Mods, I realize you'll probably be compelled to move this thread into the intellectual and moral wasteland of the P&R forum, but the reason why I'm posting it here in General Discussion is because the solutions that I'm suggesting are based on sound, business practices and customer service rather political or religious methodologies. Not being requisite to such a move to P&R, any aspects of my post which may be viewed as political are strictly superfluous to the overall spirit of the post.


American Airline companies suck major ass. They do. I think I'll go one step further and say English speaking airliners suck major ass. I was on a United Airlines flight between Dallas and Tokyo (a path I've taken a few times in my life), and found the service to be appallingly lacking in class and an air of hospitality--not good for folks shelling out thousands of dollars and yen on the flight.
What irritates me the most about these flights is that being that the route is an international route, and 40 to 50% of the customers on the flight are Japanese, you would expect the flight attendants to be bi-lingual.
Whenever I fly Thai airlines (or any Asian Airliner) the attendants are ALWAYS bi-lingual. From Bangkok, if flying to the Philippine, they'll speak Tagalog, English, and Thai. If flying to Japan, they'll speak English, Thai, and Japanese. Likewise, when I flew to the UK through Amsterdam, the attendants on KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) spoke both English and Dutch(their native tongue) between Amsterdamn and Cardiff. But between America and Amsteram flying on Northwest Airlines (and American Airline company), they only spoke English--not a single attendant showed any hint of being able to speak Dutch.

But regardless of the destination or originating locale, when I fly an American airliner, bi-lingual attendants are appallingly lacking...and even impatient with customers who don't speak English. I find this terribly insulting.

I sat beside a nice little old Japanese lady who didn't speak a lick of English between Dallas and Tokyo. The airliner was United Airlines. Having received exquisite service on Thai Airlines on the previous flight, I guess I was spoiled by being served delicious sushi on real dinner plates by deliciously fuckable bi-lingual hotties. On the United Airline flight I sat and witnessed a tired ass heifer looking somewhat like Flo from Mel's Diner asking this Japanese woman "Chicken or Pasta?". The Japanese lady didn't know what the Attendant was asking of her. Then the Attendant after having asked 3 times, got impatient, visibly huffed a bit, and then pulled out two different gross ass dinners and showed the woman asking her to point to the one she thought was least likely to make her vomit.

What pisses me off about this is that this Attendant has to ask the question about 200 times in her section of the plane. How hard is it to learn the Japanese word for Chicken and the Japanese word for Pasta/noodles? How hard is it? I'm not expecting them to poetically recite Zen Koans in Japanese for fucks sake--just learn a dozen words or so to save yourself some time and embarrassment, and increase the level of customer service.

Instead, this poor Japanese woman pays 1400 bucks for a flight and has to endure being made to feel stupid for only knowing her native language? I admit, the Japanese are as appallingly bad at lacking bi-lingual skills as Americans are, but as a customer, she has that right. As a representative of your Airline, on an international route, learn a fucking word or two in that language!

It's not 100% an American thing. The British are just as fucked up as we are, and I found British Airlines to be just as bad in this respect.

This isn't about criticizing American/English speaking arrogance to me. This is about sound business practice. I mean, if you had to support a route for months of your life, and you had to ask "Chicken or Pasta" over and over again, wouldn't you want to learn it in the 'foreign language'? Wouldn't you want to save yourself some time and the customer some awkward embarrassment?




lawd. I wish Asian Airliners flew directly into Dallas or Miami. I'm going to make sure I fly Asian Airlines whenever I can---American Airline companies will NOT be getting my money until they start acting like they want my business. Dufuses!


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[Edited 10/12/09 10:22am]

have you ever flown virgin?

LOVE. THEM.

evenstar3 said:

not recently.

But the next time I fly to the UK, if it's from the USA, I'm definitely going to use Virgin. It's very cheap from Orlando to London on Virgin too.


A friend of mine in Bangkok is actually from Bristol and we have a trip planned there. I'm hoping to make my way down to Bournemouth too
Bristol requires that I fly into London, I believe.

Did you really like the new Heathrow terminal?

Imago said:

do it!! they were better than american air & BA for transatlantic flights, in my opinion. i've flown virgin america too and they're nice. keep in mind though i've only ever flown coach.

i really did like the new terminal. it's sensibly designed. i like heathrow in general though, & i've never had a problem going through customs etc very quickly. I had to wait longer to get back into the US as a citizen than into the UK BUT- i'm from LA. which means LAX. the nastiest, most archaic airport in any major city. so my standards are low

Imago, you must definitely check this out. She completely takes the piss out of cabin crew on all airlines, she's hilarious!

have you contacted customer service and expressed your views?

MacDaddy said:

I have GOT to book another flight on Virgin Airlines NOW!!!

To make matters worse....the Japanese words for Chicken and Pasta are.....wait for it.....chiken and pasuta!!!!!

I used to work in the industry and AA and UA had the reputation for being the worst airlines service-wise. I saw a female cabin attendant on UA scream at a five year old child and make them cry!

I think it should be a rule that they are bilingual. Even within the US they should be able to speak passable spanish or french.

connorhawke said:

ALL American Airline companies are sorely lacking in customer service.
It's dreadful and embarrassing.

I hate them.

Vendetta1 said:

Go on. Tell us how you REALLY feel

connorhawke said:

if AA was a person, I'd beat the living shit out of it.

Vendetta1 said:

.....with a complementary sick bag?

connorhawke said:

Vendetta1 said:

....full of sick?

my kids told me that to speak spanish just put an "O" at the end of every word, like fisho. They also told me chicken in spanish is CHICKON

connorhawke said:

i just did an AA flight from Dallas to Tokyo in April. i didn't notice any of this on the flight, but i didn't pay too much attention to that kind of thing.

i can speak English and Japanese, so i would've jumped at the chance to be an annoying little show-off if i overheard some language difficulty.

Have I just had freakishly good travel luck or something?

What do you expect from Americans?

The word "bilingual" is a nasty, hated thing here.

...and by btw, we speak American, son, not english.

can I get a Yee-Haw!?!?!?!

PurpleJedi said:

ZombieKitten said:

If she's a lesbian, then she's popular.

Imago said:

ZombieKitten said:

very very cute very Karen from Will and Grace

PurpleJedi said:

it is quite sad, communicating with others in their toungue esp today with multiculturalism is important and... to me it is fun!

Imago said:

GREAT point!

evenstar3 said:

My opinion may be biased cause I work for them but Virgin rock!!!

missmad said:

Agreed!

PanthaGirl said:

they're lovely. i'm hooked. also, they have the hottest flight crews.

ZombieKitten said: