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hostile onboard experience

asrarehman
Explorer C

hello

My name is asra zaidi and I am a frequent southwest flyer. I have been a loyal southwest customer since 2011 and my husband has been flying southwest since he was a little child. We love the airlines and the amazing policies the company offers including free checked bags and free reservation changes. We love how the flight crew is always so cheerful and witty. Our flying experiences have always been great up until last time on  Wednesday July 25 2018 we flew flight 6845 from Phoenix to Houston, a very frequent route for us. On the flight I was confronted by a flight attendant who was extremely hostile and left me with an experience I will never forget. 

On Wednesday July 25, 1 hour into the flight, the refreshments were still not served due to turbulence and the aircraft was extremely hot. I was flying with my family and my newborn baby who was restless and needed a diaper change.  I was dehydrated and as soon as I was allowed, I went to use the lavatory.  When I got out I was feeling dizzy and I saw that the flight attendant had prepared a tray of refreshments which mostly had water ( clear icy liquid) in it. Since the flight attendant wasn’t there I waited couple minutes but I was extremely dehydrated and so was my father. I grabbed two cups of what obviously looked like water. A few minutes later the attendants started making their rounds for snacks and they saw the cups in my dad’s and my hands. They inquired in a very accusatory tone how we got those and I immediately informed that I grabbed them myself. Upon hearing that the the flight attendant 1 ( middle aged Caucasian woman) and flight attendant 2 ( young African American female) became very angry . And Flight attendant 2 told me “that’s not how it works”. I was confused for a second and I immediately apologized and informed that I was dehydrated and that it had been more than an hour on the plane also, it was only water . On hearing that, flight attendant 1 told me I shouldn’t be interrupting their service and threatened to called security on me. I was shocked at the way she reacted about me taking water without permission but decided to stop responding to the ladies. However, flight attendant 2 kept going on about how this was inappropriate and I didn’t know it was water. “It could have been vodka?” She said . 

By this time I was extremely upset and my infant started to become restless so I ignored their comments. While exiting the plane there was no staff member greeting everyone good bye (which is very unusual on Southwest Airlines) but then I saw the captain and i asked him if he knew the name of flight attendant 1 and 2. The captain had no idea and 5 second later flight attendant 1 came towards us  and the captain told me to ask her name myself, which I tried but then she became extremely hostile and told the captain “she is the one who was trying to steal liquor!”. I just could not believe her response, especially after she started pointing fingers at me calling me a thief. I informed her again that  she was mistaken and that  it was only water I took, but she  was being very rude and stormed away to catch another flight.

This was one of the most upsetting experiences I have had on a flight. I am

a frequent flyer and have been on many domestic and international flights on three different continents  but never have I ever experienced a flight attendant so aggressive and rude. My father who flew in to Phoenix from Houston on July 22 5:30 am flight number 3591, also had the same flight attendant 1 on the aircraft. He informed me how she was also rude to the passengers on the other flight and that he had already given a negative feedbacks on the survey to that same flight. 

I would like for the management to know that how damaging flight attendant 1 is to their reputation. Flight attendants are there to make you feel welcomed and provide a safe environment but instead flight attendant 1 made me feel threatened. This incident was extremely unfortunate, especially because  this was my first trip with my new born baby.  Now I am questioning flying southwest again. I am very saddened that this happened and I hope the airlines take measures to make sure their customers don’t feel threatened or get accused of stealing water. 

1 REPLY 1

Re: hostile onboard experience

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A
Solution

Hopefully you shared this information with Southwest via one of the options under Contact Us on southwest.com

 

--TheMiddleSeat