American Airlines Flight Attendant Complains To Delayed Passengers—“I’ve Been Up Almost 24 Hours”

American Airlines passengers who had returned to LAX after a mechanical problem and waited hours for another plane to Maui were surprised when a flight attendant on the replacement aircraft announced: “I’ve been up almost 24 hours.” He said the crew had expected to fly to New York, nobody told them their assignment had changed, and they hadn’t prepared for a 14-hour flight day. “The company has let all of y’all down and it’s also let us down today.” The passenger who posted the recording says customers had been understanding about the mechanical issue. What bothered him was the replacement crew taking their frustration out on passengers. American flight 271 from Los Angeles to Kahului on October 2 returned to its origin before another aircraft eventually completed the trip. Passengers eventually made it to paradise five hours late. Reportedly the original aircraft had a stuck gear door and pilots handled this all professionally. However, Finally we boarded the plane and the flight attendants were clearly unhappy and verbalizing it to us as we got on the plane. One complained about working for “this company” to us. During the flight two others were downright indignant and irritated with the passengers. He describes one flight attendant throwing up his hands because a woman heading to the lavatory was in the aisle when he wanted to get to the front. Another allegedly told the passenger’s wife: we don’t sell bottled water, we’re not Spirit In the flight attendant’s telling, American found replacement crew but failed to get the assignment communicated. Passengers kept waiting while the crew were at the wrong plane. The flight attendant wants it known their kvetching is on the airline, they’re only taking it out on the passengers. None of this is the passengers’ fault. Y’all don’t make the schedules. Y’all do not prepare the planes or fix them. He asks everyone to be kind, apologizes for the wait, and says they’ll get everyone to Maui safely. He’s trying to explain what happened, while telling them the crew are exhausted and blaming American. The first is spot on, the second seems inappropriate. The passenger who posted this to social media says he’s sympathetic to the employees, but doesn’t think customers should suffer for whatever the company put them through. In a reply, he writes: They didn’t deserve it but we didn’t deserve to be treated like crap too. I’d add that telling customers you’ve been awake almost 24 hours raises an obvious question about whether you should be working the flight. American has a process for flight attendants to report fatigue and seek removal. It’s also more complicated than some commenters’ suggestion to simply call out: the company reviews whether the fatigue was caused by an operational disruption. That determination affects pay protection, sick leave, and potential attendance points. We don’t know this flight attendant’s duty history (and time awake isn’t the same as duty time). There’s no suggestion that American violated federal rest requirements or contractual minimum rest. I’ve written about a United flight attendant bringing first class passengers into a complaint about a coworker, and a United pilot broadcasting his contempt for cabin crew over an open microphone. Passengers shouldn’t get brought into an employee’s issues with their employer. Apologies for the issue that led to the delay Note that getting a new crew is complicated and apologize for it taking longer than they’d like And, I think, the better way to frame the unexpected trip for flight attendants is that “American wanted to get you where you’re going, and so did we. We were headed to New York but we’re doing a much longer day than planned to make that happen. I know this delay is exhausting for everyone, so let’s all work to be extra kind – we’re headed to paradise!” What do y’all think? Topics on this page