American Flight Attendants Leaving Sleeping Passengers On Planes?!

Lazy, disinterested and pissed-off people do a bad job at work? Why the surprise, Lucky?

I was on a number of flights in 2024 on AA where the FAs did not come around to do a safety check before landing (so seats were still reclined, bags weren't properly stored under seats, etc.). So I'm not at all surprised to read this.

lol. AA is the only carrier the landing of the plane woke me up in lie-flat mode. Happened twice (LAX-MIA & JFK-BCN)

Wait, you're saying they made you put your seat up for landing? All airlines do that.

Other than not checking lavs how could this happen? If you've been on an empty plane a person sitting or even stretched out in a seat stands out. The only seats I think someone could hide under would be the lie flat seats.

They aren't our moms, they are flight attendants. Do fully grown adults need people to wake them up and make sure they have their seat belts on?

I didn't know 'nanny' was part of their job descriptions. Why can't fully grown adult passengers manage to get off a plane by themselves?

Too drunk to wake up

People fall asleep. It happens. I assume most people would assume the plane landing would wake them up. But I guess sometimes it doesn’t. A check is fine.

I think he means he was woken up on the ground, so was allowed to stay in lie-flat mode through landing.

My takeaway from this is AA musth have by far the most comfortable in cabin experience...

... right? Right?

WOW ! when I flew (ancient history I know) upon arrival at the last station 3 of us would walk the aircraft from aft to fore and upstairs (always worked on 747). ALL lavs were opened, I mean this was a pretty thorough walk through. I cannot imagine....but yet at AA...yeah.

This has almost happened to me in economy. I like to sit in the last row if I'm in economy because I can sleep during most of boarding and deplaning. I tend to enjoy time on flights because I know I'll get sleep, whether or not it's great sleep, from the time I sit down to the time I get up, and the sounds and lights don't wake me, or they wake me and I fall back asleep immediately. I've been woken up my multiple flight attendant as they were doing their final walkthrough, but once they told me that they were able to leave and the flight attendant only found me because they thought they had left something behind. I bet it could potentially happen a lot.

I am of the strong opinion that this (as well as a lot of other flight attendant/crew misbehaviors) can be traced back to the crew not having a sense that this is their airplane and their job to be responsible for everything that happens on it. Probably very typical for how we divide up labor in the US, but also a culture thing about how once your specific job is done (even if not done), you just leave and let someone else deal with it.

You would not do that if you felt that this was your home, your aircraft. Before leaving, you would be inspecting and making sure everything was clean, secured, for the next time you get on *your* aircraft.

Some other cultures do have this attitude more, when they go to work.

Surely this could only happen in America or with an American carrier?
This has never been known to happen on a BA flight.
BA218 departed and is on time presently.
Iron Dome, cocked, locked, loaded and awaiting incoming.
KBO.

Happened about once a month or so just at the LAX terminal when I was working for Amtrak. Doesn’t help that on a bi-level train, and especially for the overnight trains, there are a LOT more hiding/sleeping places than the average aircraft. It’s easy to think you’re being thorough and then you find a lost item, go to set it down, walk back, forget which row you found it in, and so on. I’m not saying it’s okay but there are a lot of potential distractions doing a walkthrough, especially alone.

"LAX" took me a moment as I was positive that Amtrack doesn't run into the Los Angeles International Airport, then I remembered that's also the code used for Union Station downtown for the trains.

It doesn't matter why the passenger was still there. Part of the flight attendant's job is to ensure that there are no passengers left on board the airplane. If there was anyone left, then regardless of why and whether they should have been more responsible, the flight attendants did not do their job.

The issue here is not concern about the passenger and their capabilities. The concern is nefarious activity. Once alone on an aircraft in a dark airport there is room for mischief.

What else to expect from US cabin crew members who hide behind unions, who show zero interest in their passengers, who aren’t service minded, and are outright lazy? They only provide the bare minimum required by law/regulations. There’s a reason American carriers have a certain reputation in the world.

I usually prepare for landing and put my eye shades back on for max sleep. Get back into a light sleep for taxiiing and landing if I want to help with jet lag. Especially in main cabin. Would love an additional 20 minutes to be budged by a cleaner as last to deplane.

I woke up in lie flat mode once over the runaway maybe 500 ft and quickly hit the home button anc Dfw when 787 was on the route peak season. My latest fetish is keeping my seatbelt unfastened always

Unions probably don't help matters, but I have a hard time believing they're the problem here given that I regularly fly DL and the FAs are absolutely no better than other US carriers (despite what certain fanatics/cultists will say). Also, AS and B6 FAs are unionized, and I'd place them easily ahead of the big three US carriers, though of course still not to par with international carrier standards.

Covid era seems to have dehumanized most workers and they don't really care about their work ethic or other people anymore. People seem more concerned with themselves and everyone wants those free money days back. It's also trendy to blame business for all of your problems in life because we should all be able to afford a 3br house and lambo with simple jobs and it's the fault of all CEO's that we can't.

No he’s saying they didn’t make him put his seat up before landing

I do very much agree with you Eric. I see the minimizing of responsibilities when at all possible on the FA side, and if the didn’t doesn’t impact revenue or surveys management isn’t going to make it a point to highlight in how they evaluate crew…

What a foolish take considering that this is very much within the scope of their job description. Furthermore, it is a huge security and safety risk that could in turn have very negative consequences for the airline which is why they’re required to not leave the aircraft until they ensure every single passenger has disembarked.

Not surprised that American is the most affected by this issue. Incompetent management and uninterested employees.

Do FAs stop getting full pay when the door opens upon arrival - like how they only get full pay once the door closes? If so, they are disincentivized to spend more time on an aircraft if they're not getting paid. To include doing a walk-through to ensure all pax are off. I sort of don't blame them. Make the company look bad as a way of getting more pay...?

I'm a gay man living in Dallas, so I've had a lot of experience with AA flight attendants (lol). They are the most toxic, nasty people you will ever meet. The contrast between them and the Southwest employees I meet is like night and day.

Someone has to say it …. this would not happen after a BA flight!

It is not surprising then that AA are placed at only 78 in the 2024 Wold Rankings.

Unless we know the specifics of how,why and when then this is just a “story” , it would only take a few reports to have this generated by a union response