So I am currently on the United flight #1259. I should point out that I actually fly with United sooo much! My family and I usually have at least one of us booked on a cross country flight around once a month. Coincidentally, on this flight I am flying myself, husband and daughter across the country in the first class cabin. I think it's important to point out that these are FULL FAIE TICKETS. I'm mentioning this because people like to assume that most people are upgraded to first class or it's some type of "reward" seat. That's not what this was, although it shouldn't matter.
This is my first rude or even "difficult" encounter with ANY United Airlines employee. I would normally overlook it but considering how absolutely targeted and rude she was and the fact that I had not even laid eyes on this lady until today, I think she deserves an "honorable mention". Do you understand what it takes to be the ONLY rude and negative person someone encounters in an entire company over an entire year??!!! That's the part that makes her "exceptional".
My direct flight attendant was excellent. Her name was Shantel and she was pleasant from beginning to end. But, shortly after dinner service I looked to see if the restroom sign was lit up and was lit up at unoccupied. So I stood up and moved into the aisle to go to the restroom. Once I stood up, myself and my daughter had a little trash at our seats that had not been gathered so, me being the person I am, and knowing I'm walking up there anyway, I collected the trash to toss it for them and save the walk. I did the same thing earlier in the flight and just tossed it out. I thought I was being helpful and saving her a walk. Well once I stood up and turned I realized that they had a cart sitting near the restrooms blocking access. A flight attendant that I have never seen before and hope to never encounter again, rudely stated that the bathrooms are currently being occupied by the pilots so I would have to either use the restroom in the back of the plane or wait for the front one to come available again. I smiled and replied that I would just wait. When I turned to go back to my seat I figured I would at least hand her the trash since we were both standing and she had nothing in her hands AND she was standing next to the trash. She looks at me and says, in a very nasty tone, you can keep it and have a seat and I'll get it when I come by. If she wouldn't have been nasty I wouldn't have cared. But her tone was nasty. I'm not even sure why! I was asleep for a good 20 minutes right after having dinner and I had not interacted AT ALL with anyone, so I didn't even have a chance to offend her. And to add insult to injury, she proceeded to lean over to her coworker, a male flight attendant whom she had been chatting with, and roll her neck, gesturing towards me. From there, I was a bit amazed by the interaction but I started to shuffle past the first seat to get to mine. As I moved back to the seat both glasses of water on the middle tray fell over, directly into my seat. I stepped back out into the aisle and she saw me and said "is there an issue?'" I looked at her, again noting the attitude, and told her the water wasted and I needed napkins. She then walked over to the cart to grab napkins, stood there and talked to her male counterpart for a second while just holding the napkins and then finally brought them over and handed them to me. My daughter died up the water. The rude flight attendant made NO EFFORT to assist. I guess she felt that it was taking too long and she walked over and said is there a problem? I said I need more napkins. She brought more and I then sat down. Right after I sat down, the bathroom became available. They moved the cart and allowed a different passenger to go instead of me. Keep in mind, throughout this interaction, there was no fasten seatbelt sign, there was nothing to let you know the bathrooms were off limits for a period, and there was no prior interaction to warrant this.
My daughter saw the whole thing, she's only 14 and she immediately became infuriated. Other passengers were staring too because I don't think any of us understood what had just happened.
United has been my go-to airline for at least 15 trips between myself and my family. But I love Delta too. And this interaction has completely knocked me off of my rocker with United. I have referred friends and convinced them to use United over others and I have remained loyal too. But to be treated this way in first class, knowing the price of these tickets, I'm pretty done with them! The food has just been okay compared to delta so if this is the direction their service is moving into, I'll go elsewhere.
I wanted to make sure to share my full story because information is power and we are all out here working way too hard for our money to be paying for this type of treatment. She can have the entire plane and company and run it however she wants but she won't have to worry about me and my money disturbing her world EVER AGAIN. #UNACCEPTABLE