Imstevek

CALlegacy

I agree. The answer to when it is too much is when it becomes blatantly obvious to everyone (most everyone anyway) in the vicinity. This is about appearances and about tact and about class, but maybe those concepts don't have much application on commercial air anymore. Also, pics are most definitely not needed. I think we all get the idea.

tuolumne

Imagine the optics of United, a company aggressively trying turn the page from a handful of high-profile cascading PR blunders, disciplining or firing a gay flight attendant for kissing his boyfriend onboard.

However you may feel about your own onboard experience being marginalized, to think United would do anything in this case other than throw you a token comp to keep you quiet is totally delusional. My advice would be to stop posting photos to an internet web forum, mind yor own business, and move on.

Two Bee

^

kmersh

Maybe I am naive (would not be the first and maybe I am missing something), but why does being gay make the employee immune from discipline (if required) when he is doing something that I imagine is not considered appropriate employee behavior.

Kissing is completely acceptable, but on company time I am sure gay or straight is not considered proper employee behavior not just for UNITED, but probably for many companies as well.

Again, maybe I naive, but I am not sure this is a gay/straight issue, (maybe I am wrong), but instead an issue of lack of professionalism on the part of a UNITED employee.

porciuscato

Well at least one passenger got treated well. That's better than a lot of flights I've been on, where all the pax got treated like dirt. I'd call that a win. ;-)

Now just as a thought experiment: imagine a 65 yo female FA who pays extra attention to her husband and gives him a peck on the cheek at one point. Would we even be talking about it?

Aussienarelle

Well, speaking as a 55 year old female, I do not think that is appropriate behavior for anyone in a professional environment when they are working.

However, if paying extra attention to one passenger and giving pecks on the cheek is part of the service - where does it end? Oh yes, I remember Virgin used to give massages in the air until there were other expectations for such "services".

Seriously, either FAs are professionals and deserve to be treated as such or it is a PDA free for all, and I for one would not choose to fly in such an environment. There is a time and a place for everything.

As I previously posted if I had experienced/witnessed the behavior and was upset I would not have started a thread on FT but I would contact United to let them know I expect better from their crew members.

mattr12

What would have I done? Take selfies with them. I would have added rainbow unicorns in my facebook posts. It's so nice to see a happy couple.

lilpisher

I'm in agreement that any type of PDA is inappropriate, though I could see overlooking a single, quick, discreet kiss. I probably wouldn't submit a formal complaint to United, unless as others have stated, there were other service deficiencies on board. However, if the other FAs were able to cover and you were otherwise well taken care of, not sure a complaint is warranted, though I'd definitely document in the post-flight survey. If service was otherwise lacking, I'd call it out as a reason.

tuolumne

It shouldn’t, but in reality it does. Disciplining a gay FA for kissing their partner/significant other has the potential to be a nuclear PR disaster for United.

schnitzer

SamOF

The only thing I would complain about was the fact that a flight attendant knew the reason for the delay and didn't announce it to all passengers until 1 hr later. That seems totally unacceptable.

The rest of it: I don't know--people always say they'd feel the same if they saw a heterosexual couple doing whatever they're complaining about (and they may actually think that in good faith), but reality seems to differ.

Nota bene: the google search results for "gay couple kicked out for peck on cheek" and "straight couple kicked out for peck on cheek" are both filled with news articles about gay couples getting kicked out of things.

pushmyredbutton

Just to add my 2 cents..

I'm a fan of minding my own business. Unless this was directly impacting me, I see nothing wrong with what's apparently an extremely happy friend of a FA. We're all human and sometimes emotions get the best of us when the unexpected happens; such as your SO getting upgraded at the last minute.

Should the FA have been more stoic? That's obviously up for debate. In my world, I'd much rather have happy FA's that are not robots like on some other carriers. I've seen a FA get proposed to on a flight - according to this thread, the response should have been "Wait until we are on the ground"

Supima

All - I asked the moderators to close this thread last night but it's still going on - so I deleted the pictures from my initial post to keep this from getting so emotional and polarizing.

I do appreciate all the opinions and did not anticipate it would go in this direction at all -- so I don't see the point in continuing any of these discussions as they aren't anywhere near why I asked. I never complained or reported anything -- I just wanted opinions what others would have done if they didn't get the service they thought they should. It was about me not liking gay people lol, or about friends getting upgrades, or about being a snob, or about getting miles or sympathy, or anything other than I stated....

I didn't do anything, say anything, and just wanted to know if others would have done the same...

I would have responded sooner but I'm in the middle east on business and didn't have much time to respond until now. Really surprised at how negative everything went so fast....

757FO

Wait, did you actually take pictures of them? If so, that in itself is a bit over the top.