Originally Posted by The Dominican

The treatment overall of the flight crew is far better in many companies abroad than it is in the US, by far! You will never get attitude from a gate agent or a dispatcher for example, never! The different groups (ground staff, operations folks etc.) Seem to be more in tune with working together to have the operation work smoothly, as opposed to the US where the different groups are always protecting their little "island of power" you will never have some scheduler snap back at you or tell you to talk to the union if you don't like it, I've had people from operations hang up the phone on me because I called for a lav service during a quick turnaround, as opposed to never having to call anyone for that in the 13 years that I have been working in japan for example! I've never had to call to ask where is the crew transport, nor have I called to arrange a reservation for the company checker because the company forgot to do it, these things just don't happen in many companies abroad as it is pretty much standard operations at airlines in the US, Do you encounter situations like that often in the US? Well, no but they do happen.

It is not about captains being full of themselves or anything like that, it is just a comparison based on our experience working in different markets, it is a fact that the entire operation is more respectful of the flight crew.