Bizarre: United Airlines Flight Attendant Reaches Under Tray Table, Brushes Against My Crotch…

I had a very strange encounter with a flight attendant on a recent United Airlines flight from Paris to San Francisco. He was so impatient to conclude the meal service that he reached under the table and grabbed my napkin from my lap. In so doing, he brushed against my crotch. Sadly, that was not the extent of his unprofessionalism.

So I Finally Had A Bad Flight This Year On United Airlines…

Regular readers accuse me of being a United cheerleader and it’s true that I fly United a lot and am generally a happy client. This year, I’ve flown many longhaul flights and (at least until now) had excellent crews. The flight attendants on my anniversary trip to Tahiti were superb as was the phenomenal crew on my more recent flight from Seoul to San Francisco. There are a handful of trips I have not written about yet, but I also had wonderful crews from Denver to London with my entire family and from Frankfurt to Chicago.

In short, it has been a very good year in terms of service on United.

But my flight from Paris to San Francisco reminded me that there are still bad apples and that United remains consistently inconsistent.

I was seated in Polaris Business Class and the flight attendant was clearly grumpy from the very start (it was a morning flight…). He was an older man, probably with an immense amount of seniority to work that 11.5-hour flight.

He was working my side of the cabin. No greeting. No welcome.

There was also no pre-departure beverage served and while he grunted to others, “Breakfast?” as he walked around the cabin before departure taking meal orders, he never even stopped at my seat (I had pre-ordered breakfast, but it is still customary to confirm my choice…).

After takeoff, he came around the cabin with tablecloths, standing over each passenger and saying nothing as he waited for them to open their tray tables.

Rather than asking, “Sir, may I offer you a beverage?” he simply grunted, “To drink?”

The meal was plopped down with everything at once on the tray table (it did not even fit). Flight attendants are supposed to serve meals in courses. On this flight, the yogurt and fruit should have been served first, followed by the main course.

No beverage refills during the meal service…

It Gets Weirder…

And here’s where it got weird. He noticed that I was done eating and reached over to my tray table and yanked away the meal tray and the tablecloth underneath it.

Then he reached under the tray table and grabbed my napkin, brushing against my crotch as he did it. I certainly don’t think it was deliberate, but talk about unprofessional!

Keep in mind, that dessert had not been served yet.

I asked him, “Is there desert today?”

He crossly responded, “I don’t know. What does the menu say?”

The dessert cart did arrive, but now I had no tablecloth and no napkin.

But he wasn’t done yet. As people were still eating, he went around the cabin demanding that everyone shut their window shades. At 10:00 am…

He then disappeared until just before landing…

It’s Important To Highlight The Good, Bad, And Ugly

It’s true I could have handled this internally…complain to United, probably get some compensation, and move on. But that would be a disservice to my readers and further feed into this (false) notion that I am simply a shill for United.

I’m not. I’m a customer too and the idea that United rolls out the red carpet for me is just not true…this flight proves it and the excellent service everyone around me received on the “good” flights proves it too.

As I said above, I don’t think this flight attendant meant to brush against my crotch. But he was so grumpy and so unprofessional…and it is simply unacceptable for United to put such folks in customer-facing positions.

I won’t name this man publicly because that will not help him become a better flight attendant, even after 30 years on the job (he had three silver stars on his badge). But it’s not too late for him…I hope not, at least.

But this is a problem because I’ve heard similar stories…and if United wants to be a leading carrier, it must get the little things right, like offering a consistent experience on every flight. 9/10 is a good score for the year…most of my flights have been great…but this one was not. And the service was so egregious that I cannot help but discuss it here.