A former flight attendant from the 70's on the current state of airline service: "I have experienced the decline of service along with the rest of the flying public. But I believe I have felt it more acutely because I remember the days when to fly was to soar. The airlines, and their employees, took pride in how their passengers were treated. A friend who flew for Pan Am and I have a friendly rivalry over which airline was better. Friendly, yes. But we each believe we worked for the best." - Jess Lee from Bookmarklet

Great editorial! And what's especially fascinating to me is that this seems largely a U.S. phenomena. When I recently flew a 2 hour hop from Seoul to Beijing on Asiana airlines, the flight attendants were: 1) Very courteous. 2) Quite helpful 3) Serving *a full hot meal*... in economy class! 4) Very hot themselves (but I digress :D). And I've heard similar stuff from many others. So why can't we have this quality in our own U.S. airlines?! - Adam Lasnik

sign of the times ....its going to be a bi polar world again - except this time it will be asia-centric ! - viki saigal

@Gregory: That is a great editorial by Friedman. - Jess Lee

How much did you pay for that 2-hour hop, Adam? I see SEL<>PEK at $600 (RT) and SFO<>SEA at $200 (RT). Both flights take 2 hours. Is it any wonder you get more service on the $600 flight? For $400, you can take Virgin America first class SFO<>SEA, and you will get your hot meal and very courteous attendants. (VA may be inferior for ogling purposes, but you could always bring some porn with you.) - ⓞnor

I used to love to fly, now I dread it - I will happily pay more for decent service, good food and un-surly flight attendants. I wish more airlines would follow the Virgin model, instead of the Walmart model. - Nadine Schaeffer

It just seems to depend heavily on the airline in question. I've had crappy service from very expensive ones, and wonderful service from cheaper ones (there seems to be no strong correlation either way). What I *have* seen is that the majority of US carriers are (anecdotally) quite bad. I've heard Virgin is quite a lot better, and I know from personal experience that Qantas is great, but not too expensive. - Joel Webber

Are flight attendants surly? I have basically never had that problem. Cramped seats and crappy food, yes, but even on the worst of airlines I can't think of a flight attendant who was anything but as helpful as they could possibly be with what they were given to work with. - ⓞnor

US flight attendants are less hot because we have anti-discrimination laws here. - Melinda Owens

@melinda - in other countries, flight attendants are selected for 'hotness'? Funny - my only poor flight attendant experience was non-american airline + attendant pair. - Joel

Don't get me wrong - I empathize with the flight attendants in the US today. They are paid poorly to work brutal hours catering to a bunch of cranky people. I don't blame them. My biggest wish? Take that huge tax suck called TSA and just get rid of it. - Nadine Schaeffer

Yes Joel, in other countries, flight attendants are selected for hotness. In fact, Singapore airlines even had a rule that if a girl got pregnant or was married, she couldn't keep her job. - Piaw Na

@piaw - thanks for the info. It wasn't long ago this was true in the US. It will likely change with time. - Joel

Okay, so I shoulda realized I was opening up a can of worms with the attractiveness comment ;-). Piaw is absolutely right... and, all joking aside, I'm glad U.S. airlines *don't* discriminate in this way. That issue aside... Greg [oops, sorry, meant ⓞnor], you asked how much I paid for that flight. $50. It was $50 more for the open jaw which included that leg, vs, a rt SFO-ICN (San Francisco - Seoul). - Adam Lasnik

And you know what? I bet the CEOs of the non-American airlines are a hell of a lot less greedy than the American CEOs. Maybe that leaves more money and hence creates more respect for the flight attendants? Somehow I doubt they've been asked to take regular paycuts so the CEOs could keep their multi-million dollar compensation packages. - Adam Lasnik

@gregory - what countries would you say do not suffer from this character problem? - Robin Barooah

I like your use of the word 'suffers'. I've been thinking of it as an impersonal infection. http://tinyurl.com/7oeno4 - Robin Barooah from IM

that link is to an essay about credit default swaps - but I am seeing that as more of a metaphor for the trading of 'trust' - I haven't found a better way to express it which is why I haven't published that piece more widely. - Robin Barooah from IM

If I am choosing between two restaurants, and one restaurant has crappy service, then I won't go to that one, even if it's prices are 20% cheaper. Choosing between two airlines - I'll probably take the 20% cheaper flight even if I KNOW the service is going to suck. If this is the case for most people, what incentive does the airline have to fix the service issue?? - Maneesh

comparing apples and oranges, restaurants and airlines - imran

I wonder if there is a market for an airplane trip that's more like a cruise than a bus ride on greyhound - Joel

@joel: Dubai market - imran

Joel, uh, that's called "first class". - ⓞnor

US airlines first class is almost worse than coach in middle-east sectors - imran

I mean *beyond* first class. But, yeah, I get the point. - Joel

As I read this article... this song "Those were the days my friends" came to mind - http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Bindu Reddy

Joel, beyond first class you have chartered flights, fractional jets, and fully owned private jets. There is really no limit to how much you can spend on a cushy experience. (And VA's domestic first is pretty good.) - ⓞnor

@ⓞnor - I get that, but, going with the cruise liner analogy, you're really talking about private yachts. Really, it would be nice to see mass marketed luxury flights (a la Disney cruise lines). I don't see that now. - Joel

Disney cruise lines (which I don't really consider "luxury") serve middle class families. Flying luxury is too expensive to be widely affordable. You might be able to run a first-only flight on certain major routes, but the main customers for first (and business) are business travelers, who are very schedule sensitive, so having a first class section on every plane makes more sense. - ⓞnor

The real answer, of course, is luxury transcontinental blimp service. - ⓞnor

This article (http://www.bohtong.org/2008...) by an ex-Singapore Airlines steward describes the requirements for being a Singapore Airlines flight attendant. You do need to be attractive and they sometimes make the girls try on the sarong kebaya uniform to see if they have the right "Singapore Girl" look. Once you get in, the 4 month training program also includes makeup application. - Jess Lee

@Joel: You can't have cruise-luxury-level planes because you're still on a plane- you're still breathing stale air, you still can't see much out the windows, and there still isn't a swimming pool. A week on even the nicest plane would be intolerable. Given that the experience will only be 5 or 18 hours long, why not buy the cheapest flights you can? - Melinda Owens

Here's an Arab perspective on women's motivations for signing up to be an Etihad flight attendant: http://www.nytimes.com/2008... - Richard Chen

Melinda, no offense, but it's attitudes and decisions like that which, IMHO, are partly to blame for the race to the bottom in airline service. Flying used to be classy, magical, a pleasure, stale air not withstanding. It does not need to be a miserable and uncomfortable experience, and I argue it should NOT be. Part of the prob is that Americans, IMHO, don't *know* what they're missing. If they did, maybe they'd opt to pay another $10 or $20 per ticket. - Adam Lasnik