American Airlines is reportedly launching an initiative to start scoring flight attendants based on a variety of metrics. While I’m in theory in favor of flight attendants being subject to more of a performance-based system, I have to imagine that this likely won’t end well.
In this post:
American launching Me@Work program for flight attendants
JonNYC reports on how American is rolling out what’s being called the Me@Work program, whereby flight attendants will be scored by management. The idea is that scores will be based on the last 12 months of data, including things like:
- Customer experience, based on anonymized net promoter score surveys sent out to passengers
- Operational contributions (it remains to be seen what exactly this entails)
- Delays that are coded as being due to flight attendants
These are all the details we have as of now, though I imagine we’ll learn more soon, likely from the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), the union representing American flight attendants, which will no doubt have some thoughts on this.
Furthermore, it’s not yet clear what actual impact these scores will have on the careers of flight attendants, whether their scores are good or bad. Will there actually be repercussions for those who don’t score well, or rewards for those who do score well? Or is this just about giving flight attendants feedback, maybe making them competitive with one another, etc.?
I’m all for more flight attendant accountability, but…
I’ve written in the past about why service on US airlines is inconsistent, and often bad. Among other things, I noted how airlines in the US don’t generally have true onboard managers who evaluate colleagues, and also how there aren’t enough performance based evaluations in general.
So in theory, it’s good to see some sort of a system being set up for evaluating flight attendants. That being said, I suspect we’re going to see some major issues here.
First, one wonders if this is actually the right system for evaluating flight attendants. They’ll be judged by overall impressions passengers have of flights, and also delays? Those are both things that might not necessarily reflect the performance of a specific flight attendant on a flight.
One might find that the average net promoter score is different for a flight attendant who primarily works business class on American’s new Boeing 787-9s on transatlantic flights, rather than one who primarily flies 737s around the country, since I imagine passenger perception will differ based on the overall experience.
Second, I have to imagine that this is going to get a ton of pushback from unions and flight attendants, because by and large, people won’t like programs like this. I’m curious if there has actually been any consultations yet with the union, because if not…
Lastly (and sort of related to the above point), the timing of this just doesn’t seem great, especially in light of the horrible relations at the moment between management and the union. Flight attendants recently issued a vote of no confidence in CEO Robert Isom, and I’m sure they’d love to set up a Me@Work score for Isom. 😉
Anyway, I’m curious to see how this all evolves, and I have a hard time imagining this will be implemented without some major pushback…
Bottom line
American is reportedly introducing a new program whereby flight attendants will be scored based on several metrics, like net promoter scores on flights, delays they cause, etc. While we absolutely do need more accountability for flight attendants, this definitely won’t be well received, especially given the lack of respect a vast majority of American flight attendants have for top management.
How do you see this flight attendant scoring system working out?
A very slippery slope like user generated online reviews of hotels and restaurants. Without specific criteria, could get very messy and unfair in some cases. AA really needs to analyze the data for a period before rolling this out. Another possibility is to focus on customers who take the time to write a formal note American after a flight. I feel like that would be more intentional than a survey response.
My main issue with this as a flight attendant myself is the fact that delays will contribute to the final scores. There are certain situations that will prevent you from closing the doors on time. For example, hand luggage not fitting, medicals, or just passengers taking their sweet time to take their seats.
At my airline we have a perfomance check as well on a yearly basis next to the yearly recurrent training and...
My main issue with this as a flight attendant myself is the fact that delays will contribute to the final scores. There are certain situations that will prevent you from closing the doors on time. For example, hand luggage not fitting, medicals, or just passengers taking their sweet time to take their seats.
At my airline we have a perfomance check as well on a yearly basis next to the yearly recurrent training and three yearly training. Besides that there are cabin supervisors that have to write two report per month regardless of what management requests (management can request a report about a certain FA). We also get scored by our net promoter score across the board as well. Management made the NPS a cew-wide target though so not an personal one which I think is more fair.
There’s nothing wrong with making FA’s aware and perform better but putting operational pressure on a crew is never a good thing when it comes to safety. I’d rather close my door 5 minutes late but be certain we as a crew can perform our duties safely than try to fix up any issues during the flight.
I mean, I’ve had annual management / performance reviews in every single job I’ve ever had so why should their be job any different?
TBH the level of annoying-ness of the credit card pitch is what most directly affects my survey score.
Coming from almost 40 years as a crew member at an international carrier in Canada, all I can say is then you get crew telling on crew. Moral going throw the window and bad relations in both sides and people being unhappy at all ends. Never works well, keep your employees happy then you have happy customers. Higher management always thinks they know what is best! Can I tell you how many CEO’S, base managers,...
Coming from almost 40 years as a crew member at an international carrier in Canada, all I can say is then you get crew telling on crew. Moral going throw the window and bad relations in both sides and people being unhappy at all ends. Never works well, keep your employees happy then you have happy customers. Higher management always thinks they know what is best! Can I tell you how many CEO’S, base managers, inflight supervisors I’ve seen come and go in almost 40 years!!!!???
@Rob Yeah, you do make a good point but where are the happy AA customers? Have you been reading this blog and noticing how many passengers including Ben has mentioned how terrible the AA flight attendants are? You should say that management should not implement this in order to prevent bad service from going to terrible service. AA flight attendants are probably only happy during the flight when they chit chat with their colleagues and...
@Rob Yeah, you do make a good point but where are the happy AA customers? Have you been reading this blog and noticing how many passengers including Ben has mentioned how terrible the AA flight attendants are? You should say that management should not implement this in order to prevent bad service from going to terrible service. AA flight attendants are probably only happy during the flight when they chit chat with their colleagues and avoid guest service because they are primarily there for your safety. Look at how they do not go around the cabin or rarely do pre boarding drinks. It may be better with your carrier in Canada but not at AA.
Ben since you're on the topic of rating front line staff, I'd be especially curious for you and others to discuss, what can be done about TSA screeners? Some of the most frustrating ("in your face no good reason for delays") situations is when an x-ray operator, who is the extreme bottleneck of the entire system, is lazily looking off into the distance, barely phoning it in to look at the bags carefully, dawdling while...
Ben since you're on the topic of rating front line staff, I'd be especially curious for you and others to discuss, what can be done about TSA screeners? Some of the most frustrating ("in your face no good reason for delays") situations is when an x-ray operator, who is the extreme bottleneck of the entire system, is lazily looking off into the distance, barely phoning it in to look at the bags carefully, dawdling while an entire line of 50 people waits.
And if you ever go to give feedback to the TSA supervisor, they generally act like it's nothing to do with their responsibility, or ask you to write a complaint. As if any traveler in a hurry is likely to do that. At any other business, they would be acting on the passenger's behalf to assess whether front-line employees are doing the job well. Not at TSA. How to fix this?
Those lady stewardesses have just one job. Serve the customers their drinks. That’s it! The fact that American has to monitor their ineffectiveness is laughable.
Idiot! Next time there is a fire or your having a heart attack - who do you call on!?
That’s only one part of the job, and one they rarely actually have to perform.
Most jobs come with more than one responsibility. Serving food and drinks is a big part of what flight attendants do, and it’s something they handle on every single flight. So expecting them to be good at it really isn’t asking for much.
I will call for a doctor on board. No need to ask for help from a hysterical woman who has zero medical training.
Okay, that’s just ignorant.
Spoken in the voice of Michael Jackson :)
They should send out surveys to customers how often PDBs are offered. It’s such a low lift
I would love to see the data on this and see if there’s a correlation with service and seniority - and how much worse legacy American west crew are than other crew.
Directionally good; execution and leading to a meaningful improvement in passenger experience: quite questionable
What a joke, I flew the 787-9p last week and the crew were pathetic.
Let them push back. The crew who are dedicated to their jobs & consistently provide the best customer service they can have nothing to fear. The rest are dead wood, and it's time they were managed out of the business. Seniority has long counted for far too much, and performance for far too little.
When I first started flying, I wanted to score AA FAs. Times change.
The system may be imperfect (what sort of evaluation system isn't), but I give AA credit here for trying. A lot of the impact will be in the details, which aren't (and may never be) known. But I'd rather see them try something than ignore it and/or maintain the status quo, which has resulted in many feeling that AA offers sub-par service compared to competition.
A really engaged FA makes a huge difference, particularly...
The system may be imperfect (what sort of evaluation system isn't), but I give AA credit here for trying. A lot of the impact will be in the details, which aren't (and may never be) known. But I'd rather see them try something than ignore it and/or maintain the status quo, which has resulted in many feeling that AA offers sub-par service compared to competition.
A really engaged FA makes a huge difference, particularly in premium cabins. I've certainly had times where annoyance at an operational delay has been softened by an AA who goes the extra mile to make it a great flight.
We all have noted that AA (in my experience, more than UA or DL) suffers from inconsistency: some truly outstanding FAs, some that define 'going through the motions.' If this can help to reduce that inconsistency, that's good.
I also believe that most people appreciate feedback--especially positive feedback. So if this gets some FAs doing a little bit more because they see in their 'score' that passengers appreciate it, that's a good thing. I know that, in my work, I really appreciate when a customer tells me directly, or client services through a quality assurance call, I've done a good job. That makes me want to keep doing a good job.
Finally--there are lots of comments about 'grannies.' It's interesting. Admittedly, I do not care much about an FA's appearance beyond them meeting uniform and professionalism standards. I do not care if they are 'young and pretty.' Some in these forums seem to really care about that.
In my experience, while there are definitely *some* tenured FAs who are burnt-out, some of my very best service on AA has been from tenured FAs who really take pride in their career and go the extra mile. I tend to get more of the 'going through the motions' vibe from some of the more recent hires. I've always thought it stems from the tenured FAs remembering older service standards and still doing what they can to adhere to those standards, while newer FAs just don't have any memory of (or training for) those. For example, I've noticed that tenured FAs are a lot more likely to proactively ask in first if I'd like my coat hung in the closet and a lot more likely to offer a cup of coffee or cordial after the meal.
Maybe I'm just being optimistic, but I do think this shows AA management is trying to do some different things to win back travelers. After years of the strategy being "more of the same," I'm glad to see it, even if it's imperfect.
Today’s bad management practices all stem from that ‘Micky Mouse’ MBA course, the one which was dreamed up by some know-nothing numpty at The Harvard Business emporium.
My work habit is to let those who are "experts" do all the work .
I will save you the homework . It is for informative purposes only.
The operational contribution metric includes stuff like closing the door five minutes or before departure. Another one is amount of delays coded to flight attendants ( passengers not seating , taking too long to settle down , absurd boarding system where everyone that boards first is seating in the front ) that result in one minute or more will impact the...
I will save you the homework . It is for informative purposes only.
The operational contribution metric includes stuff like closing the door five minutes or before departure. Another one is amount of delays coded to flight attendants ( passengers not seating , taking too long to settle down , absurd boarding system where everyone that boards first is seating in the front ) that result in one minute or more will impact the metric . It is just laughable.
The fas have FAA rules to follow before management obsession on leaving on time or before. If the cabin and passengers are not ready and settle , the door cannot be closed, per FAR. Period.
Just to give one example.
How about we do a “Me@Work: Executive Edition” ?
Metric 1: Stakeholder Confidence Score - Anonymized NPS-style surveys sent to employees, investors, and board members.
Metric 2: Operational Accountability Index - Delays, cancellations, and policy failures coded to the executive whose decision caused them.
Metric 3: Financial Performance Rating - RASM, unit costs, and stock performance benchmarked against Delta and United.
Metric 4: Labor Relations Score - Grievance rates, arbitration losses, and...
How about we do a “Me@Work: Executive Edition” ?
Metric 1: Stakeholder Confidence Score - Anonymized NPS-style surveys sent to employees, investors, and board members.
Metric 2: Operational Accountability Index - Delays, cancellations, and policy failures coded to the executive whose decision caused them.
Metric 3: Financial Performance Rating - RASM, unit costs, and stock performance benchmarked against Delta and United.
Metric 4: Labor Relations Score - Grievance rates, arbitration losses, and union confidence votes.
Metric 5: Strategic Execution Rate - Announced initiatives tracked from press release to actual delivery.
Scoring structure: Five metrics, equal weight, composite score published quarterly to the board.
Consequence tiers: Below 40 triggers mandatory board review. Above 75 unlocks performance bonus. No score, no bonus.
If executives believe scoring flight attendants on factors partially outside their control is reasonable, the same logic applies one level up - where decisions are actually more traceable to outcomes.
At last. This is way overdue for some of the blue rinsed sky hags who hog the international flights and give American such a bad name. Flight bidding should be on merit not on seniority. If they don’t like it then they can leave.
But Paul, “Merit” is not in the MBA course curriculum don’t you know …. :-)
What is the science behind most surveys? Too many ask for a rating between 0 and 10. Since I can't distinguish between, say, a seven and an eight, I don't respond. Results are unreliable for purposes such as this.
Just great they probably got this idea from healthcare corporations, where patients can rate their doctors. How dare the physician say they need to manage their diet instead of throwing another medication in their face! 1 star for them! Sarcasm aside, While there has to be some means of evaluation, strictly passenger rating without contextualization is a recipe for disaster. As someone else mentioned too, some passengers will not like being told to follow rules,...
Just great they probably got this idea from healthcare corporations, where patients can rate their doctors. How dare the physician say they need to manage their diet instead of throwing another medication in their face! 1 star for them! Sarcasm aside, While there has to be some means of evaluation, strictly passenger rating without contextualization is a recipe for disaster. As someone else mentioned too, some passengers will not like being told to follow rules, or if a flight is delayed, take it their frustration on the FA, who has no control.
Performative nonsense. Corporate management at AAL deserves the bad grade here.
Can Board members use me@work to evaluate CEO and shareholders to evaluate Board Members, with public disclosure? One culture top to bottom.
MeatWork is just a dumb name once you write it out.
Scores should be based upon the performance of the crew. There should be financial incentives for good scores. There should be peer pressure from within for all flight attendants to perform. Want extra money in your pocket. Perform and stop lazy flight attendants from sitting on their butt.
The only FAs that will complain or have a problem are the ones this new program was designed for.
90% of AA flight attendants are just horrible. Lazy and sloppy. I saw one yesterday sitting during deplaning with her feet on the seat where someone will be sitting on the next flight. Fire them all.
If pay is partially determined by passenger scoring, attractive women will get more pay and fat, Black women will get less. Business class FAs will tend to get more as will any FAs that give away free stuff. Severely late flights may result in lower scores to FAs.
Nobody is claiming the program is perfect, but at the moment you can rise to the top of the pay and seniority scaled by just hanging around doing the bare minimum for thirty years. I'd also note that fat flight attendants should be improving their health and their appearance by losing weight. Fat acceptance has been a public health disaster, and it's time to put that particular puppy to sleep for good.
After my HND-LAX flight last week flying AA for the first time. Thank god! Never seen a lazier and ruder crew than them. Yelling at passengers to choose their food, and then throwing a tray at you with no care. Never saw them walk the aisles giving refreshments on the flight back. a Joke of a crew. AA needs this after what I saw because it makes Delta look like private flying levels of service
To generalize: FAs hate pax and hate their job and giving them "review demerits" won't fix management's tone deafness. (GAs hate pax too but that's not what this article discusses because apparently AAL doesn't see a need to rate GAs).
What ALL needs to do is have an outside firm review its spew of a management team and then bring on a new team, new C-Suite, all from outside the nepo-narcotic-flesh graveyard that is where...
To generalize: FAs hate pax and hate their job and giving them "review demerits" won't fix management's tone deafness. (GAs hate pax too but that's not what this article discusses because apparently AAL doesn't see a need to rate GAs).
What ALL needs to do is have an outside firm review its spew of a management team and then bring on a new team, new C-Suite, all from outside the nepo-narcotic-flesh graveyard that is where they raise up "new" talent.
But hey, review the FAs. See what that gets you. Beating will continue until performance improves, right? With metrics. To all the wrong people.
Why won't these airlines just leave these poor overweight lazy ornery elderly FAs in peace? Why must you all judge them constantly, just for being bad at their job? It interferes with their phone browsing time to have to deal with this nonsense. Just because they make 5x the going rate for unskilled labor doesn't mean they deserve to be held accountable for performance. Surely this is a human rights violation.
Oh, Dr. Toboggan... Please, tell them how really feel, next time you fly American Airlines... ideally, before meal or beverage service. Oh, wait, you're based in Asia, so you likely won't have the chance anytime soon. Huh, it's odd for you to be so anti-worker American from so far away...
When I saw the headline, I feared for the worst. Thank God this isn't another goddamn AI thing.
All the incels are gonna have a field day with this one.
That's just what an incel would say
Takes one to know one, Dr. Toboggan.
Will the AA, FA’s accept constructive criticism? …. not in a million years Gunga Din!
Too many people are incapable of being honest.
They already score gate agents
Perfect, now instead of seniority being the driver for the highest hourly rate, tie these scores to their hourly flight pay on that absurd pay scale. Merit based is the way to go. The talking coke machines have had their fun ruining the airline, and now it’s time to pay the piper!
Leave the AA grannies alone! This is elder abuse. We need their geriatric presence to be reminded that no matter how miserable we THINK we are, there are others who actually ARE miserable, grumpy and ill-tempered.
Unless you happen to be @just_a_deviant who is the most miserable of all...
You ok?
Why do employee groups like FAs - and especially pilots - think they know how to manage an airline?
Welcome to the rest of the (non American) world as an FA.
At my (european) airline we have had this in place for years.
The only issue I see with the scores is that customers that do tend to respond to those surveys are often at one end of the extreme. Either they LOVE the crew that looked after them or they HATE them and are using the survey as a weapon.
The ones...
Welcome to the rest of the (non American) world as an FA.
At my (european) airline we have had this in place for years.
The only issue I see with the scores is that customers that do tend to respond to those surveys are often at one end of the extreme. Either they LOVE the crew that looked after them or they HATE them and are using the survey as a weapon.
The ones that dislike the crew could be down to a reason that isn't really fair - like the crew member enforcing a safety requirement on them that they did not like. But of course could also be bad attitude on the part of the crew member. It is a difficult one to separate so I hope AA also records the verbatim comments.
The majority of passengers that are like 'yeah the crew were fine, they did their job' usually don't bother their ass to reply to the surveys.
The customer survey seems the most difficult to quantify. Personally, I can't remember the last time a FA made an impression on me -- good or bad. I feel like every feedback survey I write would be, "Yeah... everything was normal and routine."
Breaking that miserable union would be a good step on the road to fixing AA.
STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!!
Lockout!
And then... damages owed to employees because of the illegal lockout!
The crews don't care about customer service right now so I doubt they will care what scores they end up with
Finally, some accountability for all the old, entitled, and disgruntled FA grannies
I think for this to work you’d need to have a dedicated Customer Service Manager who evaluates a F/a’s performance on a flight which is done by a lot of carriers. A performance review based on a crews observed onboard behaviours. I can see a lot of negative blowback
Isom just needs to go. He's gonna bury the company.
I would also love to see Isom's me@work score (you know, so people can learn what makes you CEO material).