[Roundup] How Airlines Are Making Work Schedules Rough On Flight Attendants

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Honolulu is considering vaccine passports for restaurants, bars, and gyms

  • The high cost of getting required Covid testing in remote places. At least if you make a remote spot your last stop, and only need testing for return to the U.S., you can buy one in the States to take with you and administer yourself under the supervision of an outsourced call center agent. Much better than $6000 to fly in a doctor.

  • Hyatt sending out American Airlines amentiy kits Hyatt tells me they “have randomly selected a small number of World of Hyatt Globalists who have linked their World of Hyatt and AAdvantage accounts to provide them a small gift.”

    For the record I did not receive one. Maybe it was random though more than one American executive has told me I’ve been scratched off of distribution and invite lists in the past (I’m not the most popular guy over at Skyview 8).

  • American’s then-Senior Vice President Jill Surdek warned cabin crew they wouldn’t like the schedules they flew if they didn’t take voluntary early outs. But most people didn’t really internalize what that meant. Now they do. Then again they’re being asked to do less service in the cabin while they’re working.

    Jacqueline Petzel, a Chicago-based flight attendant with American Airlines who is currently working on reserve, said that during the first week of August, she was woken up repeatedly at 2 a.m. by American and had only two hours to race to the airport and then work a 15-hour shift.

    Between some recent shifts, Ms. Petzel, 34, said she had been given only the minimum 10 hours of rest at the hotel.

    During that time, she had to get dinner, shower, call family, wind down, sleep, eat breakfast and get ready for the next shift, leaving just four or five hours for actual sleep, Ms. Petzel said.

    “It’s hard to keep your eyes open when you’re up that early and it’s a long flight,” Ms. Petzel said. On a recent layover in Las Vegas after a 15-hour day, she fell asleep in her uniform.

  • Learning to live with Covid. Meanwhile in Israel ‘fully vaccinated’ means 3 doses.

  • If you’re stuck in a hurricane, don’t you need a drink more than usual?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. I don’t know why crews are complaining about getting enough rest; I flew from FRA to ORD on UA in biz last week and they didn’t do a damn thing. No alcohol offered. Food on one tray, etc etc. Then hardly saw them again. Not exactly the most stressful environment. Especially as there were only about ten of us in Polaris.

  2. I have zero sympathy for the flight attendants. While I am respectful and value everyone’s job they have been getting a break in service for almost 18 months now. Get back to work!!

    In the case of AA senior flight attendants they are likely too damn old to do the job and should clear out for younger workers

  3. Complaining about working instead of loafing? Welcome to the real world! You’re finally catching up instead of bit***ing all the time about passengers ‘demands’. (requests)
    There may be few of you who deserve kudos for your extraordinary and dedicated service, but not many. Congrats to those, nevertheless.

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