Even though I am elite on AT, I keep trying to fly Delta 1x per month to keep my points up and it looks like I'll get Silver Medallion after next flight, though, besides for free bags, there is not much reason. Silver gets you nada, esp in ATL.
So, last week I was on Delta both ways and both were interesting.
Crew to Den were all based in Detroit. At least one if not several had some sort of accent, kind of hard to discern but I settled on French. I sat in the exit row and instead of the attendant quizzing each row individually (there were 4 rows total) about the willing and able to assist stuff, the guy asked us all at once and basically only listened to row nearest him and took off.
Then, for descent, they announced that we'd be landing shortly but never came around after that to get trash, make sure that all seats and tray tables were up, appliances off, etc. There were a bunch of us who looked around as were were about to land like "OMG, I could have kept my table and seat down and my IPod on the whole time and they wouldn't know!" The crew totally didn't care which was amazing. That or they all thought someone else was doing the work. Maybe they were all on strike mid-flight.
For the return to ATL flight again the attendants were Detroit based (no discernible accents this time) and though not as lackadaisical they too did not feel they were the Nazi enforcers that most attendants do nowadays, particularly Delta employees.
Two theories on this:
1) The Detroit crew really has different standards or work ethic. If so, why? What is it about Detroit that makes them so casual? Could it be that since ATL is homebase they get more training here? Could it be that Detroit just realizes that there are bigger fish to fry? Maybe since their economy has been in the tank for so long their priorities have totally changed/reset? Could it be that Detroit is really more the norm and that just ATL staff are evil because living in ATL sucks so much and it just gives everyone a nasty attitude?
2) While 1 has a lot of interesting regional and cultural implications that hopefully are worth talking about, I think my 2nd idea is more likely: Attendants work by seniority which means that maybe it is a different level of seniority working this summer. As mentioned in past blogs the vibe on delta flights sucks as their are so many medallion members that they expect a lot and have a bitchy entitled attitude. Well, that has actually been reduced this summer. I don't know why but maybe just having more leisure travelers on board has changed the vibe. Security has sucked more everywhere as no one is enforcing the expert lane and there are just too many people who have no idea how to travel going through security so the vibe there sucks but on board it has actually been very nice. So, I think that the less senior attendants are working and are just happy to get hours and because there is no "I DESERVE THE WORLD" attitude on board the attendants are actually being more patient and helpful. So, the really interesting socio-cultural question in this one is why would the more senior attendants all have bad attitudes? Burnt out? Overdue to retire or use those great benies for a nice trip of their own?
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