“Cheap” Flight Attendant Ditched By Crew In Paris, Causing Backlash

A flight attendant for a major US airline took to TikTok to share what was intended to be a funny story, but it seems it’s not landing with her fellow flight attendants (thanks to PYOK for flagging this).

Airline crew forgot colleague on plane, drove off

A flight attendant has posted a roughly three-minute “storytime” video on TikTok, about how on a recent trip, a crew accidentally left a colleague on the plane, and drove off to go to their layover hotel. However, as she views it, the moral of the story isn’t to make sure that everyone is on the transfer van, but rather for flight attendants not to be cheap.

This flight attendant was working the rear galley position on an overnight Newark to Paris flight. At the beginning of the flight, one of her colleagues asked if she could store some food in the back galley chiller:

“This flight attendant, who chose to work in the back galley with me, asks me, ‘is there a place where I can place my food?’ Of course, you can put your food here, I cleared out all the supplies, so anyone who brings their food can place it here. She went on to tell me, ‘well, Paris is so expensive, so I went to the supermarket last night and got a yogurt and a sandwich.'”

Then when the plane landed in Paris, that crew member reportedly forgot her food on the plane, so ran back onboard to get it:

“All flight attendants know that once you land, especially flying through the night, there’s amnesia. We land, we deplane, we grab our things to leave the airplane, to get on the van to go to our hotel. As we’re walking up the jet bridge, the flight attendant asks me, ‘did you get my food?’ No, why would I get your food? I’m not here to get your food. Listen, buying a yogurt and a sandwich in Paris is not going to break the bank, you can still pay your rent.”

Despite that, the crew drove off, only to get a call, that they had left their colleague behind:

“The purser looks at all the crew members and says, ‘if you’re not here, raise your hand,’ to which I laughed at. And then, once we’re on the motorway, the driver of the van receives a phone call. The call is actually from the gate agent in Paris saying that the flight attendant who went to get her sandwich and yogurt was left, yes, she was left.”

It’s the conclusion that the flight attendant draws from this incident that’s leaving a lot of fellow flight attendants frustrated:

“She was upset with me, I had nothing to do with your yogurt or your sandwich. The moral of the story is, don’t be cheap, because your yogurt and sandwich will get you left, but it all makes for a good story.”

This flight attendant is facing quite some backlash

While the flight attendant clearly intended to share this as a funny story, that’s not how it’s being perceived. Just looking at the top comments:

• “Moral of the story… pray you never fly with this lady because she doesn’t have your back.”
• “Moral of the story: don’t leave a crew member behind”
• “So which part was funny”
• “So there wasn’t brain fog, it was pure malice. you knew she went back. you were just petty that she expected you to help her.”
• “With colleagues like these you don’t need enemies”
• “‘Don’t be cheap’ speaks volumes of who you are as a person”

Yeah, this really doesn’t come across as very kind. The flight attendant is absolutely right that it wasn’t her responsibility to get the other flight attendant’s food. I can also appreciate the brain fog that flight attendants may feel after working an overnight flight. However, it absolutely is the responsibility of the crew to make sure that they don’t leave anyone behind, and that’s what the moral of the story should be.

I’m guessing the flight attendant who brought her food was pretty junior and not used to working Europe trips, both based on asking if there was somewhere she could store her food, and in terms of bringing her own food and then leaving it behind. The irony is that you can often get much cheaper and higher quality food (sandwiches, yogurt, etc.) in major European cities than in the United States.

So that makes this whole situation even meaner, since this was likely just a flight attendant who needed a bit of guidance.

Bottom line

A flight attendant for a major US airline shared an incident on a recent trip, whereby a colleague ran onboard the aircraft to get food she had brought, only for the crew to then drive off. The transfer van ended up having to return to the aircraft to pick her up.

The moral of the story should be to make sure everyone is accounted for before driving to the hotel. Instead, this woman’s conclusion is to not be cheap.

What do you make of this TikTok video?