cyborg

deleted

DelrayChris

To each their own I guess.

allergictocoach

Bad service by a rude FA that was probably confused and irritated by the dance being put on for you to receive your wife's meal. There is a time when less information is more. I'll have the salmon she will have the beef with you doing all or most the eating probably would've done the job and avoided the entire incident.

That being said dealing with different folks and odd requests is part of the job and should be handled with grace not venom.

xox

Just wanted to highlight something I mentioned earlier: the FA had had a few moments earlier a much bigger argument with the person in front of us. His seat was not working and he was much more aggressive in his complaints to her than me. He was not a happy camper. But she was quite rude to him (they were both angry) and I would be surprised if he didn't complain to United. She threatened to send him back to Economy.

So in a way, I felt like she was taking out on us what had happened earlier. I've never complained to United about anything before and I've flown a lot.

I only felt I needed to explain when I ordered (ordinarily I don't) since my wife was asleep and I thought she might still be asleep when they brought the food. So yes if my wife had been awake and upright through all this, the incident would never have happened. And if we hadn't flown yesterday it wouldn't have happened either.

lensman

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.



I think that would be a bit harsh - particularly in a seniority-based role. Everyone is allowed a bad day every few years and the punishment should match the crime. It's because of draconian management punishment that union rules came into being. I thought that unions were outmoded but the fact that folks out there still have the "fire on the spot" mentality I see that I might be wrong.

+1

You hold yourself to high standards. What you are capable of may not be the standards to which the rest of humanity would want to hold everyone to. But bravo!

BearX220

If we're getting a true version of events, yes, really. An unprovoked outburst like that can easily cost United a multiple of an FA's annual compensation via permanent repulsion of one HVF. In some other service industries that'd be an instant pink slip. FA is a net liability to his/her employer.

Three things are certain in FT-land: death, taxes, and blame-the-OP.

villox

Yes, but isn't it worth seeing just how creatively people can be when coming up with ways to do so? I'm waiting for someone to chime in with "You know, statistically, United plans for a certain number of people to not eat their meals, so they don't really load enough, and your wife should have been one of these statistics so your ordering method screwed the whole cabin up!"

My first time in Int'l F was on CX. I tried ordering some items from one and some from the other, and in the communication some language issues caused the flight attendant to think I was ordering BOTH. I ended up getting a lot of food. I know it was F vs C, but what a contrast between this and being sorta told you can't even have food unless you plan to eat it.

The OP seems very reasonable and polite and I expect the complaint letter will be short and too the point, and definitely worth sending.

mherdeg

In fairness, it can be a little frustrating when genuine "I'm not saying that what you did was wrong, but here is something else you could have done instead which would have gotten the outcome you wanted" responses get dismissed offhand with "ha! look at you blaming the original poster for their bad experience".

wethereyet

But as for the OP's experience, it falls in line with what many experience on UA. If UA employees did not have seniority protecting their rude behaviors I believe it would go a long way to fixing this issue. So many nasty/curt FAs out there that it's not some fantasy issue. FT is the place to discuss it. If you don't like it, change the channel.

jetaway96

And the discussion should go both ways. Not everyone would agree with you and that how we discuss.

iluv2fly

Let's get back to discussing the issue, please.

iluv2fly
Moderator, UA

lensman

I agree completely but I do think that we have to live with OPs who become defensive and other valued board contributors who get offended by such helpful suggestions when not worded in a way that would pass HR as "constructive feedback".

I bet we could do what my previous boss did. He would say, "I am not criticizing, I am just commenting, but..." and then proceed to criticize you.

I could use some clarification on the sequence of events. So it's clear to me that you ordered a meal for you and for your wife. It is sort of implied that your wife fell asleep and so you didn't pull out her tray table for her to be served. Did you then expect the FA to serve you two full meals at *your* seat, both yours and your wife's in sequence - appetizer, appetizer, entree, entree? Or was your wife awake and had her tray table pulled out? On an aside, I am slightly amazed because I find the BF entrees to be a lot of food.

If the former then I could see how the FA got confused. No excuse for her poor reaction upon learning of her mistake.

I'm interested if it's common for other carriers to serve two full meals in sequence.

1. I am not being judgemental, I am just trying to be informative, but I find wanting to get served a meal that I'm not going to eat kind of weird. Maybe it's just that she's used to you picking at her meal and her not wanting to emphasize that aspect of her relationship with you. That sounds like something my wife would do.

Note that I have sometimes ordered a meal and then decided I didn't want to eat it after seeing it.

2. Did you specify what part? As a suggestion in these situations I try to be as prescriptive as possible about what I want. For instance on breakfast flights I want the entire setup but not the entree. I have sometimes had to clarify exactly what I wanted with the FA to ensure getting the nonstandard service. I do think FA's could receive better training on dealing with non-standard meal service requests.

jetaway96

I agree with the OP that this FA is out of line. However, no one know what really happened to her before the flight. Something bad could have happened during her layover causing her to react that way. It is still wrong to snap at passenger regardless but the purser/ISM are trained to deal with this situation and I'm surprised that no one intervened and stop her. Many times in the pass that we had FA taken off service due to stress mid flight.

wethereyet

Tell my why I see this kind of rude/curt behavior on UA but never on SQ/TQ/OZ/CX. Quite honestly, it's unthinkable to see it on Asian carriers.
And I bet if you saw an FA being rude on one of the aforementioned carriers, they would not be employed very long. So it seems that FAs can pull out the "I'm having a bad day every day and I'm senior card" and UA and their customers get a black eye every time it happens.

If an FA can not learn how to cope with bad days in a way to not be snippy towards a customer, it's time for a job change.


OP, please follow through with communcation to United.

Pi7473000

Sounds like post merger United customer service continues to have major issues. So many people would love to be FAs. It sounds like this person needs to get out of customer service. That is not okay to treat a passenger in this manner. If the roles were reversed, and the passenger treated the FA in this manner, the passenger may have been escorted off the flight.