments intended --- just an observation >>>

[Flip Flop Flyer]

Southwest, mate, do try to visit the parts of the world outside your borders. You probably know it from your school, that'll be the parts painted pink which your teacher referred to as "rest of the world" before going on to describe the finer points of Texan agricultural heritage.

My experience is luckly limited to Delta and United on transatlantic flights. The service was horrible bordering on rude. And that was on business class ......

For excellent, friendly and professional FAs look to some of the asian (SQ, TG, CX for instance) or european (SK, OS, KL to name but a few) and see how it's supposed to be done. For stunners, go fly Ryanair or Virgin. For even greater stunners, this time with more brains than boobs, fly Finnair or Icelandair. Do note, that their boobs are generally of very agreeable proportions :)

If you travel often enough you are bound to have a crew who has a collective off-day. Just seems to be the norm rather than exception on US carriers.

[flyingdutchman]

Dear flapsforty,

The initial question of this thread was:

In my personal opinion the FAs in the USA are the best in the world.

I've flown on airlines like BA, SQ, and VS and none of them seem to be as good as FAs in the USA.

What's your opinion?

I've replied to SWA379's question.

Your question was, liberally translated for the benefit of our fellow forum members like Christep : Now that you've told us what you don't like in this thread, tell us what you do like.

Do you mean which airlines' FAs do I like, or do you mean what do I like about US FAs ?

Well, to save you the time and effort, I'll try to answer both.

As was mentioned earlier in the thread there are good FAs in every single airline, just as there are less wonderful ones all around, and I concur. I like those FAs, of any airline, that demonstrate kindness, courtesy and a penchant for customer service. They don't have to be good at it, but they must try.

What do I like in particular about US FAs ? In those that have it, I generally like their sense of humour. I had to spend a New Year's Eve in Osaka once and the event was saved by a Texan lady of NWA whose jokes kept everyone in stitches for the duration, which was more than could be said for the 'funny, ha, ha' Japanese gameshows, like the marathon 2 hour domino toppling contest which started at 23.59.

Hope that answers your question, if that is what you had in mind.

Dear youthful 'nojacketsrequired' ,

No, no FF miles on ID 90s, nor on my ID 90 or ID 100 firms, but lots of free tickets and lovely upgrades with the FF miles :)

I have just been told today that KLM now regard me as a Gold Elite member rather than a mere Silverwing, but that I need to fly 50 % more with them between now and 01-01-04 simply to be a mere Silver again. Don't know whether that's an encouragement to remain loyal to them or divine punishment.

Oops, nearly forgot:

My International Rescue HQ is somewhere between AMS/EHAM and RTM/EHRD, if slightly nearer to the latter.

Dear IFTB ,

An excellent idea, but perhaps pprune is not the ideal location for a 'Dutch only' forum. There is already such a meeting place @ airlinecrew.net called SPL... etc. where Dutch is, now, the common language.

[gravy]

USA FAs The Best?.... at what, exactly?

having never sampled the airborne delights in the US of à I can only speculate however having a heightened sense of fairplay let me say this:

unless you don't mind gums and walking frames, I would tend to steer clear.

Just stick with the ♪sweeter plums at the start-up airlines, charter operators and the LIKE

take my word of it, the best to be found at Air ████████.

[Tex]

US FA's the best? Well, at least they are the fatest and rudest!

This from a US pilot who worked for a great Asian carrier with excellent service.

[raejones]

Couldn't help reading this thread without wanting to share a very positive experience of US flight crew. I have only done a few domestic US flights but when flying on the last Delta Shuttle flight of the day from New York to Washington DC in January this year my two friends and I were treated like royalty by all of the cabin crew. The flight was fairly empty, there were the three of us, one paxing captain and one other person. It was like having a 737 as a private jet !! Being as there were so few people on this flight we could sit were we liked (but we had to remain seated during the flight - post 9/11 security measures for Washington - New York flights!)

These FA's were genuinely pleased that three people had made the trip from England to come to visit Washington & New York. They couldn't have been nicer !!! We spent some time chatting to the Flight Deck crew when we were safely on stand as well.


Well done Delta!