With all of the stories of airline conflicts over the past several weeks, it’s beginning to feel like us versus them in the skies.
Of course it only feels this way, stories are so reportable precisely because they’re outliers. There were 719 million domestic enplanements in 2016. US airlines had 1.1 trillion available seat miles last year. These incidents are rare.
Still, even when things don’t come to blows and law enforcement isn’t involved, travel is stressful. More people are flying than ever before. Gate areas and planes are more crowded with more flights and higher load factors. Air travel remains in a ‘heightened’ security environment (i.e. ‘the new normal’ security state). And though fees are always frustrating and we think we should pay less, air travel is more affordable than ever, and that makes flying more small-d democratic than ever.
Passengers bring their unique differences with them on a plane as well as the emotional baggage they’re carrying. People miscommunicate. They run into crew having a bad day too.
Flight attendant Nadine DuVal shared her thoughts with me, and I asked if I could share them with readers. She gave me explicit permission to use her name, which seemed appropriate because the thoughts are so personal, and I want to make clear she’s speaking for herself only and not her company.
Nadine asked for “help in getting the traveling public to realize we are not the ‘enemy.'”
We are everyday normal people trying very hard to please lots of people, all while meeting the rules and safety regulations put in place by our employer and the federal government. We start every day with the best intentions to help everyone and make them feel like a welcome guest on our airplane. And we are only human. We don’t get everything right.
United Flight Attendants Campaigning in Union Election Outside San Francisco United Club
There are about 60,000 flight attendants at American, United, and Delta alone. Anyone other than the President of the American Airlines flight attendants union would concede that there are some bad flight attendants out there. Flight attendants do take their unhappiness with their employer out on customers as the comments to this post show. And some flight attendants are quick to call any customer service issue a security issue. (Of course there are plenty of really terrible passengers.)
I think that most flight attendants are trying to do a good job, they want to take pride in their work, although it’s hard to feel you’re a part of something larger as a motivator after years of cuts and it’s hard to have respect for colleagues who get by not putting out very much effort but who are protected by their unions.
Here are Nadine’s personal thoughts on a difficult time for her airline. She and her colleagues who haven’t been a part of recent incidents and try to do their best each day suffer when we make generalizations based on outlier incidents.
I recently heard someone I respected make a joke about United Airlines to a large assembly of people. Below is an excerpt of the email I wrote to him. Like him, perhaps all the cities and people who want to boycott United need to be reminded that United Airlines is not some nebulous entity. We are 83,000 individuals! And one incident does not define us or our corporate values!
“I wonder if you saw me walk out right after your inappropriate and unnecessary joke about United Airlines. I wonder if you have any idea how disappointing and heart-wrenching it was to hear you perpetuate the lies and half truths being peddled by the media. I wonder if you have listened to (name deleted) tell you how I cried because you felt the need to make a joke at my expense and the expense of the 83,000 hard-working employees of United Airlines.
I have been a flight attendant at United Airlines for over 22 years now. Do you want to know why I became a flight attendant? Because I wanted to live a life of service, but I knew I wasn’t Mother Teresa and I knew I couldn’t handle living in the slums of Calcutta. But I did know that that God sees service in both the large and small actions of individual people.
And if I tell you the story of how I got this job, you will see that God placed me here with a purpose. Let me tell you about some of the things I have seen and done at United Airlines.
In the past 22 years, I have helped numerous cute little old ladies and gentlemen find their connecting gates so they could visit their grandchildren; sat with and comforted scared flyers; held and rocked screaming babies so their parents could have a break; worked 16-hour duty days serving people who have forgotten the words “please” and “thank you;” rescued a 9-yr old boy from the bottom of a hotel pool and performed CPR on him (yes, he started breathing again and lived); flown somber flights taking troops to the Middle East on their way to war; flown joyous flights bringing troops home from war; flown on or helped at the gate for numerous Fantasy Flights that bring the magic and wonder of Christmas to sick and disadvantaged children in many cities around the United network; assisted with so many on-board medical emergencies I can’t even remember them all; passed out wings to first-time flyers of all ages; gifted champagne to couples going to or returning from their honeymoon; given clothes out of my suitcase to passengers who have thrown up on themselves and had nothing in their carry-ons to wear; attended the funerals and memorials of several of the flight attendants who were my friends and who died on flight #175 on 9/11, then smiled through my sorrow and fear as the airline and aviation industry picked up the pieces and struggled during the ensuing economic downturn.
I have worked almost every Thanksgiving and/or Christmas during those 22 years. First, because I was junior and couldn’t get those days off and then because I didn’t have any kids and wanted a fellow flight attendant to spend that special time with his/her kids. Working those holidays means that passengers get to see their families and friends while I spend the holidays in a hotel.
Away from the airline, I have volunteered for Meals on Wheels when I lived in Rhode Island. Here in Virginia, I am a volunteer firefighter in Loudoun County and I’ve been lobbying for over 3 years with a 9/11 widow and both the flight attendant and pilot unions to make planes safer and more secure everyone.
Now multiply me by 83,000 and THAT is who United Airlines is. Are we perfect? No. We are everyday people working hard to do a great service for everyone we meet. Everyday people with the best intentions doing the best we can.
When I go to work, I see more good than bad. Every day, I witness incredible acts, large and small of grace, kindness, generosity, and courage that are quickly disregarded or forgotten the moment something doesn’t go exactly the way the passenger wants whether it be because of weather, mechanical problems, rules/regulations or human fallibility.
Have you noticed the one thing I haven’t mentioned yet? The many ways passengers beat us up and offend us every single day. If I told you about some of the tirades and tantrums, insults and curses I have been subjected to, you would be appalled. How do I know? Because my friends and family are. …”
My email only addressed jokes being told. The calls to boycott my beloved airline are even more threatening to the livelihoods of 83,000 individuals, their families and the many families who are touched by the auxiliary businesses supported by the airlines.
I hope Nadine is working my next flight. Odds on she won’t be, but her colleagues are more likely than not to be trying hard.
The airline’s job of course is to ensure that each and every one of their employees tries just as hard — not only because they’re intrinsically motivated, but because the culture both encourages it and demands it. Many airlines around the world offer better service than U.S. airlines do.
It’s not fair though to paint every flight attendant with the same brush and governments that want to boycott United ought to look in the mirror at how they’re treating customers at the DMV and citizens in their jails.
We’re having a broad national conversation about air traffic, not always a well-informed one, but we should remember the human element as we engage in that dialogue.
FA’s/GA’s are caught in the middle. Their employer creates a hostile environment for its customers (baggage fees, change fees, seating fees, reduced seat pitch, no meals, devalued FF programs) and also likely for its employees.
The result is that both passengers and FA’s project that hostility towards each other. In the end the Exec’s and shareholders win. The US3 all collude on these policies so that your options are limited (except Southwest).
It’s unfortunate that, what a CEO like John Legere has done for the wireless industry cannot be applied to Aviation.
Fantastic blog post and contribution from this caring and articulate flight attendant. It certainly adds some valuable perspective.
Nicely written Nadine.
Very informative and enlightening.
She sounds like a wonderful, caring FA. Kudos to her and the other thousands of FA’s who are the forward face of their airline(s). They’ve been caught between cutthroat competition and a leviathan of regulation and expectations. It’s not an easy job. It’s not fair. Nor is life.
All that said, it is, in fact, a job. And she is paid(both money and hopefully benefits) for said job. No one is forcing to her stay at UAL. And if she gets upset because someone insults her airline/industry, then quite frankly she needs to grow a thicker skin.
Try working in financial services, mining, pharma, etc… All industries face backlash, jokes, half-truths and insults. It’s really not her burden to bear.
All that said, she sounds like an FA with which I would likely enjoy traveling.
Sanctimonious and over-inflated self-worth much?
I appreciate Nadine and think the majority of Flight Attendants are like her, but if she thinks this is the mindset of all 83,000 UA employees she’s quite mistaken.
Out of those 83,000 United employees you have some jerks, some rude people, some people who don’t care, some people with mental health issues, some people with poor customer service, some people with bad attitudes……….and a TON of great employees.
It’s like the old adage about a great restaurant, you tell 1 or 2 people. You find a terrible restaurant and you tell everyone you meet.
UA was let down by bad management that did not let employees use common sense. Then a series of errors led to a man getting assaulted and dragged out of the airplane. Full circle back to the bad management who did everything possible to make a bad situation worse through two different sorry-but-not-sorry apologies before realizing the extent of the issue.
As a passenger I will always try to say please, say thank you, say excuse me and be polite. The big difference is I paid for a service. If a pre departure drink is really so difficult at American or if being “re-accommodated” is really the new buzzword at United……….that isn’t what I paid for.
If you aren’t getting paid until the wheels start to move, tell you union. Don’t take it out on the people who are paying your salary.
Good luck to all and thanks to all the great crew I have had over the years.
Suck it up and get used to being verbally abused and harassed at work, that’s called a hostile work environment. Where do you work @geoff?
I can’t count the number of times a FA (both UA and AA) have apologized to me for something entirely out of their control – dictated to them by corporate – and my reply “please don’t apologize for something I know you didn’t do (or have a say in the decision)” Often there is a bit of a look f surprise on their face. (almost) makes up for the FA who are nasty and on power trips – which I have to say are a small minority of the nice ones!
A bunch of useless drivel. I stopped reading after the first 3 sentences when she started faulting the person for spreading “lies” and “half-truths”. It’s not United’s fault, according to her and anyone suggesting otherwise is a liar.
I read the story, and I saw the video. It was enough for me.
Like Nadine, I too live in Loudoun County, Virginia, the home of Dulles International Airport, one of United’s hub cities. My job takes me around the USA and around the world. I have flown more than 1.2 million miles on United Airlines. I live among many United Airlines employees, both FA’s and pilots. I’ve probably flown with Nadine at one point or another. I’ll occasionally make a joke about Unite Airlines, too because there’s a kernel of truth behind every joke and everyone I know has United Airlines horror story that they can relate to. I stopped choosing United Airlines in 2012-13 after a particularly egregious series of customer service, management and operational failures. I still end up on UA occasionally but only if UA is the last option. (3 out of 43 flights this year on UA).
An industry that is dependent on high levels of customer service is doomed to fail when your employees are rewarded only for their length of time in the job. Short of committing a felony, it’s not possible to be terminated. Employees are free to do as little work as required or dedicate themselves to their work. Sadly, those dedicated to their work are not rewarded for their effort. Most appear to have left the company. The result is the United Airlines we have today. When I hear my neighbors talk about the disdain they have for their employer, it makes me sick. I don’t want to fly on an airline where the employees are desperately unhappy and hateful. Their new tagline should be “We hate to fly and it shows.” Every few years I get an email from the CEO that admits the airlines failures and vows to do better. They never fulfill this promise and consequently I, and probably tens of thousands of other business customers, avoid United if at all possible. I pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars for a single ticket. I demand to be treated like a human being, not royalty but not cargo, either.
Nadine is correct. There are probably are thousands of dedicated employees like her at United. But there are probably tens of thousands who don’t give a crap either. (I know, I’ve met some of them) I’ve had some wonderful experiences on United but I’ve also had more than my share of inexcusable failures. I’m not willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars and just “hope” I have a reasonable experience. Munoz seems have a clue but until United figures out how to turn the battleship, I’ll be on another carrier. The jokes will continue! United doesn’t seem to miss me and my 100,000+ miles a year. The feeling is mutual.
And most flight attendants get into the job because they are flighty and love the idea of bouncing from one place to another.
Mother Theresa? Life of Service? Give me a break.
It’s terribly sad for this particular FA. However she needs to look to her corporate employer for allowing the situation to come about whereby United and by extension herself and her colleagues have become the butt of multiple jokes. If she does not then she will just be pilloried further. The scope of damage to United’s reputation abroad is immense – no-one in Europe save for frequent flyers was really aware of the terrible customer services reputation it had prior to this latest incident. It is massive – even people who have never been to the US now laughingly refer to never flying United.
Nadine’s comments and work are commendable but I don’t believe for a minute it represents United. I has an Executive Platinum multiple years and have a lifetime Red Carpet club membership. I also have a Lifetime President Club card and when the merge happened I wrote and asked if one of the cards could be transferred to my wife. I never got a response. Over the years I have watched as the Sundae cart went away to service going away and the 9/11 really changed the mood and it was many scared workers acting out as bullies. Nadine when we fly Lufthansa or British Air or Air France or Singapore or Emirates or Etihad or Qatar or Qantas we don’t experience the same sort of bullying. Nadine, I am sorry to say that it is too late for me. I live in San Francisco and am about to retire and I bought a Tesla because I won’t get on your plane ever again. When I fly to the East coast I’ll fly thru Vancouver to get Cathay or I’ll connect with Alaska. You should focus your passion for saving your airline on your fellow crew and commit your passion to removing those bullies out of your company. Then and only then added with a lot of time (10 years) is my guess will United and AA have a chance to turn around. I’m not betting on that happening. I m sorry that you have to suffer as a result but I’m sure you can find meaning outside UA.
Thank you Nadine for providing a well-written point of view ‘from the other side’
sorry most FA of UA, AA and DL are not as nice as Nadine. They are rude, unprofessional and lack of training.
I have no connection to anything to do with aviation but I’ve been flying for 30 years. Nadine, I hope that for every ugly stupid passenger you encounter there are two of passengers like me, who understand your job, understand the airline biz and fly a dozen times a year. It’s so sad that people are ugly and stupid, then they compound their ignorance by blathering on about subjects they know little about.
‘Flight rage’ is perpetuated by the sheer discomfort of flying today, and yes the airlines have created the mess … leaving airport agents and flight crews to deal with the passengers. But that fact does not make it acceptable to behave like a spoiled child or a wild animal when you fly. Neither is it acceptable to be rude to the crew, there’s not a single instance when passengers are allowed to be obnoxious. If a passenger is having a ‘bad day’, why is it so difficult to understand an FA having a bad day? Everyone needs to have a bit of empathy and respect for humanity.
I’m flying SFO-EWR tomorrow at noon, and I hope you’re working my flight!
@MD you said you stopped reading the useless drivel after three sentences but then had to comment again to complain some more? It’s impossible to take your criticisms seriously when you’re lying about your own actions.
I’m sitting on a UA flight right now. The FAs working the front cabin have both been exceptionally nice, very attentive, and very professional. There are more Nadines than non-Nadines, especially since Smisek was defrocked and a decent (even if occasionally flawed) CEO took his place.
Thank you Nadine….I felt like you were literally reading my mind and looking deep w/in my own heart….May God Bless You and keep you safe from the evilness in this world…I feel your pain….Fellow AA flight Attendant here!
The unintended consequences of the “Company X is horrible – boycott ’em” clamor.
83,000 people, yes, but still 83,000 people who won’t take a shred of responsibly. Just pass the buck.
Thanks for this good article. Unfortunately the Internet was made for porn and anonymous abuse.
I’m sorry to say I could not disagree more with the author or the FA. I have flown for 38 years and know first hand at the decline in the airline industry, flight attendants attitudes, and customer service as a whole.
I don’t care if you really did all of that stuff you bragged about. What I do care is that I paid money for service on your airline. And either people get good service and value for money paid or they leave. United Airlines customer service is absolutely horrible and that the observation from a very frequent flyer. It’s even worse for someone who flies rarely.
The comment about a few bad apples is completely wrong. The problem is that you have a few good apples in a rotten disgusting barrel.
UA has unfortunate luck of being the last straw. Perhaps if that he public would truly choose one airline, and put it out of business, it might take impact the other ones.
Heavens, what selfish and inconsiderate people are posting here. Yes, in thirty years as a passenger I have experienced two, possibly three FA lulus. One was AA, a headache to her fellow FAs as well as passengers, another Jet Blue – sent me $100.00 which I didn’t use it was so insulting after what the nasty guy put me through, but I wasn’t going to sue after 9/11. The third one was TWA set up by a nasty Aer Lingus ground staffer who seemed to hate babies. I was recently set up for TSA by another nasty AL ground staff.
That being said, does anyone seriously believe that we are paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to have an FA curtsey while serving us a drink? Seriously? We’re paying for our safety; for our aircraft techies, our pilots, the safety training of air crews who do, like, Natalie, have a heart for service, and now have to deal, on a daily basis, with passengers that make me nervous, that are arrogant, ignorant, obnoxious, dirty, disrespectful and CLUELESS – personalities that would knock a baby out of a mother’s arms in order to get to the escape chute first.
Speaking of babies, btw, British Airways does have the edge on travelling with babies – they pre board moms with kiddies, settle them down, then board the adults. (Jet Blue pilots and crews are lovely with children too) And for the whiners on this board, it’s in your best interest too. And yes, you can live without a peanut for 1-24 hours, if there’s an allergic child on board!
As for Etihad, Emirates, etc., I would not give a dime or even accept a free flight on a Saudi based airline given their abuse of women and children; and the fact that since Libya and 19 Saudis took down three of our airlines, and created this stress and tension for all aviators, Etihad and Emirates have now replaced Pan Am and TWA as the ‘flagship’ airlines of the world, and Dubai is the new ‘glamor’ hub. Just coincidentally of course.
Dara: it is my pleasure to give up my lifetime Gold for you to fly AA and make sure you are not on the foreign carriers with service. As a retired Army officer I feel quite patriotic to fly these carriers who are shining examples of capitalism as opposed to the American carriers mired in their self regulated socialism. You’re old and you’re tired AA and UA. And very cranky!
Nadine seems like a nice person. However nice people can sometimes work for not-very-nice organizations. Not-very-nice organizations and even downright evil organizations are all made up of mostly regular people who are trying their best to do their jobs. Even the Nazi party was made up of regular people each just trying to do the best at their jobs. Of course United is in no way to compare to the Nazis but the point is that Nadine’s contention that people should put up with or excuse poor behavior from an organization just because many or most of the members of that organization are good, honest, regular people who are just trying their best to do their jobs is silly.
Nadine is correct though that one incident should not define a companies’ corporate values or their employees. Unfortunately for United (and the airline industry in general) there has been a long standing trend towards less respect for its customers. Decades of treating customers more and more like cattle have bred a lot of resentment. Because of many minor, and less than minor slights and disappointments the airlines have no well of good will to draw upon when that one really bad incident occurs. So yes, United and Nadine personally will be the focus of justified anger and Nadine’s contention that she is just a good person, at a good company that just happened to goof up once is simply false.
I have just never had a problem with a flight attendant . I have been unhappy with the company but ,
not the people .
I agree–good and bad on both sides. I’m sure she is in small percentage of FAs, based on her cv above. And I noticed she mentioned all these horrible passengers, but what about the ones that wore a smile, said hello, asked how she was, thanked her for a great flight? I do this every time I fly. Most times I get a smile in return and a thanks. Sometimes, not. Like I said, good and bad on both sides.
I can honestly say as a UA flight attendant I appreciate Nadine’s perspective. I cannot totally relate because since the situation on 3411 I’ve worked about 10-15 flights and I haven’t had a single person yell at me or disrespect me. I am very impressed by the compassion that I have been shown by total strangers. Ultimately, I think that it’s completely human to remember the one bad thing that happens but forget the many great things that occurred. I only pray that I can be as resilient as Nadine. Working for the same company for 22 years is a MAJOR accomplishment. She worked through 9/11, bankruptcy, and furloughs (1’m assuming). I’m only 25 and I’ve only been w/ United for 1 year but I have no intentions of going. At the end of the day I appreciate my customers. I will always give my customers extra stroopwafels or the full can of soda whenever they want. I will never paint every customer based on the small percentage of people who are not so nice. It’s okay we all have bad days. I hope to see improvements in the flying experience and I have faith that we all will overcome this tough time. And no, flight attendants are not the enemy, we all just want to get from point A to point B in one piece.
“I wonder if you have any idea how disappointing and heart-wrenching it was to hear you perpetuate the lies and half truths being peddled by the media”
If only this flight attendant knew how disappointing it is to hear story after story, with video evidence to back it up — so I don’t know WHERE she gets the ‘lies and half truths’ line in a world where we can witness these airline and flight attendant transgressions for ourselves — and know that when we book an air flight, we are risking prison, or having our kids taken away, rbecause the airline decides that our seats are better suited for someone else, even when we are ALREADY sitting in them.
As far as working holidays, welcome to ANY customer service job (most of which pay FAR less than what you make).
If you don’t like when people expect the service that they paid for, you’re in the wrong job. The customer ISN’T always right, but in recent cases of airlines dragging people out of seats that they paid for, or threatening to take peoples’ kids away from them for not giving up a seat they had already paid for, or any of the hundreds of other transgressions that airlines (and their employees) have committed in the past year…the EMPLOYEE isn’t always right either. In fact, in your industry, it seems that the employees ARE the problem — if it’s not the employees, then it’s the training, which means there were THOUSANDS of employees trained to be complete jerks to customers.
Get over yourself. You are a flight attendant in a verifiably substandard company. Not an easy job, by any stretch, but…also not any harder than any other restaurant/retail job. At least your flight is over after a few hours, in most cases. The rest of us have to deal with the same jerks day after day after day.. even when OUR policy is to put the customer first.
If you can’t handle your job — or if CAN handle it personally, but choose to defend other people who have no business in your industry — then it’s time for you to find something new. Maybe being a supermarket cashier will be more up your alley. Maybe taking phone calls where you can say “Have you tried restarting your computer?” would be more your style.
But if you’re going to blame customers, as a whole, for their shoddy treatment by your coworkers, you are a terrible spokesperson for the airline industry. And you have only cemented my opinion that I should look to Amtrak or Greyhound and NEVER fly again, because I am a person who actually believes that if I pay for a service, I should get it, or at least be offered compensation and an apology instead of “we’re gonna take your kids away from you.” Like, if you EVER hear this coming out of your mouth, you are not only a failure at your job, but a failure as a human being (same if you even DEFEND speech like that).
Delta, United, and American airlines have all proven to me recently that they don’t deserve my money. And other airlines, who have done nothing wrong, are also now mistrusted by me because it’s only a matter of time before someone in those companies learns from the Delta/United/American example and decides that THEY are also above the basic rules of customer service now that they’ve seen YOU get away with it.
So Greyhound or Amtrak is the way to go now (or, better ye, driving yourself — I have yet to have a gas station employee tell me that he can’t give me the gas I paid for, or tell me that the gas I paid for is now going to someone else, or that he/she is gonna take away my kids for putting $20 worth f gas in my tank after handing them a $20 bill for gas).
It’s slower, but at least it stands a MUCH lower chance of me ending up in prison for daring to stand up to some complete jerk of a flight attendant who doesn’t think that I deserve to get what I paid for.
Nadine – I am a veteran travel industry employee with more than 50+ years experience, and share your thoughts and observations. You did an awesome job of pointing out all the good that airline employees do every day. And you are “right-on…” regarding how unfortunate it is that the public and press are so quick to judge us from just a few bad incidents.
Keep up your Positive Attitude and the great job you doing…and thanks for sharing your comments with others.
I retired four years ago after working as a United Airlines flight attendant for 40 years. I’d like to thank Nadine for her heartfelt letter. I know many flight attendants who feel exactly the same way. One can get a sample of how people treat flight attendants by reading the reply section. Many seemed sympathetic, many appreciated her gesture, but a substantial number of people were insulting and crude.
There was a time when I truly loved my job. I liked the different kinds of people whom I met. I liked the slightly crazy atmosphere inside an airplane. I loved the flight attendant camaraderie. I liked the layovers. Most of all, I liked this: With each flight, there was a goal shared by everyone. Passengers and flight attendants wanted to go somewhere and arrive safely. In that time (sometimes in less than an hour, sometimes for more than 16 hours) I greeted all those people. I fed many of them. I had a conversation with several of them. I smiled at everyone. I joked with many. In all cases, every single person on what I estimate as over 4000 flights, arrived at their destination safely. That was my job.
There came a time when I began to dislike my job. After 9/11, the FAA and Homeland Security added unpaid requirements to my time. The industry became unwieldy with regulations that passengers could not understand. People became stressed and afraid. Sometimes they took out their anger on me. The company took away many of my benefits and much of my pay when they filed for bankruptcy. They took away my pension. Finally, it became harder for me to apologize for the airline and for the government and for the bad weather. Happily, I retired with more good memories than bad.
Thank you Nadine and so many other flight attendants who stuck it out. For any future United passengers, please treat the flight attendants on your flight with respect. I promise they’ll return the favor.
Dale what you seem to not be able to understand is that you are incapable of promising customers that if they treat their flight attendants with respect they will get treated the same. You can’t solve a problem with out at first recognizing that one exists. We see that and that’s why we are voting with our feet!
Thank you for sharing the other side of the coin.