A note to FAs: if you have a beef with a passenger, it is best to avoid social media.
This incident occurred last week, but I missed it due to my travels. My friend Zach Honig, Editor-at-Large at The Points Guy, was on a United premium transcontinental flight from San Francisco to Newark. After settling in, he ordered an Old Fashioned. His request was denied. An apathetic FA claimed there was no such drink onboard. A back-and-forth ensued. After pointing it out on the menu, the FA found one on the cart, warning that only one was loaded. Later on, Honig asked (a second FA) for another, and met the same response. Turns out plenty were loaded. These cocktails are supposed to be served with a “candied orange peel skewer”. Honig noticed that instead of placing these in drinks, FAs were snacking on them in the galley.
He tweeted about the incident, as well as his observation that one FA was wearing headphones during meal service and another was eating a business class salad in the galley during boarding. Both are against published FA regulations. Minor things, to be sure, but unacceptable service nevertheless.
All this was posted on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ZachHonig/status/1008099670776664064
And another flight attendant is hanging out and eating a biz-class salad during boarding… snapped a pic when she stepped away. pic.twitter.com/5oBH25ettL
— Zach Honig (@ZachHonig) June 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/ZachHonig/status/1008128527240134656
Asked for one more, this time specifically requested the candied orange peel skewer. It’s delicious! I can definitely see why the crew wanted to keep these for themselves… pic.twitter.com/x3enN1pXXN
— Zach Honig (@ZachHonig) June 17, 2018
A FA Responds
Twitter user @gianna1809, who turned out to be a flight attendant, did not like Honig’s tweets and took the opportunity to attack him. Here’s a sampling of her (now deleted) tweets:
United Airlines only boards 1 in each liquor cart. It’s a new item so any complaints should be directed to the company. Crews don’t get to decide what is catered aboard..
— Gianna (@gianna1809) June 17, 2018
Let’s see…customer upset because of alcohol?? Yeah… let’s get right on that. 🤣🤣🤣NOT.
— Gianna (@gianna1809) June 17, 2018
Food service is just a perk…they are trained safety professionals to evacuate customers in a burning crash…even the drunks!🤣🤣🤣
— Gianna (@gianna1809) June 18, 2018
Always the drunks causing the issues. Free alcoholic…they drink like camels.
— Gianna (@gianna1809) June 17, 2018
You can see all the screenshots on airliners.net.
Turns out Gianna is (or was…) a United FA. You did not have to look past her Twitter account to find pictures like this:
Why I Am Writing About This?
Why am I writing about a rogue employee breaking company social media policy over onboard alcohol? It is not to insinuate that most United FAs act like this. Nor is it to shame this particular employee. Instead, it is to hold United accountable. Forget Honig’s blogging for a moment. He’s a MillionMiler on United. He was flying on a paid business class ticket. And she called him a drunk because he had the audacity to complain that FAs did not follow service procedures on his flight? I’m writing about this to express my hope that United will hold this FA accountable. Her actions portrayed United in a very bad light and there should be direct and severe consequences for them. FAs onboard his flight should also be reprimanded.
View from the Wing wrote about this and Fox News picked it up, so it hardly a small story. You can read Honig’s own thoughts on the flight here.
CONCLUSION
I do cover United often and try my best never to be a United “shill”. Like Honig, United is the airline I fly most, one that I try to give the benefit of the doubt to, but one that I will always hold accountable. There is no possible justification for the onboard FA conduct nor for Giana’s Twitter conduct. But unless there are consequences, bad apples will continue to harm United’s image.
image: On the Rocks
This is such an absolute, clear cut case of abuse that United has to fire her. This situation exemplifies everything wrong with service in the US airline industry.
POTUS likes to use twitter to attack people, why can’t she?
Because she works for the company and she used the SM to inpune one of 5heir customers and lied while doing so. Even while off the clock you have a certain allegiance tho the guy who signs your paycheck.
Well the POTUS works for us and that doesn’t stop him. Not defending the FA at all but your counter argument is baseless.
Nothing in the constitution says that POTUS can’t tweet what ever he wants, but United most definitely has a social media policy for employees that the FA most definitely violated. Your counter-counter-argument is baseless.
In the airline employees case it’s against company policy
In POTUS ‘s case, he makes the policy.
@Hal. Hillary lost. Get over it
Mike, you can reply directly to someone’s comment, so no “@” is needed. That’s what the “Reply” button is for.
Like how you’ll probably reply to this comment and call me a snowflake or libtard or cuck or something else equally unimaginative.
Yeah so why would you bring it up. Should I salute you too for interfering in your allegiance to a man over country
While Honig did receive terrible service on his flight (something UA ought to address, up to and including termination), the FAs tweets were hardly offensive on their own. She didn’t specifically identify Honig either. I personally find her tweets amusing — she is trying to make light of the situations she encounters on a daily basis.
Her replies were to his tweets.
Well said!!
Old news….must be a requirement that every blogger must post what everyone else does..
It was news to me this morning…
Sometimes I do wonder if bloggers have nothing better to do – who cares if you don’t get a) a particular drink b) the right garnish in said drink. Who cares enough to post about it in the first place. Life really is too short.
OMG were you my AA flight attendant this morning? The one who ate all the cashews from the mixed nuts?
Who cares ? Maybe the one who pays …
That argument could be said about most things… Even writing in response to a blog.
Are you serious? Paid business class ticket (which does come with a certain service level) and, even if it was a redemption, it speaks volumes of an employee’s (and the company’s) professionalism and customer service standards. Unless these are volunteer FAs and unless United is a charity, they should all have enough self-respect and pride to aim for nothing less than excellence in their work. Which, let’s all face it, for FAs extends to serving meals and drinks when not carrying out safety procedures. But hey, maybe it’s just me, and it’s suddenly okay to be a slacker.
The situation exemplifies what’s wrong with United.
Hey Evan ! When you pay for business class you expect to get the amenities that go along with it. I guess you don’t know what a blogger does, they BLOG ! This is a travel blog in case you didn’t know, don’t like it then don’t read it
I thank them for writing issues that happen because I learn from them. The United FAs are very good for the most part. Better than other airlines and I could definitely see the difference when I traveled United after another airline and United FAs were definitely a lot friendlier and professional. It’s too bad there will always be a few that give it a bad reputation. I will still choose United over other airlines, although I really like ANA too.
Who walks onto a plane and immediately takes pictures of some FA’s salad? Wouldn’t that have been done before they got into their little drink dispute? While I agree the service wasn’t the best, it seems like he was looking for things to nit-pick about if he’s snapping shots of some poor chick’s lunch before he even has a problem.
Honig bitches and complains about every United flight he takes, it’s beyond annoying and one of the main reasons I stopped reading TPG. If he hates it so much why does he continue to fly it?! Probably cause he can’t get upgrades and similar treatment on other carriers…so deal with it pal.
He deserves the negative publicity. Does he really need his candied orange peel on a stick? Please. Get a life.
I really don’t understand you people. It’s a travel blog. If Hoenig doesn’t point out clear service shortcomings, then who will? I do not get the knee-jerk tendency to criticize Hoenig’s “nitpicking” while simultaneously excusing FAs who can’t complete basic and simple service tasks properly, to high-payijg customers whom the airline is supposed to value.
The article in question: https://thepointsguy.com/news/united-old-fashioned-saga/
Who knows ( or cares much) about the specifics of this matter; but personally I don’t give anything written by Zack Honig any credibility whatsoever, following the grovelling, fawning nonsense he wrote in praise of Marriott at the time of the merger. It was more than slightly creepy and an epic fail if he was attempting to be balanced. Consequently any of his views I take with a grain of salt.
Considering the claim of the FA eating a business class salad, I don’t put much weight into the rants. Crew meals are plated on the same china, so just because someone assumes that they observed something outright, doesn’t mean its necessarily the case.
While the FA might not have acted professionally, is it possible that Honig was drunk or perhaps acting like a jerk? I clearly don’t know, but just because he writes about it doesn’t mean he is 100% on the right.