Goodness, this certainly can’t be good for morale, or make frontline employees feel great.
In this post:
The dire state of American’s crew rooms
It’s normal for airlines to have crew rooms for both pilots and flight attendants. This is a place that they can hang out before flights or during connections. These crew rooms often have some quiet areas with reclining chairs, so that flight attendants can get some rest, especially if they’re commuters, and have an extended period of time before they’re flying.
@xJonNYC shares some social media posts of the reclining seats in American’s flight attendant crew room at Dallas Fort Worth Airport (DFW), in Terminal C. For one, the furniture is in absolutely awful condition. I mean, this makes the Global Airlines A380 interior look luxurious, by comparison (I kid… sort of!). 😉 But perhaps the bigger issue is that a crew member reports finding a bedbug crawling around the room.
Hopefully American addresses these issues
Admittedly crew rooms aren’t exactly public facing, revenue generating facilities. I also understand that the furniture is probably used a lot, and therefore, gets worn. However, the wear and tear is so bad that you can’t help but just instantly be a bit disappointed that a company would let a facility be this run down.
Are updates to these facilities just not within budget for American? Or is there no one who is empowered enough who has been made aware of this situation?
Of course the even bigger problem is the bed bugs, since that poses a major health and safety concern for flight attendants, especially as they board flights headed to points across the globe.
Bottom line
While I wouldn’t expect airline employee crew rooms to be like Four Seasons properties, or something, I think you’d expect them to be a bit nicer than what’s being reported above. One of American’s crew rooms at DFW is in absolutely awful condition, with a flight attendant even reporting seeing bed bugs. Hopefully this is now addressed.
Are they still Going for Great? They seem to have a ways to go.
I believe now they’re “Aiming for AAdequate.”
Wait til the bedbugs are carried home and infect crew's furniture. Will AA get sued for new furniture?
Now the American employees can experience shitty customer experience like they give to the common folk.
The state of this lounge is set based on market share in New York, to align incentives for employees of all levels
Careful.. don't compare to Global or you'll get James sending you nasty private messages like he has to a few people who posted videos...
Looks like Admirals lounge in Houston
They should be as nice and clean and tasteful and insect free as the passenger facing facilities.. ….what the heck is the matter with the crew base chief?
Horrible inattentive management.
This is really bad. It sheds light that the problems with AA start at the top.
When an employer treats you like this, it's hard to be pleasant to your customers. Makes it difficult to blame FAs...they are human not robots.
Shame on AA Management. How much would 2 dozen new quality recliners cost ? About 15- 18 Grand (based on a recent Lay-Z-Boy purchase) ?
Yes it's not revenue generating. But when you treat your people well they tend to perform better and with a better attitude towards the company.
That’s exactly what is wrong with the company. If they put these chairs in headquarters they would revolt. One chair there cost as much as two new ones would for a crew room.
At the time they were looking into a “marketing partnership as a way to get new chairs in the crew rooms.” That was a year ago… so that didn’t pan out. We would have to have some ad plastered on chairs...
That’s exactly what is wrong with the company. If they put these chairs in headquarters they would revolt. One chair there cost as much as two new ones would for a crew room.
At the time they were looking into a “marketing partnership as a way to get new chairs in the crew rooms.” That was a year ago… so that didn’t pan out. We would have to have some ad plastered on chairs to get new ones. American views its employees as a cost not an investment. That is where the issue is
But you guys are at W.A.R. with the company. Why should they do anything nice for you. Get a hotel room or sit in the food court.
Its reflective of the onboard product.
aint that the truth
For a minute I thought that was the Swissport lounge at ORD.
OUCH
@ David -- SAVAGE!
LOVE THAT
I wish I could give you a Helpful Heart. You literally made me laugh out loud!
So who brought in the bedbugs?
Sadly this is an example of one of the better AA crew rooms out there…
You should see the sleep rooms where the lights haven’t been turned on since 1982.
@ AA FA -- Ugh, I'm really sorry! Do you have a sense of whether AA crew rooms are much worse than those of competitors, or is this just the industry standard?
I have asked SVP of inflight about this directly. The response was “yes I know they are in a really bad shape. The hard part is I can’t go to finance and tell them what the return on investment will be for updating the crew rooms”
@AA FA
That's just awful. It's the relatively little things like this that can really make a difference to the front line. Like, replacing the furniture and cleaning the rooms isn't a massive line item. Just take a few mil out of the stock buybacks (or Isom's salary) and it's more than paid for. There's just no excuse for this. Penny-pinching doesn't even begin to describe it.
Which really makes no sense. Like, what was the return on investment for the new AA Dallas headquarters building? I’ve seen pics of that building, and the corporate employees have a pretty nice space to work out of.
What's the ROI on having to take planes out of commission to fumigate for bed bugs?
I’m a UA FA. I’ve never seen anything this bad in the whole system. On the bright side they have windows unlike many of ours
Why are you sleeping g at the airport? You're not provided hotel rooms on layovers? Oh, you must be talking about you CHIOSING to live outside of base and commuting. Well, you did this to yourself then.
Chris, these rooms are for crew on extended layovers, whether a scheduled long layover or one that becomes long due to a flight delay.
If they're on a layover, they're in a hotel. You're confusing this with airport sit, reserve and those who commute.
This is something the union should have taken up. That being said it's not an excuse. AA could at least take the 1990 AC furniture which is in pretty good shape, use it for crew rooms and give some new furniture (along with outlets) to the DFW C club (among others).
This is actually quite shocking. I would expect the space to look like a typical corporate office building cafeteria / employee lounge- basic / sterile looking, but clean, orderly/organized, and of course maintained.
In addition to the furniture being in a deplorable state, it looks like a mess with all the cords being strung across the floor. And did they furnish it with discarded furniture from an Admirals Club after it was renovated?
Quite surprising...
This is actually quite shocking. I would expect the space to look like a typical corporate office building cafeteria / employee lounge- basic / sterile looking, but clean, orderly/organized, and of course maintained.
In addition to the furniture being in a deplorable state, it looks like a mess with all the cords being strung across the floor. And did they furnish it with discarded furniture from an Admirals Club after it was renovated?
Quite surprising to see this at AA's largest hub.
…. and the management might wonder why the ‘troops’ are revolting!