In my 17+ years of blogging, this is a first. And if this is all true, I certainly feel bad for the guy, as my goal is never to impact someone’s livelihood. But I’m also not sure what lesson I should take away from this?
Continue reading: Flight Attendant Claims I Got Him Fired For Complaining, Calls Me Racist
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
If a unionised flight attendant is actually fired and it sticks, chances are there is much more to the story than just your review. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.
Either that commenter was making everything up just to troll you, or he is vindicating through his posts that Jetblue made the correct decision in firing him.
Based on this person's emails, there's a problem here that extended way beyond poor service on a single flight.
If this isn't some troll, sounds like someone was bitter at getting fired and used the blog post as an excuse.
No way a blog entry that didn't even identify the person would be used, there was no clear identification made. Jetblue would be reckless in trying to fire on that alone.
More than likely it would be other complaints or reasons.
The he comments on a random post and not the actual original post seems weird too. You would think he would know which exact post that got him fired and that he would put the comment there.
#Troll (you know what they say ""if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck")
I'm not sure I would take this user at face value. The ethnicity could just be a "lucky guess". The user's command of written communication is especially poor, considering that this is supposedly a trained, commercial flight attendant leaving the comment.
If anybody gets fired, then it's on them not anybody else. For some reason, people find a lot of reasons why I went wrong with them, but they never seem to figure out the one major reason that it comes in all those failures, that is them.
Maybe J.C. has started sending his trolls to discredit you or something, since you wouldn't submit to his generous offer of an outright mud fight 😉
I'm in two unions and, unless you're fired for cause, there are many hurdles that must be jumped through to terminate someone. It is certainly possible, but it usually means you have a very thick file of issues with you as an employee, and the union will still fight for you (unless what you've done is so egregious that they seem it not worth the risk). Finally, there are several avenues of appeal before a final decision is made. So, I'm guessing you're right that this person already had a "rap sheet" and his termination was already ongoing when you posted your review.
Unfortunately the words racist, fascist, nazi, bigot and lacking empathy have all become meaningless now because the far left regularly throw them out like confetti, without knowing their meaning, against anyone that does not agree with their extreme and often nonsensical views.
You made fair and accurate comments about a particularly poor experience you had with JetBlue. Period. Perhaps this was the final straw between this FA and JetBlue. That supposing the commenter is legit.
I think the bottom line is don't give credence to the crazy crap that gets posted in comments online. The internet is a horrible place. I'm an employment lawyer and this reads to me like you're being trolled, not like the actual flight attandant.
Regardless, I feel like the comments section on just about any internet page is a cesspool. People leave all civility behind. It's a problem with this stage of civilization.
When you elevate crap from the comments section to your main post, however, you give credence to the idea that people make scurious claims of race discrimination.
Let me give you a real example. We had a DEI program with the [my city's] Bar Associaiton and we invited an asian attorney to talk about discrimination. But when it came time to talk, it was just too painful for him and he couldn't talk about it. He just kind of choked in front of a cle full of attorneys.
So it does make me cringe when people promote the trope that people make false claims of discrimination. Like we all know the story about the boy who called wolf, we're programmed to believe people make false claims. But if it really is the flight attendant and the sirens song of the comments sections called to him to make an scurious complaint, it's an aboration.
If this person wanted to make an actual legitimate complaint, then he/she would have used a better method of communication other than a comment on your blog with broken grammar, no substantial details, and no evidence to support the claims. Until you get more details, ignore and move on.
Just based on his comments on your blog, he doesn't belong in customer service. Good riddance.
If you constantly bring up race just because you got fired cause you suck at doing your job or hate working with customers, then YOU ARE the racist.
It's so poorly written that I'd expect that it's from a family member of the actual person.
I'm confused about why you think this guy is real, rather than just a troll who posted some random stuff in hopes that it might seem close enough to something that actually happened, just to see if he could get a response out of you. If he legitimately had something to discuss with you, he'd contact you privately with more details.
Maybe the guy confused you with Cahill, since all sandy hair Caucasian travel bloggers all look alike.
Oh, geez, feels like this whole incident is just a massive 'troll' by Gen Yinjing Youguan...
Ben. STOP WRITING ABOUT HIM IMMEDIATELY and do NOT reach out nor respond to this person any more. Chances are you are either being trolled or someone was actually fired and blames you (rightly or wrongly does not matter). In the small chance he takes legal action anything you write in this subject can be used against you. Now, you may think what you write can't possibly be turned against you, but in the hands of an attorney, who knows? Walk away and move on. Even if the guy is just a crackpot, nothing good can come out of further comment.
Full disclosure, I am not an attorney, just an educated person who's been around a while.
Clearly you are a nice empathetic person with a conscience. However you can't always make things right and one can unintentionally make them worse.
Looking forward to your next post.
Based on what is written in this blog entry here, there is no legal action to be taken by the email sender that would ever see a courtroom or a settlement from OMAAT; no attorney would even take the case.
Except for Lionel Hutz.
the "flight attendant" calling you racist on a public platform opens him up to defamation liability. But DavidW is right. Stop writing about him and move on.
Ben, it's not clear from your posts, did you actually complain to the airline using a post flight survey or otherwise? Or did they allegedly fired him based solely on your blog post?
Another person that has been taught their failures and shortcomings are because of society. Maybe he's in the wrong job.
People will deflect their issues on something which comforts them. Instead of him thinking about his work issues and ethics which most likely caused him to get fired he rather deflecting it on you. I wish the bloggers and vloggers had power to get FA fired by just one bad review. If that was the case 50-60% of the staff would be fired.
You continue posting honest reviews
@ NomadDC -- And I would've just assumed it was a troll, but the Asian "detail" gives it some credibility, since that's not something someone else would've known, no?
been a flight attendant for nearly 40 years....no one loses his or her job because of 1 blog or complaint letter.....if in fact a flight crew member loses their job its been bulding up for a long time
lol. I cannot stand people that simply pull out the most inflammatory word in the book to try and gain sympathy from others rather than being honest with themselves about their own shortcomings
There's a higher proportion of people with chemical imbalances amongst active internet commenters than exists in the general population. Be advised and act accordingly.
Perhaps he was fired for bad command of the English language. How is it JB allegedly hired him to work inits their premium cabin, but he can hardly string a sentence together? JB standards would seem to be drastically slipping.
Anyhow, why are you continuing to engage?
Shrug, roll your eyes and move on.
Ben, I am actually surprised that this is your "first". As someone with such far reaching blog I would expect you would get more of such trolls.
In any case, just ignore it, as most of the comments here suggest. Those who write such nonsense want you to engage and to respond, this is their goal. Draining other people's energy to feed their own frustrations.
I'm not on that crazy guy's side but... if you only took that one photo how do you remember the FAs ethnicity? Can you recall the appearance of every FA that's served you over the past nine months? That doesn't make any sense.
I’m sure there’s way more to the story than both what you and the (former) flight attendant are disclosing.
But this should be a valuable lesson to you, you have a huge burden to write responsibly and with care. You’re almost kind-of a big in a certain way deal.
@ Alvin -- I swear there's nothing I'm not disclosing here. I shared the entirety of my thoughts on the flight in that blog post. Nothing else happened onboard... I barely even interacted with the guy, as I slept most of the way (but despite that, came away with a very bad impression).
It does seem likely to me that there are things about his history with JetBlue that he's maybe not disclosing, if he actually was fired.
Alvin
Out of curiosity. Do you think Ben should censure himself if it's bad service just in case someone is held accountable?
@ BigT3x -- No, I don't recall every flight attendant who has served me since the beginning of the year, though I certainly recall the most memorable ones. And this one was among the most memorable (not in a good way), as I explained in the post...
The proletariat’s prefrontal cortex (the brain's reasoning and empathy centre) has shuts down, while the limbic system (the brain's emotional threat centre) takes charge, driving the proletariat’s instinctive fear and anger.
@ snic -- I was skeptical of that as well, but the fact that he specifically mentioned he's Asian stood out to me, since that was something that a random person wouldn't know.
No one gets fired over a single incident this tame. You didn't accuse him of a crime or a critical safety violation. Ben - you're not THAT powerful in the industry!
The guy sounds like he has deeper problems, and maybe it's for the best that he's no longer in a customer-facing role.
While your newfound class consciousness is welcomed, you seem to have totally missed the point...
Oh, friend, they've always had better food and seats in Mint, like, this whole time.
It’s probably something to do with Josh. Smear you and you appear no better than him. Well played Josh
The proletariat’s fury may mask sadness, loneliness, or even something more existential …. a fear of change, of being irrelevance and of being dismissed out of hand.
The timing with the Josh Cahill drama is interesting, and the claims/context... Would be easy enough to look through your previous posts and then post this to try to create drama/smear against you.
An FA in a union would probably have more going on than just your article to be fired, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. It sounds like the guy is a lazy pathetic loser who shouldn't be in the industry.
Everything is "racist" these days. Make a complaint about bad service and you're "racist". Look at someone the wrong way and you're "racist". Comment on a hairstyle and you're "racist". It's become so common a claim that it's effective meaningless.
If you're crap enough at your job for someone to publish a blog post about you, then you deserve to be fired. I'm not sure that's what really happened here, though. I think it's a troll.
Ben, you shouldn't feel bad about this. Even if your article was a contributing factor in his termination, you probably did future passengers a service, as what we know about this person so far is:
- He performed very poorly on the day you flew (might have been a bad day, might nit have been)
- He came to your blog and directly insulted you with baseless accusations of racism (honestly, this is extra bad since many people are really treated bad due to still existing racism and accusations like this weaken the situation for everyone)
- He then directly lied about what you did (You didn't mention it in the article, but recording / taking picturees of people is something you never do, even on a ereview flight)
Honestly, he sounds like he is a piece of work and I'm confident there where many other issues that led to him beeing fired.
Move on. The guy doesn't deserve your attention. You written an honest review and that's where the story end. Do not feed trolls.
Pot calling the kettle black? You can’t write coherently either - just look at your first sentence.
Which part of this is not coherent to you?
"Perhaps he was fired for bad command of the English language"
In this state, the proletariat’s prefrontal cortex has gone offline and so its ability to rationalise is diminished. Indeed, any discussion or action is being interpreted as an attack and as such only fuel’s the fire.
That's what I initially thought; when I first saw this article. Is Josh contriving a drama again? To vindictively get back at Ben.
Why even acknowledge or respond to someone like this when they are obviously trying to pull some sort of race, gender or sexual orientation card? There's absolutely nothing to gain by engaging in people like this. Just ignore them and move on and take solace in the fact that you won't have to deal with this indivudal again. We all know that there are good and bad workers in every creed. No need to tiptoe around the fact that he was Asian as long as it's for identification purposes and not the basis of your complaint.
The most inflammatory word in the book? That's taking it a little far.......Honestly I wouldn't bat an eye if I was called racist today as I'd be confident it'd be coming from someone like this FA.
It's not the *person* who is random, it's what they chose to *post* that's random. They could have said Black or Puerto Rican or German or Middle Eastern, in hopes that this would jostle a memory and cause a reaction. Right now there is no evidence that this *isn't* what happened.
There’s always an attorney willing to take even the worst cases. Also, in the US we don’t award attorneys fees so Ben would still rack up legal costs getting the case thrown out.
All you did is what your calling is to review the airlines you fly
I myself fly over 1,000,000 miles and at times I pay good money to sit in Business class
and I pay it for the higher level of service and at time Flight attendants can be darn rude nasty and unappreciative. I pay to enjoy the service not to receive the negative energy from people that do not like there job
To be fair, most of the comments in these travel blogs contain racist, sexist, and homophobic language
Ben, was the person who made the comments the same one who commented on that JetBlue post back on February 23, "The crew member name in question is Feank" and "Correction since last post was a typo his name Frank he based in LA."?
It seems like that person is to blame for any issues, not you.
You come accross as the 800-pound social media air travel influencer vs a lowly flight attendant. It can be passive aggressive to give feedback after the fact that you wouldn't have given firsthand.
You must be able to perceive the imblance here. Yet you express bewilderment that your review had consequences. Some professionals are far better insulated from bad reviews--doctors, tenured professors, political officeholders, etc.
The question of racism is a distractor. It distracts from how you chose to wield your influence.
Your review was a convenient catalyst which made it easier for an airline manager to weed out a challenging crew member. With the future of JetBlue in doubt, it may have been an unintended favor to shift that person on to a different career path.
@ Ricardo -- Regarding giving feedback in person vs. online... to be clear, it's not like he did anything to me personally. It's just the behavior he displayed in general, and I was curious if others noticed a decline in JetBlue Mint service.
Do you think I should have just said to him on the way out "hey, you seem to have a really bad attitude," or what do you recommend I say in person, in such a situation?
Generally, I'd think that unionized flight attendants in the United States are actually among the most insulated from bad reviews. That's why I also have to assume there was a lot more to this, and that maybe what I wrote was the final straw.
If Ben feels threatened or harassed then he should reach out to Jet Blue and file a police report. If he thinks his life is in danger then get a gun ! Ben has a family to protect. Keep it locked in a safe at home and easily accessible incase anyone ever breaks into your home.
Wild how many people just assume a single influencer can make a unionized flight attendant lose their job. I can only assume they don't come from a place with an (sometimes unfortunately) effective union.
"Someone made a non-identifying complaint about (maybe) you on the internet" is not a sufficient cause for termination.
It's saddening to see a blog that used to focus on the Miles Game gradually succumb to turning into a gossip site.
There's such a thing as Projective Identification in which a person's psychic is so sensitive and potentially hurt that they cast off the reality of something, such as the blame for their own behavior, unto to others. It's a form on self-survival because otherwise the reality is too hard for them to cope with and accept. Therefore, if the perceived injury is so real to them, they may lash out in a strong manner, such as playing the race card. Plus, there are some individuals that have a difficulty accepting their own selves and who they are.
This is not to say this was the person's case, but further back-and-forth will not be beneficial to you or the other person. Only the other person can help himself with the situation.
Healthy individuals use sublimation to move forward in a positive manner and find positivity. Maybe being fired actually helps certain individuals in the long run because they end up happier in the long run somehow.
Your blogs are wonderful BECAUSE you're candid and truthful.
oh we award attorneys' fees sometimes, for example this particular circumstance would be a solid candidate
Ricardo, real talk: getting a good review from Ben is easy (some might say far too easy) and if you mess up, he'll probably just give you a gentleman's pass and not mention it at all.
if you're worried about affirmatively bad reviews from Ben, you're exceptionally bad at your chosen vocation and need to rethink your life.
The proletariat has become caught in one of the most powerful psychological traps of our time: the outrage economy, a system in which online platforms profit from anger. Clickbait hooks them in, then algorithms keep them hooked by amplifying moral and emotional content that triggers outrage.
The Miles Game is dead, Roland. If we don't talk about airline gossip here, then it's only trout fishing forums & TikTok left 🙁
Great respect for the way you are handling this Ben. Your comments of defense/clarification show clearly how much of a decent person you are. How blessed the world is to have people like you (and Ford!) nurturing the next generation.
As someone who is a jetblue flight attendant, I will say that they can fire you even with a union. They'll suspend/terminate you and youll have to duke it out through the channels of the union which can take 1 - 2 years. Now, they will be liable to pay pay you back pay and if its something that makes its way all way through the racks of the union with not result, youll have to obtain your own attorney and sue them. There's plenty of employees currently employed by Jetblue who have sued them. Jetblue does not like bad publicity, so they like to nip stuff in the bud quick. They only care about anything good image
Only A***********s have so much main character syndrome to think that this has any impact on literally anyone else.
So based on ONE EXPERIENCE one of your immediate thoughts was of they're was a general service shift in the Mint service? Weird "But the flight attendant on this flight was downright unfriendly, based on my experience, and I was curious if there was a general service shift in JetBlue Mint, or if I just got unlucky."