[wugafuzzi]

February 28 2009, I had the worst flight experience in all my years of flying. I am a Platinum Elite member, flying Northwest for about 19 years. This occured in a paid business class seat
Before take -off on flight #30 form Narita to Honolulu , a flight attendant asked for my meal request. I asked for the fish with the caveat that I was not to be awakened if I was asleep. I also asked her if the meal could be saved for me for later. She said that entree which was cooked fish would be saved. When I woke up 3 hrs later I asked for the entree, the same flight attendantwent to get it and then came back 5 minutes later to ask if I still wanted it since she felt the delayed time was too long to keep the fish. I told her Iunderstood but I still wanted the fish and no she did not have to reheat it. About another five minutes later the "purser' Samuel comes and askagain if I want the fish. I reiterated that I did. He said in a raised voice" Well okay, but it has been four hours and I would not eat it.". He offered me the alternate entrees which were the chicken or beef. I told him I understood that but I would rather have the fish. 10 to 15 minutes later Iwant to the galley and asked Samuel about the meal and said they need not take the trouble to reheat it. He then said that they were looking for it and couldnot find it. Five minutes pass and he came and told me that they called Honolulu and the captain said I could not be served the fish and that the captain would speak to me after the flight.I did not say a wordto him. The flight attendants then statted serving breakfast. Samuel placed my tray down and without bothering to ask me what I wanted to drink went on to the nextcustomer. A while later after using the restroom I looked into the galley right next to the rest room and asked the the 2 flight attendants the name of the one thatinitially took our meal requests. Both said they "forgot" or "did not know". I saw the attendant in question a few rows back and went back to speak with her. Samuel comes up to me and told me that I need to go back to my seat and"no " I could not have the flight attendant's name. I went back to my seat .Samuel goes back to the galley in front, and from that distance ina raised voice says I cannot have the fish since it was fours old and he was not going to "let me create trouble". He said he would have someone inHonolulu meet the flight. From the time he told me to go back to my seat ,which I did without saying a word I maintained my silence and did not respond to him. As I was exiting the aircraft, Samuel stopped talking to the agent meeting the plane and again in a raised voice points to me and says.."She's the one": As I was one of the first peiple to get off needless to say all focus was in front. The agent said he wanted to talk to me. i told him i had a connecting flight and he could come along. He said ther were sheriffs waitingfor me sice they received a call from the captain that I was creating a disturbance. i handed my passport ot the sheriif on request while being thecynosure of all the passangers exitting the plane some of whom could have been my pateints.I spoke to the sherrif and then to the agent. The agent said it was all a misunderstanding , told the sheriff he did not need their services and that I was free to leave. No apology made !The fact that some "#!*#" could have sheriffs summoned because he lost his temper with no guidelines or corraboration from other flight attendants is scary. Our licensing laws state that a felony or "disturbing public safety" can result in a loss of license. I have spoken to several pilots and flight crew since this incident and they expressed total disbelief that it was blown so out of proportion.

[Corbel]

agreed that calling the police was a bit too much, it doesn't sound to me that you were creating a problem. however as a flight attendant, i wouldn't serve you fish that has been sitting out for 4 hours as well. next thing you know, you get sick then all of a sudden on the news, "man sues, gets sick on flight from eating bad fish"

[jimworcs]

The issues raised here really have nothing to do with the fish. It is to do with people who are lacking intellect and people skills; sadly these same people, particularly since 9/11, have been endowed with power which they are stupid to wield. The truth is airlines recruit numpties on low pay. The good people leave and the remainder who are left are stupid. In the past, people who had this kind of authority had to have extensive training and pass exams to get their "badge" which allowed them to wield such power. However, in our post 9/11 paranoia, we have given power to stupid people who have had no training on the use of such power. This website is littered with similar stories.

The FA's made a mess of this whole affair. An FA with intelligence would have told the passenger that they would be unable to save the meal for health and safety reasons. That would have been the end of it. Sadly, the FA was too stupid to do so, and the situation escalated beyond their control. Once that had occured, the FA then sought to extricate themselves from the situation by abusing their power. This is allowed to continue because there is a climate of fear.
I hope you pursue a complaint against this employee and we just have to hope that sooner or later one of them ends up in court for such abuse.

[wugafuzzi]

Thanks for the input. JIMWORCS HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. It was not about the meal. All they had to say right from the start is that the meal could not be served later per airline policy.....matter over ! i got the impression that since they were"looking for it" (how many uneaten business class meals could there have been ?) that one of them ate it and they were trying to cover up.

[The_Judge]

I'll, up front, agree that it sounds like it was handled badly. The sheriffs office being called sounds a bit overboard to me.

That being said, I worked in HNL for NWA as supervisor and I know who Samuel is. I will vouch for him 100% that he is a good guy and non-confrontational.

It is mentioned in previous posts that "airlines recruit numpties on low pay. The good people leave and the remainder who are left are stupid." I'll take that as back-end compliment as I left but Samuel is certainly not stupid. The crews on the HNL routes have been around for years and years and some of them decades. If it wasn't passed on to the passenger that the fish wouldn't be served due to health reasons, it sounds like a misunderstanding then. But the captain has control of the aircraft and basically what he says, goes. I don't know how it reached him as this seems like a minor issue but it somehow did.

It was also mentioned before that "one of them ate it and they were trying to cover up." Hardly.......the menus on these trips are changed monthly. They more than likely had the fish before many times. Also, the crew has their own meals catered anyway and lots of them bring their own food as well. One of them eating it did not happen.

[wugafuzzi]

Thanks for the input. Maybe you can provide some of the answers to the following
1. Why did the flrght attendents take over 30 minutes of searching for the meal to then decide it was policy not to serve fish that had been "sitting around " for 4 hours
2. Why was beef and chicken meals not included in this policy Those were the alternatives I was offered
3. Why weren't the flight attendants wearing visible name tags. I was told that was a policy to wear their name tags visible

Majority of the time I have had wonderful service with NWA. (I fly with them twice a month for the last 4 years). Other flight attendants have saved mu meals for me, I have shared my meals with them when i have a special meal, one of them even gave a coffee mug with NWA on it, joking that it would be a collectors item since NWA had merged. Has everything been perfect ? No ! but issues were always handled professionally and with courtesy .
Maybe if you are still with the airline industry you could introduce some change in policy where more than one crew member gets to decide on far reaching actions. Remember the Continental Express that the flight attendant told the captain to turn around so that they could deplane the mother with the 2 yr. old who was repeating "bye-bye plane" What do you think that cost the airline, the passengers who had meetings or connecting flights ?

[The_Judge]

I am not a flight attendant so I don't know what or even if there is a policy about serving food after a certain amount of time. I, personally as an inidividual, would have no problem eating or serving you fish or any other meal after 3 or 4 hours. I do it alot and in fact, just ate some fish this morning that had sat in the microwave all night. I live in Thailand and it is common for food to sit out for hours.

Now acting as a company rep, I would probably have some issues serving it to a paying passenger for the reasons mentioned before. If you were to get sick, there are all kinds of things that come into play. Firstly, your health. Would you become ill and if so, would the flight attendants be able to make sure you are ok. Then there are the other passengers. There are not alot of places to divert from Tokyo to Honolulu but if you would be come too sick, would they have to turn around? Would they continue on? Then there comes the liability issue after all is said and done. Could you sue? Not saying they thought about all these factors but they may have.

As for the name tags, for me as a CSS (Customer Service Supervisor) and agents, we had to wear our company issued name tag near our left breast pocket or in that area if there was no pocket. Clearly visable. I cannot speak for a flight attendant but I would think the policy is the same. I have seen when they wear their serving apron that sometimes either they "forget" to put the name tag on it or sometimes it gets covered up. That may have happened.

I am not still with the airline industry in any capacity. I would like to think that I got smart and left early enough. 20+ years so probably not but I can't help with changing policy anymore, not that they listened to me when I worked anyway........Good luck in the future.

[Corbel]

on our aircraft ( 767's, please keep in mind not ALL 767's are the same) we have chillers and a freezer in our front galley, so we keep (if we get fish, we only get fish for crew meals..yuck) in our freezers, that way it keeps cold. once it is heated and has been sitting in our ovens for sometime, i wont serve it to our crew or captains.

I dont know what northwests policy for name tags are for flight crew. i know with one of our government contracts (and nw has this contract too) they need to wear name tags, however as far as scheduled service i dont know what the policy is. when we fly for apple or funjet vacations we dont have to wear a name tag.

[jimworcs]

There is no legitimate reason for an employee in this situation not wear their name badges or provide that information if asked. The only possible reason is that the numpties knew their behaviour was inappropriate and sought to withhold the information.