Jesse P
xxxxx xxxx xxxx
San Diego, CA 92116
July 9, 2009
To Whom It May Concern at American Airlines:
I am writing this letter to you on the final half of my flight 225 from BOS to SAN on July 8, 2009. I am concerned and upset while writing this from an unfortunate encounter I had on July 8, 2009, with one of your flight attendants. I went back to the rear galley to get a glass of water, which both water and glasses were sitting on the galley counter. From flying as frequently as I do, although not with American, there is often water and orange juice set on the galley counters for the passengers. Your flight attendant jumped up off the jump seat, grabbed the glass out of my hand, and shouted at me, “Would I go into your kitchen and just help myself to anything I wanted?!”. I nicely replied, “usually there is water or orange juice sitting out for the passengers, and I was just trying to help you our and let you take a load off”. He shouted embarrassingly back, “I would NEVER GO INTO YOUR KITCHEN, so why would you come into MINE! DON”T DO THAT.” I then replied calmly, “That is the rudest I have ever been treated on any airline ever.” He replied with, “IT’S MY JOB!”
That was just the beginning. I went back to get his name, and as I looked for his name badge, he sharply snapped back at me “MY NAME IS VICTOR.” “And, I’m the number two flight attendant if that’s what you are looking for.” When I went back to look at his badge, I caught a glimpse of what I made out to be ‘Victor Reynard’. He snapped his badge back around to the back side and shouted, “My name is VICTOR, and I AM THE SECOND FLIGHT ATTENDENT, and THAT ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW!” As I was walking away, he turned to the other two flight attendants and said verbatim, “I’ll have a field day with that one”. I was mortified.
There were two female flight attendants sitting on the other jump seat who witnessed his blow up. After I returned to my seat, one of them came to my seat, kneeled down, and said “I sincerely apologize for how he acted. He was so out of line.” Sitting in my seat, he passes by, sees me writing this on my laptop, and goes to the front of the plane. As far as I could tell, in an attempt to save face by making a safety report to the contrary of my letter to you, makes a report to the captain that I should not have been in the galley. He then comes back to my seat, kneels down, and rudely informs me he has notified the captain that I had been in the galley. He gruffly tells me that I should not be in the galley again and was treating me like a criminal. At this point, your employee was using FAA safety regulations to intimidate me on the airplane and cover and legitimize his actions. He intimidated me to the point that I asked the crew if I should be concerned when exiting the aircraft of being arrested. They said no, and again apologized for his actions. I am a respectful passenger and can understand all security concerns, and am respectful to their safety as well as ours. This is not a matter of enforcing safety, but this terrible manipulation of law to legitimize outrage expressed by one of your employees.
I am a gold flier on United and Star Alliance. I returned from Boston that day because of availability. Because of service and perks, I always pay more to fly and make a stop on United than fly non-stop with you. As you can see by my account, I tried flying American frequently years ago, and stopped. This was a refresher course for my frequent flier friends and me – that you will never see us again.
Sincerely,
Jesse P
Jesse P
cc: The Honorable Susan Davis
Federal Aviation Administration
Allied Pilots Association
FO Mike Michaelis c/o APA
Captian of flight 225 from BOS to SAN on July 8, 2009, c/o APA
