Dear American Airlines,
There aren’t many things that I regret in my life. But every time I think about this incident, I regret not saying something when it happened or writing you a letter right after the incident. It’s been six years now, but I still remember it every time I get on an flight, especially an international one.
What happened?
I was flying back to Washington, DC from San Juan, Puerto Rico. If you’re the least bit familiar with Puerto Rico (which I assume that you are), you’ll know that it’s a small country in the Caribbean and that while it is part of the United States, their first language is Spanish.
Since it was about a 4-hour flight back to DC, a meal was served on the plane. (What a rarity!)
The flight attendants made their rounds and started asking the passengers “chicken or pasta.”
One of the flight attendants gets to a male passenger scrunched into a window seat and repeats the standard line “chicken or pasta.”
Blank stare. It easily could have been interpreted as he doesn’t understand. I mean, it’s possible he was being a jackass, but very unlikely. And if it wasn’t clear then, it should have been clear when the passenger behind him tells the flight attendant that the man can’t understand English, only Spanish.
This jerk then says to the Spanish-speaking man, “el chicken or el pasta.” THEN, she was annoyed that this still did not illicit a response.
I think to myself, “Ma’am, did you really just put “el” in front of English words thinking that it would magically turn them into Spanish.”
WTF?!?! I was pissed. We’ve just left a Spanish speaking country. You are a flight attendant. Are you really telling me that you can’t say the two items for dinner in Spanish? And ok, fine, you can’t say them in Spanish. Is it possible that you would at least try and ask another flight attendant to translate or see if another passenger can translate? Is your BEST work really “el chicken or el pasta?” Jackass.
In all fairness, I must say that I’ve since taken international flights on American Airlines and the service has been exceptional. I just couldn’t carry this story for another six years.
Kind regards,
Shannon Evans
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nuri
2 years ago
wooooooooow. i’m baffled. you should really send this to them.
shannon
2 years ago
Right! It still boggles my mind. I just had to get it out…finally.
Caldeia
2 years ago
Just get them Shannon!
That was really rude and it must be rare having flight attendants who don’t speak the language of the destination/departure.
“Remembering a wrong is like carrying a burden on the mind.” ~Buddha
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