satman40

My wife is Asian, UA has always been great, to her.

Hot water, never a problem

hughw

Some of you may be shocked that many New Yorkers will say "thank you" or "goodby" to MTA bus drivers on departure as they're going out the front door. and the driver often responds in kind. But to illustrate cultural differences, we have a friend who's a German expat, and he's commented to us that he can't believe New Yorkers often do this, that it's simply unheard of in Germany to thank a bus driver (who I imagine he thinks of as some type of servant) for doing what they're being paid to do,

kennycrudup

... or maybe we're just too chatty in the US?

tuolumne

United has had the largest exposure to Asia of all the legacy carriers for decades. This is a non-issue and insulting to United staff.

SFO_LHR_NRT

How so? You can learn some interesting habits (good, bad, or indifferent) by going to certain locales often.

If you begin to notice a certain group not acknowledging or responding to your greeting (like a completely foreign language), you might adjust accordingly.

For example, as a Westerner visiting Japan. Japanese people that provide service always graciously appreciate and will throw in a bow. Western customers usually will respond in kind but the locals will not respond at all.

No hate, but sometimes it's just awkward cultural interactions that some want to avoid. As a 2nd gen Asian-American, I make it a habit to greet an FA regardless if they greet or not just to break the ice. But in my experience, 95% of them do welcome me aboard, but I always wondered is if it because I appear more integrated than other Asians. I'm pretty certain I'd get a lower percentage if I appeared to be from mainland China, unfortunately.

StuckinITH

Maybe it was too many years living in New York State but, when we take buses in MUC, my wife always thanks the driver and they do tend to respond nicely (or so she hopes .......as German is not one of the seven languages that she speaks)

I have never observed if the FAs say goodbye and thank you to Asian passengers as I'm tired when I'm landing in PVG, PEK or HKG (or in ORD on the way back). However, on every flight that the person sitting next to my wife or me is Asian, we do notice that the FAs have a lack of patience if that passenger hesitates about what meal to order. To the point of being totally rude. It never happens if the person hesitating is Caucasian like us. My wife has mentioned that many times on the surveys that we get after the flights. It's especially weird since, as you mention, United has such a large exposure to Asian destinations. It does affect us if we see that someone else is treated badly just because of race or a language barrier.

747FC

My wife is a highly educated Asian-American who happens to be a highly-placed executive. I'm a highly educated Euro-American. She and I are both million-mile UA flyers.We also fly on lots of other airlines, mostly J or F.

It is remarkable how many times while flying, in the course of chatting it up with FAs in the galley, my wife is asked whether she is a flight attendant. I guess that the FAs are striking a bond with her (and not looking at the passenger manifest). So, as far as I can recall, she has not voiced concern about equal treatment on UA.

But, my wife has noted occasions when we are both at a hotel check-in area, or dealing with some other customer service agent, that she does not get eye-contact, and I do. Furthermore, when travelling in Japan, she has commented that female customer service agents seem to fawn over me more than her. Nothing wrong with that, in my humble opinion. But, it is a bit of an irritant to her.

94010flyer

Im an Asian American male, and a greeting is hit or miss for me, especially on boarding. But Im usually proactive and as soon as I step in the plane, I say Hello and its always returned. Similarly, I always say "Thank you" on my way out, whether or not they've initiated with a good bye.

I have never noticed that I got a hello/goodbye but a non-Asian who preceded me or followed me didn't, so Im not really buying OP's accusation of racism.

Rumples

Wife and i are in our 30s and asian - we actually feel like we get better service on the TPACs and transcons. They tend to relax a bit when they realize were ABCs who can also speak fluently in Chinese.

vaguba

30k miles on united metal this year so far from ord, can confirm that some flight attendants are downright rude. the worst experience i've had in J was from pek to ord. downright surly staff. only reason why i still fly united is because i travel a lot for work and they're the last US carrier to fly from chicago to mainland china. strongly considering switching to hainan in the future if I ever lose status.

blue_can

Interesting thread - I have noticed that this happens to me fairly frequently as well. Like the OP no noticeable difference in service in other respects such as when boarding (sometimes a lackluster/no welcome compared to other pax when boarding) but upon exit a similar experience. It has happened sufficiently often for me to notice but I've got other things on my mind when flying and this is not something that bothers me.I realize it could be many things including my demeanor but could also be race related - I'm of South Asian descent btw.

UNDLAC

[deleted]

NYC2SGN

I was on LAX-NRT last Christmas in J.

The FAs were NRT based, but most of them were native Mandarin speakers, which I thought odd (because I don't know what the rules are to be based in NRT as a UA FA; do you have to be a Japanese speaker/citizen?) --though it was much appreciated in our cabin, as there were Mandarin speaking passengers on board.

The service was excellent, and I don't think anyone was treated differently based on their race or language of communication with FAs.

I thought the HKG based UA FAs were from the U.S., though I'm only basing this off of one of the videos UA posted on YouTube. The HKG based FAs on my flight from EWR-HKG spoke Cantonese, Mandarin, and Tagalog.

BudgetJetsetter

Me and my wife are Asian. When I read this post I thought about past flight experiences and couldn’t definitively remember one way or another.

Just flew United 999 EWR-BRU with a Newark based crew. As we left I smiled/said thank you and my wife said goodbye following behind me.

The FA did not respond to us and my wife said she looked away. This was an FA we did not interact with during the flight. Service was good enough during flight. It’s a small sample size and I’ll keep an eye to see if it is a trend but it’s not something I would get worked up over if service in-flight is acceptable.

PTahCha

I believe the stations are based on whether they have legal working rights at the base, and what types of flights they would like to work on. There are FAs commuting from NRT to work out of SFO or EWR (Presumably they are US citizens or permanent residents). The purser on my last EWR-HKG was HKG based, but he was from Taiwan, and currently resides in the UK. Part of the flexibility that comes with the profession.