United Airlines is cracking down on flight attendants glued to their phones, ignoring customers, and they’re threatening to fire anyone ignoring their duties in this way.
Being a flight attendant is a challenging lifestyle that many people aren’t up to. Passengers don’t often see the shifting schedules, repetitive tasks, low pay and challenging customers they have to deal with. Some though are known for sitting in the galley reading People magazine.
United Airlines is taking a hard stand against flight attendants using their personal devices while in their jump seat (though not against reading People).
A memo went out to employees that was first reported by Live And Let’s Fly outlining the requirement that they provide “visible and attentive service to customers” which can’t be done while using personal devices on board. And since flight attendants are required to be on board by the FAA for safety, United reminds them that they could miss security incidents or safety risks while doing so.
Flight attendants are, of course, encouraged to use their company-provided devices for delivering customized service to passengers and to communicate with other employees about critical flight issues.
Customers look to flight attendants for great service. How comfortable would you be asking someone for help if they were engrossed in their cell phone? What impression would that give you?…Even in public, you should always remain approachable in uniform and display courtesy to customers and other employees.
…Use of a personal electronic device and/or accessories is not permitted while customers are on board the aircraft, with the exception of crew rest. …Any crewmember found in violation will be subject to performance discipline up to and including termination.
Generally Delta and Southwest flight attendants seem friendly and happy – more so than cabin crew at American and United. Most United cabin crew don’t just sit on the galley floor watching videos while denying drinks to passengers, but they aren’t providing the level of service the airline would like to see. And they’ve been on a journey to try to shift that.
- During the pandemic United started collecting customer feedback on flight attendants and sharing it with crew, to offer both kudos and constructive criticism.
- Last year United unveiled a new plan to get flight attendants to provide better service to passengers, pushing new service standards like hanging coats in premium cabins, being quiet in the galley during flight, offering predeparture beverages and thanking customers for their business.
Disciplining crew who don’t follow the airline’s policies is the flip side of efforts to date, and make sense since the CEO believes the industry is 10% overstaffed. Crew have already been warned by their union that failure to follow procedures – something many may wish to do during tumultuous contract negotiations – could get them fired as well.
If this ultimatum were to be delivered and enforced on AA there might be a shortage of flight attendants!
As a millennial passenger who does not care about superficial formalities like dress, tattoos, or cell phone usage, I want to say to United and all airlines, the most important thing other than safety is a good attitude.
Be in a good mood and put forth a smiling countenance. You don’t have to fake-smile, just make sure you are not FROWNING.
If you can do that then I don’t care if you are on your phone.
Learning to put down the phone and focus on someone else is important for all of modern society.
The fact that UA continues to push for upgrading its service even though it has not settled w/ its FA union on a new contract – and the AFA at UA is making alot less noise than AA or WN FA unions – says lots.
And WN is also pushing for higher quality service from its FAs.
Jeez, seem plenty of DL and AA FAs do just this…glued to their phone.
Once that door closes all service standards, including FA personal conduct, are at the iron whim of the FAs. Enforcement of standards is virtually impossible.
There needs to be “secret shoppers” that flying just for the purpose of observing FA inflight service/behavior. This exists in other service industries.
United, You recently lost a $53.5 Million pay stub Class Action in California that every stockholder and customer has to pay for. Any debate comes down to a determination of if you are sued more frequently by your customers or your employees. Grow Up.
Time to short Candy Crush stock.
I do not agree that DL and WN flight attendants are in any way better than AA or UA. I really can’t speak to WN, but I fly the other 3 with regularity and, I know this will shock people, there are both good and bad flight attendants on all 3. I cannot discern a specific trend that says DL is better.
I’m usually a DL cheerleader, as someone who on my own dime flys mostly F the FA’s over the years have been a pretty good bunch. Recently I was on a flight from LGA to MSP, and not picking on any age group, but the entire crew was under 40. We were served lunch and then the empty trays sat for at least 20 minutes while the lead FA chatted with another FA and then was glued to his phone. One of the coach FA’s came along and picked up everyone’s tray. Front crew was completely oblivious. Seems this is the level of service at many places not just in the air.
Southwest crews are the absolute worst example of this problem. During boarding and deplaning they don’t even try to hide that they find their phones more important than Customers. Often times Customers say hello/ thank you to THEM and they don’t look up or respond.
I hope people realize that the work device given to the flight attendants to text other departments about issues onboard is an Iphone….so…seeing flight attendants on phones could actually be their work device ♀️
Is there anyone out there who is old enough (I am WELL into my Senior/retired years) that remembers (on UAL anyway…) when there were these little cards the airline made available to pax to congratulate employees who went “above and beyond”? These would be given to an FA, for example, upon deplaning, and then those cards were turned in (by the FA) for some sort of recognition/reward…a GREAT idea! It encouraged the FA’s and others to “earn” rewards by providing excellent service!
If only they didn’t isolate themselves behind the curtain in the front galley. That’s more intimidating than someone on their phone in the jump seat. I don’t want to disturb someone changing clothes, but that doesn’t take a half hour. It doesn’t happen that often, but it certainly is noticeable when it does happen.
I was once on a UA flight with a friend of mine and we were both seated up front. This was a transcontinental from IAD-SAN. The middle-aged flight attendant didn’t bother to greet passengers boarding, never looked up from his phone, and seemed genuinely bothered when passengers would say good morning to him. My friend noticed the FA was on Grindr chatting with someone. As we sat down, we waited for the standard pre-departure drink…nothing. So my friend went on Grindr, found the flight attendant, and told him on Grindr that he and the rest of the first class cabin would like their pre-departure drinks. We still didn’t get any pre-departure drinks, and were met instead with scorn for the rest of the flight. This policy is welcome and, honestly, shouldn’t even need to be said…yet here we are.
I’m Premier Gold on UA and find the FAs to range from fair to excellent. Haven’t had any issues with them and have encountered many really super FAs who went out of their way to be helpful. So, I don’t agree with your putting them in a similar category with AA’s flight attendants (many of whom seem quite indifferent to customers). And this move, while seeming harsh, is another positive thing meant to improve UA’s stature.
Lazy coke machines are going to be lazy come machines no matter what.
Get to firing some of them and send the message.
UA FA’s I’ve dealt with post Covid have been excellent without exception. @ Richard, I remember those cards. I also remember never having given out a single one lol. UA FA’s were pretty lousy back then.
@Gary (and others), name the 5 best airlines for service in your experience – any airline. Mine are: Singapore, Qatar, Cathay, Turkish, ANA. No U.S. airlines are even close. (I have never flown Emirates.)
I think it would take more that getting U.S. FA’s off their cell phones to compare to these foreign carriers. They would need complete intensive retraining and requalification.
If any get fired, won’t their union get them their job back? The unions only protect terrible employees.
How do you know the the difference between the Company issued phone ( which is mandatory to be used) and their personal one?
We will find out how this flies with the union.
Sarah,
I think UA mgmt is capable of figuring out whether their own FAs are on their own phones or those issued by the company.
And sitting on the jumpseat w/ your face stuck in the device is a pretty good clue it is not UA’s device.
Don,
I get that this is an aviation blog but customer service in the US is flat-out inferior to just about every developed and many third world country in the world.
It isn’t just UA FAs that have their noses buried in their phones. I am sick of having to repeatedly dodge people that are walking down airport concourses and through malls and grocery stores or driving – while playing on their phone.
Foreign airlines don’t allow their employees not to deliver the appropriate customer service; sadly, US companies as a whole have failed to stop the deterioration of customer service.
I was CS for much of my career… we were never allowed to have our personal phones in view of the customers.
I just spend the week at Hilton Club, The Quin NYC and evert time I walked through the lobby, the guy on the end position was typing on his smart phone.
I’m thinking if the FA is on their business required phone that much before flights takes off with issues I might want to leave the flight.
The are on their personal phones and when I am at work I can’t be on my personal phone.
It’s about time. And please crack down on the FAs gathered in the first class galley talking at the top of their lungs. Few things are more unprofessional than pointedly annoying the paying customers.
That Grindr FA was prolly chatting to UA CEO
Props to United for doing something to improve the customer experience, even bringing it up during FA contract negotiations.
Unlike a certain other airline ahem American ahem
Well, it’s a start, can’t fault UA for trying. As others have said, the unions protect the bad employees and they.ll probably get the bad applies their jobs back anyways.
I have never felt ignored or had to wait because an attendant was on their phone. Yes there is a time and place for everything but to fire someone is a little over the top.
Better get ready to start firing a lot of people within United Airlines. I see employees all over the airport on their cell phones.
Everyone has a supervisor maybe just hold them accountable for supervising.
Gary there’s absolutely no reason Delta or any other airline should be mentioned in this article other than to agree it’s a problem across all industries and every airline. When’s the last time you’ve flown United and how often because based off your articles one would easily assume you work for a specific US carrier.
As a 33 yr FA we weren’t allowed to be on our phones or you got fired. I have FA friends who complain all the time about how annoying it is to work with these FA who are so busy taking pics of them selves or standing around on the phone then doing their job. I am glad I am retired. The job is all about safety, hard to be aware of your surroundings with ear pods on and you face in your phone.
I fly United often for Business and honestly have experienced the exact opposite of everything they list as the “new standard implemented last year”. Well, as someone who always flys business class, maybe it is they have nothing to do now? You removed meals from business/first class and the new standard is “a drink and you get to pick a snack from a wicker basket that’s the same as coach. So honestly, what else are they going to do? They literally got handed the most cake job ever. Less work, worse service, more phone time!
@Richard @Jake-1 Those UA FA cards you reference are back. I have 5 in my bag ready to give out!
AFA union won’t do anything for them. If that’s what the FAs are relying on to get this turned around, they’re out of luck
Take almost any international airline and notice the difference – real service, treating flyers as honored guests (and pretty good food) especially European and Asian airlines.
I’m afraid it’s an “American” attitude — everyone thinks they are too special and important to be doing the job they have. Everyone gets a trophy, leave me alone, I’m playing Candy Crush.
>If this ultimatum were to be delivered and enforced on AA there might be a shortage of flight attendants!
or they would just go back to the mass distribution of Marie Clare magazine (I think every USAir jump seat used to have a subscription…).
FYI
Those international carriers are subsidised by their government.
That is why they have better food
And much more staffing than American carriers. Although I think American standards have gone way down in dress code , people come on the flight in slippers and pyjamas , and they are adults!
@Cyndy – US airlines are subsidized by their government.
The food on British Airways, Japan Airlines and Qantas is much better than what you’ll find on American Airlines, and they’re joint venture partners of American. Air France’s food is great.
Singapore Airlines is profitable, and their food is amazing.
Frankly it’s not just the dollars they invest, it’s prioritization and paying attention to the details. American used to rotate out dishes every three months even under US Airways. Before US Airways management took over, their food was so much better!
They legally can’t fire them. This so damn funny.
Ex UA employee here. This cell phone abuse has been going on for over 10 years. The FA’s are definitely playing with their phones in the galley’s. Most are sneaky about it and some are out in the open. On a 3 hr flight, they will generally do the opening service, and clean up. After that, you will not see them again except for the final clean up. If you happen to use the ‘Blue Room’, you will see them in the galley’s lounging, BSing and using their cell phones – this is at both ends of the aircraft.
Yes, this is abusive service and something needs to be done. Someone mentioned secret shoppers, that’s an excellent idea and the SS’s need to be handing out ‘onion tickets’ to the abusers.
As I watched the flight attendant serve drinks on my flight not long ago it hit me that one minute she could be serving drinks and the next minute in an emergency fighting to save my life. We all, including airline management, need to think about what that means in how we treat flight attendants.
I recently retired from flying after a decades long career. To be honest, phones today and the distraction they create, are similar to newspapers and periodicals of the past. I picked the word ‘similar’ because phones and tablets display magazines in digital form. The biggest difference, and the one that bothered me most, was seeing FA’s watching movies on their phones. Many of the FA’s think they can hide their earbud(s) with their hair, but you can’t hide someone who isn’t listening. Some FA’s also play games. FA’s can also receive text messages on their phones in flight. I don’t have a problem with reading or sending texts, so long as the customer isn’t inconvenienced. Regarding enforcing a ‘no phones’ policy, it is very tough because all airlines now have iPhones that look like personal phones. They are very useful to the crews. If you ask a FA for connecting gate information, or if the FA needs to look up a policy from the manual, its all done on the phone. The happy medium would be to upload preapproved magazines and newspapers to FA devices and work on a culture change where texting is permitted so long as it is discreet and doesn’t interfere with work responsibilities. Praise the FA’s who do this on a regular basis and share it with their co-workers. Times have changed and change is hard but possible.
Agree that is is FA and many employees at other work places. When I see an employee on a cell phone i tell them “You do not have to text me I am here now”. aka get the $#%#$%$# of your cell phone and do your job.
I have been at restaurants where the staff is more involved with being on the phone then doing their job. So i take pictures of them doing just that and put the pictures of the doing it on line as a review.
While I was working (pre-pandemic), it was easy for me to tell flight attendants “You spend entirely too much time on your phone.” It was the only thing I could do.
I’m told it’s worse now and that the work ethic has changed.
Personal phones at work time should be stowed on company time.
I believe UAL management is trying to divert attention of the poor service towards its Flight Attendants .
Management are on their personal devices all day long … along with passengers -so give me a f@&$!? brake .
Leave flight attendants alone – they will have to get your sorry fat
A$$ off the plane during an emergency ! Sit down , shut up , eat your god damn peanuts , and watch your porn in your middle seat loser
Spoken like a true flight attendant, T.
Tim ja. Yes they legally CAN fire them. Every employee can be fired for cause in the USA as long as it is not based on race creed sex etc Not doing your job is cause to be fired Their union contract even says so
@Tomri
As A 37 yr FA and A Nurse Practitioner… No they can’t. A lot of phones control and monitor devices i.e. medical equipment such as a diabetic pump. All they have to do is say they were checking their medical device; and per HIPPA, nobody can question you ever! or legally look in to it. Full Stop!
Ah, what a click-bait, drama queen!
There is hardly an “ultimatum”.
It has been United’s stated policy since the 1990’s that employees were not to use personal phones while on the clock,