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April 27, 2004 By JOE SHARKEY Last week's column, focusing on a memo from an American Airlines executive scolding flight attendants for poor service and bad attitudes, brought an outpouring of reaction from flight attendants and passengers. Here is a sampling. On a recent American flight from Phoenix to New York, "actually there was very little contact with the flight attendants, the main reason being there is very little service on AA flights," Adela Oppenheim wrote. The meal service consisted of a bag of pretzels, she wrote, adding: "Perhaps passenger discontent with the flight attendants has to do with poor amenities rather than the flight attendants themselves. And of course the measly meal service is chosen by the same corporate bigwigs who now feel free to attack the flight crews." Catherine A. Simmons, a flight attendant for 34 years who works the once glamorous international flights for American, described the grind it has become. "We gave up 33 1/3 percent of our vacation days, 27 percent of our salary, and all of our onboard meals, even on long-haul Asian flights, and much of our rest," she wrote. While flight attendants agreed to givebacks, American had to battle to stave off bankruptcy by cutting back on food and onboard service. "My fellow professionals and I spend a good deal of our time in flight apologizing," Ms. Simmons wrote, sounding weary even in an e-mail message. "I'm certain that I say, 'I'm really sorry, sir, but ' more frequently in one leg to Tokyo than most people say in a lifetime." The ruckus involving 19,500 active American flight attendants began after 5,000 of them based in the Northeast got a memo from John M. Tiliacos, a regional managing director for the airline. The memo, which a large number of recipients considered insulting, quickly found its way onto InternalMemos.com, a Web site that publishes internal corporate memos that are sent to it by employees. The recommendations in the American memo included having flight attendants regard each encounter with a passenger as a "client meeting." American defended the memo after the flight attendants reacted to it. The company said it wished to be "open" with its employees and that the memo was just feedback. Mr. Tiliacos said he based his memo on conversations with corporate travel managers who said they were considering switching airlines because of the attitudes of American's flight attendants. Suffice it to say the flight attendants aren't mollified. Jimmy McGovern, a flight attendant for 20 years on another major airline, had an interesting reaction: "Remember that heroic American Airline flight attendant who nearly had her thumb bitten off by her shoe-bombing client, Richard Reid? Did she get the nasty memo, too?" But customers who sympathize with the flight attendants also made some points. "Until recently I traveled extensively on business using United, American and Delta," Vana Lyttle said. "Sadly, American indeed is the worst of the lot. My heart always went out to fight attendants who were so clearly unhappy. They had given their fair share, maybe even more." "But I was tired, too," she added. "I was giving up my weekends and evenings to travel for my employers," who kept a "tight leash" on travel expenses. "And on top of it all, I had to spend hours and days on American Airlines being treated like a nuisance." Similar sentiments came from Clyde Miller, a corporate security director who is a frequent flier on both American and Continental. Continental's flight attendants were "helpful, friendly and kept a positive attitude" during the airline industry's travails over the last few years, he said. But of American he said: "As a general rule, their flight attendants are arrogant, unfriendly and appear to be bothered when asked to provide a basic level of service." James W. Montanari said: "For over 30 years I have been a loyal AA customer. However, over the past several years I have noticed that the more senior AA flight attendants, rather than demonstrating maturity and experience, are seemingly bored with their jobs, surly with passengers and studiously unresponsive. While those problems are not limited to AA, at AA they are epidemic." Like most experienced business travelers, I am enormously sympathetic to flight attendants, and I think most of them do a first-rate job under what many of us would regard as intolerable conditions. But the passenger sentiments above are an accurate representation of most of the responses from fliers to last week's column. Mr. Tiliacos's memo, clumsy as it might have been in execution, made a valid point, many readers suggested. Of course, these complaints about declining service come in an environment where air travel is increasingly a commodity, and the only thing that matters to huge numbers of passengers (and some corporate travel departments) is how to find the absolutely cheapest ticket anywhere, anytime. With major airlines losing billions and fare wars intensifying with the low-service, low-cost carriers, the present environment in domestic air travel is obviously not conducive to a flourishing of passenger service. A reply from Jodi Hess, an American flight attendant for 12 years, said that "flight attendants at AA have a new slogan: If you can't afford the bus, fly us!" She added: "They don't complain about JetBlue and Southwest and other Wal-Marts of the sky because there they expect no frills. On the larger carriers, passengers are still under the impression that they will get playing cards, magazines, peanuts, meals, and pretty stewardesses at their beck and call. Ain't gonna happen." On the Road appears each Tuesday. E-mail: Jsharkey@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/business/27road.html?ex=1084073754&ei=1&en=4f7734a2367a49a6 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company