Would you care to address any of what I said specifically?

 

I agree with SVCTA. The captain is obviously the captain. We are their supervisors in regards to safety.

As far as service goes, the old adage about "Staying in your lane" comes to mind. If Delta wants the FA's to perform more service more often, then Delta needs to do something about it.

 

Exactly.

10

 

It's not vague at all. There's bullet point in there that is pretty straightforward and has specificity.

The fact you have no situational awareness "I have no idea what the cabin crew are doing back there" about the pacing of their service is pretty enlightening and says much about you. First service (domestic or int'l) will usually take around an hour to a little over an hour and half depending on the aircraft. If the flight is 2+ hours or longer, they'll do a couple of water/tea/coffee walkthrus, about an hour or so out they'll do the last service. Int'l will be a bit different as they will serve the arrival meal. Domestic they will do one last service there (water/tea/coffee etc). They start initial service once they can get up and move around on the climbout. Sometimes that's right after you chime them at 10k. Sometimes later depending on what you briefed them on rides.

Having awareness of what they are doing back helps you to know if they're up doing service so you can warn them about approaching rough air. Also, you can let them know when it's ok to get back to it as the ride improves, or not. There's plenty you can do to assist and facilitate them conducting their service in the cabin.

No one here said you order them to do service, although that may change here in the near future depending on the findings from the IFS secret riders and their observations. You can help facilitate the service by educating them and being a Captain about the conditions and how you control the seat belts.

 

Not here to pick a fight with you, but your last sentence is not how the IFS management views it. I think there is indeed a breakdown in expectations from the training side and the leadership side of IFS. The HVC and other email surveys led to the ongoing ride-a-longs and you can expect to see some more guidance on this matter affecting you the captain as well as IFS. The exact wording coming out has yet to be determined.

 

IFS management? They can view it however they want. It's not our job to supervise in flight service.

If Flt Ops directs us to supervise I expect we will see quite a bit of drama on board our aircraft. Even something as simple as, "Hello, we noticed you haven't started your service yet. It's smooth."

It won't end well.

 

You’re being disingenuous if you claim to believe I meant that I don’t know the job of the cabin crew and how/when they do it. Otherwise just sanctimonious.

Not a single one of us knows exactly what they’re doing every minute of the flight. What, are you peering through the peephole to try and piece together a map of their movements? Calling and asking, “hey, it’s HK. What are you doing? Okay, what are you doing now? How about now?”

Come on, man. The only specific things it says that we are responsible for is promoting safety and efficiency followed by a business school term that no pilot should be expected to know how to define. Should we offer a guidance when somebody calls up front, obviously asking if it’s too bumpy to bust out the carts? Yes, and like I said, I give that opinion every time. And when I do my brief, I tell them what kind of ride to expect and that I will keep them in the loop. If I think it’s going to be anything they need to know about.

Perhaps more importantly, though. Is that the OBM that the flight attendant abide by clearly states that the purser/flight leader is responsible for ensuring the in-flight service policies are followed.

There is no place in our manuals that even relates to in-flight service policies. Just broad statements about the scope of our authority, only being specific as to promoting safety (which, again, is not terribly specific, but it is an important umbrella).

And to be honest, I don’t care for the underlying CRM issues that will be created when we start stepping into each other‘s worlds like we’re big swinging d1*ks

 

More great reasons to stay a senior FO… 😛

 

So glad I decided to skip over NBA and hold out for WBA. The purser cadre runs a tight ship.

 

Not been my experience as a passenger for the last 5-6 years. Lucky to have sat in D1 numerous times and outside of the scripted first service, international service is just as lackluster as the domestic product. Sat on numerous 10+ hour flight that had zero water offers outside of the initial service. Pursers are struggling with FAs not doing their expected jobs.

side note: Had an annoying flight to HND in the first row of D1 that somehow two FAs talked loudly the entire time they weren’t in the bunk, I was honestly curious you could talk about anything that long without long pauses. Would have been upset paying $10K to listen to that while trying to sleep.