You're not doing it right.
I don't know about United's flight attendants, but I do remember a fantastic layover in Newark, with a People's Express Customer Service rep.
God I loved that airline. They had a DC-9 sitting on the ramp with a flat tire in Jax. A bunch of us were heading home on leave just after Christmas in 85. We offered to change the tire for them and they said we had to have an A&P license. We had 9 of them between us and a guy who was in VR-58 with an IA for DC-9s. Took about 20 minutes to do the tire and PE picked up our bar tab in Newark, amongst other things.