A tale of two pursers...

You never know. She may have found out her husband cheated on her, or her mother has terminal cancer, or her house is being foreclosed upon. You may have caught her at a very bad time (granted, no excuse for simply lousy service).

Or, she just may be a c***!!

@Eric - lol to the last line!

Actually flew in F ORD-LGA last week and had an awesome F/A work a full A320 cabin. Went to give F/A a GTEM before landing and the F/A apologized to me that h/she was distraught because his/her relative just died a few hours ago.

I wonder how Swiss and Singapore keep the service going, up to the very last minute.

I had breakfast (a full breakfast served to me 30 minutes before landing) on both Swiss and SIngapore - the coffee cups collected, literally 5 minutes before landing.

I think US carriers would perfer to keep their pax seated at all times, no service (if they can get away with it)

1. A veteran flyer like you should realize that she was there primarily for your safety.

2. She came around to do a second drink service?!

3. Touching customers is usually considered friendly. (Hitting them isn't...)

Sounds to me like you had the perfect flight attendant and didn't even know it!

Seriously, not only do we owe the flight attendant profession to United and its then-President Pat Patterson, we owe airline unionization to him as well. He was a big proponent of turning over scheduling and work rules to the unions, because they were 'in a better position to know the individual needs and circumstances of their members.'

Thanks, Pat, in your name this purser just keeps on giving!!

I flew IAD-DEN yesterday in Business on a 777 (that originated in Europe, so international configuration)

Both my seatmate and I were extremely impressed with a FA who handled a cranky, demanding passenger ("I PAID for Business, I want service before all those upgraded coach folks.")

We asked if she had a comment card, but there were none on board (if ever?) I used the back of my boarding pass (printed at home, full page) and wrote a nice note, gave it to her and then asked if it would matter. She said she'd turn it in and it would hit her file after a few managers saw it.

I hope they do a bit more, but probably not. If UA (or any other airline) actually rewarded good service they might see some improvement in morale.

When I was first starting out in business (40 yrs ago) I was a very frequent PanAm flier. I don't remember if they had the status tiers, but I do remember getting a set of luggage tags and a coupon like the "Going extra mile" cert that 1Ks get. When I gave it to a FA once on a short hop (shuttle, I think), she acted as if I gave her a major gift. Next flight, I asked the FA why the overwhelming positive reaction. I was told that flights are assigned based on seniority, but one who gets that cert becomes the most senior FA the next month. Given the flight that I gave it out on, that FA was probably near the bottom of the seniority list.

That's a reward that costs nothing, but would surely work as an incentive.

SteveK (Techauthor, on FT)

I was a very frequent flyer (60-80K/yr) on Pan Am, Braniff, Northwest and most recently USAir, before going to Continental last year when they joined *A.. (I'd vote USAir as the airline most likely to disappear next). Good luck to UA, as I'll be UA Gold after the merger. (Don't take stock advice from me either. Same trend.)

I had one of those great pursers on a flight a few weeks back and it was the first time I was really sorry that I don't bother to carry the GTEM certs. I did call Customer Relations and gave my positive report on this purser, which they confirmed in writing later. Even the Customer Relations rep was thrilled to receive a call with a compliment. You know why it was easy to do, she actually had her ID displayed where you could clearly read it. It was never turned backwards or hidden in a pocket. I just made note of her full name and had it for the phone call. 94 segments so far this year and it was the first GETM worthy FA I've flown with.

I can assure that rotten FA was an AFA. I hate people taking advantage of other, complain about the benefits they are not getting, chatting too much with other FA, give bad service,lazy and pay union due so they would protect their job. No company would like to hire such as these
People.

JOSH

I think I had that same purser on a recent UA flight -- or at least one like her. Like you, I make it a point to say "please," "thank you," and "you're welcome" on my flights (as well as in the rest of life). So when someone doesn't say them back to me, I notice. When they don't say them back to me for a five-hour flight, I really notice.

God how I hate the seniority system for FAs. Hate, hate, hate.

If an FA tapped me on the shoulder saying "headrest", I would simply point to behind my head and say "It's over here" 😛