DBCme

Replace "gate lice" with other synonyms and you probably get words such as: a**holes, annoying people, pestering elites, whining crybabies. All of these are inappropriate to be said by a UA employee to their customers.

TA

Agreed, not the end of the world, but a sad state of affairs if an employee can have the lack of shame to voice these things out loud in front of paying customers. 2 points:

1. If this is what this employee says to your face, imagine what he's saying behind your back.

2. How much does this employee hate his job, believes he is above customers in station, yet is allowed to continue to serve them?

Definitely unprofessional.

EnvoyBoy

Or waiter/waitress!

Seriously, I don't know if I'd bother complaining. Whatever you're hoping would come of the complaint won't so what's the purpose? Bet it would never even get back to the FA.

If it were me, when it was time for cabin service, I would have said something like, "Do gate lice get drinks, too? Cool!"

StringerBellBivDeVoe

If it bothers you that much, take your business elsewhere. Don't sit there and demand some sort of justice or compensation - it was really harmless. If your feelings are somehow hurt over this, I would suggest that you spend less energy wondering how United can "make it up to you" or punish the GA and more energy wondering how you got to a point in your life where something so trifling bothered you so much that you had to go on a public forum and talk about it.

lhrsfo

Absolutely agreed - I've worked in several industries where faintly derogatory terms were used to refer to customers in general, and rather more derogatory terms were used to refer to the more irritating categories of customers.

However, it would absolutely have been a sackable offence to refer to a customer like that in front of his face or when you can be overheard - or, indeed, in front of senior management.

Why this is damaging is not that anyone is really going to be hurt by it, but that it confirms a widespread view that there is a number, and perhaps a significant number, of FAs out there who are contemptuous of the customers. And UA absolutely must take that seriously and try to stamp it out.

Tblack15

I guess it's how you interpret it, but I see it as its definition. Someone lining up at the gate early.

I think others (and yourself) may view it as "annoying people around the gate"?

Gate=Gate
Lice=Annoying little things being all up in your business

Therefore,
Gate Lice = Annoying little things being all up in your business at the gate

I agree it's not right to call someone generalized term for this exact reason.. It can be interpreted both ways.

Kacee

Sorry, but there is no way that calling a person a "louse" can be construed as non-derogatory. It is an inherently derogatory term when applied to a human being. In that context, it is defined as "a contemptible or unpleasant person." Definition, "louse"

pbartp

+1
Absolutely unacceptable for any employee in any customer facing role to call a customer such a name.

bluedemon211

The phrase may be offensive to some and not so much to others. Different strokes............

To me the words don't matter as much as the attitude. The real issue IMHO is that you have people who are the customer facing contact of UA expressing negative sentiments about their paying customers. That is simply not very bright. Everyone has bad days, but if you can't screw on a smile, have a pleasant word and treat your customers positively you need to get out of the service business. If my CSR's EVER treated my customers with anything other than a "thank you for your business attitude", they would be gone in a heartbeat.

BlissWorld

I probably would have talked to the captain if I were in your situation as he was the person in charge?

LondonElite

Seriously?

"Uhm, excuse me, Captain...could I have a word with you? One of the flight attendants said the words 'gate lice' to another flight attendant just now and I heard her. I just think you should know."

Fleck

Can you really imagine? The severity of the eye rolling might have caused actual damage to his vision. Please don't bug the Captain with this kind of nonsense. That's what web form is for.

clubord

Is this a joke?

enviroian

OP sounds way too sensitive. If I was boarding and heard a f/a say that I would definitely start to laugh ^

Lighten up people.

SEA1K4EVR

As a 1K I'm in group 1 100% of the time.. and am very familiar with the term gate lice only from reading this board a lot.. I would have found the comment humorous. The OP has not given anywhere near enough information for anyone to know what exactly was happening... "gate lice" should never have been spoken on board a plane by an FA loudly enough to be heard by any passenger.. but if I had heard it I would have turned to him and smiled and said something like "you must read Flyertalk a lot", and not taken it as an insult in any way. If I was unfamiliar with FT it would have been surprising...

But I've had infrequent situations where I've had an initial negative interaction with an FA at boarding involving a battle of wills with regard to the forced checking of bags when arriving late and the bins are closed (I've never lost a single one of those when I magically find space..there's ALWAYS space), or an FA insisting she needs to take my pre-departure plastic cup before takeoff if I'm not finished when that clearly is not required...I never like it when I have a negative experience like that ..but when it happens..unless the FA was extraordinarily rude I always try and make friendly conversation with them later on..maybe they were having a bad day...or I was..and after chatting a bit everyone feels better.

I think the OP should have talked to the FA about it for sure...