An air hostess claims she felt forced to quit her job with Virgin Atlantic after praising one of the airline’s first-class flyers.
Charlotte Whittingham, 25, from Reading, served singer Rita Ora on a flight from London to LA and couldn’t help but post on Facebook about the A-list star.
She told her girlfriend Stacey McClean that Rita was like an ‘oil painting’ after Ms McClean posted a status about how lucky she had been to fly with her.
Charlotte Whittingham, 25, was allegedly told it was in her interest to quit after she shared details of a first-class flyer
Two weeks later, she was told by bosses she should resign or face disciplinary proceedings for the post, according to the Sun.
She told her friend this had been her dream job and she had been careful not to affect the brand
The paper reports that she told a friend: ‘I’m absolutely devastated — being part of the team at Virgin was my dream job.
‘I’ve always been so conscious of not affecting the Virgin brand.
‘But when my girlfriend made a status saying how lucky I was to fly with Rita, I simply replied about how beautiful she was. Virgin wasn’t mentioned.
Ms Whittingham had served Rita Ora on a flight from London to LA, and excitedly told her girlfriend, who shared it on Facebook
‘I just wrote that she “looked like an oil painting, she was so beautiful” because she was so flawless.’
Removing the post did not help, and bosses are alleged to have told her to quit before she had a reconciliation meeting.
A Virgin Atlantic Airways spokesman told the MailOnline: ‘We respect both employee privacy and our customer’s privacy and therefore cannot comment on any specific situations. In general, we expect high standards of behaviour from all of our employees and ensure customer privacy is maintained across the Virgin Atlantic experience.’
In 2012, a member of Virgin staff quit after allegations that they leaked flight details for dozens of celebrities to a picture agency.