Originally Posted by
hughw
Some of you may be shocked that many New Yorkers will say "thank you" or "goodby" to MTA bus drivers on departure as they're going out the front door. and the driver often responds in kind. But to illustrate cultural differences, we have a friend who's a German expat, and he's commented to us that he can't believe New Yorkers often do this, that it's simply unheard of in Germany to thank a bus driver (who I imagine he thinks of as some type of servant) for doing what they're being paid to do,
Maybe it was too many years living in New York State but, when we take buses in MUC, my wife always thanks the driver and they do tend to respond nicely (or so she hopes .......as German is not one of the seven languages that she speaks)
Originally Posted by
tuolumne
United has had the largest exposure to Asia of all the legacy carriers for decades. This is a non-issue and insulting to United staff.
I have never observed if the FAs say goodbye and thank you to Asian passengers as I'm tired when I'm landing in PVG, PEK or HKG (or in ORD on the way back). However, on every flight that the person sitting next to my wife or me is Asian, we do notice that the FAs have a lack of patience if that passenger hesitates about what meal to order. To the point of being totally rude. It never happens if the person hesitating is Caucasian like us. My wife has mentioned that many times on the surveys that we get after the flights. It's especially weird since, as you mention, United has such a large exposure to Asian destinations. It does affect us if we see that someone else is treated badly just because of race or a language barrier.