Big title, but it gets to the heart of an issue that has been sidetracked in a way that is unfair to the customer. A United Airlines flight attendant was viewed sitting on the galley floor, eating a leftover first class or crew meal, watching her mobile phone without headphones, and rudely refusing service to other passengers. Yes, the other flight attendants were lovely (and mollified and apologetic). But does that matter? Was the action of this flight attendant reasonable? If not, why are other flight attendants defending her?
Claim: United Airlines Flight Attendant Sets Up Camp On Floor In Lavatory, Barks At Passengers Who Disturb Her
The Bulkhead Seat shares of a United flight he took on Friday. He was seated in first class and encountered one flight attendant who was lovely and one who was just the opposite. I will quote directly below:
- She was gruff with passengers, doing as little work as possible, and even gave the other flight attendant a hard time when she was trying to do her job.
- After all of the passengers had eaten lunch and the trays were cleared, she began to pull the metal boxes off of the wall in the galley and set one up with her lunch and another as a seat.
- She sat there for over 30 minutes and admonished the other flight attendant when she came into the galley to get passengers beverages.
- While she ate her pasta and drank her Diet Coke, she watched videos on her iPad without headphones.
- Nice flight attendant: “Excuse me, I need to grab something out of this cart.”
- Grumpy flight attendant: “They’ll wait until I’m done.”
- She then proceeded not to move and the nice flight attendant walked all the way to the back galley to get a soda.
- After her 30-minute meal break, she closed a curtain around the galley and stayed in there until the end.
That’s quite the damning indictment against the flight attendant.
But what surprised me was not so much the incident (though it is egregious, particularly failing to use headphones), but the reaction from many flight attendants who have now weighed in on the issue.
Instead of making clear that the flight attendant did not act according to protocol, the author of the story has been attacked. I’m not going to quote them, but in short the author is attacked for many things, including not minding his own business, not giving more attention in his story to the other flight attendant who provided good service, acting entitled, failing to acknowledge how hard flight attendants work, and other barbs.
I am sorry, but that is ridiculous.
Yes, most flight attendant are great at their jobs and many are amazing. I have flown close to two millions miles on United Airlines and I keep going back in part because there are so many caring, lovely, wonderful flight attendants who work hard and take pride in their work.
Furthermore, everyone is entitled to a break and a crew meal or leftover first class meal.
But a flight attendant is not entitled to be rude. Nor is a flight attendant entitled to play something on her phone without the use of headphones.
If the flight attendant did do what is alleged, anyone defending the conduct of this flight attendant is just as deplorable as the flight attendant herself.
CONCLUSION
We all have bad days. But being rude to guests onboard or treating the galley like your own living room is not acceptable. United is aware of this incident and I sincerely hope that it looks into it and will respond in a constructive way that ensures this particularly flight attendant will not ever give us a repeat performance. That is the main issue here, not the great service that was (expectantly) provided by the other flight attendants.
FAs are here exclusively for your safety. She was just taking a break, and she was such a professional, she wasn’t even wearing headphones, so if something happened, she would have been able to hear it, climb over her food and get in to action. You wouldn’t like it if somebody inconvenienced you slightly at work by asking you to do something that is listed in your job description. Don’t expect this FA to like it either!
I realize this is tongue-in-cheek… but if there are flight attendants out there who have an attitude of, “we are here *exclusively* for the safety of passengers” then I would suggest they are in the wrong line of work, and should get into another field, like becoming a firefighter or crossing guard.
I’m an FA and I cringe every time I hear a collegue say that we are here primarily for safety. Totally not true. I didn’t sign up or become interested in being an FA because I liked “safety”. I didn’t want to be a crossing guard. I want to serve people and make them have great flights. (And I love travel and planes, too). The FAs that are not in it for the service aspect need to go. Yes, we are trained for emergencies, but 95% of the time we are here for hospitality.
I love your sentiment, Tom!
“We Connect People, UNITE the world, and do it safely.”
BS . Their primary job is to provide customer service during a flight . If this was in a first class cabin she should have been serving the customers throughout the entire flight . UA flight attendants are mostly lazy as you know what
I flew as a Flight Attendant for 11 years with Continental Airlines, and we really took pride in being a Flight Attendant for the Airline. Had I have that Flight Attendant on my flight we would have had some serious words, then I would have written her up. I wonder why was there not a flight service manager on board who should have taken care of that problem immediately. If you are on your break eating a crew meal no problem but the curtain must be drawn, regardless, she should have been doing cabins checks ever 5 minutes especially in First Class.
That Flight attendant was rude and obviously hated her job and keeping her ipad on with no headphone thats sometime you should get fired on.
Inflight waiters in the US spend about 50% of the time doing hospitality services, 40% of the time chatting/loitering/on the phone, and only about 10% of the time on safety. So don’t tell me FAs are there “exclusively” for your safety. You’re not the pilot. It’s not hard to learn how to operate a door lol. The FA entitlement in the US is just disgusting.
Less than 1 percent of the time enforcing safety regs.
By any chance did u apply and not get hired?
It would be unacceptable if any FA on any airline did it, not just United…
Ewwwwww. Sitting on the galley floor? No thank you.
Are you sure this wasn’t American Airlines? Or Trump ?
stop already with the hate President TRUMP Politics!!!
You are just another low life as the person you mentioned.
There does seem to be a view coming out of the FA unions that the FA is there to be a sort of firefighter/EMS/first responder, and should not have to serve any drinks or food. However, I wonder if this type of behavior shows that people who could not do the FA service their job calls for might not be very good at any of those other roles, either.
I am a nurse and will happily serve my patients coke and snacks. If FA are only there for safety and to act as first responders, then why do they always ask if there is a nurse or doctor on board? I get they deserve breaks, but those actions were unprofessional. If you want to act like you are a first responder/safety then get used to 12-16 hr shifts without breaks.
United Flight Attendants doing United Flight Attendant things.
Shocker of all shockers, shoddy service from a UA FA.
I have encountered behavior like what Matthew described multiple times on UA, far less so on DL which IMHO is the best of the big three.
UA doesn’t care, their inflight food is the worst of the big, they don’t care as a company about their passengers and it shows in many ways.
Why should FAs care when the company doesn’t?
To the individuals defending obstructing access to the catered carts : where in the crew training protocols instructs to do that?
It happened on American Airlines, too. It’s really embarrassing as we would never see kind of behaviors on Cathay, Emirates, JAL, and many more to name. Shame on US Carriers.
It’s okay if the flight attendant is a beagle.
If a complaint was filed, a review was done, and the FA found to be in violation of policies and procedures, the union would most likely back her. My biggest complaint about unions, at least when I was employed at a place that was a union location, was that the union defended those who were lazy and as a result, required the remaining union members to pick up the lazy workers slack.
Unions should defend their members, that includes the members that have to work more or harder to cover for the lazy employee.
Not all unions are like that.
If the FA’s are based in Calif… the union – left=sided Calif rule is for XXTRA breaks so maybe that is the problem..
So quick to get butthurt about someone else’s political statement, but then you write this…
Ual does have crew that act exactly how you said. The problem is that in initial training, these bad attitude crew aren’t vetted enough so they emerge later after yrs on the line, if not right away after graduation. Most if not all bad cre are young, it’s their 1st job, and are a product of a very bad home life/parenting, abd not enough ife exoerience. I know because i was a Ual crew for 30 yrs. Ual knows all to well that hiring a mature, not too young person as it’s front line empliyee, and compensating that person with respect and a liveable salary, it would have a workforce and legacy company 2nd to none. It starts at the top with mature, experienced leadership in all areas of our service industry company. Unfortunately investors in the airline industry can’t see beyond their dividend check.
“are a product of a very bad home life/parenting, abd not enough ife exoerience.”
Nonsense, you get crappy employees from all backgrounds and walks of life.
So disgusting! FAs really don’t have to do as much now days as they did in the past – serving a choice of hot meals in the economy section for one example. First class was just that – first class. White tableclothes, etc. When I fly United I can always tell which FAs were legacy Continental and which were legacy United. However, customer service has died everywhere not just in the airline business!
I have to agree with you about legacy UA vs. CO. No comparison.
The POLICE in public have more courtesy and respect than the police (flight attendants) on airplanes..
In any business, stacking metal boxes in common area would be a safety violation. Inside a tube, subject to turbulence, unsecured objects are a far greater threat. I would ask the serious, hard working attendants to step in and report such behavior long before it becomes public. After all, your safety and ours, depends on your action.
There is no “Pay For Performance” in the airline industry, unlike other industries, such as AT&T, where they pay you more if you perform more. Airline employees all get paid the same as their salary grade, whether they do a good job or not, & that creates animosity between colleagues. Will she just get written up? Fired? FA’s make $90 hourly?
Deplorable. What is it that makes many flight attendants so angry and hostile? Why do they snarl? I was on a United flight when I nicely asked for a glass of water from a flight attendant who was in front of his cart when he sighed, glared, then rolled his eyes and said, “No! you can’t have a glass of water!”and walked off, leaving his cart by the exit door. So for all the flight attendant supporters of rudeness, why is it so difficult to be civil? Why can other airlines which pay a fraction of US carrier salaries have civil, if not kind and pleasant, flight attendants?
Within the last year, while traveling on a regional jet, I experienced similar. The flight attendant served one round of beverages ( to first class), then proceeded to pull the curtain and remain there for the next 45 minutes – when we descended below 10,000 feet. I don’t tolerate this anymore. I detail the events to airline customer service, being very specific on all elements of the in flight service. I don’t do it for the miles, I do it in hopes it hits an employee file from an honest evaluation.
If a flight attendant wants a break for 30 minutes on a 5-hour flight, so be it. But not on a sub-90 minute flight when she only has watch over 12 passengers.
I am guessing this flight attendant was not actually working crew but was jumpseating. If she never left the galley, I am guessing she was not actually being paid, but just catching a ride. The original article seems to make a lot of assumptions. If I were a passenger on that flight, I would try to discreetly ask the “nice” flight attendant what the situation was with the other. There are bad apples in any job, and everyone also has bad days. But it sounds like this flight attendant was not actually working but was just a passenger in the jumpseat. If I were working crew, I would definitely tell a jumpseater to use headphones and stay out of the way. I really wonder how much of the original story was exaggerated and working under false assumptions.
Did you even read the article? Can a flight attendant catching a ride tell the working crew to go away.
Don’t be condescending, I’m sure she agrees with you, she’s just trying to make sense out of an odd event.
The bottom line is, those in business class paid for service and not rudeness.
Very irritating to be provided the opportunity for upgrade only to have lazy and rude FA make it a bad experience. US airlines have lost all the concept of loyalty reward programs. I no longer have loyalty to a brand, I just stick with the carrier most likely to be flying the routes I need.
Regarding the comment about the offending FA traveling jumpseat: that is BS. A jumpseat is required to have a seat, sitting in the gallery on canisters and blocking an emergency exit would not be tolerated.
Apparently nobody took a picture? Odd.
There is a picture in the OP’s story.
fake news
No, it’s not.
Matthew … since you’re so connected to United, please let us know the outcome of this if you ever get the answer. It’s sad that one self absorbed Flight Attendant has done so much PR damage in such a short time, especially when the industry really has no warm and fuzzies from the traveling public
Flight Attendants are on the airplanes for ONE reason only….to evacuate you and try to save your life in an emergency.
The other services to you are gravy. So if you are not in a current emergency and she is sitting down for what ever reason…she technically IS doing her job. Airlines competition has added all the other perks to the passengers to draw business. This adds expectations from passengers that sometimes may not be met. Everyone has a bad day at times! Maybe this was her day..
Disagree overall on the point of a FA very strongly, but agree to the extent that evacuation is the most important objective.
She must have been trying to get fired. Who acts like that and expects to still be employed? Hopefully she’s gone!
Get another hobby than attacking flight attendants. Your behaviour is abhorrent and disgusting. Leave the poor woman to eat and take a break! Why don’t you send me your work address so I can come in and annoy you then post about it
Sitting on the carrier is a clear violation and closing the curtain in the galley, I don’t see anywhere she can get out of this. Don’t bring your personally issue to work, it’s not an excuse to be rude to anyone
As a flight attendant, we are NOT allowed to sit on carriers in the galley or anywhere else. We are NOT allowed to watch ANYTHING on our phones or iPads while on duty. This is embarrassing. This flight attendant needs to find another job where they can be by themselves. It is a choice to work with the public!