TheFly

Which Airline Has the Rudest (or Nicest) Flight Attendants? | George Hobica

You're probably not going to be terribly surprised by the results of the latest Airfarewatchdog.com reader poll.

The truth is, at least in my experience, most flight attendants are "nice" at least if you're nice to them. Pour on the charm, and they'll respond. That's not always the case, but here are some tips.

We polled 3,400 people, and by a wide margin, Southwest and Alaska were voted as having the nicest flight attendants and Spirit the worst, followed by Air Canada. We adjusted the results by the number of passengers carried between January and October 2013 in order not to skew the results based on airline size (the more people who fly an airline, the more flight attendants they encounter).

The results of the worst flight attendant poll:

Spirit - 26%
Air Canada - 14%
Frontier - 11%
Virgin America - 9%
Allegiant - 8%
United - 7%
US Airways - 7%
American - 5%
AirTran - 3%
Delta - 3%
Hawaiian - 3%
JetBlue - 3%
Alaska - 1%
Southwest - 1%

Since most people seem to love Virgin America (and it is indeed a pretty cool little airline) you might be surprised as I was that it came in 4th in the worst poll, even worse than tiny Allegiant. As I've noted elsewhere, I never have problems with flight attendants because I treat them with excessive courtesy but the only time I had a really bad one was in first class on Virgin America. The dude just went AWOL and when he finally showed up at the end of the flight I asked what happened, "Where'd ya go, was there an emergency back in coach?" he said "Is there a problem? That's what the call button is for." Maybe he knew I had upgraded my $150 fare with a last minute $350 upgrade and wasn't entitled to a second drink.

Harrumph.

More reading: How to make your flight attendant like you.

TheFly

Spirit…no suprise there.

evamodel00

ANA attendants have always been my best experience out of the 6-7 different airlines I've taken .

rightside02

Can't blame Spirit , from the few flights I have jumper in with them. They deal with a really rough crowd ... Then again you charge 16 dollars for a fare you gonna attract the bottom of the human race

satpak77

Avianca (now part of TACA)

so I suppose Avianca/TACA

e6bpilot

I have flown Spirit a couple of times. I would say the FAs met my expectation, which is that they served drinks (for a fee) and got the pax on and off quickly. The crowd on those flights was pretty rough.
I think their ticket agents and gate agents are wonderful, especially considering that they are on the front line for enforcing "surprise" ancillary fees. I had an overweight bag on one leg where I had my young kid with me. She could have made me split it up or charged me $50, but she must have read the emotion on my face (I was coming home from a funeral) and she let it slide. I thanked her profusely. I think considering the flak they must get from their customers, I think they do a pretty good job.

LNL76

As a FA myself, I have to say I can count on one hand the rude FAs I've encountered in 6 years of flying, both domestic and international. I always acknowledge them with a smile/hello, never give them attitude and say "please" and "thank you." You'd be surprised how just those little gestures get you treated well. Act the fool, whether you're a regular pax or other airline crew member, and that changes in a split second. NOTHING worse than a DHer, JSer or crew on personal travel thinking they somehow are entitled to skirt the rules or get special treatment due to their status. Be polite and you will most likely get special treatment!

You're welcome!

Iron Maiden

They do have some gorgeous women working there

Thank you! I've seen a few Flight Attendants who treated myself, and other F/Os as their personal slaves and that they have more operational authority than either the Captain or F/O.

Packrat

I'm surprised that VX was so far down the list. Considering the image that Branson wants to convey it looks like his hiring practices aren't congruent.

TheFly

In all fairness, I had a wonderful experience at Spirit the other day (ORD crew). I was actually shocked! I flew them twice before as a paying passenger out of LAX and each time was an out right shame. Nice job to the NK ORD crew!