Mats

Please say something to United.

She'll at least get "called in" to talk it over with her supervisor. I think you should mention that you posted it on FlyerTalk; United needs to know that we're all watching, and we all care.

True, this woman will probably stay a bigot, but she might learn to keep her prejudices to herself.

I'm not a confrontational guy, but I probably would have acted immediately if I had been wearing a kipah and heard a comment from any customer contact employee in any establishment.

uxb

Doesn't United have a lurker on here?

joshwex90

UA Insider is on the board, but I'd hardly call him/her a lurker. Scott and Shannon post new things about UA, answer questions and occasionally get involved with threads. But not a lurker.

zcat18

Oh puh-LEEZE! So this rancid FA's right to be hateful trumps the OP's right to be offended? This is the FA's workplace--a professional environment both in the air and on the ground--and she, an on-duty employee, states out loud that she "hates" his ethno-religious group, but he's the in the wrong here because his inclination was not to ignore the bigotry?

What a crock. NOBODY should be asked to ignore (or lay down and take) the word "hate" when it is directed at them or their ethnicity/religion.

As for the original topic at hand, this is one of those unfortunate incidents where it would absolutely have been correct to say something and also to make sure that you walked out of that airport with the FA's name and other identifying information in order to lodge a complaint with United. I fear that too much time has passed since the incident for UA to censure the FA without some proof that this occurred (I believe you, but sadly, in UA's eyes, it may be your word against their employee's, and I doubt she would cop to this). It is certainly worth a try, and I am very sorry that this happened.

craz

Had it happen 1 time on a TLV-JFK flight on TWA. Funny since the FAs were able to bid for the flights they wanted , so why pick TLV if you hate Jews?

It was in FC as well

anyway I ended up simply remarking to her " If you hate Jews so much I will do you a favor and tell you a place where you can go to and you wont find a single Jew there, Why Dont You Go to Hell! she stood there not knowing what to say or do. (btw its not true but she Im sure didnt know that)

When I got home a call was palced right to TWA Corp and I reported the FA

PVDtoDEL

You had your chance to confront the FA about it at the time. Now, you've lost that opportunity.

Anything you do now is going to be too little, too late. The only chance you had to teach the FA to keep her bigoted beliefs to herself is long gone.

joshwex90

Thought you were gonna say Saudi Arabia

illinidad

Touche. Well done. ^^^

entropy

Nothing to do with training, some people are bigoted and that's that. CO can tell their "most professional" people to be on their best behavior, and if they have something nasty to say, keep their flappers shut.

thebigfish

This needs to be reported. Just wrong on so many levels.

This woman is in a position where she interacts with the public. Her employer needs to know about this. How do we know she hasn't been reported before?

Being Jewish, I take this type of behavior in stride. But I never let it go by unchallenged. She's a racist bigot and she's entitled to her opinion - and she's also entitled to the consequences of being bigoted.

TBF

chazas

Report it. Include as much identifying information as possible.

Do you really care if you change her views? What is more important is to help the airline correct her behavior.

AVIZ

I tweeted @United and emailed Jeff Smisek - should I also file a complaint through Customer Care? Any other corporate folks I can email?

I do regret not confronting her, but in reality my words would probably not change her views. I gave United specific information - it would be very easy for them to track her down. Also, I'm not so sure her colleagues would defend her on this one, they seemed pretty shocked!

nycboy

Is that a slur? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slur

euslaner

Let us know what happens. A couple of years ago I was on a UA flight considerably delayed from HKG to ORD--and was in the back since my UG didn't clear. Had a very tight connection to IAD and I asked the purser if he would ask passengers to let those with tight connections to deplane first. The purser said, "Most of the passengers on this flight are Chinese and they don't care enough to help others, so it's not worth my time to make the request."

I was appalled and wrote the 1K desk and an executive I know at UA about these remarks. I received a reply that the remarks were completely unacceptable and that UA would deal with the offending purser. I was also told that such requests are only made on domestic flights (funny I have heard them rather often on international flights).

And I missed my connection from ORD to IAD by a minute or so as the gate was being closed as I ran to the gate--so I had to spend an extra 2-3 hours at ORD. But at least UA seemed concerned about the purser.

mduell

How is that in any way related to the airline's training?