Consecutive Flights with the Star of United’s Safety Videos

I had the pleasure today of flying on consecutive flights with Charles, one of the stars of United’s safety videos (pictured below).

Apparently Charles has a reputation on Flyertalk, and not a great one, so when I walked onto my ORD-MSP flight before the crack of dawn this morning and saw him, I thought, “Oh boy, this is going to be interesting.”

But Charles turned out to be an exceptional purser, one of the best I have had in a long time. He was courteous and professional from the pre-boarding process all the way to the final goodbyes.

Beverage orders were taken by name and rather than saying, “What do you want to drink?” or “Can I get you a beverage?” he (properly) stated, “May I offer you a beverage this morning, Mr. Klint?”

My next flight was from MSP-DEN and sure enough, it was the same aircraft and as I walked down the jetway an onto the plane, there was Charles, who looked a bit puzzled at first but quickly composed himself and said, “Welcome back Mr. Klint.”

I had been in the Red Carpet Club till the end of the boarding process so was one of the last to board. The overhead bins in first class were all closed, but he stated, “I’ve saved you a spot for you bag. Let me take it for you.”

That’s right, he took my (heavy) bag and stowed it for me two rows back. That’s what I call service. The AFA would not be happy!

His announcements were very precise and well-articulated, and nearly identical on both flights. He did hawk the UA Chase Visa card a couple times, but not in an annoying manner.

On the way out in Denver I told him, “Charles, I see that United picks its best FAs for the safety videos.” He smiled and said, “Nah.” But I think there is some truth to that. I have got to say, it was the best service I have had on United since my flight from IAD-LAS with Terrence last July (and I have had some great service in between).