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Horrific United Flight Attendant - what to do

Horrific United Flight Attendant - what to do

Old Jun 16, 2016, 11:36 pm
  #91  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 2,324
Originally Posted by porciuscato
Why are they this way? Easy, it is common human nature, when you don't have to answer to anyone for your performance, when you get paid more simply for hanging around longer, and when it is nearly impossible to remove you no matter who lame you are.

You will see very similar behavior in employees at:

* The Post Office
* The DMV
* Public schools
* Any govt. office in a 3rd world country
I'm glad we take care of our public employees and have nothing but glowing experiences in the aforementioned places. The "structural reform" your're advocating is in the same vein as privatizing social security. It's nonsense.

Originally Posted by porciuscato
Solutions? i think many have already been proposed. You just didn't notice. Here's just a start:

1) In the next contract negotiation, offer a merit pay scheme that is based on actual performance rather than seniority. Phase the seniority system out. Make performance bonuses significant, e.g. 10-20% of pay.

2) Require every single customer-facing employee to wear a legible name tag. It doesn't have to be a real name, just something unique and recognizable, like our tags on FT. Make it a firing offense to not wear it.

3) Start regular "employee of the month/year" programs, based 100% on passenger feedback, to recognize the best FAs
1) Never going to happen, because it's BS and a thinly veiled attempt for the company to get rid of select FAs.

2) Why? So angry FTers can go crazy on aircrafts demanding to see the tag? There's a REASON they don't wear them. My god. And a fireable offense? You and I are living in different worlds.

3) The company already has (and has had) programmes in place. Redundant

Last edited by goalie; Jun 17, 2016 at 9:40 am Reason: snark removed, discuss the issue, not eachother and please quote the member's name when quoting multiple parts of their post
tuolumne is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2016, 12:17 am
  #92  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
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Originally Posted by tuolumne
That's lovely - I'm so happy for you.

Obsequious on the plane, then come online to yap? To be honest I see your opinion as thinly veiled contempt for FAs.
Wow. Talk about thinly veiled contempt. 4 out 5 times I write to United about FAs, it's positive, BTW. Not because that reflects my experience, but because I'm favoring sugar over salt.

I live in a small tourist town where I've observed how bad behavior is fostered by anonymity and lack of accountability. (You can also observe this on bathroom walls and Internet forums).

As TripAdvisor and Yelp have grown, I've seen the restaurants in town make quantum leaps toward better service. Several of the bad ones that were around for decades closed down. It's all about customers being able to identify the good/bad actors and provide feedback. A similar mechanism could do the same for United.

So I'm surprised that you would think FAs should remain anonymous and immune to customer feedback.

What's you proposal then? Just give the unions everything they want? Higher pay for everybody and things will get better?

I don't believe FAs on Delta, Swiss, or Lufthansa are paid better. Yet I have never had a bad FA experience on any of them. Not one! In fact, I just flew two Swiss and one Aegean flights to Crete. My God, what a difference! They're friendly, helpful, warm -- everything the average United FA is not.
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Old Jun 17, 2016, 12:45 am
  #93  
 
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While I've seen some brusque FAs on UA, nothing compares to the horrendous psychopaths that used to work the old USAir. I had one guy who was so vicious to passengers he did everything short of striking them physically. Aggressive, suspicious, yelling--just awful. At the end of the flight I asked one of his co-workers what his name was (of course he wasn't wearing a nametag) and he came barrelling up the aisle yelling at me, getting up in my face, and generally escalating things (and loudly refusing to give me his name). Thank god I was deplaning. And when I went to the CS desk, fuming and complaining, the agent barely even looked up at me. (And this was only one of many incidents, and I don't even fly that much!)
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Old Jun 17, 2016, 1:14 am
  #94  
 
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Originally Posted by tuolumne
2) Why? So angry FTers can go crazy on aircrafts demanding to see the tag? There's a REASON they don't wear them. My god. And a fireable offense? You and I are living in different worlds.
Actually with the power the FA's have to throw you off the plane for no good reason I think it's very reasonable you get a first name and last name, or an identifying number, of them to use in complaints.

That's their decision, not ours. And yes, being rude to customers in the service industry should be a fireable offence.
theddo is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2016, 1:21 am
  #95  
 
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Originally Posted by porciuscato
...everything the average United FA is not.
Whereas I agree with your sentiments overall, I also think that United's FAs have been improving over the last -I don't know- maybe 18 months or so?
I hardly ever (never?) encounter an awful or rude FA in Business, and only infrequent in coach.
However, the coach FAs, although not awful or horrible per se, tend to be mostly disinterested and unhappy with providing good service to pax.

Other carriers' FAs, like from the airlines the ones you mentioned, are certainly more pleasant. Ironically, over the same period of 1.5 years I found some other airlines' FAs to be slipping in service and attitude, Air New Zealand for example.
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Old Jun 17, 2016, 6:47 am
  #96  
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Originally Posted by theddo
Actually with the power the FA's have to throw you off the plane for no good reason I think it's very reasonable you get a first name and last name, or an identifying number, of them to use in complaints.

That's their decision, not ours. And yes, being rude to customers in the service industry should be a fireable offence.
^ +1
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Old Jun 17, 2016, 11:53 am
  #97  
 
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I don't fly UA. In the late 70's and 80's we used to refer to the UA staff as SkyNazi's. Always surly or nasty. My break point was refusal to accommodate us (group of 30 flying 4 times a week, 30 weeks a year on unrestricted Y tickets) on something that wasn't way out of the ordinary and they said no. I moved our travel to AA and actually got a call from a VP at UA. This was in the pre-FF days. AA held flights for us on a couple of occasions - in the early 80's.

Over the years I've flown on UA on a one flight basis (usually from IIROPS) hoping it would be better but it never was. They are better than Spirit or Allegiant but that isn't much.
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Old Jun 17, 2016, 5:32 pm
  #98  
 
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Originally Posted by bmwe92fan
Thanks for the link - can you imagine - this poor guy lost 9 months of his life - stuck in a foreign country - all because UA crew didn't think he was acting properly...
Here are story links from sites that unlike the Daily Mail do not sensationalize any anti US airline story they can find.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/06/24/berkeley-man-goes-nuts-over-nuts-forces-plane-dive


http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...-34605337.html

And no big surprise the trial found him not guilty. First, you will not get any pax testimony. Second, the standards are vastly different.

But if you think refusing to sit down when the seat belt sign is on and he is asked to sit, causing other pax to complain about their safety, and chasing after an FA for not getting him crackers is OK, then fine.
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Old Jun 17, 2016, 6:07 pm
  #99  
 
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Originally Posted by exwannabe
Here are story links from sites that unlike the Daily Mail do not sensationalize any anti US airline story they can find.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/06/24/berkeley-man-goes-nuts-over-nuts-forces-plane-dive


http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...-34605337.html

And no big surprise the trial found him not guilty. First, you will not get any pax testimony. Second, the standards are vastly different.

But if you think refusing to sit down when the seat belt sign is on and he is asked to sit, causing other pax to complain about their safety, and chasing after an FA for not getting him crackers is OK, then fine.
Lol - no kidding - at first I misread your comments but completely agree...

Last edited by bmwe92fan; Jun 17, 2016 at 6:15 pm
bmwe92fan is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2016, 7:27 pm
  #100  
 
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Originally Posted by NeedstoFly
Airlines in J and F are selling a luxury product. Would you accept the same level of service in say a Prada store or a Ritz Carlton hotel? That's the standard they should be judged against.
I'd tend to agree, but please try telling any crew that in the "primarily here for your safety" culture we have these days.

That being said, currently up front on my regular IAD-DEN trip and the two younger FAs up front have been excellent. I don't know if it's just me, but most of my problems have been with the centegenarians from the "illustrious" days of flying yore.

Having lived with a UA FA last year, I can say her schedule was crazy and she was generally treated like crap by the company - but she did like her job and tried to treat customers well. She was in her mid 30s and had about 10 years with the airline. I'd say she was a better example than many, but that may be personal bias.

She did tell me stories of the old crab apples and other bitter folks, but also had plenty of DYKWIA stories as well.

I think it's like any job - the main difference on the international carriers being that they can outright discriminate on age, looks, demeanor, etc which is more difficult in the US.

Last edited by tcp1; Jun 17, 2016 at 7:35 pm
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Old Jun 17, 2016, 7:32 pm
  #101  
 
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Originally Posted by tcp1
I'd tend to agree, but please try telling any crew that in the "primarily here for your safety" culture we have these days.

That being said, currently up front on my regular IAD-DEN trip and the two younger FAs up front have been excellent. I don't know if it's just me, but most of my problems have been with the centegenarians from the "illustrious" days of flying yore.
Lol I won't add any coals to the fire - but you are spot on my friend.....
bmwe92fan is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2016, 7:47 pm
  #102  
 
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"I don't know if it's just me, but most of my problems have been with the centegenarians from the "illustrious" days of flying yore"
I fly 30-40 hours a year with UA, mostly long haul, and am around the same age as the "centagenarians" and have no problem with them. Maybe I know how to emphasize with those of similar age.
On a recent flight a pax was trying to ram his oversize carry on in the locker above me and managed to drop it on my head. It was more shock than hurt. The two young FAs nearby pretended not to see. It was the centagenarian who raced up to see I was ok and subsequently checked a number of times during the 4 hour flight.
grapegrower is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2016, 8:30 pm
  #103  
 
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Originally Posted by grapegrower
"I don't know if it's just me, but most of my problems have been with the centegenarians from the "illustrious" days of flying yore"
I fly 30-40 hours a year with UA, mostly long haul, and am around the same age as the "centagenarians" and have no problem with them. Maybe I know how to emphasize with those of similar age.
On a recent flight a pax was trying to ram his oversize carry on in the locker above me and managed to drop it on my head. It was more shock than hurt. The two young FAs nearby pretended not to see. It was the centagenarian who raced up to see I was ok and subsequently checked a number of times during the 4 hour flight.
Perhaps like treats like better. Being in my late 30s I'm just relaying my anecdotal experience with ~110 domestic segments annually for the last few years.

Not trying to start an argument. That being said, I try to be a "low maintenance" flyer. I never ring my call button and usually only have a small personal item and no carry on. My main interactions usually involve broken seats, the rare poacher, and maybe once in a while asking for the ol' wifi reset (less of a problem these days.)

I do make sure to leave compliments via 1kvoice or what not when I get a good experience - as I did today. Not sure how much good it does, though.
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Old Jun 17, 2016, 8:33 pm
  #104  
 
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Originally Posted by grapegrower
"I don't know if it's just me, but most of my problems have been with the centegenarians from the "illustrious" days of flying yore"
I fly 30-40 hours a year with UA, mostly long haul, and am around the same age as the "centagenarians" and have no problem with them. Maybe I know how to emphasize with those of similar age.
On a recent flight a pax was trying to ram his oversize carry on in the locker above me and managed to drop it on my head. It was more shock than hurt. The two young FAs nearby pretended not to see. It was the centagenarian who raced up to see I was ok and subsequently checked a number of times during the 4 hour flight.
Did that person tell you that the reason you got hit in the head is that on UA they have negotiated for the "right" to not have to lift any pax bags into the overhead? Didn't think so - on any other airline the FA would have assisted the pax with the bag - you got hit in the head because of union negotiations - how does that feel now? Easy to blame others - unfortunately the facts aren't on your side....
bmwe92fan is offline  
Old Jun 17, 2016, 8:51 pm
  #105  
 
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The pax was tall enough and fit enough to lift his own carryon.
I don't think his clumsiness can be attributed to any union negotiations.
That is really a long bow to draw.
I was there, you weren't, so the facts are definitely on my side
grapegrower is offline  

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