American Airlines Flight Attendants Cry Foul After Executive Complains About Poor Onboad Service - Live and Let's Fly (2024)

American Airlines flight attendants are crying foul over a senior vice president who complained about in-flight service. In fact, they accuse him of lying. But there are some inconsistencies in the story that I think we should consider.

Flight Attendants At American Airlines Are Angry At Brady Byrnes Again After In-Flight Service Complaint On DFW-DEN Flight

First, let’s take a look at this story, as first shared by aviation insider JonNYC. Below is a summary of what occurred as told by the union representing flight attendants at American Airlines. I’m quoting it verbatim because I think every detail matters, as I will discuss below.

Yesterday, we had Brady Byrnes, vice president of inflight service on our flight from DFW-DEN. He lied and reported us to the company that we did not do service on the flight.

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Here’s the story. Prior to the flight, CAP informed us to remain seated for 15 mins due to turbulence and there’ll be light turbulence the entire flight. After CAP called us it was safe to get up, the crew made an announcement that they would not serve hot beverages but they would serve juices, mixers, and co*ke products etc etc and they started the light turbulence procedure onboard service. When the crew got to his row, Brady, who traveled with his family, asked for co*ke Zero and cranberry for his children and he even asked the crew to pour cranberry for his daughters.

After the flight, he contacted the company saying that we did not do service. We all got emails at 4 am about it and the company needed an explanation to why. Is this the person who represents us and has our best interests?? From what I know and experienced, he lied about us and tried to get us in trouble when we SERVED him and his family. He was so nice to our faces and thanked us for our service. During the flight, we talked among ourselves that he seemed so nice. But boy, were we wrong.

https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1766243263780983282?s=20

Some thoughts:

• Brady Byrne is AA’s Senior Vice President of Inflight and Premium Guest Services
• Dallas (DFW) – Denver (DEN) is 641 miles, so there is no meal service onboard (i.e. the problem was not that a meal wasn’t served), but did the flight attendants neglect to offer the snack? (Snack basket in first class, biscoff cookie or pretzels in economy class)
• Did the captain turn the seatbelt light off?
• It is mentioned that “juices, mixers, and co*ke products” were served, but what about alcohol?
• Are flight attendants upset Brady had the audacity to “even [ask] the crew to pour cranberry for his daughters”? That seems to me totally reasonable: the girls did not want the entire can so yes, a flight attendant pours them each a cup to reduce unnecessary waste
• What service did Byrne accuse the flight attendants of not doing?
• Did the complaint actually come from Bryne?

JonNYC further shares service guidelines for periods of expected mild turbulence and it does appear that the suspension of hot beverages was warranted:

But on a serious note: pic.twitter.com/dSv2qDYaKM

— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) March 9, 2024

If the complaint did come from Bryne, what concerns me most is the allegation that he was nice to the flight attendants to their face and then reported them after the fact. Speaking generally, that is bad leadership. There is a time and place for correction, but you do not thank someone for their service when you are about to report them for bad service…

We don’t have Byrne’s side of the story and I’m not sure we ever will. Since I don’t know Byrne beyond the Gucci controversy, I cannot speak to his character, but it does seem odd that he would fabricate a story when there would have been a plane full of witnesses (if the issue was indeed about the beverage service).

All of this points to the sorry state of relations right now between flight attendants and management at American Airlines.

CONCLUSION

Flight attendants have accused an American Airlines SVP of lying about in-flight service on a flight from Dallas to Denver. I’m not sure we will have any follow-up here: it is an internal matter now. But I would love to hear Byrne’s side of the story or better yet, see the complaint that was sent “at 4:00 am” to flight attendants over this incident.