The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) had demanded that American Airlines reduce service in all cabins.
The following cuts will be introduced on January 26, 2022, according to JonNYC.
Flagship routes.
The first three courses (appetizer, salad, soup) will be delivered in one step.
Meal service in Business Class remains the same.
The meal cart and beverage accompaniments will be offered in the economy class.
Domestic routes.
There are no immediate changes to the Premium Cabin.
The second beverage service is no longer offered in the Main Cabin on flights of 1,500 miles or more.
The union does not represent all flight attendants and I have flown with some amazing FAs over the last year who work so hard to provide excellent service to their passengers.
There are charges of being lazy. The APFA hopes that by reducing workload for flight attendants, they will feel like their union dues are actually paying off.
We are already over the omicron curve and there are more effective ways to protect flights attendants, like the union requiring N95 masks for each FA.
There will be more back-and-forth trips down the aisles if additional beverage service is made on-demand. Will that undermine what the union is supposed to protect the flight attendants from? If passengers dare request a second cup of water on a six hour transcontinental flight, are they going to be scowled out?
These changes have little to do with flight attendant safety. I am sorry to see that AA did not honor the wishes of the union.
Below is the original article.
As airlines have slowly restored in-flight service to pre-pandemic levels, the omicron surge has pushed a number of flight attendants to demand reductions in service. American Airlines wants meal service to be consolidated and beverage service to be reduced.
Flight attendants want service cuts in all cabins.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), the union which represents flight attendants at American Airlines, notes the highly contagious omicron variant in a memo.
APFA has proposed a temporary reduction to onboard service levels and customer touch points due to the continued spread of the Omicron variant. Our goal is to maintain the highest level of flight attendant and passenger safety. The time that a passenger will not be wearing a mask and the time that Flight Attendants will be exposed to each other are reduced by these proposed changes.
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APFA proposals include serving Entreés with salad/soup/appetizers in premium cabins when possible and reducing main cabin beverage services on domestic and IPD flights. Reductions in service should be implemented immediately.
When did flight attendant become a proper word?
IPD stands for international premium destinations.
Appetizers and main courses should be served on a single tray instead of course-by-course, and additional drink services should be eliminated in economy class.
American Airlines does not serve alcohol in economy class and I believe that cutting back service has the potential to create unsafer conditions for flight attendants. The sort of onboard masks incidents that have made headlines over the last year are caused by passengers becoming more agitated when drinks are not served. Passengers are encouraged to bring their own drinks, including alcohol that is not part of the portion-controlled portion onboard.
APFA puts so much faith in masks when so many passengers wear improper masks. If the federal mask mandate is lifted, airlines will have to fight flight attendants over whether to voluntarily eliminate their own mask mandates, which were present before the federal mandate.
The APFA would be better off advocating for mandatory N95 masks instead of trying to reduce beverage service.
Conclusions.
The union that represents flight attendants at American Airlines wants service cuts to protect them. I think that eliminating additional beverage services in economy class will lead to more bad behavior and mask incidents, which is exactly what the union wants: it will lead to more cost-cutting on the airline side.
What do you think about the American Airlines service cuts?
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