FA's have it easier nowadays?

[Juud]

CHIVILCOY, a very good question. And one I often wonder about myself.
In some ways we have it easier, in others not.

Easier:

• better tools (like trolleys) to serve meals. No more 'walking out by hand' of hundreds of meals like on the DC8
• Better trained Pursers/No1/in Charges who do not any longer sit on their @rses all flight but actually work
• Shallower authority gradient which makes life, especially for junior FAs, a lot less scary and more predictable
• Legally/as per labour agreement mandatory rest on flights longer than xxx hours. (with us that's anything over 11.30 for example)
• Some aircraft are fitted with bunks for the crew, which makes a nap possible.

Harder:

• More passengers per FA, more passengers in a cabin, less leg room and less seat recline. Gives pax a trapped-rat feeling wich heightens aggression.
• More service to be done per flight
• Less time off on layovers and less time off at home
• With aircraft technology improving, non-stop flights are much longer than they used to be. 13 hours at work, plus 2 hours reporting and 2 hours 'getting off and to the hotel' making a total of 17 hours, is no longer unusual. Flying Europe to Japan directly also make the jet lag a lot harder to deal with than it was when this was still done via Anchorage
• With the advent of Computerized Rostering Systems like CARMEN, rostering is such that it pushes the CC as far as the law allows. Which is pretty d@mned far compared to both pilots and people working on the ground.
• Aircraft cabin design in modern aircraft is such that it maximizes seat space (revenue generating) and minimizes crew working space. The galleys are smaller, the aisles are narrower, there is no cross-over possibility for the pax which makes them walk through the galleys to get to the loo. Which again puts more pressure on the CC to get the work done in an already cramped space.
• With catering and booking systems improving, there is hardly ever any 'extra' food or extra seats. Extra food and extra seats give FAs the chance to solve minor problems for their pax. Take them away and there is nothing to smooth over small mishaps.
• With falling prices, a larger segment of the public travels by air. This entails a higher incidence of feckwits, psychopaths, drunks and criminals for CC to deal with on each flight.

I have been on flights (Air France especially) where after the dinner service has finished the whole crew seem to disappear for hours leaving the token one to walk through the cabin section making sure her charges are all asleep and behaving themselves whilst their mate sits in the galley reading a mag. Where did all the others go?

I'm pretty sure that AF, like most other airlines, regulates for 1 FA minimum per galley during rest periods. If this is enough, who can say? In an emergency it becomes precariously few, and to the pax it looks as if we've all disappeared.
At the same time, FAs are human beings and need to rest.
Pax wanting to pay as little as possible for their tickets has pushed airlines into providing minimal staffing levels to save costs.

If you as a pax regret that, think how much we as FAs regret it! We all start out wanting to give our pax the best service we possibly can. When the means at our disposal and the number of FAs on board become fewer and fewer, giving good service becomes almost impossible.
Which is very difficult to accept for people like us, so we work ourselves half to death to still make pax happy.

OK, long answer to short question No hackles raised, and no precise hours given because that's different for every airline. But I hope it has provided you with a bit of useful background info.