My Friend's First Time on Airways--Not a Good Impression

[Onestep2flt]

Okay, just my two cents worth..
I don't care if you are 22 years old, 66 years old, been here 45 years, or 20 years. You are a flight attendant, and there is no excuse to be rude and unprofessional.
Blame management????? NO! I don't think so..
There a lot of fa's that would love the opportunity to fly to Tel Aviv, London, maybe even Boise, IDAHO.
The point is, all pax should be treated nicely, respectfully, and have some sense of validation, and care from the flight attendant.
Doug Parker has you on the payroll, but bottom line, the CUSTOMER is PAYING YOUR SALARY!!! Yes the morale, our pay, schedules, all need major improvements. But taking it out on the flying public is not the answer.
I have bad days, believe me. If I have been unfriendly to a passenger, I always apologize, and let them know, I am human, I do get grumpy, and have longs days, etc. Sometimes, a little empathy, and just saying "sorry" go a long way to make the customer feel better. Especially a warm smile.
Bash me all you want, but I am sick of people blaming management for bad attitudes. We are in the customer service business, and are there for safety. If you can't handle being nice, retire, or move on to another field. JMHO.

While I would agree that people in direct contact with a customer should try to be polite and professional. The customer paying your salary is not quite correct though. They pay US Airways for a service contract for certain things. Namely to get you from point A to point B safely and in a reasonable amount of time. In turn, the the shopkeeper hired a few employees who they pay to perform this task. The PROBLEM is that the SHOPKEEPER has not been keeping shop! He has repeated several times in the public that customers expect too much. In private he has demoralized the people that work for him. There have been far more than just pay cuts since this shopkeeper took over the place. Taking on the public may not be the answer but in most regards it is the sole responsibility of the shopkeeper to to empower your employees with the right tools and attitudes to do the job.

I am very glad that you are able to be polite and apologize when you are angry with people. However, if you are saying that you should put on a happy face and pretend there is nothing amiss with your company then you are very wrong. Customers should indeed know what is going on internally so they can make informed decisions about their future travels. You do not have to be rude to do it either. You could say something like this. "I am sorry that this happened to you, I would like to say it is a rare event but unfortunately it is not". I am not naive, I know there are bad apples here. They are everywhere in every faucet of life. It is still management resposibility to manage the employees.


As far as Art giving his friends account as to what took place I will not doubt what happened. Art has always seemed sincere with his posts. He has in fact taken up his issues with the top brass with direct face to face meetings from what he has said. I will just say something in defense of flight attendants in general. I have an acquaintance that was formally involved in your company that delt with flight attendants. They said that over seventy-five percent of complaint letters end with the words, "And the flight attendants were rude". This complaint letter started back at the very beginning of the experience which was trying to use the wonderful and flawless website that your company offers. It took a wait of about an hour to a call center that is offshore to a non US Airways employee that can't do anything except put you on hold again so you can speak to someone who can. It just keeps unraveling from there. By the time they reach the aircraft their exerience has been a roller coaster ride. Now, they step on the plane and their seat barely reclines and their IFE does not work. So they ask the flight attendant to do something for which the flight attendant can do nothing. The complaint letter that follows is, "And the flight attendants were rude". The point I try to make is that it could have been a fact that they were indeed rude, or that they were merely perceived as rude because they could not fix any of the many issues they faced before even stepping foot on the aircraft.

The problem with all these problems is the fact that they happen over and over. These things can only be fixed by management who listens to both passengers and their employees. I have been a passenger on planes where the tray table was missing for over six months. I know because I was on the paticular plane more than once. I asked the flight attendant if they knew how long it had been like this. At first, she said probably not long. Then a few minutes later she had a booklet in her hand and she said it had been like this since September and this was now February. The printout she showed me said deferred due to no parts, parts on order. This is just one little issue on a plane I was on for less than an hour. However, I have been on planes that are going to the other coast and that is a true inconvenience. Can I make due? Sure I can. However, getting on the same plane months latter to find the same issue is a concern for me. This is again a result of a management issue of not watching the shop. This is, no matter how your management team sees it a customer service business first and foremost.
Start taking care of your employees and those smiles will be sincere! Start taking care of the passengers again and I will share more of my money with you. I fly on US for the same reason a lot of you do, I live in an area where it is pretty much the only game in town. Although that has been changing slowly.

 

[WCT]

I do remember when the FA's knew you worked for US/HP they would "Take Care Of You" and I to this day talk with fellow employees about those days and wonder when they stopped that and started being borderline rude when they found out you were a nonrev.

When you board a flight, you are a customer. Doesn't matter if you are HP, CO, US, DL, AA, AL ,WN, etc airline non-rev. I Will treat you with respect. You are just as important.
Discusts me that anyone would treat you worse! :down: We all wish good things for our family, and guest travelers.

 

[SS255]

Does anybody really expect good customer service out of anyone anymore?

Actually......yes. I don't care if it's at the doctor's office, at Best Buy, dealing with my cable company, or on an airline. Any company which is in the sales and service business better treat customer service as a top priority or they won't have any customers left.

As for the experience of Art's friends: They bought a ticket on US, and regardless of whether or not it was the cheapest ticket or the most expensive ticket, the mere fact that they chose to spend their money on US created a scenario in their minds whereby they expected a certain level of customer service which they did not receive. Do they have a right to be upset? I think they do.

The airlines (all airlines, not just US) may feel that "for what people are willing to pay, they can't expect much in the way of customer service." But for the paying customer, all they see is that this is what the airlines charged me to fly from Point A to Point B......and they ran out of meals on a 12-hour flight, my IFE (which I was counting on using) did not work......and the FA's were rude.

Guess what? BOTH sides are correct.......but who do you think the customer will choose to fly next time if US is not the cheapest?

 

[Harry Callahan]

Does anybody really expect good customer service out of anyone anymore?

For sure not Doug Parker :down:

 

[N965VJ]

<SNIP> This starts at the top , for TOO LONG we have under utlized doug parker , just having him sit in his cushy desk crunching numbers and coming up with a short and long term game plan is going too easy on him ... we need to put him to WORK ...

First i propose transfering him to PHL ...

After that we will have him go to the front and aft galleys and do a meal check , then just to be accurate , we will have him perform the meal check again ...

Great. Now the flights will be short booze too, after he stuffs his pockets with minis.

 

[Twicebaked]

In my opinion it is...one would think on a BRAND NEW route with a BRAND NEW aircraft, US would want to excel--and bring positive attention to their new service. Instead, it's just more of the same--poor attitudes, poor planning, and a disappointing experience for the customer.

Had it been just another route on just another aircraft, I might not have posted it, but with all the hoopla about the new route and new plane, I thought it was appropriate for comment and discussion.

ETOPS, if you don't like the subject don't read the thread.

It doesn't matter if it is a new route or old. The fact is that US Airways is what it is and people fly it because of the convenience and price.
I am quite sure it was the cheapest price, therefore your friend chose it. If not, he would have chosen someone else. You get what you pay for.
I am not dismissing the rudeness of the flight attendants, but you try to go across a number of time zones and have NO REST. I would like to see you sit straight up in a seat to sleep. Passengers don't have to work.. so don't go there.
The company treats it's employees like sh&! and it reflects in some flight attendants service.
Never again on US Airways??????? Bet me!!! When the price is right, you put up with lots....

 

[Twicebaked]

This thread is very necessary. It shows what a poor run outfit this place is & US has a ceo who cares NOTHING about customer service. I hope Art's friend goes to every blog & news out let that will listen. :down: :down: :down:

But the problem here is the only people that read blogs like this site are the SAME people that have nothing better to do but complain about EVERYTHING that they don't like (me included on occasion anymore). So, this information isn't telling you, me or anyone else on this board that we don't already know...

But thanks for reminding us AGAIN about US!!

 

[freedom]

While I would agree that people in direct contact with a customer should try to be polite and professional.


{so on and so forth }

Although that has been changing slowly.

I disagree with your assessment , here’s why

First you start off by inferring that our top brass is not doing it’s job and that this is leading to low morale … Our “shopkeeper “ has been and continues to go above and beyond not only the employee’s expectations but the industries as well … While I can’t speak for every worker , I can say that morale is on it’s way up after our second quarter results , it was a pleasant shocker to see that no , us airways is not going to close it’s doors by the end of the year , so in that respect , I give major props to our management team ..

As to the other view that us airways is not giving it’s employee’s the tools to do it’s job properly I also disagree , why just today I read an article in the WSJ about how us airways was part of a new trend of companies working to improve customer service in this down economy (it was a subset of the cheese cake improved service article ) .. It talked about the improvements that have been brought about in our companies MBR due to missed luggage because of the new hand scanners that we’ve started using .The article also went on to mention that our year over year customer service score had improved by a large percentage point (in relation to our airline only and it’s past service score ).

As to your third point concerning our management and their responsibility to ensure the attitude of our workers , well there’s only so much that they can do .. I’ve seen so much of morale boosting garbage from this company that it’s not even worth recounting (except for the free food , LOVE IT! ) ,anything that they can do within reason to raise morale , they have done … I think what your trending into is the FA issues of contract improvements , and that then boils down to nothing more than “give us more money or we will continue to give horrible customer service : which is in my view akin to blackmail ..


As to your point about our employee’s ratting on our company by saying something like “"I am sorry that this happened to you, I would like to say it is a rare event but unfortunately it is not". Let’s be realistic , no company does that , do you think when you eat at taco bell and complain about the food the workers are going to say to you “ sorry about the poor food , we’ve been having really bad problems and the health department is a hairs breath from shutting us down “ .. that’s just bad for business ..


While our company may have the same problems happen over and over again , that’s simply because we are a world wide airline and things won’t always function 100% all of time , we get a lot of wear and tear on our A/C from use , and while we do our best to correct the issues we find , not everything can be done in a timely manner .. I think however you are discounting some of our more impressive A/C repair gains , our planes are now cleaner and more functional than at the time of our merger and I believe that this trend will continue ..

In closing , I think that the smiles are coming much like the proverb of the turtle and the hare it’s going to take more time , but slowly if ever surely , we will win that race ….

Thank you for your patronage ..

 

[Dog Wonder]

While I can’t speak for every worker , I can say that morale is on it’s way up after our second quarter results

Economic savant that you are, surely you can see a profit based on "These special items included $156 million of unrealized net gains associated with the Company's fuel hedge contracts. The unrealized gains in the second quarter of 2009 are the result of the application of mark-to-market accounting in which unrealized losses recognized in prior periods are reversed as hedge transactions are settled in the current period." is only a paper profit.

Not an operating profit.

 

[freedom]

Economic savant that you are, surely you can see a profit based on "These special items included $156 million of unrealized net gains associated with the Company's fuel hedge contracts. The unrealized gains in the second quarter of 2009 are the result of the application of mark-to-market accounting in which unrealized losses recognized in prior periods are reversed as hedge transactions are settled in the current period." is only a paper profit.

Not an operating profit.

clap clap well put ...

but i beleive the new parlance is "less bad" and our results were WAY less bad ... like i said , it doesn't matter if you win by a mile or an inch , winning is winning ...

 

[insp89]

Economic savant that you are, surely you can see a profit based on "These special items included $156 million of unrealized net gains associated with the Company's fuel hedge contracts. The unrealized gains in the second quarter of 2009 are the result of the application of mark-to-market accounting in which unrealized losses recognized in prior periods are reversed as hedge transactions are settled in the current period." is only a paper profit.

Not an operating profit.

Wow, Imagine That, An airline reporting a profit on fuel hedging.. Sounds like another airline that we all know and LUV.

 

[Atlantic]

Guess you don't know when your buttons are being pushed.

 

[insp89]

Guess you don't know when your buttons are being pushed.

Atlantic, I guess you're directing this post to me. What buttons are you referring to, pray tell ?

 

[Dog Wonder]

Wow, Imagine That, An airline reporting a profit on fuel hedging.. Sounds like another airline that we all know and LUV.

It is not a profit on fuel hedging. LCC reported a larger loss on fuel hedging last year than they actually had.

Loosing only half your rear end, instead of three quarters of it, is not a profit.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Perhaps the saddest thing about this tread is that no one has expressed surprise that Art's friend had a bad experience.

Look all airlines, even the SQs, EKs, and VXs of the world have a sour flight here and there.
But, when US has one (or two) for the same customer, nobody is the least bit surprised. How sad.