This Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Is Really Concerned About Your Sugar Intake
Of all the weird encounters to have on an airplane, we never would have expected to have a flight attendant point out just how bad a full can of soda is for you. That's what happened to Laura, though.
My experience with Southwest Airlines was a bit shocking. I was traveling from Denver to Baltimore on my first vacation in about a year.
When the flight attendant came around, asking what everyone would like to drink, I told her I would like a can of Coke. Southwest has been gracious in the past about offering a full can of a drink, if a passenger has requested it, and I have taken advantage of that policy from time to time.
When I asked for the can, the flight attendant gave me a weird look, almost as if she couldn't believe I asked for the full can, but I nodded yes, and she walked away.
A few minutes later, this same flight attendant came over to me, gave me the can and flipped the can over to the nutritional information.
She used her finger to point out that the can had 39 grams of sugar in it, and went on to inform me that each gram is equivalent to a teaspoon of sugar, so in essence I'd be ingesting that much sugar if I drank the whole can.
I was incredibly humiliated and offended. Other passengers could hear her, and she did not offer the same sort of nutritional information to them. I believe she may have been singling me out for whatever reason she felt necessary. She made me feel like I wasn't able to read, or that I was stupid as to what grams of sugar means. I am an intelligent person, but she certainly insulted that part of me.
Laura wrote a complaint to Southwest about the encounter—"If I wanted to talk about nutrition, I'd see a nutritionist," she told us. Unfortunately—and this is the really annoying part—Southwest's responses have been vague and generic. We think Laura has a legitimate complaint, which is that she felt she was treated inappropriately by an employee. The least Southwest could do is respond forthrightly to her complaint.
I have received a response from the company, but it was a general apology form letter. I was not happy with the response, and I emailed the company yet again to let them be aware that their reply was inadequate.
What is most frustrating about the email process is that when Southwest replies to complaints, they have a "no-reply" email address, so each time you want to refer to your original email, you have to go back to their main webpage and fill in your name, email, phone, address, flight number, destination city, original city, etc. I have asked to speak with a supervisor directly, but I have yet to hear from one. This whole process has taken almost a month.
A complaint should not take this long to be resolved. I feel like my issue was just swept under the rug. I was informed that my complaint would be given to senior leadership, and they meet once a month. What does this mean? Would I hear from senior leadership? Would I find out if the flight attendant was ever spoken to about her inappropriate behavior?
I am not thrilled with Southwest and how this one flight attendant spoke to me. Next time I will just have to handle it myself, in person, with the flight attendant, and risk being arrested at the gate, I suppose. (sarcasm)
My return flight was pretty relaxed. The flight attendants were giving out full cans of drinks to everyone, regardless of what they asked for. Now, that's MUCH better service!
(Photo: i eated a cookie)
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Comments:
It may not have been her job, but when someone offers free advice you don't want (even exaggerated and incorrect advice, there are 4.2g of sugar / teaspoon), you are free to simply ignore it. I can't imagine that she was doing it to hurt you.
I would imagine other passengers hearing it thought the same thing you did and would have judged the flight attendant.
Are you an overweight person? Could you possibly be diabetic? I know I think that sometimes when I see people chugging down soda.
I agree that it was in very bad form, and shouldnt have been done, but maybe thats what she was thinking and was just trying to be helpful.
Either way, people need to mind their own business.
I would have told her, "in that case, I'll take two cans!"
This is a timely story. I watched the movie Supersize Me last night on Netflix. Maybe that flight attendant did too and was trying to be helpful. Man, that movie will make you never want to drink soda ever again!
Correct response: "Only 39 grams per can? Then if it's not too much trouble, may I have two?"
@AustinTXProgrammer: I wonder if the OP was treated differently due to appearance (overweight, acne, etc.) and the flight attendant was just trying to be helpful.
I can see how this might be hurtful but then again, I'd likely chalk it up to the FA being a busybody and let it go.
It's not the FA's job to tell passengers how much sugar is in their soda. If she wanted to be a nutritionist, she should have studied that in college and become one.
I'd have put the FA in her place, but I know why the OP didn't. Heaven forbid we cause a scene - might get arrested at the gate.
I'm sorry but what is the big deal? They gave her a free full soda and a bit of misinformation, nothing that hurt Laura. Then she writes a complaint and then another complaint about the first sorry response? What did she want? A apology with coupon for another free soda? Sometimes you have to let the little stuff go.
Remind me never to give Laura advice.
Does a nutritionist tell you how to exit the plane in case of an emergency? Serve you coffee, tell you to sit up right and help you with your bags on your plane?
@SlappyWhite: @categorically: If your advice implies she's a stupid fuck who can't read and doesn't care about her health, yeah, keep that yourself.
How odd. I mean, what? It's not like the nutritional info is hidden on the can or something.
@AustinTXProgrammer: next time I see you smoking, eating a burger, not wearing a coat on a cold day, not wearing sunscreen at the beach or letting your children's hair get too long I'll be sure to approach you and point it out.
But seriously, in this context the flight attendant is a waitress. If your waitress told you, after you were served, that your chosen meal was too fatty for you, I bet you'd be pissed.
I often find that there are certain people who feel as if they have exceptionally good advice to give when it comes to food and nutrition. The kind of people who will push their opinions about organic, chemical-free, or "healthy" food on you. I can't stand it. They act as if because they've read some misguided information on someones blog, they are qualified to inform you of the dangers of saturated fats or (god-forbid) artificial sweeteners.
Being overweight is not an invitation to strangers to comment on one's sugar intake. No less rude than to tell a skinny person to eat a cheeseburger. To make such an assumption about somebody else's health is extremely presumptive, and to comment on it is ridiculously rude.
@LadySiren: I still am amazed that it is ok to humiliate fat people in our society. It was not the place or job of the FA to talk about the nutritional content of a drink or anything else for that matter. Their job is to get the drinks and the pillows (and collect money for them of course).
It is astonishing how many people were born in a barn.
@Michael Ortega: Maybe she wants to make sure this flight attendant won't do it again. When you get bad service on a plane it's kinda awkward to ask for her supervisor - there may only be a couple attendants there and they're very possibly of the same 'rank'. I'd say this is a legitimate way to complain to the manager, same as you might to at a restaurant or Quik-E-Mart.
I didn't know MeMe Roth got a job as a flight attendant.
@tbax929: I was thinking the same thing. I could have come up with all sorts of remarks, the most simple being, "Thank you, but it's not any of your business", but I would have been afraid of being "disappeared".
I think that all the time when ever I fly and I fly less and less as time goes on. The real heaven forbid is when one of the FA's really goes over the deep end, and starts making people do funny dances or let her sit on their lap.
@SlappyWhite: I agree, mind your own business. It is not another person's place to make judgement calls on someone eating or drinking anything.
There is a huge difference between thinking and saying. I mean, if I am in a resturant and watch a woman on a date at a steakhouse with either a husband or boyfriend, and she orders the salad with dressing on the side and a water, I tend to think she is a manpleaser who probably doesn't have a brain in her head so she must "marry well" or work at McDonalds.
One gram of sugar per teaspoon? Tell her to keep her day job.
I feel bad for Laura. I would have been embarrassed as well and then spent the entire flight trying to think if maybe I look fat. There is no law against giving out advice, but it is poor customer service. I think Laura definitely deserves an honest apology and I hope she isn't just digging for free stuff.
@Michael Ortega: I don't think it was unreasonable to write a complaint letter pointing out that that flight attendant might want to be pulled aside for some "beeswax" training.
I also think that the complaint about form apology letters is a separate issue.
So yes, she could have let it slide... but does it really hurt you, or anyone, that she didn't?
Just don't get too sassy with the stewardess, she will have your ass thrown in the pokey!
@tbax929: That's sort of what I was thinking.
it's not "free advice" on par with the errant nutjob stranger accosting you in a McD's or as you sip your Caramel Turtle Mocchiato Grand Venti at a Starbucks.
This is a person in a position of temporary extreme power. You are absolutely NOT free to respond. You are NOT free to speak back. You are risking your freedom, your future ability to fly, and most of your money, if you respond.
That's spooky to me, regardless of the accuracy of the statement made.
What if the flight attendant had overheard a parent discussing vaccinating a child passenger, and had chosen to go all Jenny McCarthy on her?
Free advice, IMHO, is only as free as both parties are to give it, ignore it, walk away from it, or respond to it.
@Michael Ortega: I agree about letting the little stuff go. I honestly don't think that was so little, though.
@ClayS: Sounds like something she would have seen in some forwarded email from her middle-aged mom. Or on Oprah.
I have a similar experience whenever I go to Five Guys, which is about twice a year, because have you seen how many fries you get? However, when I go, I go starving, my fat pants are on and I'm ready to eat.
For whatever reason, though, whenever I order the double burger and the large fries, the person taking my order feels compelled to tell me that this is a ton of food, and am I going to eat it all? Am I suuuuure? Really? I wind up arguing each time and finally wind up saying I plan to share it.
What's it to them? No one likes unsolicited advice. Hey, I think our disgusting habits as a fast-food loving nation need some serious fixing, but I'm not going to go around showing people nutrition labels. To me, it's no better than someone shoving a religious pamphlet in my face.
This flight attendant was not just rude, she was also ignorant.
One gram of granulated sugar is about 0.24 teaspoons. So 39 grams of sugar is only 9.29 teaspoons.
Of course, we're comparing weight and volume here but I can't imagine a form of sugar used in soda which would have a low enough density to be 1 teaspoon per gram. Perhaps she was under the impression that soda is sweetened with cotton candy?
My experience with SWA is that Laura could have asked the flight attendant if she was aware of the harmful affects to her face from caking on make-up.
Grr. I wouldn't have said anything either, but any response I would have otherwise given would have been the along the lines of "Bless you! Actually, 4.2 grams makes up a teaspoon. Would you like to sit here next to me and we can do the math together?"
Er...but I'm not actually a nice person.
@categorically: You mean without this post, you really would have happily have told total strangers why what they were consuming was bad for them? Can I be added to the list with Laura, then, please?
Take a picture of the person and include it .
@LadyNo Fondles Sweaters: While I agree wholeheartedly with your overall sentiment, I'd say in general it's MUCH more likely to be offensive to the person if you tell a heavy person that they should cut back on the sugar than if you tell a thin person they should eat a cheeseburger.
Granted there ARE exceptions... I have a good friend who's got a twisted body image... he's lean and muscular (swimmer-looking) and he thinks he's unattractive because every guy in his family is beefy, but for the most part a thin person is less likely to have endured as much abuse for being thin, and is less likely to be as sensitive about it. (Yeah, I'm chunky, what's your point? ;) )
I would have talk to her like she was slow in the head: "OH OK, THANK YOU FOR POINTING THAT OUT, GOOD JOB. IM GLAD TO SEE THAT THE AIRLINE ISN'T AFRIAD TO HIRE A SLOW PERSON FOR A STEWARDESS."
Just be lucky they didnt charge you for the advice.
This is pretty bad customer service, I have never had anyone try to point something like this out to me. The nutritional information is on the can in plain sight, so its not like it is hidden.
This would be equivalent to the waitress in a restaurant telling someone how many calories and fat are in their meal and that they should make a different choice because of that. Unfortunately while you can ream the waitress who did this to you or her manager in a restaurant you can't ream a flight attendant because if you do you are probably going to jail. I would hope a manager would fire any waitress that did this since their job is essentially to sell food, they shouldn't be trying to discourage customers from eating it!
Isn't the airlines job to sell food anyways, I would think telling someone what is in their food would discourage the practice of buying food, which means less money for the airlines. The flight attendants are supposed to sell food, not discourage passengers to eat it. They shouldn't be questioning your food choices period.
This "maybe she was just trying to be helpful" rationale is a cart of horseshit.
Being helpful means that you see someone with a problem that they would CLEARLY like to address -- a spilled drink, a badly paper-cut finger, an empty stapler -- and you say, "I'll go get some napkins/bandaids/staples." And then you do that.
Any behavior beyond that is a sign of personality disorder. No, really. If you are unable to stop yourself from offering unsolicited advice to people who are clearly fine with the status quo, you should see a mental health professional and learn the meaning of the term "good boundaries."
It means you're walking through life, continuously finding problems with the people around you and telling them how to change so they match your expectations. Aside from being super annoying, it's also a crystal clear sign that, unbeknowst to you, you are ripping yourself apart inside your own head, and these "helpful suggestions" are the overflow from that non-stop internal rant.
And just so we're clear, the above is all objectively true, and in no way influenced or shaped by the snarky Disneyland employee who told me that the between-the-legs restraint on Soaring Over California is "only for children, ma'am." Listen, you fucking bint, if I want the reassurance that I will not plummet to my death that this so-called children's restraint provides, then that's my call and none of your business.
@AustinTXProgrammer: yeah, i would have corrected her on the sugar intake by taking out my insulin pump, showing her the carb count programming with a list of foods and ingredients and explaining that i needed the full can to make sure i was getting the right amount to match it to my insulin intake. and mentioned that my endocrinolgist and my diabetic nutritionist said it's ok for me to have soda since i'm a grown up and can make my own choices.
@quirkyrachel: hrm, maybe the flight attendant should restrict her nutritional information providing to people who DON'T ask for the can [because those are the folks who don't then have the little chart right in their hand]
Rather than be embarrassed, the OP should have just given the flight attendant an over-the-top sarcastic response. Not that she shouldn't have followed that up with complaints to Southwest as well, but there was no reason to feel humiliated.
@omgyouresexy: i'm not fond of those people, either. and unfortunately, as was pointed out above, the correct carb count for sugar [sucrose, table sugar] is 4.2 grams of carbs per teaspoon. so she's not even a correct well meaning nutritional busy-body
Southwest doesn't always play by the books, and that goes for what I suspect are "FAA regulations". I like when they sing the important instructions about seatbacks and whatnot, but I'm pretty sure struggling -- almost having to crawl -- in order to get from the back of the plane to the front during take-off is not permitted... I've seen a crew member do this. As a general rule, I like to hear both sides of all stories, but being a customer service oriented person, I'd have to say that the discussion regarding good ole Coke was unnecessary. I still like SW in general, but don't fly them for various reasons (e.g. no seating assignment not great option for family).
as far as a resolution for her complaint, what is she exactly asking for?
In the legal world, you don't have a claim if you don't have any damages.
She got an general apology and unfortunately that's all she's going to get.
Seriously? The flight attendant was telling her not to drink *one* 12oz can of Coke based on the sugar content? She would probably have a heart attack if she saw the 32oz+ cups of soda served at convenience stores and fast food restaurants everywhere.
Plus, does SWA actually have Coke made with sugar? Last time I checked, pretty much all Coke was made with high fructose corn syrup (unless it's foreign or "Kosher for Passover" Coke.)
Hey Chris - sorry to hear about Laura's unpleasant experience. Given that we serve free sodas on our flights and frequently supply the entire can, it seems like a really *bizarre* comment for one of our Flight Attendant's to make.
With out being there or speaking with the Flight Attendant directly to get her take, I really can't offer any explanation for the comment myself, but on behalf of Southwest Airlines, I do offer my sincere apologies to Laura.
If she has written back to our Customer Relations Department, she should be receiving a response soon.
Glad to hear that her return flight was better...I hope this one unusual situation won't tarnish her view of our Employees. Most of us are pretty decent folks.
Paula Berg
Southwest Airlines
I wonder if our good buddy Chris Elliott can get a straight-forward answer from someone at SWA? Of course, it would be great if SWA would have just answered the OP's bloody question or even better still not employed the FA in question (too much?)