A rude gesture in the galley says more about service culture than any press release about “brand loyalty.” As United Airlines seeks to transform itself into a top-tier carrier, it must do more to rally all flight attendants to the cause.
Talk To The Hand: Boarding Pay Won’t Fix This United Flight Attendant Problem
A United passenger shared a small but telling interaction from the last row of a recent flight.
Before takeoff, two flight attendants were standing in the rear galley chatting. The passenger had an empty cup with ice and turned around to ask whether one of them could throw it away before departure.
One flight attendant responded with what the passenger described as an inauthentic smile and “the hand,” signaling him to wait.
The other flight attendant immediately noticed the cup, reached over, and took it.
In his own words:
It blows my mind how inhospitable some flight attendants can be.
I’m in the last row on the aisle on a United flight. Pre-takeoff, the two FAs behind me are standing around talking about vacations, etc – just killing time.
I had an empty cup with ice, so I turned to see if I could get one of them to throw it away so I didn’t have to hold onto it through takeoff.
This female flight attendant turns to me with an inauthentic/condescending smile and puts her hand up to indicate “wait”… for several seconds.
The other FA instantly turns, sees me with the cup, and immediately reaches over to take it and throw it away.
She was also talking about how she’s been flying for 20-something years. I’m sure you’re getting jaded with the job but man, what happened to just being a nice person, especially when you’re on the job and taking care of passengers is part of the job description?
This Is Not Really About An Empty Cup…
No passenger is entitled to snap fingers and demand instant service, but that is not what this sounds like.
This sounds like a simple, reasonable request before takeoff. One flight attendant treated it like an annoyance. The other handled it, seemingly more graciously, in two seconds.
As you know if you fly often, a gracious flight attendant leaves a lasting positive impression. A rude or indifferent flight attendant leaves one too.
And giving a passenger “the hand” while standing around chatting in the galley is just rude. The lack of boarding pay is not a valid excuse.
Boarding Pay Is A Fair Issue, But Not The Magic Fix
Let’s address boarding pay, because I am very sympathetic to flight attendants seeking boarding pay.
Boarding is work. Flight attendants are on the aircraft, dealing with bags, passengers, seat issues, wheelchair preboards, catering problems, family seating drama, and everything else that happens before the door closes.
But boarding pay will not automatically create better service.
This incident was not about a flight attendant being overwhelmed during boarding or precoupuied with a safety issue. Nor was it an unreasonable complicated request…it was simply an attitude issue.
And attitude will not change simply because a new pay line appears on a contract…
Flight attendants did not simply wake up one day and discover their current pay structure out of nowhere. Their unions negotiated it over many years, in large part because higher hourly rates once airborne were deemed more valuable, especially to senior flight attendants working longer trips and better schedules.
The idea that airlines robbed flight attendants of pay is a canard, though the new tentative agreement between United and flight attendants will fix this problem.
More importantly, if boarding pay is added now, great. I support that. But let’s not pretend it will magically fix indifferent service or make rude and jaded employees suddenly gracious.
United Wants Brand Loyal Customers
United keeps talking about building a “brand loyal” airline. Pursuant to that goal, it has built an industry-leading app and added seatback screens, Starlink, new aircraft, and improved premium cabins.
But that goal also requires frontline employees who understand that small interactions matter and not feel that such interactions are somehow beneath then or not part of the bargain.
Passengers remember the flight attendant who helped…they also remember the one who made them feel like a nuisance (I certnaly do!).
That is especially true if United wants customers to pay more and believe they are buying a better experience. You cannot build brand loyalty while treating passengers like interruptions.
CONCLUSION
Most flight attendants I encounter are professional, and many are excellent. This is not about painting an entire work group with one brush. As a whole, I love United flight attendants and to its credit, flight attendants generally provide excellent service despite not having a raise for over five years despite tremendous inflation.
But service culture matters, and small moments reveal it.
Boarding pay may be justified, but it will not solve the deeper problem of indifference. A new contract can address compensation but it cannot, by itself, make someone gracious.
If United wants customers to be loyal to its brand, it cannot tolerate incident like this and it is up to leadership to inspire change and accountability.
On the one hand, yes, that’s rude, unacceptable, etc.
On the other hand, posting this (with a selfie) for social media likes always will be weird to me.
Yeah, it’s a bit passive aggressive…
Bingo! What a complete asshole this guy looks like – you know it, the flight attendants probably could see it too.
Note: I believe it’s against United (and most airlines’) policy to tale photos of their employees. yet here’s this dipshit obviously taking a selfie (with crew visible) with the intention of monetizing his faked outrage. This was all planned in advance.
A manufactured-for-social-media crisis. Screw this asshole. Social media is a cancer on society.
Woah, woah… no need to get ‘handsy’ here…
yes, hardly newsworthy.
Here is the view from the cheap seats with no legroom: There are some who are stewardesses and there are some who are waitresses. If you ever are treated rudely by one, just make sure you “accidentally” address the person as “waiter/waitress.” They will have their day ruined by the simple comment. If you wish to be subtle, leave a $1 tip on the tray.
And this idiot is why society is so horrible. What an ass.
Or, Mr. I’m Super Important can wait for the moment indicated by the hand, as those 2 FA’s were obviously engaged in mid thought, and his need to handle take-off empty handed wasn’t the priority. There are two sides to the issue- and this attention seeking crybaby from the aisle seat in the last row (so you know he’s cheap, entitled and a burden on others) reads like a little bitch. Seems like t his has nothing to do with FA contracts, and a lot more to do with a low revenue pax who was butt hurt that the service rejected his ticket level.
I alway fly United with a few exception especially when United doesn’t have a specific route. I have encountered a few not too amicable flight attendants but then I send my feelings about it to the airline. I also realize than I am not an entitled queen bee who needs to seek attention from the staff. This dude here is a poor soul that may not be too happy with life, buys the cheapest ticket with United and does see himself as queen bee.
How does sitting in the last row make him cheap? Perhaps he was flying to BUR.
No passenger is entitled to snap fingers and demand instant service, but that is not what this sounds like. You should have stopped there. Wait until the FA comes thru to collect trash.
I agree with @Erin and @Armadillo
Who among us hasn’t collapsed a cup or empty bottle/wrapper into the seatback pocket? Or even put underfoot? How difficult to manage for 10 minutes. Where exactly was the urgency to rid oneself of a small paper cup?
Low rent dude with a low rent mentality, imposing on people he thinks are beneath him.
EGADS
Untied a ‘top tier’ carrier? LOL.
Singapore Airlines and Cathay are top tier, others aspire to be like Qatar, Etihad and Air France.
No US carrier will ever make the grade, aspiration is part of Kirby’s Criminal Trump like delusions.
The airline is United and is considered top tier nationally. Calm down
United is a case study in what happens when leadership chooses intimidation & greed over integrity. Frontline staff carry the burden of a #ToxicWorkCulture while customers absorb the chaos. You can’t bully your staff and expect a world-class product. #ScottKirby #JohnSlater
United leadership has to lead. Flight attendants have gone without a pay raise for multiple years. The leadership has to treat the flight attendants with respect and higher salaries and benefits.
Their Union has declined a number of very reasonable offers and holds out for more, more, MORE. You can argue that it’s the membership who ultimately votes on whether to accept new contracts, but you can bet the Union delegates aren’t doing the hard sell.
So what should FA’s be talking about in the galley? He’s annoyed they are talking about vacation and other stuff. Really that annoyed him it sounds like there could be more to this and we’re only seeing his version of events.
Did the one FA really give him the hand or did she say one moment and went for a pair of gloves? Not everyone wants to touch another persons trash without gloves on. The one FA who just took his trash perhaps is allergic to latex gloves I personally know some FA’s who work for UA that can not wear latex gloves but the also have impeccable hand hygiene.
Its easy to say the FA’s was wrong but you’re only getting the passengers side of the story and given the fact he was annoyed by simple galley talk between colleagues then followed it up with that picture lets me know there is a lot more to this story and I’m of the mindset the customer is not always right. Customers lie and we need to give the FA’s the benefit of the doubt.
Proschwit, I agree. If this is what keeps this guy up at night, just a petty thing happening, God help him. He could have just ignored it and waited,……seriously a paper cup he wanted out of his hands could have waited a few more minutes. How many times have I sat and waited a long time for FA’s to come around and pick up trash. Plus, we’ve all seen lazy, passive, cold, unsmiling FA’s on every airline; I hardly think it merits posting on Twitter or X or whatever. Some posters need to get a life instead of posting just to get a rise out of people and see how many agree with him/sympathize with him or just to bring attention to himself.
Are the FAs yet paid to work before the door is closed? Just asking …
Fly any Asian carrier to find out how horrendous the flight attendants are in the USA.
Subjective. Not all flight attendants in the USA are horrendous. And what’s your line of work sir? Shall we paint you with a broad brush as well? Go make a difference in your community and do something to make you happier.
People should be paid for working
As far as the incident..I regret not being able to locate my tiny violin
Technically speaking, once the forward door and flight deck door are closed the flight goes into “sterile flight deck” until 10,000 ft. During sterile flight deck flight attendants are only allowed to perform safety sensitive duties and take their seats mentally performing a silent review (evac commands, emergency door procedures, etc) Per FAA all other activities are prohibited, which includes standing around and talking, taking meal orders in FC, and taking said trash from a pax. She broke the rules for his trash request only to have him trash them online.
Until I read the comments, I hadn’t realized that the author was worrying about himself. Talking about yourself in the third person is strange and now I understand the comments better. You seem to be elevating this experience to get views. This makes sense also as I had to look up canard on this case. I’m well read and new the bar of canard was referencing to a dock, but this was an unnecessary use of a “fancy” word. No one would use that word in a regular sentence. Forcing the user out of the article to look up a word ruins the story. Also, there is at least one typo,”(I certanly do.)” Obviously this wasn’t run through a spell check, which in today’s day and age, was even caught by my phone spell check.
I think you can do much better and connect to the reader better by relating this as a personal experience.
You’re expecting journalistic integrity from a travel blog when we can’t even get that from a newspaper nowadays? You’re funny.
Poor baby. I pray that, with extensive counseling, he’ll recover.
Could it be that there’s more to this story? Perhaps catering was about to open the back door and it was unsafe to roll the trash cart out ? I’ve told customers to wait while this occurred. There’s a lot behind the scenes that happens during boarding that may sound simple but it could be a safety hazard .
I don’t know if this is just a disgruntled customer who made up a story – who knows these days. I’ve never experienced something like that on UA that I can recall.
I do think if there was catering about to come, a simple smile and explanation would have been appreciated. The idea of being buried in a phone during boarding strikes me as the highest degree of unprofessionalism. It’s one thing to check the United-issued phone for manifest info, but not when FAs are texting (that was something I observed on my last AA flight).
He is wearing a hat indoors. The sign of ignorance.