[aobrien]

Dear Sir/Madam

My husband and I had a very unpleasant experience on this flight regarding one of your cabin crew.

When the cabin crew came along with the drinks trolley my husband purchased 4 drinks and proceeded to hand his credit card to a male steward who would not even take the card. My husband was sitting at the window seat and was trying to search his pockets for cash (there was very little room to move as the tables were also down at the time and the drinks were sitting on them. The steward was busy and moved on. About 5 minutes later as the same steward was passing my husband called him and asked how he could pay and was told "in dollars or sterling". My husband then made a casual remark to me that there was probably money in our holdall in the overhead locker. As the steward was busy, again, he moved on.

After much discomfort and squirming about my husband found money
in his back pocket and was sitting with the notes, in full view, in his hand which was resting on top of the table. I dozed off after a while and next thing I was awakened by a sharp prod to my shoulder. I was obviously startled and looked up to see a female stewardess standing rapping her finger on the overhead locker, quite aggresively, saying "Okay, you need to get the money out of here right now!" I was taken aback and said 'the money is here', pointing to my husband's hand. Her demeanour changed immediately and, in complete contrast, suddenly she was very pleasant.
We never commented further to her.

If the male steward had come back he would have seen the money in my husband's hand and it wouldn't have been an issue.

The passengers in our vicinity were amazed and commented to us on this woman's behaviour. Someone made the valid point - "there was no need for that - where did she think you were going?"
I was absolutely disgusted and could not believe what I had just witnessed. How dare she approach me in this manner. For a start, I was not the one who she should have been approaching, never mind the way in which she did so. Given that we were in the air, it was very unnecessary.

This raises several issues, which I feel the company would need to address:

The staff obviously need some further training in customer service. In the first instance, the male steward relaying something so minor to the female stewardess should not have arisen - there was no dispute about paying. Secondly, her behaviour toward customers was appalling. Why would you want to embarrass and humiliate your customers in this way due to unprofessional staff?

Why do you announce that you accept all major credit cards if you don't?
What would have happened if we had no cash - would this woman have taken the drinks back? Further embarrassment and humiliation?!! This needs to be clarified.

These members of staff are the 'face' of Continental Airlines and as such respresent the company as a whole. As someone who has supervised large numbers of staff, who deal with the public, for over 20 years I would be very annoyed, embarrassed and disappointed at this sort of behaviour from a member of my staff but, more disturbing in your case, is that if this woman's attitude is typical, she is a 'loose cannon' on an aeroplane. Someone else may not have taken the matter so calmly!

Anne O'Brien