When I encounter employees in airport lounges, onboard flights, or at hotels that go above and beyond their call of duty, I like to recognize them. Today, I want to commend Tahesha, the star of the United Airlines Polaris Lounge at Newark.
Tahesha Goes Above And Beyond In Newark Polaris Lounge
I had arrived from Los Angeles on a redeye and had the day in United’s premium cabin lounge prior to my late-evening connection to Cape Town. After getting some work done, I walked over to the restaurant, where a sign said to wait to be seated.
Tahesha Hinds promptly appeared and told me she would be taking care of me. Had she merely provided prompt, attentive, courteous service, I doubt I would have written a post…that should be a given. But what Hinds did so well was managing the entire restaurant herself.
She was all alone that morning and I was not the only guest in the lounge. She had to play hostess, waitress, barista, and busgirl. I’ve never seen someone hustle as she did, and yet she did it with perfect graciousness and a great attitude.
Honestly, it was pretty overwhelming…several tables needing attention at once is a lot to ask. But she promptly seated people, immediately offered them a choice of sparkling or still water, presented menus, and then came back quickly to take orders. She wrote orders down (it never amazes me when a waitress will not write down your order and invariably your order is messed up), repeated them back, and promptly cleared away dishes. She also checked to see how guests were doing once the food arrived.
If you’re a regular reader, you know how important coffee is to me. She was also left to manage the bar…amazingly, the lounge was very short-staffed that Sunday morning. She made a couple of great coffees for me as well (instead of taking the easy way out and using the automatic machine, she used the fancy one that requires some work).
By midday, several additional workers had shown up. As Tahesha prepared to go off duty (she had been working since 4:00 am), she maintained an amazing smile and contagious laugh. It was a pleasure to share part of the morning with her and she is a huge asset to the United Polaris Lounge in Newark and Flik.
CONCLUSION
So often we are quick to point out when employees mess up, but I think it is appropriate to recognize employees who do well. Given a great responsibility, Tahesha did a remarkable job caring for all her guests and I hope to see her again next time I’m flying through EWR in United Polaris.
Let me guess – she was a former Continental employee? But great to hear that it’s not all Untied at United.
Revisionist history – was the regional carrier CO management that took over during the “merger” and ruined the legacy UA service culture. Thanks $misek and Rainey!
Precisely. It was the Texas boys who took the worst of PMUA and PMCO and made it the new UA.
Oh wait, she’s Sodexho, not United, I missed that part. Even more praise!
We had a sever in the Chicago dining room in May like this. They were severely short staffed and the one gentleman working was amazing. He did the job of 3 people. There was also a manager who worked who was awful. She was the type who runs around like she’s in a fire drill….doing 100 things but literally accomplished nothing.
We tipped the guy $20 and honestly probably deserved more. Hopefully you threw Tahesha some coin for the effort….sounds like it would be well deserved.
I am still trying to figure it out whether or not to tip in the PLs. Common place or not?
I also tip if the service is great, as it was here. $20 is appropriate, which is what Ben (OMAAT) tips and I think he has a proper outlook on many things.
The service is in the Polaris lounges has always been good in my experiences.
Question regarding tipping, if I want to leave a tip for the staff in the restaurant but do not have any cash with me, can I ask them to run my credit card for $0.01 and then I leave a tip off that, or is that not possible? I have NBA/NHL season tickets that include access to an all inclusive bar, but I still want to tip so they run the card and let me tip off that. I’d like to do that in a Polaris lounge but wasn’t sure if it was an option.
Everything is included in Polaris Lounges, so I don’t believe there are any credit card portals for tipping.
This should not happen to the employee, she needs more people in there, and that’s the fault of United.
Hey Matt, before some hard liners start questioning your journalistic integrity over a blog typo, change “speaking” to “sparkling”.
Question, between the Dulles and EWR Polaris lounges, is one meaningfully better than the other?
What a amazing compliment to someone who probably doesn’t get enough credit for what she does. You only hear about the bad things never the good. My sister works for the airline and I wonder how many people truly appreciate what they have to go thru. She also works that 4am shift and that’s not easy.
I appreciate and respect all they do great job to all the United employees who never get that thank you, the smile or asked who can I write to?? I want to let them know that you have gone above a beyond your job.
Remember it’s not them that cancels or delays or control weather.
Sister of Proud United employee!!!
But was she able to get you a 2nd patty on the hamburger? I’ve been denied 3x at EWR.
Interesting. I did not ask. Why would they deny you that?
I’m not sure, but I’ve asked 3x since 2021 and was told no every time, others on FT have had the same request denied. When the ORD PL first opened they were very open to modifications to the burger. I remember getting 2x serving of fries, no pickles, etc.
I received a custom one without trouble, though I was with Tom Stuker (different visit).
awesome story
She did great! And understood the assignment!
THIS IS AWESOME………….KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK……………..THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME OUT TO WRITE THIS STORY ABOUT HER NAD POSTING HER PICTURE BECAUSE WE ALWAYS HERE THE NEGATIVES AND NOT THE POSITIVES……………….
Sodexo no longer handles United ground hospitality. Flik is the new provider.
Good to know. She is an asset to Flik.
This is a wonderful letter written about an awesome employee. The folks that work in our Polaris Lounge in Newark are incredibly hard workers. Kudos to Tahesha and to FLIK!!!!!!!! This made my morning!
Tahesha is my friend from primary school, Manchester Jamaica..she has always been a positive person,loves to laugh and is always nice to be around..so,so proud of her and thanks to you for highlighting her good qualities and admirable work .