Tuesday, February 24, 2009

United Flight Crew Allegedly Calls Coach Passengers "IDIOTS"

The first rule of being a flight attendent isn't even: "be polite." I think we all know that too well. The first rule is "don't ever call anyone on your plane an 'idiot.'"

Well, according to the Consumerist and reader Nicholas, the flight crew of United Airlines flight 941 from Chicago to Denver did just that.

[...]I am a frequent business traveler. I was on United flight 941 from Chicago to Denver. On takeoff and landing I always listen to the cockpit communications. Hearing the dulcet tones of the pilot helps ease some of my flying nervousness. During flight 941 I didn't hear anything from the cockpit during takeoff and once we were in the air I heard something odd on the cockpit communications channel. It appeared I was hearing the flight attendants communications. I could see them talking on the phone near the bulkhead and I could hear it on the cockpit channel. Most of the conversation was fairly innocuous but when it was time to serve drinks I heard: "We start on drinks for the IDIOTS in coach". It was at that point one of my fellow passengers let them know we could hear what they were saying. They stopped using the communications system and offered no apology.

I've sent the story to United and surprise… no response.
Here's the thing. It's not always personal when something like this happens. Just because it does once doesn't mean that stewards and stewardesses don[t care for the vast majority of people who happen to pay for his/her income. And it doesn't mean that they don't secretly love anyone who doesn't want to waste the extra $300 to sit in a bigger seat and get a hot towel. 

But United, presuming that Nicholas' email is accurate, needs to do something to address this issue, because, as it stands now, they're kind of getting away with it. One has to wonder how long that will last if it gets national attention.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Whate ever happended to Customer Service and RESPECT??? I work in the industry, and would NEVER consider speaking like that about anyone. Come on United, get with it, stand up and repremand your flight attendant, and appology to your customer, do you really think that he will want to fly with you again after that??? I sure wouldn't! Treat your customers with the respect they deserve, after all, if it weren't for them, YOU would not exist!