BearX220

1) Yes. 2) Nothing.

Often1

Did the FA ask you to do or not do something and you did or did not? The facts would be helpful in assessing what might happen. "Rude" covers a lot of conduct and a FA's filing of a complaint against a passenger is pretty extraordinary.

With some facts as to who said and did what, you might get a better read here.

halls120

Last year I had a really good flight experience on a UA flight. Since the sCO crew weren't wearing their name tags, I asked one of the attendants for their names. She wouldn't provide them until I assured her that my intentions were honorable.

Same thing happened on my first flight of 2015. I wrote 1K a note about it, and got a nice e-mail from a senior UA manager. he told me that flight crew were supposed to wear name tags, but it was difficult for management to enforce that rule. He suggested that when a FA was reluctant to provide a name so that I could compliment the service, send 1K a voice mail with as many details as possible so the crew could be identified and the compliment passed.

globetrotter415

-had a small backpack to put under the economy plus seat in front of me and a small gym bag for the overhead department.
-got knick knacks stuff from duty free and put it up in the overhead bin. Couldn't fit it under the seat in front of me because I had the aisle seat and the space was smaller than the other two seats in the row due to the bulky entertainment hard drive taking up half of my allotted floor space
-a few minutes before the door closed, the last passengers, an old couple came aboard with their ginormous carry on that barely fit the overhead dept. I am surprised the staff at the front desk didn't ask them to check that bag in. It took a while for them to finally jam their suitcase in
-I was annoyed because they carelessly took out my stuff to fit theirs and didn't bother asking anyone who's duty free bag it was. We started arguing. We both started trying to put our stuff in the overhead bin at the same time.
-flight attendant yells at me. I didn't like his tone of voice and I made a snarky reply back. He responds with attitude.
-asked for his name so I can make a complaint. He realizes I will make a complaint and asks for my name so he can make a retaliatory complaint against me
-he came back a little later and said he and the other flight attendants will write down that I physically pushed the old lady during the argument. ...?! I didn't touch her at all!!! First of all, I don't assault old ladies and second, if I did, I am pretty sure the whole economy plus section would come to her defense and tackle me down.

I admit I should have handled that better but I was pretty sleep deprived from the intl flights before. Even then I am just pissed at the flight attendants' attitude and the lie they are going to write about me

BearX220

Game over. As soon as you do anything aboard an aircraft that looks like losing your temper or challenging the absolute authority of an FA, you're sunk. Just keep your head down and don't write to UA. It could escalate into a game of he-said, she-said which you won't win.

globetrotter415

Also I am not one of those miserable people who can never be pleased and look for the tiniest fault to complain about. This is actually my first bad encounter with a cabin crew and I have been flying united a lot for over a decade now.

kale73

Be sure to mention that point when you write. You can cite your relatively low post count on FT as convincing evidence.

Sulley

They're not necessarily complaining about you... just a bit of CYA.

br2k

On my last LD flight on United (PVG-SFO or some such) *all* of the cabin crew was so rude and unprofessional that it was really comical.

- I was in the emergency exit row, across from the rear facing seats where crew hangs, and next to the galley. They spent the entire flight moaning (thanks, censor) about bad flight conditions, bad stupid passengers, bad coworkers (including those right on that flight - as soon as one left the area and was out of earshot, they began complaining about him/her right there), and everything else.

- They were nasty to passengers who came with any kind of request, all the while whining (thanks censor) about it non stop.

- The most exciting part was a mid-flight snack. They came through the isles throwing it (literally) at people in clear plastic bags (which dubbed as trash bags once you were done). The snack contained the cheapest possible Shanghai-bought cereal bar btw. It looked like a jail scene

This is the way this company is. You can't fix stupid.

globetrotter415

Seriously laughed out loud in the klm lounge right now.

porciuscato

My sister-in-law recently had a rude United FA. When she asked the FA her name, she refused to say and hid her badge. IMO, it should be an absolute rule that FAs wear badges. For privacy purposes, it only needs to be a first or last name, not both.

globetrotter415

None of the folks on the crew had name tags on. This headache could have been avoided if I didn't have to stop and ask them for their names which pretty much put them on the defensive. Trust me I was looking because the last thing I want is a underpaid United minion making my whole flight super uncomfortable and spitting in my drink.

goodeats21

I think this would be problematic for the FA. If they submit a report that a passenger assaulted another passenger (especially an "old lady"), and they did nothing and allowed them to stay on the plane...that would seem to be a much bigger issue then being rude?

Strikes me as a petty intimidation technique, along with CYA attitude.

LASUA1K

Next time don't argue and take a step back. Did you have 3 items? Backpack, gym back and duty free items?

Often1

According to OP, he had three carry-on items. Smallish item, gym bag and duty free bag. That violates UA's policy and OP should not have been permitted to board or the FA ought to have returned one of the items to the GA for gate-checking to final destination.

But, the right and wrong of this doesn't really matter. If you argued and made a snarky remark to the FA, you are lucky that you were not off-loaded.

As others note, I would leave this alone.

For the future, if there is a dispute, call a FA. Here, the problem is that you could not call a FA because it would have drawn attention to the three carry-on's.