US Airways Turning Flight Attendants into Sales Clerks

Going from bad to worse in the nickel-and-diming of airline passengers, US Airways is now charging passengers $1 for coffee and $2 for soda, money that flight attendants have to collect from increasingly irritated customers.

"Flight attendants are trained and certified safety professionals, not cashiers to be used in management's futile attempt to bolster US Airways' bottom line," said Mike Flores, AFA-CWA master executive council president for US Airways.

Not only does selling the items "detract from the focus on safety for both passengers and crew," the airline's purchasing program has already suffered from low inventory, poor selection and inadequate currency for making change, said Lisa LeCarre, the union's president at America West (US Airways West).

"In the current climate of customer frustration, the last thing flight attendants want to do is add fuel to the fire," she said.