A pregnant woman experiencing dizziness was denied a glass of water on American Airlines after flight attendants told her that they could not give her a drink due to “COVID safety.”
Pregnant Woman Denied Water On American Airlines Due To “COVID Safety”
Hannah Blair is 32 weeks pregnant. She was traveling on American Airlines in economy class and requested a glass of water because she felt dizzy. Flight attendants denied her request, noting that due to “COVID safety” they could not offer her a glass of water.
Meanwhile, she watched first class passengers receive their choice of beverages…including a glass of water.
Gotta love when you’re 32 weeks pregnant and dizzy on a flight & @AmericanAir refuses to give you water because “COVID safety”.. then proceeds to hand out drinks to first class. 🤔
— Hannah Blair (@hannaheblair) April 30, 2021
I find this whole story incredibly absurd and apparently American Airlines’ Twitter team did as well, advising her to tell flight attendants she was sick:
We want to make sure you get the water you need, Hannah. Please make sure to let our flight crew know you’re not feeling well.
— americanair (@AmericanAir) April 30, 2021
But according to Blair, flight attendants just scolded her for getting on the flight in the first place:
That doesn’t sound like the excellent service we strive to provide. DM your record locator and we’ll pass this on to our leaders.
— americanair (@AmericanAir) April 30, 2021
Blair’s story isn’t even unique. If you read the some of the 700+ replies to her tweets, others share similar incidents.
It’s frankly shameful, as American Airlines itself points out on Twitter, that this happened.
Flight attendants: are you for real? If a pregnant passenger (or frankly any passengers in pain or distress) asks you for a cup of water, YOU GIVE IT TO THEM.
Will anyone defend the flight attendant here?
So what if Blair should have come prepared? So what if she did not buy water in the terminal because it was too expensive or she figured she would not need it?
While Doug Parker takes part in a Ramadan fast for 15 hours to learn more about “empathy” his flight attendants show no empathy by denying water to a passenger in need.
CONCLUSION
I question whether this flight attendant was just a bad apple or the fruit of poor leadership (maybe both). Whatever the case, this should be Parker’s focus: fixing the poor and apathetic service on American Airlines that is the experience of so many passengers. American Airlines plans to bring back beverage service to economy class on June 1st. It should bring it back now…for everyone.
> Read More: American Airlines Moves In Right Direction With Service Resumptions
H/T: View From The Wing
The Twitter team appears to be equally useless. “Pass this on to our leaders”? They’re literally palming the case off to someone else.
I flew with my pregnant wife on AA three months before giving birth. We always made sure we had bottles of water. We fly first class and even still would rather drink our own water. Why risk it. Flying at 32 weeks is risky and not having your own water with you is stupid while your pregnant.Sounds like shes a idiot to me.
@Tony
Way to miss the point. If someone isn’t feeling well on board an aircraft and asks for water, they should get it.
I hate flight attendants.
I’m going to agree with you here. This sounds like basically fueling the fire for the sympathy clicks. I understand that once-a-year flyers aren’t always aware that they need to plan for the worst, and maybe a first time mother I could see might not have the whole pregnancy thing down, but I seem to recall if my then wife and I planned to be anywhere for an extended amount of time while she was pregnant, that we typically had some sort of emergency bag ready to go in the event that we got stranded or something unplanned occurred. And this wasn’t like in the last few weeks of pregnancy, but early on since she seemed to either be winded/thirsty/hungry/etc.
As a single Dad, the first time I flew with my boys cross country, even though we were in First and meals were served, I still packed food. And bought water/juice/milk in the terminal past security in the off-chance that if there was a delay, or catering wasn’t loaded, or they didn’t want what was being served, whatever, I was prepped.
I’m not saying every person on a plane has to pack a full emergency kit to have on them, but pregnant or not if you are going to get onto a metal tube that is going to be sealed up for 3+ hours at 10,000 ft, during COVID with reduced inflight service, common sense would dictate to bring a bottle of water. DONT RELY ON SOMEONE ELSE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH BASIC NECESSITIES. Should it be that way? Absolutely not, but I plan for the worst.
Ramadan? But water is allowed for pregnant women and travelers during Ramadan.
You got it: “shameful”
She was forced to fast, to show compassion like their glorious CEO. This crew sounds like a finalist for the Sara Nelson excellence in service award.
Her COVID exposure, and that of the FAs, were both reduced by eliminating this potential interaction. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that.
Killing a fly with a thermonuclear device?
Let’s get the real truth! Our son is a American Airlines Captain and he says this is a absolute lie!
Not true.. we are so sick of fake news.. They would *NEVER* deny anyone water!
Are you kidding me? Your son does not patrol over 26,000 flight attendants at American Airlines.
This was a lie! Our son is a AA Captain and stated this if far fetched and a absolute lie
I’m sorry, but on what possible basis would this passenger lie?
Tony should shove a blade in his throat and hack off his fingers so no one can hear from him ever again.
That’s not very nice…
If true, this is abhorrent, completely without compassion, and if the comments on the tweet are to be believed, not an isolated incident.
In the past few weeks, I’ve flown American four times, United once, and Delta twice. I was surprised at how different the flight attendants were. Delta’s were superior: Nicer, more confident, more committed to passenger service. Their jobs didn’t seem like a burden to them; rather, it felt like a profession they took pride in. That must say something about the corporate culture, and how the employees are treated. I hope AA management starts learning from their mistakes, and their competitors’ successes.
Who knows if any of this is true. I’m guessing there is more to the story but it does line up with the FA union mentality around covid exposure. I also wonder if the TSA shouldn’t have allowed her to carry water through security.
As far as the Ramadan sidebar issue, there are clear exemptions for pregnant women and people who need medical care. Of course not offering water to a Muslim person on a plane could trigger some sort of response I’d assume.
The main takeaway is that Flight Attendants are primarily there for your safety and the safety of others so don’t you dare forget that.
The only reason I made the Ramadan remark was because Parker said he did it to better empathize with others. My point had nothing to do with Ramadan itself, only the lack of empathy at AA.
And I just spoke to another passenger who encountered something nearly identical. I believe this woman. I’ve seen poor service myself on American Airlines.
Flight Attendants are the laziest people in the aviation industry … and now the excuse for them to do nothing is covid !!!
I believe this story 10000000%
In what way is the FA’s exposure increased? Seems to me the passenger is the only one at risk by accepting an open container of water and if she felt poorly enough to ask for water, they should have given it to her. No excuses, no questions asked.
We could very easily do without the “watchers” errr I mean flight attendants. They add absolutely nothing to the flying experience and haven’t since 9/11 and unionization before that. I usually sit in row 1. I can tell you who’s cheating on who in the PHX base, which pilot is a philandering snake, which f/a has multiple “daddys” in various layover stations, which senior mama gives away all the good trips so she can work 2 days a month because her pilot ex-husband pays her alimony. They’re not here for our “safety” and they’re absolutely not first responders……not even close.
Theyre all useless.
Ok, first of all I’d like to acknowledge the fact that I personally have no access to the FACTS of this story, however, as much as my motherly instinct screams in want to side with Sheila on this, I cannot on the basis that, like others have said, Captain or no Captain, there’s no way this gentleman can police any other plane but his own. Still yet, as any manager of any service industry will tell you, they can’t always police all of their employees all of the time. And as absurd as the act may be and as much as he protests that something that ridiculous couldn’t possibly have happened, it could have. Company policy or not.
I seriously believe that if airline employees were “re-interviewed” three years after they started a job, 99% of them wouldn’t be able to cut it. But then again the people doing the hiring are of the same general mindset or worse so it actually may slide even further downhill. No high standards anymore, anything goes, just have to be breathing to get hired. Then put a uniform on them and the major power-tripping starts.
Who knows for sure? Might this have been a case of bottled water being available but for a fee in Coach? Might she have wanted water for free? If a bottle, or even a glass of water , was given for free, would that have prompted others around her to demand their free water too? Is this a case of unprofessionalism by a flight attendant, or a flight attendant that has experience in knowing what some passengers are like when you do a favor for one?
I can’t answer these questions because I wasn’t there, and I have seen enough nonsense on planes by passengers and flight attendants to know that anything is possible, and not just during the pandemic.
Non alcoholic drinks are available on demand and complimentary for all passengers in economy, but you basically have to know that.
I 100% believe this happened. I suspect the FA refused it because if the passengers around the pregnant woman saw her being brought a beverage, other passengers would have asked and they would have wound up doing a beverage service. Not that there’s any reason they shouldn’t, but with Sara Nelson as the voice of the industry, FAs will do whatever they can to not work.
When I’m in Y, I generally walk back to the galley and ask for a drink. Of course that’s not required, nor was it necessary in this case.
I think everyone was wrong here. The flight attendants were wrong for not giving her water. The woman was wrong for not bringing water with her. If she’s too poor to purchase a $1 bottle of water out of the water vending machines in many airports, she certainly isn’t too poor to bring an empty container and fill it up from a sink. Pregnancy isn’t an excuse to act helpless and irresponsible. And I will never understand the narcissistic publicity hounds who publicize every little event in their lives.
The water from the lavatory sink is potable and free, although it probably wouldn’t be my first choice of a beverage.
Seems to me the airline problem is with stewardidtd!!!! Should look into this!!!!
Doug Parker isn’t going to worry about “fixing the poor and apathetic service on American Airlines” … he is the cause of that culture. His myopic focus on creating a carrier with LCC type service (or worse) and full service pricing has resulted in the abysmal situation at American. Parker destroyed US Airways – remember he is the one who tried to get US Airways to start charging for soft drinks in coach way before there even were LCC’s – a miserable failure he eventually pulled back from. The solution to fixing what’s wrong at AA start with removing Doug Parker,
She must have been too white, as we have learned by now, if she were black, she would have gotten the water.
“… if you need anything, just ask.” They say it on every flight. They always give it. This was a craptastic FA who needs to be dealt with. I fly AA all the time and have never seen someone refused water for meds or something. This was not typical. Rotten, but not common.
I haven’t flown AA in over 4 years. Gave up on them after finally one too many horrid customer service experiences. Used to fly them 50-75 flights a year.