United Flight Attendants Scoff At Grounded Flier Compensation Plan, Lobby For Passengers Bill of Rights
You know who has to deal with a planeload full of sweaty, angry grounded passengers? Flight attendants. Know who wants a passengers bill of rights? Flight attendants. Specifically, United Airlines flight attendants. They've issued a press release through their union criticizing United's "Flights of Note" compensation plan for grounded fliers.
Under United's plan, flights grounded for more than 4 hours before take-off or held waiting for 90 minutes after landing will be declared "flights of note" and passengers will receive 20% coupons and a $10 meal voucher.
"Flights of note? Who are they trying to kid? Trust us when we say flight attendants won't be whistling while they work on hot, minimally staffed, dirty airplanes full of understandably disgruntled passengers," said Greg Davidowitch, president of AFA-CWA at United Airlines. "All United workers will be doing their best this summer. But no matter how hard flight attendants, pilots and other employees work we will never be able to make up for the operation management built like a house of cards."Ouch. —MEGHANN MARCO"Flight attendants know first hand the frustrations of United's customers. We encourage Congress to take action for passenger rights. It's clear that United management either refuses or has no ability to provide even the most basic service; getting from point A to point B," Davidowitch stated.
Flight Attendants Advocate for Passenger Rights (Press Release) [PR Newswire]
(Photo: Drewski2112)
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Comments:
It's ironic how, under the circumstances, the disgruntled passengers and the authoritarian flight attendants make strange bedfellows.
Grrrl Power Rulz!
Talk bad about unions all day, but without them we would all still be working in sweatshop conditions like a 3rd world country.
flights grounded for more than 4 hours before take-off or held waiting for 90 minutes after landing will be declared "flights of note" and passengers will receive 20% coupons and a $10 meal voucher.
Am I the only on that thinks this is an insult?! If you have ever had a late flight (especially a connecting one), you know the inconvenience is worth more than "20% coupons and a $10 meal voucher."
United Operations Management is notorious for making decisions not based on passenger need, but on public relations-friendly metrics.
And yes, I'm still p*ssed off that I didn't get to fly on the 777 flight I booked specifically because United thought it was better to send off a half-empty airplane on time (which arrived in SFO 20 minutes early) than wait 30 minutes for another 100 delayed passengers.
@cgmaetc: Grrl power? Have you flown a US airline any time recently? A very large share of United's Flight Attendants are male. I'd say at least 1/3 overall and probably half of flight attendants with less than 10 years service.
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I'm a bit torn on this -- I still think that 20% and a meal voucher in addition to pre-existing misconnect protections is decent for delays whose cause are outside United's control. (Weather and ATC are not United's fault -- failing to deal with the resulting problems adequately is their fault.)
Knowing the history of labor relations at United, this looks like a PR hit by the union on corporate. UA's unions have been dumped on, but this is the wrong way to go about dealing with management. (Note: I'm a GCIU member in good standing)
Getting paid to eat airline food? Malaysia Airlines had to pay the equivalent of US$5,700 to a vegetarian who ended up eating chicken on board one of the airline’s flights.
God, I love it when the non-PR trained give statements. Take that, United!