With American Airlines adding back a second drink service in economy on longer domestic flights, and adding back pre-meal beverage service for international premium destination flights departing before 9:01 p.m. local time, their flight attendants union is up in arms – they want more cabin crew on flights to do the service.
Of course, the current complement of flight attendants used to do this drink service on domestic flights. And for international trips, these flights are long. Doing drink service doesn’t really trade off with other things that are required onboard. American doesn’t really staff at lower levels than other airlines.
Here’s what the union is telling flight attendants, as shared by aviation watchdog JonNYC.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) May 14, 2025
American Airlines flight attendants lost an arbitration case with the airline over cuts in staffing levels.
The carrier reduced the number of flight attendants working its widebody and premium domestic flights during the pandemic. Flight attendants weren’t serving extensive meals then, and there weren’t as many passengers on board.
When the pandemic ended, the airline didn’t restore staffing levels. The union complained that this violated their 2014 contract, and filed a grievance. But American Airlines has broad latitude to set flight attendant staffing levels and workloads, as long as cabin crew receive their required meal and rest breaks.
Currently the airline staffs to,
- one above FAA legal minimums on international widebody and transcon flights
- the legal minimum on Boeing 787-8 aircraft
- the legal minimum on non-premium transcon (A321T) narrowbody flights, which is the same as pre-pandemic
The union argues that the airline, and specifically Brady Brynes who oversaw inflight, lied in the arbitration that they had no intention of bringing back service. At the time of the arbitration testimony this was clearly true. American’s ‘premium pivot’ comes as it recognizes that their financial performance has lagged competitors who are offering customers more, and that customers are willing to spend more for a better experience (and American, with its high costs, needs to earn a revenue premium).
They claim, though, that it was “a thinly veiled lie” that’s “a slap in the face to not just every Flight Attendant but our passengers as well.” They then oddly pivot to talking about American as not offering enough service.
The union concludes,
Next week’s meting will make clear whether American Airlines intends to step up and compete – or if management is content to lock this company into a permanent, distant third-place position, training behind our two main competitors who continue to outperform us in earnings, onboard service and amenities, and in delivering a better experience for both passengers and employees.
It’s bizarre to argue on the one hand ‘American Airlines promised not to bring back drink service – we were lied to!’ and also ‘American Airlines doesn’t provide enough service.’
Perhaps the union thinks that higher levels of service will bring with it more staffing, but this seems to mostly be posturing.
- The union clearly doesn’t care about staffing levels – otherwise they would have included staffing as part of negotiations over their recent contract.
- Other airlines are providing more service without more staffing. They should be careful what they wish for – it’s more work for their members.
- American still offers less service than competitors, for instance they have far less buy on board and on far fewer flights than other airlines.
Nonetheless, incentives are far more aligned with flight attendants than in the past. The airline’s financial performance matters to cabin crew because they now have the same profit sharing formula as Delta crew, but the airline doesn’t make very much money. At the same time, this new incentive alignment hasn’t yet translated into improved service that would drive customer loyalty, preference, and revenue.
That’s a bit hyperbolic. Compared to United and others, AA’s FAs new five-year contract is pretty good (+20% increases!), so this is not ‘that much’ to ask (for the passengers’ benefit). Relatedly, I’m glad AA is now doing the profit-sharing like Delta. See, @Tim Dunn, they can ‘have it all,’ a flight attendants’ union and profit-sharing. Now, they just need to actually make some money! Bah!
Dear AA flight attendants who are bitter about a reasonable request for a long-distance flight:
Waaaaah!
Signed,
The self-loading baggage who indirectly pays your salary, yet a good deal of you show open contempt for.
So they are whining because the FAs may have to do a little more work. Cry me a river. PDBs are few and far between and most of the FAs sit on their butt talking or playing on their phone. Get up and do a little work for your salary. I realize there are some very good FAs at AA (and at all airlines) but the lazy, worthless ones drag down the others. Then you have the union complaining about this and it is a very bad look. Read the room union – you aren’t winning over anyone with a position like this (in addition to the fact AA would almost certainly win any arbitration hearing on it).
@AC — We can recognize that the second beverage service here is reasonable without having to attack flight attendants or unions, generally. Flight attendants are essential crew, primarily performing safety responsibilities, then catering to our comfort. And they do decent work for the most part, deserving dignity and our appreciation. Likewise, unions are beneficial for workers, often advocating for higher pay, better benefits and protections. That said, these workers and their unions do not need to ‘win’ you over. Though, you may wanna send a invoice to these companies, you know, since you keep ‘carrying water’ for them for free!
I’m very confident that the FAs will still figure out a way to spend most of the flight sitting in the galley playing on their phones. My guess is that we’ll continue to see an increase in the “we are expecting turbulence, so the Captain has asked the FAs to remain seated” nonsense that keeps them from having to actually interact with the passengers.
Back to work folks. No more sitting, surfing the web, and playing candy crush. You got your raise, now do something besides the absolute minimum.
Well, since FAs are primarily there for passenger safety, maybe the airlines could hire other crew who are primarily there for service — stewards, perhaps?
The long haul trips crack me up. As soon as the pilots chime the attendants on climb out, they jump up, get that service done. Bing, bang boom. Even in moderate turbulence. They will get it done, because it is all about the cherished crew breaks. Lights out. Don’t ask for a thing for hours. You probably won’t see them anyway. Then lights back on 1.5 hours out from landing. A cup of coffee and a light snack. The cabin crew complains all the way to the hotel on how hard they worked. Ha! Ha!
What did Palpatine say, ‘let the hate flow through you.’ Some of y’all really took that to heart and it shows. So, if you can’t bother to treat people as you’d like to be treated, could ya please at least treat them how they wish to be treated.
@Coffee Please — So anti-worker on here all the time. If you still have a job, I’m confident you use your phone, sometimes, too. And if you’re retired, then you should know better, too. I get it, your ‘team’ seems to have decided that ’empathy’ is ‘weakness’ (not true). It’s disturbing.
@Doug — Often, they (and everyone) really should be seated. Not everything is a conspiracy, sir.
Work sucks!!!
As the economy slows down, hopefully these airlines will start thinning the herd and getting rid of the covid hires.
Not sure how anyone would think one drink service on a 5h flight is enough!
First the airline complained about the 20c Coke that someone would drink – ignoring that that’s paid for by the $9 beer someone else orders.
Now the flight attendants don’t want to do a job …. Oh well.
@1990. Certainly not anti worker as I am one. I do travel a lot and I can make observations. The truth hurts. I’m guessing you are cabin crew. Am I right?
I have long since grown accustomed to flight attendant bashing on here, including at times from Gary. So when I started to read these first few comments I thought to myself that I’d be surprised if there was even one comment that wasn’t about how lousy AA flight attendants are. Mostly I was correct.
But some of us are actually good. I am, in fact, damn good. Even after more than thirty three years I take my job seriously. I do the beyond-important pre departure beverages, without exception and without negative thought. I am the purser or lead 98% of the time and I never, ever pick up a glass without offering something else (besides during preparation for landing, of course).
I am very well aware that my pay comes from people buying tickets, at least in part, and I always treat passengers as I would like to be treated. And I appreciate my rather high pay more than most all of you would believe. (Yes, we waited a very long time for it.). But many of you are correct, there are lazy, rude, disengaged flight attendants too. All I can do is encourage by example, apart from the occasional discussion that is a result of being purser.
BUT…. Most of you are entirely missing the point of the union’s reaction to this latest statement from AA about service returning. I don’t mind in the least doing additional services – as long as AA isn’t cheap and gives me what I need to do that. But THE ISSUE HERE IS, AA LIED to us. And the lies that AA has told us over the years just get old. Stop with the lying already. I’d rather hear “we’re bringing back pre-pandemic full service but not pre-pandemic staffing because we want to save money – and now we pay you well” and not hear them lie about it all. Just tell me the truth. THAT is the problem here, AA lying.
I realize that travel is hard and not fun and stressful. And I realize some (a great number?) of AA flight attendants aren’t well suited to great service. But I am not one of those and I want my employer to be honest with me – as I am with them.
@The Actual AA Flight attendant. There really are some excellent F/A’s and you are one of them. Thank you for going above and beyond. My attitude is always, “hey I’m at work, so I’m gonna work”. Unfortunately many have forgotten the customer service part of the job.
@An Actual AA Flight Attendant – I hear you, no one wants to be lied to no matter about what. Appreciate your service in the skies.
@1990 – “Not everything is a conspiracy, sir.” It’s been a while since we’ve had a Bojack reference so let me add that this reminded me of when Guy got Diane a coat and said “not everything is some sort of underhanded conspiracy….sometimes a coat is just a coat” [insert hand gesticulations]
@An Actual AA Flight Attendant — Thank you for what you do and for speaking out here, too.
@L737 — Excellent reference! ‘Just take the coat..’ *deep sigh*
AA lied to me in the early 2000’s with their “More Room Throughout Coach” billboards in major cities.
As a Platinum member on AA and a Gold Medallion member on Delta that averages about 100 flights annually I can tell you emphatically that it’s not even close. Flight attendants, gate staff and cockpit crew on Delta are friendlier. Delta makes you feel like they’re legitimately thankful to have you onboard, AA seems to view it as you should be thankful they let you onboard and their attitude towards their customers directly reflects that thinking.
@Chris. AA most certainly did this program and it was very nice but short lived. People are price sensitive when it comes to air service and the great majority of travelers were unwilling to fork up a few extra bucks for the additional room. Now if the FAA allowed people the ability to stand and hold on to a strap or bar like a bus if the price was cheaper then many would do it.
@An Actual AA Flight Attendant : Thanks for your input. Just so you know, I have immense respect for the work you do, primarily because there are far too many pax who take out their frustrations on you and other front-line personnel.
I’ve watched the person in front of me literally threaten a desk agent, and then when it was my turn, I asked him if he wanted a minute to compose himself before assisting me. I helped a FA with a medical emergency. I’m also a pretty frequent, paying (not upgrade) F pax of AA (I live in S. FL). For the most part, my experience has been that the FAs on my flights do the absolute, bare minimum, and then (as many here have pointed out) retreat to the jumpseat. As your airline has a virtual lock on nonstops from S. FL to the rest of the country (non-hub cities), it’s difficult to have much of a choice. But, if I did have a choice, I’d take it. Take traveling to the DC area. I can take a DL nonstop from MIA, where I’ll get a PDB, hot meal, and more frequent drink service. Same for UA to IAD out of both FLL and MIA. What will I get on AA? Indifference, followed by one, maybe two inflight drinks (if they’re feeling especially charitable), and pickings out of the snack basket, only to have the FAs disappear until the seatbelt check close to landing.
I have an honest question for you and your fellow AA FAs: When was the last time you bothered to ask your customers what they thought of your service? My suspicion is it hasn’t occurred in a very long time. Start there. And call your bad apple FAs out.
Have you ever seen a more feeble and whiny group than AA employees? Pilots getting upgraded which take seats from paying pax, and FAs who cry bc they’re asked to do 17 more minutes of work during flight by serving their customers another round of drinks.