Date: 202008
Aircraft: Commercial Fixed Wing
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Parked
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Flight Attendant In Charge
Reporter qualification: Flight Attendant Current
Human factors: Communication Breakdown; Workload; Time Pressure; Confusion
Anomaly: Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct
Detector: Person Flight Attendant
When detected: Aircraft In Service At Gate
Result: General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Contributing factors: Company Policy; Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors; Staffing
Primary problem: Company Policy

Narrative: Flight was understaffed by X flight attendants. When I asked Inflight (dual CSR) Supervisor [to] inquire about adding more FAs for our very full flight (with at least one being a [foreign language] speaker); he said that XX was the 'new staffing'. When I had time to check my staffing sheet again; I saw that [the supervisor] was incorrect. We should've had XY FA's working with this load instead of XX. All FAs were extremely busy and task saturated. Only Y economy FAs scheduled. One FA must do required galley supply/security check (which encompasses 2 actual galleys--the Aft most at Location X and the auxiliary one at Location Y) and has little to no time to actually monitor in cabin. One is required for greeting at door X. That leaves only X FAs to monitor the space from row XX to XY; which on this flight was close to XXX passengers. FAs must assist with any questions passengers have (which are plentiful) assist with stowing baggage--direct them to stow baggage in compliance with FARs; assist with seating issues; and give special briefings  and fulfill other requests. X FAs in an extremely busy economy cabin is woefully understaffed. To compound matters; [the company] has; in their infinite wisdom; repeatedly failed to assign [foreign language] speakers to this ZZZ-ZZZZ1 flight. As a result; all FAs had an extremely hard time assisting passengers with their questions and directing them to stow baggage according to FARs before door closure.(amongst other things--like informing them of landing formalities/required forms)There were multiple seating issues including too many lap children in a row for amount of O2 masks; customers requesting seat changes; customers unhappy with seat assignments; and multiple requests for FAs to [assist] customers--in other words; a normal full flight to Country X; however understaffed and without benefit of a [foreign language] speaker.Everyone...was extremely busy; had multiple seat change requests; and had our usual duties of hanging coats; fulfilling drink requests (even without formal preflight beverage service; customers want drinks before leaving and we are required to give them upon request); meal order taking and also assisting/directing baggage stowage and any other requests/problems; also without benefit of a [foreign language] speaker.As Purser I have to brief with the pilots (who most days including this one do not board aircraft until after passenger boarding begins); greet at door X until closure (since no FA # XX was scheduled); hand out hand wipes while greeting; interact with customers; make boarding announcements; answer questions and liaise with cockpit/customer service for any post boarding mechanical; seating or customer issues; of which there were many. Pursers are also to take meal orders on the X zone; which is almost impossible to complete before door closure as the company wants us to do for a timely inflight service. I couldn't even get halfway finished as I had to continually ask a passenger with a bit of English to translate my requests to the [foreign language] only speaking customers. Inflight/CS supervisor did assist with a few seating issues when I informed [the supervisor] of them; including in economy and a very angry customer who wouldn't sit down or stow his bags in protest that he didn't get the bulkhead seat that he had requested. Economy seating issues were fixed; however [another] customer did not like the answers given to him by supervisor and continued to stand near his assigned (and unwanted) seat and refused to stow his bags. Close to main door closure time; Captain informed me that we had maintenance issues and that we wouldn't be closing on time; so I could continue to attempt taking meal orders without menus (which would've had a translation) and without benefit of speaking the language of the customers. Supervisor was visibly agitated at the delay and reminded me to do a final boarding announcement to try and get passengersto stow bags and sit down. There were probably XX people still trying to find places for their bags in economy and two FAs went back to assist. No CSR did a final boarding announcement; as they usually do; and left it to me. I made the announcement; but saw that there were still probably XX-XY people still standing in economy and multiple bins open as far as I could see. All FAs not actively engaged in duties went to assist; but it was extremely difficult for them to get people to stow things and sit down. Again; we had no scheduled [foreign language] speaker and the customers (as usual with passengers who don't fly much) kept trying to leave bags at bulkheads or completely blocking aisles which we could not; for obvious reasons; allow. I left boarding FA at door and went back to my other duty of attempting to take meal orders; then noticed that the door had been shut without my knowledge. There were still at least XX people standing and multiple bins open. [A] customer who didn't like his seat assignment was also still defiantly standing with bags in the aisle to protest his condition. Everyone had multiple large bags and it had been difficult finding space for them all. Compounding this was the new policy of boarding pillows/blankets in large bags in OH bins; which takes away at least 4 large bins. To mitigate this; the Economy FAs; in addition to all their other duties; were forced to hand out the pillows/blankets during boarding; instead of after takeoff as we are told to by the company. That bin space was necessary; but handing out pillows/blankets was yet another task that the 2 FAs had to undertake by themselves in a crowded and busy boarding process.I knocked on door window and motioned CSR to open; which she did. Supervisor reappeared and I showed the situation/explained that it is an FAR that we cannot close door with passengers standing and bins open. Especially considering the load and the fact that OH bin space was very tight. [The Supervisor] was again visibly agitated and yelled at me that 'I told you to make a final boarding announcement to get them to sit down'. I calmly told [the Supervisor] that yes; I did make that final boarding announcement; however the majority of the passengers most likely did not understand it. I made another announcement; but it still took a few minutes for passengers to comply and FAs to close all bins. [The Supervisor] closed the door with a customer still standing and refusing to stow bags. I protested but [the Supervisor] closed [it] again; anyway.




Synopsis: Purser reported multiple issues and difficulties during the boarding process and cited not having enough flight attendants to properly staff the flight as a contributing factor.