The FA should have initiated contact in a more professional manner within company policy. Using his company provided webmail account he can send the email "Recently I had the pleasure of serving you on Flt XXX. I hope you found the flight enjoyable and look forward to serving you again, etc."

It's a simple "marketing" type email and if the pax is interested, then voila he will respond accordingly. If not, "no harm no foul."

While I would not report the FA to corporate (just bad karma), the OP'ers recommendation on sending a short note to that FA looks to offer the best outcome for all involved.

Last thing you want is for that FA to get fired, end up at another airline and having him serve you in F on a LAX-CDG flight... "I hope you enjoy your salmon, I seasoned it especially for you!"

and throwing all 99 of my pounds around.
I have highest level security with my employer and act *daily* to protect vital personal information available to me from the people I serve, some of whom are NAMES you'd recognize in the entertainment industry.
Trust me, except for some of THEM, who are duly paranoid, most people aren't as proactive as they should be (and so, in their stead, I AM) about the measures THEY need to take in order to protect the security of that information, e.g., name, contact addresses, phone #, account #, etc.
THUS
if I were the OP, I'd be:
(a) hopping mad that contact information I submitted on a survey was NOT kept confidential as evidenced by email (personal, I gather) received from an FA; AND
(b) writing the air carrier to that effect, especially if I had surrendered that contact information in the survey with the air carrier's expressed promise of confidentiality thereon;
(c) informing the air carrier I would be happy to participate in future such surveys only if I could be assured of confidentiality, and not otherwise.
But maybe that's just me.
Anyway, I *do* write letters!
Obviously.

It was only an email for goodness sake. An email address does not contain a home address. It seems to me that some people need to lighten up a bit.

The most sensible response as suggested earlier , would be to say thank you , but no thank you and be careful of contacting passengers who may not like it etc etc.

I wonder if those sour grapes type people who insist on contacting the airline would still feel this way if a) it really did happen to them and 2) they liked the FA!

Worry about the big stuff in life, not overdramatise the small stuff

Thank you! A voice of reason has spoken. @:-)

I'm with buddhaman, some people really do need to loosen up a bit. I know the age of innocence has gone but do we all need to be so litigious and paranoid?

Thanks for all the comments. I e-mailed the FA back and politely declined his offer. I will not not send the letter to HQ, though many of you do have excellent points regarding privacy issues.

The rapport between us was good, we mostly chatted about Thailand and my travels. He did asked me to come on back and have a chat later on, which I didn't because I wanted to watch the movie. So he compensated by coming to me and chatting regularly throughout the 4 hour flight. The thing is, through his interaction with me, I wouldn't be surprised if he asked for my contact info. What was surprising, however, was that he got it from the confidential survey. Anyways, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Ok, a couple things before I probably have to unsubscribe to this thread. :

Sexual harrasment is UNWANTED advances. If it has not happened to you, then you have no idea what it is like. If (a) and (c) were/are true then it is NOT sexual harrasment.


Also, please do not resort to name calling for experiences and beliefs that some of us have that you do not agree with. A far greater person than me recently said, in our GLBT forum on another thread, "...let's be fair in the 'branding' of our other members over personal beliefs."

I know the OP has already replied to the FA, but there's a point I want to add anyway.

Something that we have to keep in mind in cases like this is that the world does not (yet) treat gay people equally. If you make a complaint about someone to his employer, and sexual orientation is involved in any way, you run the risk of the complaint landing on the desk of a homophobe who will come down much harder on a gay person than on a straight person. An offense that might get a straight person a slap on the wrist could well get a gay person fired. This is not fair, but it's the way the world is now, certainly in the United States.

If you think the offense is a firing offense anyway, as is arguable in this case, go ahead and make the complaint. Otherwise, think about the possible disproportionate consequences of the complaint before making it. I realize that I'm arguing for treating fellow gay people differently from straight people, and that troubles me, but I don't think you can just act as though the world were fair when you know it is not.

There is a whole world outside of the USA where homosexuals are treated equally, at least in the eyes of the law. It's a shame that America's social policy has been sidelined by it's foreign policy while countries all around the world advance the rights of it's own people.

To be clear, I didn't mean to say that this is a problem everywhere in the world, but clearly the world as a whole doesn't yet treat gay people equally. With a US company like UA, there is certainly a risk of unequal treatment.

People say Germans are uptight and humorless. Actually, Americans are worse, as this thread shows. What is such a big deal really? If you do not like the FA, just ignore his email! And yes, I got harrassed before.

I agree with netsurferrr. As a european I am rather bemused by all these uptight comments.

My own thoughts are that the FA was completely unprofessional. Had the OP entrusted this person with his email (he does not mention any other details that may or may not be on that survery). In fact in the UK he would be in breach of the Data Protection Act.

That said, I would just let it drop. At this point I would treat it as an ego boost. If the person has no other details about you - even if he contacts you again just ignore it. I strongly suspect that silence will be the greatest deterent here. No, I would not bother with the Company as this person could claim that you had given him your card and I would not regard all the aggrevation worth the bother. Were this a telephone number, or address then I would take a very different view but email and this whole episode can be erased with the click of your mouse.

There's a thread about the same types of things happening in the Fairmont threads -- a concierge that looked up some of their personal information so they could congratulate them on a birthday or anniversary or something like that. They were uncomfortable that their personal information was picked up by the concierge, somewhat similar to what you're talking about here. I can understand the other perspective, but personally I think I'd be flattered as long as it didn't become someone you tried to turn down and wouldn't go away.

Nice of you to drop in Pucci Galore, another moderate to even up the debate here.