I flew American Airlines on Saturday and was reminded how much of a difference a great crewmember makes to the flight experience – even on a very short flight.
The captain had flagged bad weather for the Dallas to Austin flight. He let the crew know he might keep them seated for the full flight.
My upgrade cleared one hour out (thanks, Agent Assist!) and was seated in 3E – the perfect vantage point from which to witness Kenzie getting a full predeparture beverage service done. She let everyone know there might not be a service inflight, so encouraged drinks .. and several folks who initially declined had her go back for more when they saw what others were having.
- Predeparture beverages are supposed to be standard, but not when they interfere with getting a flight out on time
- They can be rare even with on-time boarding, and when they’re offered it’s frequently just juice or water
- However Kenzie was offering folks anything they liked, and even came back in a couple of cases where early-boarders wanted a second drink
When a passenger slammed her hand with a bag, she winced. She could have ended the flight right there. She was visibly hurt. She didn’t even say anything to them. She came back through the cabin passing out snacks, too, since she might not get to do it once we were in the air.
You don’t hear a lot about the product at American Airlines these days. You hear about the domestic and short haul schedule and the mileage program. You don’t hear about the service either.
American used to talk about culture becoming a competitive advantage – that the company would take care of the team and the team would take care of customers, and customers would prefer the airline.
They never actually built that culture, or the incentives that would make that happen. But there are still Kenzies around who work hard to put out a great product even though they aren’t rewarded more for doing it. It is more impressive when it happens without the culture that normalizes it!
It is such of a reminder, seeing someone so motivated to really go above and beyond to get things done, just how much a single flight attendant can make or break the experience of an airline.
- At U.S. airlines flight attendants are often treated as though they don’t matter – the FAA requires them to be there, and they’re assigned a set of required duties, but they’re just a cog in the wheel. A decade ago, then-CEO Doug Parker said that flight attendants don’t have that much impact on profits.
- Planes and airports are expensive. Fuel is expensive. Pilots are highly paid but don’t interact with customers much usually (although when they do it can be really meaningful). Junior flight attendants make very little but can make all the difference in delivering a premium experience worth paying more for.
The airline used to talk about flight attendant new hire classes being more selective than Harvard. Select more Kenzies! Then incentivize them well, and give them an exit path when they aren’t a good fit. Right now American is in tense negotiations with its union over a new contract that will cost them more money but it’s a lost opportunity not to use greater pay to shift these incentives instead of just paying more to get the same thing.
I gave Kenzie a “Non-stop Thanks” (“AAplause”) certificate, naturally, and thanked her for hustling through the full service prior to takeoff. She didn’t have to do it. And it was noticed. She told me that she was “nervous the whole time” that passengers would be mad at her for the non-standard service.
I didn’t have anything but water, and declined the snack. But I genuinely respect people who are truly owning the thing they’re supposed to do and killing it.
Would you believe that 3 of the best flight attendants on my flights, ever – and I’ve flown Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, and more – were on American Airlines? (One of those was on an American Eagle flight operated by Republic.)
1000 % agreed, as I’ve commented more than once on this blog, the vast majority of AA FA’s are really terrific !!!
Great job Kenzie! It’s always nice to have a winning story.
Fake news! Everyone knows the world’s #1 premium airline has all the good FA’s…just admit you were on a Delta flight!
Flight Attendants, like other professions (indeed any HUMAN) has a CHOICE as to where they want to make an impact with their behavior and service they offer.
Your Kenzie know the value of gifting a good experience or even an exemplary expereince as opposed to a negative one or just one that “gets the job done”. Sadly, these days most folks just want to slide by. My Daddy always taught me that no matter WHAT I chose to do if I interacted with other people to ALWAYS give them MORE than they expected and they would always come back!
Gee, let’s site SW who sold shares to their employees and Fed Ex too. When you have an INTEREST in DOING well, you are sure to give better service, UNLESS you are a Kenzie who may be a sister from another Mother and endeavors to give Value
I flew in F class on a 16+ hr AA flight 2 days ago, and the flight attendant forgot to serve me breakfast, and when I asked for it said it was too late to serve anything hot since we were 1 hr to landing. How does the FA miss 1 out of 4-5 passengers (8 person cabin)?
I just finished with three AA flights and none had beverage service in either class.
RS Mallory nailed it.
Nedskid proves that anecdotes really don’t mean anything if they are clear deviations.
Glad it worked great but since all of the big 4 operate thousands of flights per day, there are hundreds of thousands of opportunities to get it right or wrong.
You win customers one at a time and lose hundreds at a time.
Two positive posts from Gary about US airlines in one day? It must be a blue moon tonight!
John F. We’re you asleep during the Breakfast service or why did you not say anything while they were serving breakfast? It doesn’t make sense!
Gary, anyways to provide the flight number and date so that we can sen internal recognition? I started sending non-stop thanks to FA that are awesome and sounds like she was. Thank you.
Kenzie will have a different attitude when she begins her third month. They all do. It’s the AA culture.
Company culture makes a huge difference, and sadly AA doesn’t give a s*** about that anymore. On average, I have better service in coach on WN than in premium cabins on AA. And this is not to disparage WN- it’s to point out how a good company culture (and yes, I realize that’s been changing at WN) can impact service when when it’s bare bones.
@Gary, it’s always nicer to read great story than a nasty one, thanks.
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@Daniel – I debated even sharing as much as I did, because I didn’t want her getting in trouble with other flight attendants who are doing as little as possible now due to the state of negotiations.
Can you please confirm that Kenzie was younger than 30 years old please?
Gee Gee
AA F class has 8 seats and there were only 4 people awake. I was awake reading, but not keeping close track of time I saw the FA carry a tray back and figured she would bring mine around soon. (I thought there were still 2+ hrs to go, but it was more like 1:30). I waited for half an hour for her to serve me before I asked for breakfast and was told there wasn’t enough time.
There was no formal service in F class, it seems the FA is supposed to ask passengers if they want breakfast. But she never asked me, and out of politeness (really), I gave her time to serve me. My mistake in not being more insistent probably, but certainly the FA should not have missed one out of maybe 4/5 passengers, especially at the tail end of a 16+ hr flight!
I’ve never known this to happen in biz class on ultra long 12-14 hr flights before, and it’s even less acceptable in F class.
think the FA is supposed to ask people who were awake if they wanted breakfast and There was no formal servicebut I saw the attendants I was awake, but working and I though
So you mean to tell me that great service actually CAN be provided on AA? On so many of your articles, the comments section draws AA (and other carriers) flight attendants like moths to a flame who tell us about them being the only thing that stands between us and a terrorist, the plane would burn the ground without them pulling the pin on the fire extinguisher and how we’d all burn to death if they didn’t rotate the handle on the door and singlehandedly drag us all out. They can’t possibly provide good service because AA doesn’t put 17 of them on each flight and the fact that they don’t make $100/hr renders them physically incapable of doing anything other than hiding in the galley with the curtain drawn.
I’m glad you had a good experience. This is further proof there are still a few good ones left. AA needs to declare bankruptcy, break the union, and fire the dead weight.
I’ve got quite a few segments on them coming up. We’ll see what happens.
Kenzie is a great flight attendant.
OMG!! Gary Leff? Have you been hacked? I cannot believe you actually posted something positive about AA!! Wow. Will wonders ever cease?
Yet they have been waiting for a pay raise since 2019. AA needs to treat their employees better!
what a crock of bull.. stop being a shill for AA
For me, given a reasonable price variant, FA interaction is the #1 determinate in choosing an airline. Interesting that Doug Parker didn’t think they mattered much.
Glad to read of a recent experience that was fairly commonplace in the past.
Maybe I’m an outlier, but out of my 30+ legs on American last year (90% in J, a few premium economy) I think I only had poor service on 2 flights. One was similar to this story but the flight attendants didn’t do pre-departure beverages or snacks on a 1.5 hour flight and captain kept the attendants seated even though the flight was smooth. Second time we had an attendant in J who seemed to be having a bad day or week or something. Honestly the worst service I had last year was on Aer Lingus.
Similar superb service by Vance on flight from PHL-AMS on Friday, March 15th. The level of service was at par with what you get on Qatar Airways or Emirates. Exceptional. I was in 3H and this is the most attentive service I have ever had on any US airline.
I said it before. Since Parker (Former CEO American Airlines) is gone things could only improve at AA. Great story Gary!
No doubt, a great FA crew that provides great, pleasant service with a smile makes for a great flight. But sad that this even has to be discussed – this used to be the standard; but it isn’t today with social decay in the US that some champion.
Cheers to the AA crews. Can you imagine how it will be once the contracts get resolved (hopefully soon). I’ve flying AA since my first flight when I was 9 months old (LGA to BUF) and they, TWA and NWA have been my favoriate airlines. The service on AA, especially during the pandemic when I was traveling a lot to visit my Mom and Dad in their last days was amazing.
I hear more and more about good to great service on AA, it’s like the old days are coming back!
Unfortunately my experiences are about the opposite (except for the regional jets AA uses as those are operated by other airlines/FA).
Sitting at the gate for 2 hours. First hour was 20 minute “rolling delays” due to no pilot. Could the FA have done a PDB service? Yes. Did she? not until 40 minutes in when another passenger asked if we could have a drink (after the pilot announced another 20 minutes). Then plane went MX, so more 20 min. delays. No refills. Again, same passenger had to ask and then we got refills.
Otherwise, we would’ve sat there for 2 hours with nothing (not even water). FA was just lazy, IMO.
Had another one where AA miscatered (nothing in First. No snack basket, no meal) FA just sat in the jumpseat. no PDB. Finally about an hour after takeoff, did one drink service and then sat the entire time.
I’d say DL is next in line (IMO). about 50/50 for PDB/service (they like to sit in the jumpseat). Had WAY better/consistent with UA. But again, it’ll depend on where you fly and when, etc.
I flew in January on AA from LaGuardia to Charlotte, North Carolina. I was in business/first because the price difference was approximately $100. I had a wonderful flight attendant, and am sorry I didn’t get her name. When she offered a pre-flight drink, I ordered champagne since I was on my way to my daughter’s wedding. She laughingly warned me that the bottle would have a screw top, and wouldn’t be that great, and I said I expected as much. The flight was horrific because of the turbulance, and we were warned about that in advance, but when it was over and we were safly on the ground, the only thing I could remember was the kind and helpful FA.
Last week flew DFW to FRA, Bizz class, John our FA was absolutely awesome, friendly, cheery, courteous, professional and efficient.
The flight was booked solid and yet the service was awseome.
Only one issue, the food, what was AA thinking, these so called special meals are awful. Please start serving REAL food.