A United Airlines flight attendant encouraged a passenger to report one of their fellow crewmembers to the airline – and put the request in writing. That’s because the flight attendant reportedly declared, “I’m not making any Spanish announcements because this is America.”
I was on a flight this morning on @united UA2431 from Houston [to Los Angeles] and this nasty woman was so unprofessional and clearly let her personal views on certain humans seep out of her pores, leading her to believe she can get away with this behavior.
Well, she cannot.
I ask her co-worker for her name.
He gave me this note.
I took his name out to protect his identity.
I will be reporting her to @united.
At United saying that sex is unchangeable can get you fired, and flight attendants are encouraged to share their pronouns. While the airline is now trying to curry favor with the Trump administration, it is the the most ‘woke’ of the U.S. carriers.
However, even in the Trump era, this flight attendant’s statement would be offensive to many – not what a company wants their employee to be saying. And it seems like a silly statement in any case,
- There are routes where multiple language announcements are often made.
- United is a global carrier.
- On domestic routes they bring connecting passengers to and from their long haul flights.
- And they use joint ventures and their alliance membership to attract foreign passengers for their U.S. travels.
Announcements are meant to be understood, so they’re frequently tailored to whomever the clientele may be. I listen to English announcements on foreign carriers all the time, and I appreciate the English, though I could use a translation app on my phone if I needed to. Here it’s a flight between two states that border Mexico.
Usually flight crew stick together. Here, a United flight attendant saw their colleague’s behavior as so far out of bounds that they encouraged a passenger to report it. United’s discipline of other flight crew suggests this might get some management attention. However, it might carry even more weight coming from another employee than from a customer – and the flight attendant who complains about having to work with her for the next two days commits to reporting her as well.
I appreciate it to have English announcements when traveling to other places. We are fortunate that English is treated as the international second language.
This really isn’t that hard: if the airline has a policy to do the announcements in Spanish for a route, then you do it. It isn’t a political statement — it is about safety for the passengers and about communicating with your customers.
Every healthcare provider in my area has someone that speaks Russian or some Eastern Bloc language. Why? We have a lot of people in the area that speak those languages. If you want to get good information for a diagnosis, or if you just want to serve the people in your community, you find out how to communicate with them.
I swear, people just want to use their vile behavior as an excuse to be a victim of the “woke” airline. In this case, United is the most global US carrier. It is part of the largest global airline alliance. Their brand is about transporting people across the world.
Fake is my bet. Original post removed. ‘for this flight #’ rather than an actual flight number is a giveaway along with claiming this happened on IAH-LAX where there are no Spanish announcements.
In the seat pocket in front of you is a Safety Card Describing/Showing the Safety Features of our aircraft.
Wow, you really missed the point on this one. The purpose of service announcements is to communicate information to people. This purpose requires that the information be understood. If the language of many passengers is Spanish, then the announcements need to be in Spanish. Or whatever language the passengers understand.
And you think that the important issue here is that someone told someone else to report a snotty refusal to do that? Or that some other person wanted to complain that that someone did that? Come on. I expect more from you. This fake indignation should fool no one. Safety First.
I may not have flown in a while. I am on public transportation a lot and several if my trips I have had to tell the passengers what the operator would have said if he knew a language other than English. I agree with the person who said to make it easier for he majority of the passengers on the flight no matter what language(s,) are spoken. It is a safety issue not only for crew but passengers as well.
I have been 1K with United for many years and I have never heard them make an announcement in Spanish… not even flying in and out of Mexico. If someone needs information in another language they can ask the flight attendant.
Lyndal sounds like he/she is agreeing with the MAGA purser! This “America for Americans” nonsense is why the US has such an ugly reputation in some countries! If United is truly woke, they will sit down hard on her “English only” bullshit.
The Census categorizes English proficiency levels. Those who speak Spanish at home and speak English “not at all” is estimated to be around 5-7% of Spanish speakers. Given that there are roughly 42 million Spanish speakers in the U.S., this means around 2 to 3 million people (or less than 1% of the total U.S. population) speak English “not at all”. Why cater for 1%? It’s a waste of time, extra noise pollution and English is now the official language of The United States of America.
Spanish announcements are not normally made on that route. I wonder if the passenger overheard a satirical comment from a flight attendant., or a sincere comment because it was a domestic flight.
In any event, the screenshot of the actual note written by the FA is guaranteed to get the writer in trouble. He specifically wants race to be mentioned. Identifies himself as Mexican. Obviously does not like the flight attendant who made the comment. Thinks the company will pay attention to the complaint from a first class passenger. He is essentially asking a passenger to stab another flight attendant in the back for him. He never expected to be outed by that same passenger.
I decided to look up official languages by county on Wikipedia. Most countries have official languages. Canada has two, English and French. The USA and Mexico do not have true official languages that are to be used in all of government. The USA has a de facto language of English and Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) has a de facto language of Spanish. The presidential executive order that English is the official language of the USA is limited. If Congress were to pass a law declaring English as the official language of the USA and the President was to sign it into law, then the declaration would be more binding and similar to most other countries.
Flew NRT to ITM. Certainly a domestic Japanese sector. Announcements were done in both Japanese and English. Perhaps Japanese are more broadly minded.
So sick of these Spanish people thinking we should speak THEIR language!!!! The lady is right! Can’t understand what she’s saying then to bad!
Things that never happened for real.
If real, fire the snitch. This *IS* America. You want Spanish? Go to Mexico, Spain, et al.
The MAGA brain barely has the capacity to understand a little basic English.
Please do not ask them to understand another language.
If a person speaks three or more languages they are multilingual. If they speak two languages, they are bilingual. If they only speak one language and are proud of this limitation, they are American.
@Brent — You get it, sir. Thank you for reiterating what most should already know. Well said.
@TPE — English is the official language of aviation, as mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It is also the de facto global language of business. Most of us in the US speak only English–we are very fortunate that the world is how it is for our convenience. Still, a majority of the world does not speak English. It takes a tiny bit of ’empathy’ to understand this.
@Umnoway — I hope you are joking, and if not, I wish that you could have the chance to visit one of the 21 countries that officially speak Spanish. Many of them have lovely people, enjoy delicious food, beautiful beaches, and interesting histories. Like, have you ever wanted to see Machu Pichu? Or, visit Cabo? How about Barcelona? Otherwise, if you are serious, then it is clear, you hold animus towards ‘others’ who do not ‘conform’ to you. If so, I find that pitiful.
@Fred — Exactly. Please do visit Spain and Mexico. Have some appreciation for others. I know that was not your ‘take’ but I’ll co-opt it for a better message.
@Ricardo — These folks are clearly mislead to hate. Whatever pain, suffering, loss, guilt, grief they are obviously experiencing–they shouldn’t be blaming it on others. But they are. And they must get a ‘rise’ out of doing so, otherwise, why such needless harm. I wish better days for them, too.
If I use as a definition of a Californian being a person who has been a resident of the state for ten years or more, there are quite a few who don’t speak English. Spanish is just one of the many languages spoken. Over time many will pick up enough English to get by. I remember dealing with a middle age lady customer in Thai (in Los Angeles). Unfortunately by the time I had a field job, my Spanish had been supplanted with Thai so when I had a customer who only spoke Spanish I would have to call in and get a coworker on the phone. If I use as a definition of a Californian being a person who was born and raised in California, yes, almost all are fluent in English.
@Mario…”…extra noise pollution…”
What does that even mean?
@patrick — I know this one! Mario is an a-hole.
The irony is that 1% doesn’t matter to folks like Mario when they are vulnerable, poor, different, etc. But when the 1% is the wealthiest–folks like Mario defend them to no end. Yet, Mario is never going to be a billionaire. So, what does he have to gain by supporting people who hate him?
And I don’t mean mere millionaires, I mean ultra-high net worth individuals. For instance, in 2023, the number of people with a net worth of at least $30 million worldwide was around just 250,000. $10 million dollars, not much more than 500,000 people, worldwide. The rest of us outnumber them by a lot, yet we still let them screw us (and many believe that it is good that they screw us). Can we please not allow ourselves to be divided and conquered on these silly cultural differences. It’s always been a class war, fellas.