ChurnieEls

https://viewfromthewing.com/united-a...ing-manicotti/

https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedairli...porting_me_to/

Absolutely crazy stuff.

Basically 1K was routing MSN-DEN-SEA, on the MSN-DEN built a rapport with FA1 whom promised him some manicotti on the DEN-SEA leg, FA2 gets wind of it and disallows it, FA1 brings the meal anyway, FA2 writes up FA1 & threatens the 1K with a ban.

If I'm running UA ops here, FA2 is gone. Threatening a 1K like that doesn't deserve any second chances.

We can debate about the merits of serving F meals (and it was a partial F meal) in coach but its something the airlines should be doing for top tier Y elites imo.

mahzor

the purser who wrote up the first FA is a legacy holdover from continental with a gigantic amount of seniority, she won't be fired.

ChurnieEls

She should be though.

You don't 'earn' the right to treat pax this terribly by virtue of simply serving your time.

Kacee

I thought there were no power tripping FAs on UA?

Repooc17

Sounds like FA1 wanted to do right by the customer, and FA2 sounds like your typical UA FA

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Episode never should have occurred in first place. The meal should not have passed the curtain.

Other 1Ks or GSs in coach will be wondering "What about me?". The FA should have not given the 1K in coach anything special for schmoozing - I'm pretty sure there'd be an explosion of indignation if he schmoozed his way into an upgrade. While the gesture was nice, the purser decided it was not appropriate. She was not in the wrong at that point. The threat to the passenger was definitely unwarranted and wrong. If the purser said "no", the FA should have complied and there would have been no situation.

"We can debate about the merits of serving F meals (and it was a partial F meal) in coach but its something the airlines should be doing for top tier Y elites imo." 1Ks/GS get free BoB and drinks.

rhwbullhead

First, only the reddit link works properly. The other link goes to an article about someone setting up a "tent " in their seat.

My thoughts are just that I suppose the phrase would have been fine if she had politely explained that special treatment was not allowed (sounds like she couldn't even manage that). The rest after them incident is obviously uncalled for an totally unprofessional. She should not have involved the passenger in the incident and if she wanted to make a big deal out of it, she could have just written the other FA up.

The worst thing is I'm not surprised that something like this happened. I don't want to get into Omni territory but I'm not surprised when someone's job is so protected that people get on power trips like this.

I'm also not surprised bc there are often negative reports here over the years about these "seasoned" FAs that give bad service or are even rude. This is in contrast to the reports of incredible service on foreign airlines.

One anecdote on F9 of all airlines. I brought a friend on his first F9 flight and he's an outgoing person that always makes jokes. I got my free exit row seat and he's not cheap like me so he paid for a seat next to me even though I recommended just taking the free seat they'd give him.

Anyway, he was joking around with the FA that was by the exit row during boarding. He asked if they offered food.and drinks here (he knows they don't bc I explained Frontier to him before he vooked this) and I said "Yeah, they don't do that here but you can pay." The FA could sense he was joking but she said, yeah all we have is stuff you can buy and he showed him the menu. I said "That stuff is expensive but you already paid the ripoff terminal.prices do you might be fine with that." FA giggled at that.

Later during food service, she said she was going to give us free stuff. I initially didn't want to take it. I'm afraid person will get in trouble and I usually don't like special treatment (so had I been in UA situation, I probably would have felt weird about getting the free meal, though I wouldn't have joked about getting it). The FA insisted that it was free and we could get what we wanted.

I just took a diet coke but my friend got some candy and a pop. I never would.have expected that in F9 but it shows if You're nice and fun to be around (this is usually not me to strangers but its definitely hoenmy friend is), then people will sometimes want to do stuff for you.

I told my friend he should get her Instagram or phone number bc she obviously likes him. He was going tondo it but he didn't have the opportunity bc she didn't pass.by later. I said he should.habe gone back to the lav/galley area in back during the flight.
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prestonh

Ikr. They should have diverted for this. A meal crossed cabins after all and refused crewmember instructions.

lilpisher

What is even more concerning is that there wasn’t enough quality content in People and/or US Weekly that she had the time to interact with a passenger..

JimInOhio

I sensed over the years that FA bases develop some of their own culture, too. Obviously you can't make too strong of a blanket statement in that regard but it seems there's a correlation to some degree.

HNLbasedFlyer

Another instance where the story is only one sided. And written quite dramatically. The reddit post is written so dramatically it is hard to take at face value. I wish we could get the Pursers side of the story.

Besides the fact 1K's and GS aren't as special as they think they are - The FA had no business whatsoever giving a F meal to anyone in coach. As pointed out before, certainly other 1K's and possibly GS in coach would have observed this and the FA crossed several lines in giving a F meal to someone in Coach. The purser was absolutely correct in reprimanding the FA. I'm a bit skeptical of all the alleged "berating" but I do agree the coach passenger should have been told that is not allowed. The purser knows they don't control no fly lists and i''m skeptical of that interaction as well.

Now - had we seen a post titled: I'm a 1K in Coach and another 1K seated nearby got a F meal - I'm confident we'd see a lot of posts calling for the FA to be reprimanded/fired and asking why the Purer did not intervene.

WineCountryUA

On the surface this seems less about the passenger and more about workplace issues between the two FAs.

flying_geek

Obviously I don't know what really happened there. But sometime this year I was flying AA CLT-MUC and I ended up in coach. The purser came a few times and asked if I wanted anything. She asked me if I wanted a drink from the front, she offered a meal. In the end she said "How about an ice cream sunday - how can you say "no" to that?" - I didn't say no to that and enjoyed my ice cream with lots of butterscoth (which I am sure would have been thrown out had I not eaten it) and I felt really good about AA for a change. I wrote AA to compliment on the service and how a very inexpensive if not a at that point free to AA gesture really made a difference to me. I was truly pleasantly surprised.

I have no idea how many EXPs were on that flight - I doubt I was the only one - though was far back on the 2nd coach bulkhead - but not everyone gets an upgrade - I am OK if some of us (and not always me) is getting a little extra service. Some odd 10 years ago I flew a lot DL to/from FLL and I usually had two twix bars and a banana. One day the FA told me that she saw me on the manifest and they had no twix bars so she went to the plane next to us and got two twix bars - and turns out it was an international flight and she came back with a bottle of wine ("not the cheap stuff we have on the domestic flights"). Those are experiences that stay with you - and greatly help build loyalty.

I hope management understands that and compliments FA1 - I realize nothing will happen to FA2 - but UA should be proud of an FA that does something special for a decent enough customer

IAH-OIL-TRASH

And if the FA invited the schmoozer (excuse me - "decent enough customer") up front after the plane left w/ one seat open because GA forgot to clear upgrade list (and you were #1 on list)? That would be really "special", wouldn't it ? Would you write in and compliment UA for having such a thoughtful FA?

rhwbullhead

I'm not as skeptical of the threat made by the purser. There have been a bunch of stories overs the years of FAs quoting fake FA regulations or threatening diversions or bans for even small disagreements. I'm not saying this is the norm, but there have been stories like this and someone who would allegedly make such a big issue out of this incident would seem to me to be the type of person who would make such empty threats.

If another 1k or GS had complained about the F meal being given, I doubt they would now the person's status unless they had asked the person. Thread would probably just be a complaint about a coach passenger getting special treatment and an F meal and some would probably speculate that a non Rev was getting special treatment.

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