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Considering the horrible experiences I’ve had recently on American Airlines (multiple cancelled flights with sucktastic customer communication about them), it was fortuitous to run into Ray Balis, an active flight Attendant, at Netroots Nation 2009.
Ray was elected by the American Airlines Flight Attendants to represent them during the negotiation process with American Airlines. He reveals some onerous corporate practices that may (not) surprise you. Flight attendants feel your pain in many ways, as much as you are as a consumer — they are getting jerked around by the financial woes of the airlines — and the decisions made up the food chain. When flights are cancelled, flight attendants aren’t paid; they are often stranded with all the same inconveniences we are, and they don’t receive a paid-for lunch (I’ve spoken to others who have to brown bag it), except on international long flights. That was one benefit negotiated away when the airlines played hardball.
To learn more about American Airlines flight attendants negotiations, visit the site Ray refers to in the video, http://APFAVirtualPicket.com.
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Related:
* American Airlines sucks gargantuan donkey turds
* The massive sucktitude of American Airlines is beyond belief
* Ironic press release of the day – American Airlines
4 Comments
Flight AttendantsThanks Pam for posting this about our fight for a contract. We really do share the pain. I am hoping my schedule holds together for the next few weeks so I can get my hours in. If a flight cancels, I lose the pay. This is probably the only job where you can lose money by going to work.
Worse than thatOn top of all the suckitude you mention, flight attendants are on the front lines of customer service. In short, when passengers get angry about how the airline is treating them, guess who they take it out on?
One flight attendant friend of mine once compared it to being a waitress at a really awful restaurant where the food and service both suck, but where no one can get up and leave. The flight attendants don’t make any of the rules, and surely appreciate better than anyone just how awful the situation is – but they get to be blamed for it anyway, and abused by a lot of angry people who should know better.
One other friend of mine, who traveled a lot on business, always used to give the flight attendants a box of candy or some other token gift as a pre-flight “tip,” and as a result got treated like a king. (This was before 9/11 – I don’t know if this would put you on a “suspicion” list nowadays.)
Excellent treat!I wouldn’t have given it as a tip, but as a token of appreciation for a crappy job they have to do perfectly every trip.
The crew of the flight which landed in the Hudson this year should all be getting rewards up the yin-yang, not to mention Carnegie heroism awards.
Ther only way service in this country will get better is to start reregulating again! Everything started going to sh!t when deregulation became a mantra and religion for conservatives.
Don’t bitch when you have to pay $4 to cash a check, Mr. Conservative — you wanted the banks deregulated, remember? Don’t whine ’cause your flight got canceled and you have to sit around for 20 hours — you wanted the airlines set free, remember?
WowSounds a bit like working a crappy retail job in the mall…only the mall is cruising at 30,000 feet. But, at least the flight attendant is better compensated than the average retail worker (I don’t know one retail worker who isn’t a legal dependent of a parent or lover) and they’re unionized. I think the flight attendant union is also one of the more demonized, though not as much as the UAW. Whenever the corporations whine about raising fares, they always blame flight attendants and the ground crew. Typical.
I hope the flight attendants kick corporate ass in their fight! Best of luck to them.