The Lady who shall be obieyed......and myself have flown on numerous occassions across the pond, we have been constantly staggered by the apparent age, lack of customer service, and general lethargy a large proportion of these crews provide. Just to qualify those comments..wifey works as cabin crew..and she has voiced to me on more than one occasion her concerns.
Take nothing away from these very experienced people..except perhaps...the mean spiritness (and I live in the UK so I know what it looks like when I see it!) the sour "you get what you're dam well given" looks...oh and my personal favourite (cos granny used do it all the time)...the selective hearing!
A mixture of youth/enthusiasm and age/experience is what is required...but dont hold your breath...the US trade unions learnt a lot off the mafia....so its not gonna change anytime soon.
H