I just returned from a short vacation to Carmel, California which I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys things that are beautiful and nature in its most powerfully magnificent form. To get there we has two completely different experiences with American Airlines, which prompted some further thoughts on service and product, something that I had discussed here, in the post ‘is it taboo to say Flight Attendants don’t care about customer service?’
The irony of this trip is that one of our Flight Attendants ‘got’ customer service perfectly. I won’t name her as I go on to call out a flaw in order to prove a point, but I can tell you that this person made our trip spectacular, in fact, it made a journey from JFK-SFO in a grotty old 767-200 arguably a better experience than the shorter return leg from LAX-JFK in American’s flagship First Class on the new Airbus A321.
The strangeness of it is that the A321, that I call the ‘young filly’ easily had the 767-200 beat on paper, firstly the ‘old tart’ that is the 767 is literally on the final weeks of that run, and that plane has been run into the ground through heavy use, and also about to be replaced by the A321, the technology is light years apart, the cabin configuration, seat, entertainment system can all be seen below:
Configuration
Seat Details
In Flight Entertainment
The 767-200 has no screen in the back of the seat, but they do give you a Samsung Tablet loaded with movies, which is good, but a little less convenient during dinner service since it takes up space on your tray table. The A321 has a 15.4 inch screen that also has a touch screen controller, pretty snazzy when it works.
Seat Controls
A weird addition to this post, but I think this encapsulates the difference between these birds better than anything else I could show:
The recline on the A321 F seat takes you down to a fully flat bed, with ample space for my 6ft frame, whereas the recline on the 767-200 is like jumping on the oldest wooden rollercoaster at Coney Island and not being totally sure if you will end up in the lap of the passenger behind you, or completely arse over tip somewhere in Economy, it was pretty fun finding out!
And the Winner Was… The 767-200 in J not the A321 in F
Stop the madness! On paper there is no reason why this should have been the case, but looking back, there were problems with both flights, and the differentiating factor was, as it should be, Service, let’s explore the differences.
The 767-200 was doomed for failure, even on its best day this bird was well past its prime, seats were rickety, there was no screen in the back of the seat, and those levers for seat control were straight out of the Flintstones. However, our A321 had two pretty major problems. Firstly the In Flight Entertainment system was screwy, it rebooted perhaps 10 times during the 4 1/2 flight, making it useless. What’s more, it was like a Y2K virus took over the cabin during each reboot – all controls were deactivated, so the lights couldn’t be turned on or off, the seat wouldn’t move etc. So when I got up to use the lav I had to clamber out of bed mode, then clamber back in, and have a light shine in my face that couldn’t be turned off.
The other major problem was that there was no Menu for dining.
So, before you get all cattywampus on me for such a trivial matter, which I agree it was, the real problem we had was the Flight Attendants on the A321 were shockingly bad, whereas the folk on the 767-200 were notably outstanding.
There are 10 seats in the American Airlines flight 10 A321 First Class cabin. All were filled, 6 were sleeping. Of those awake we had 1 other Pax, a Dead Heading Pilot, and ourselves. For those 4 customers (I’d argue that the Pilot should have been treated after the Pax to make it 3+1) we had two flight attendants. Despite which, only one of them came into the Cabin more than once.
After hanging my jacket, It took 1 1/2 hrs for me to be greeted and offered a drink.
The attendant that did come through to take dinner orders didn’t know what actually was for dinner, I am still confused by the service. I was told there was a Chicken Skewer Salad, which I ordered. Someone came up from Business Class to help serve (the two attendants for 4 Pax couldn’t handle it I guess). I was given a ceasar salad, when I asked where the Chicken was they rushed off to get it, only to pop back and ask if I wanted just the chicken or something else. I asked them to bring me whatever item they were offering that included Chicken, which turned out to be a roasted breast with a potato rosti. Quite the surprise. Wifey ordered Cheese. That was about it for food, some Icecream came around later, my spoon had already been dipped in someone else’s, which was a nice bonus, allowing me a extra free lick.
Food came about 45 minutes after taking the order, plate was collected after another 30-45, desert after another 20, and nobody came by after that to collect anything. In the interim 3 people were in the galley, Pax #4 had fallen asleep and the three remaining people were wondering what was going on.
The root of the problem
It was evident that the flight attendant was embarrassed about the plane not working as it should, the IFE system failure and the lack of menu completely threw him off, and every time I saw him he was apologizing, he clearly cared about something, he was upset by the lack of perfection, but what I think was a major problem is that he felt that the problems of the plane, and the lack of menu were something that impacted him and his ability to look professional.
The approach was that he was too worried about himself and his own image instead of being worried about smoothing over the cracks in the flight with his service. He could easily have written down the names of the food products (or even given it a ‘it looks like Chicken and potato!’) but instead he wasn’t able to think on his feet and cover this issues. Notably, he was a younger guy, I think they were trying to present a different image on this, their Flagship service. On the 767-200 the lady that served us had clearly been around the block with this plane a few times, and knew for a fact that it was an old battleaxe.
She also knew that Business Class mattered, or perhaps that people mattered, and made sure that we were looked after throughout, adding sugars to our drinks rather than dropping them down, refilling wine without asking when running low. I observed that she was rough around the edges too, and one thing that stood out was how she poured my wine, grabbing the neck of the bottle rather than pouring as a waiter might. I think that if we had the guy from the A321 he would be too embarrassed about the old shoddy plane and hide in the galley again.
You can’t teach service, or can you?
My first impression from our lovely lady on the 767-200 was that service couldn’t be taught, it was an eureka moment for me. This person actually cared about us, we felt like family. Now, you could certainly teach someone how to pour a wine bottle clasping the bottom, label facing the guest, but you can’t teach that desire to watch, and make sure that a person feels truly taken care of. I would go so far as to say feel loved.
The second guy, I am sure could be smarter and sharper in presentation, but his focus wasn’t on us, it was on himself, so as much as he had been taught to deliver his service offering professionally, it lacked that caring spark that makes service shine. I thought perhaps it cannot be taught, but going further, perhaps it can, but that level of training is hard to come by and requires connecting staff with emotional drivers, getting them to treat us like family.
In the end, it was the caring, maturity of our flight attendant on the 767-200 that made the flight a pleasure, allowing us to laugh at just how ropey that plane was, rather than the fresh, green flight attendant on the equally fresh and green A321. Ironically, this flight was on an award ticket and we were bumped up into that F seat from what would have been a horrible flight back to NY (MRY-LAX-XNA-LGA) in Business class, for no fee, and that guy, in his shame for the poor IFE granted us 10K AA miles that have already posted to my account. Which I am certainly pleased to have, but they really wouldn’t have needed if they had staffed that plane with the lady from the 767.
I had a great trip, even with the hiccups on the A321, and our original return flight being cancelled, and I would certainly recommend the A321 F over the old dinosaur that is the 767-200 in J, however, it is remarkable how that human factor really makes all the difference in the end, and in this case covered up all the flaws of the old plane.
We’re getting a trip report on Monterey, yes?
I appreciate the idea of being treated like family as a marker of good service. The few times I’ve flown in international business (on Asian Star partners), the feeling of being waited on as if by a servant was a bit awkward. I really didn’t to push the call button, and I make by bed myself every morning.
Yep, I think you could polish that service with the the tips and tricks for how to pour etc, but the essence is that warmth and caring nature that is not so easy to train, if possible at all.
For the trip report, yes, Allison will write it up. I’m thinking to do a short one just on the Hyatt there since I picked it based upon ‘calculations of value’ but the proper one I will leave to her as she writes a lot better than I do. It was a really great trip.
Interesting… I’m thinking back to my days as an OK waitress and wondering if I agree with you. When I first started (always at casual, family restaurants, nothing fancy) I was not very good, but in a well intentioned way. I was just not trained much and so new that it took too much of my attention to keep on top of the mechanics of my job that there wasn’t much leftover for the customers (or whatever the kids are calling them these days… “guests” maybe). I did get much better as the tasks themselves became more second nature and then I could pay more attention to what people might need instead of them always having to ask and me hopefully remembering it. So, I’m going to venture that good service comes from a confident server…and… Some people will never be comfortable in a service position… perhaps your FA on the young filly… but I think that a lot of other people can become comfortable in that service position when given the right skills, which then give them more confidence in their ability to perform their job… but yeah, others seem to just have a way about them that exudes, “I am here to take care of you, just leave it to me and I’ll make it happen”, I don’t think that was taught.
I too worked in the service industry, which is why I talk about it fairly frequently on the site. I agree that this confidence creates a better experience in that it can be more rounded and professional, and my lady from the 767 definitely had that going on, but I think that throughout, even if she was once nervous she showed that she cared.
The other side of that coin is someone who never cares, and gained confidence, who become obnoxious, since they aren’t there because they care.
OK, I see what you mean now. Interesting. Maybe that can’t be taught. Or maybe it’s some parts inborn, and some part the person you were taught to be growing up, but either way, once that airline hires you, that core is pretty much set.
PS – looking forward to both trip reports on your Monterey weekend. We have a weeklong trip to the bay area coming up this summer. I wanted to fit in a couple of days at that Hyatt, but with 4 adults, 2 kids, needing two rooms, I decided we won’t have the time or the points to do it, without missing out on things that we would like to do for the rest of the trip. So, it goes back on the list of places we would like to go while leaving the kids with Grandma and Grandpa.
Yep, should be coming soon. Allison puts a lot of time into her posts, in order to really fact check and provide useful links, so that one may take a little while longer. Her other posts can be found under the Travel/Trips section.