Flight Attendants: Is there a way to be more discreet when favoring your friends?
May 26, 2013, 11:23 pm
#1
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Flight Attendants: Is there a way to be more discreet when favoring your friends?
I was on UA 939 Sunday out of IAD to PHX. At one point, there were 3 seats opened up in F for nonrevs. 3 of them boarded toward the end of boarding.
The female FA apparently knew them and came up from Y to tell the F FA about how great one of the passenger was (some kind of runner and made the US team for some events many times) and that to "take care of them".
It was just very noisy and party like in the cabin with the noisy female FA and the nonrev friends. I guess employees don't get to fly domestic F too much nowadays with CPU so it was a little exciting... Then 2 revenue passengers who were at these seats showed up last minute so 2 of them had to go to Y.
During the flgiht, I can see 4 glasses of wine plus cookies going to Y. I know the wine ended up at these passengers as I saw them, not 100% sure about the cookies.
Like what we discussed at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...pr-2013-a.html , I am all for giving them some perks but it should really not be this obvious and make other passengers feel left out.
In my nonrev days, we had rules to be discreet, etc... I guess even with the rules, if the FA actually choose to break them, there is nothiing the nonrev passenger can do...
The female FA apparently knew them and came up from Y to tell the F FA about how great one of the passenger was (some kind of runner and made the US team for some events many times) and that to "take care of them".
It was just very noisy and party like in the cabin with the noisy female FA and the nonrev friends. I guess employees don't get to fly domestic F too much nowadays with CPU so it was a little exciting... Then 2 revenue passengers who were at these seats showed up last minute so 2 of them had to go to Y.
During the flgiht, I can see 4 glasses of wine plus cookies going to Y. I know the wine ended up at these passengers as I saw them, not 100% sure about the cookies.
Like what we discussed at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...pr-2013-a.html , I am all for giving them some perks but it should really not be this obvious and make other passengers feel left out.
In my nonrev days, we had rules to be discreet, etc... I guess even with the rules, if the FA actually choose to break them, there is nothiing the nonrev passenger can do...
May 27, 2013, 2:28 am
#2
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May 27, 2013, 8:16 am
#5
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I was on UA 939 Sunday out of IAD to PHX. At one point, there were 3 seats opened up in F for nonrevs. 3 of them boarded toward the end of boarding.
The female FA apparently knew them and came up from Y to tell the F FA about how great one of the passenger was (some kind of runner and made the US team for some events many times) and that to "take care of them".
It was just very noisy and party like in the cabin with the noisy female FA and the nonrev friends. I guess employees don't get to fly domestic F too much nowadays with CPU so it was a little exciting... Then 2 revenue passengers who were at these seats showed up last minute so 2 of them had to go to Y.
During the flgiht, I can see 4 glasses of wine plus cookies going to Y. I know the wine ended up at these passengers as I saw them, not 100% sure about the cookies.
Like what we discussed at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...pr-2013-a.html , I am all for giving them some perks but it should really not be this obvious and make other passengers feel left out.
In my nonrev days, we had rules to be discreet, etc... I guess even with the rules, if the FA actually choose to break them, there is nothiing the nonrev passenger can do...
The female FA apparently knew them and came up from Y to tell the F FA about how great one of the passenger was (some kind of runner and made the US team for some events many times) and that to "take care of them".
It was just very noisy and party like in the cabin with the noisy female FA and the nonrev friends. I guess employees don't get to fly domestic F too much nowadays with CPU so it was a little exciting... Then 2 revenue passengers who were at these seats showed up last minute so 2 of them had to go to Y.
During the flgiht, I can see 4 glasses of wine plus cookies going to Y. I know the wine ended up at these passengers as I saw them, not 100% sure about the cookies.
Like what we discussed at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...pr-2013-a.html , I am all for giving them some perks but it should really not be this obvious and make other passengers feel left out.
In my nonrev days, we had rules to be discreet, etc... I guess even with the rules, if the FA actually choose to break them, there is nothiing the nonrev passenger can do...
May 27, 2013, 8:18 am
#6
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I've seen this as well, and it's awful (mainly treating non-revs specially). But then again, we're in the same forum where we call out AA and DL for still honoring its Elites when they sit in Y, and for UA asking 1K/GS for their meals first. In other words, we are hypocritical if the "enhanced" passenger is not us.
So is the OP's issue that it happens, that the FAs were loud in F, or that a celebrity got nice treatment in front of other passengers? I find it interesting that OP knows "how" the passenger was treated while sitting in F.
May 27, 2013, 8:19 am
#7
Join Date: Dec 2011
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Man, NO COOKIES?! I'd be pissed and demand NRSA compensation. Having just the wine would be crap. I hope they got the cookies.
Second thought: I hope the NRSA pax that were downgraded got downgrade comp.
Second thought: I hope the NRSA pax that were downgraded got downgrade comp.
Last edited by iluv2fly; May 27, 2013 at 11:00 am Reason: merge
May 27, 2013, 8:19 am
#8
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I know lots of FA's, esp Vegas based and a few ORD based. I get drinks and snacks sent back to me all the time. I have no issue with someone in Y getting a glass of wine from F.
May 27, 2013, 9:32 am
#9
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I guess yesterday must have been a slow day for elites out of IAD. The 3 nonrevs were NOT ugraded by the FA. They were upgraded by the GA - then the GA came and kicked 2 of them to Y since the revenue passengers showed up. So, I think that part was by the book.
What I did not like was the female FA (the FA in F was male and so was the other one in Y) went all crazy that her friends got into F and asked the F FA to take care of her friends (which implies usually they don't care of the passengers and they would favor them over revenue passengers) .
There were at least 5 full F paying passengers in F. One of them was sitting next to me and told me their situation (some big shot executives from overseas but bought a domestic F (i.e. not an international thru fare) - their company had their own plane that took them to DC). So, all that noise and "take care of my friends" made it more inappropriate.
I can also see other passengers in Y would wonder why these passengers got wine and cookies brought to them, etc.
The issue, as the title says, is really how the FA should have been more discreet and behaved better with her friends in F, not who got upgraded and who did not.
What I did not like was the female FA (the FA in F was male and so was the other one in Y) went all crazy that her friends got into F and asked the F FA to take care of her friends (which implies usually they don't care of the passengers and they would favor them over revenue passengers) .
There were at least 5 full F paying passengers in F. One of them was sitting next to me and told me their situation (some big shot executives from overseas but bought a domestic F (i.e. not an international thru fare) - their company had their own plane that took them to DC). So, all that noise and "take care of my friends" made it more inappropriate.
I can also see other passengers in Y would wonder why these passengers got wine and cookies brought to them, etc.
The issue, as the title says, is really how the FA should have been more discreet and behaved better with her friends in F, not who got upgraded and who did not.
Last edited by username; May 27, 2013 at 9:56 am
May 27, 2013, 9:33 am
#10
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May 27, 2013, 10:13 am
#11
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Could they have been more discreet? Sure.
In the end though, I don't care if everyone but me gets cookies and wine. Who cares? I keep doing my own thing and don't care at all about what other people are doing on the plane. Let it go OP but If it bothers you that much then write UA.
In the end though, I don't care if everyone but me gets cookies and wine. Who cares? I keep doing my own thing and don't care at all about what other people are doing on the plane. Let it go OP but If it bothers you that much then write UA.
May 27, 2013, 10:15 am
#12
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Exactly. On a flight last year to MEX I was in F, and a colleague of mine who has no status was in the first row of E+. While waiting to use the lav, I very discreetly asked the purser if she wouldn't mind sending a glass of wine to my colleague during meal service. She was happy to, and in fact made sure my colleague had a refill. No one else in F was aware of it, and no one made a big deal about it.
May 27, 2013, 10:36 am
#13
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I have actually been the recipient of "special" treatment more than a few times...but saying this, the FA was always discrete and did not call attention to the "relationship". What the OP describes is purely unprofessional and, unfortunately, becoming more common in the last couple of years...a result of a change in culture, relaxed social mores, a lack of career motivation in the industry, poor management...take your pick (and a 1000 more) SIGH!
May 27, 2013, 10:43 am
#14
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I was never so embarrassed in my life when two airline coworkers and I were traveling in coach and making a big deal (too loudly) about how we worked for United and traveling non-rev, etc. We were so new to the game (new hires about 3 months in) and were "called out" by another non-rev sitting behind us that we needed to shut up and be quiet about it.
Never did it again, never will.
Brings to mind whenever anyone asks me while flying what I do for a living, I rarely admit to working for an airline.....I just say I work for the IRS or something..
Also, I'm not one of those employees who expect special or singled out treatment as a non-rev. I just greet and thank FA's as I go along through the flight. They know who I am by the manifest and generally by being discreet, quiet, non-assuming I get better treatment. No need to blow a horn about it.
Never did it again, never will.
Brings to mind whenever anyone asks me while flying what I do for a living, I rarely admit to working for an airline.....I just say I work for the IRS or something..
Also, I'm not one of those employees who expect special or singled out treatment as a non-rev. I just greet and thank FA's as I go along through the flight. They know who I am by the manifest and generally by being discreet, quiet, non-assuming I get better treatment. No need to blow a horn about it.
May 27, 2013, 1:17 pm
#15
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I like your attitude!!
I was never so embarrassed in my life when two airline coworkers and I were traveling in coach and making a big deal (too loudly) about how we worked for United and traveling non-rev, etc. We were so new to the game (new hires about 3 months in) and were "called out" by another non-rev sitting behind us that we needed to shut up and be quiet about it.
Never did it again, never will.
Brings to mind whenever anyone asks me while flying what I do for a living, I rarely admit to working for an airline.....I just say I work for the IRS or something..
Also, I'm not one of those employees who expect special or singled out treatment as a non-rev. I just greet and thank FA's as I go along through the flight. They know who I am by the manifest and generally by being discreet, quiet, non-assuming I get better treatment. No need to blow a horn about it.
Never did it again, never will.
Brings to mind whenever anyone asks me while flying what I do for a living, I rarely admit to working for an airline.....I just say I work for the IRS or something..
Also, I'm not one of those employees who expect special or singled out treatment as a non-rev. I just greet and thank FA's as I go along through the flight. They know who I am by the manifest and generally by being discreet, quiet, non-assuming I get better treatment. No need to blow a horn about it.