View From The Wing, an influential blog that reports on all matters to do with flying and aviation reports that American Airlines has sent a reminder to flight attendants not to go above and beyond for passengers in economy.
This was first revealed by aviation watchdog JonNYC who runs a Twitter (X) account.
The airline told all American Airlines flight attendants that they should never give economy class passengers blankets, pillows, or treats from business class.
American framed this as consistency, which is to say making sure that there are no occasional surprise and delight moments in the coach cabin.
As part of our commitment to ensuring a consistent customer experience, please refrain from offering Premium Cabin amenities/service items (i.e. pillows, blankets, amenity kits, and certain food items) to customers who are not seated in a Premium Cabin.
No meaningful effort is being made, of course, says View From The Wing, to ensure a consistent customer experience in premium cabins – such as that predeparture beverages are provided consistently.
“Since there’s little actual enforcement of service standards – aside from telling flight attendants not to go above and beyond using company resources – some cabin crew feel emboldened to create their own makeshift barriers that ensure they aren’t approached by passengers.”
“While American Airlines is telling flight attendants not to offer amenity kits to passengers in economy, prior to the pandemic Delta Airlines actually made that a standard for their international coach product along with a welcome cocktail, hot towels, and mixing and matching choice of appetizer and entrees with dessert served as a separate course.”
Delta hasn’t returned to this. Indeed, Delta’s operation overall isn’t as good as it was prior to 2020. But they repeat the mantra of ‘premium’ over and over while American – with an equally high cost base and need to for customers to pay more – is telling crew not to do little extras when warranted to make passengers more comfortable.
Indeed, a year ago American told flight attendants to keep passengers from moving to otherwise-empty seats that have extra legroom. And this isn’t even a joke!
Source: View From The Wing.
