A United Airlines flight attendant just shared her horrifying mashed potato secret and you can try it at home

A United Airlines flight attendant has gone viral after sharing her horrifyingly simple recipe for mid-air mashed potatoes, which requires nothing more than a few readily available items from the plane’s galley cart. The flight attendant, Rachel (@rachelleahtia), posted the recipe on TikTok, inspiring immediate shock and humor across the internet.

If you’re craving that starchy fix while flying 30,000 feet in the air, Rachel has you covered. Her recipe is incredibly simple: grab a can of Pringles potato chips, crush them up right in the can, and then add water, coffee creamer, salt, and pepper. These are all items you can typically find on many commercial flights. Honestly, mixing chips and coffee creamer sounds like a culinary nightmare, but Rachel insists it’s edible.

She personally described the resulting mashed concoction as “a lil ghetto but it tastes good,” making sure to note that she wasn’t on duty when she prepared the strange meal. For most people watching, the sight of this DIY meal immediately brought up comparisons to food prepared under duress. So maybe take it easy on flight attendants and just stop doing things they hate, because they may be running on mashed Pringles.

Anyone who works at an airline should get free food, the airline can afford it

The immediate reaction online was a mix of visceral horror and amusement. Many observers compared the meal to something you’d find in a detention facility. One person didn’t mince words, asking, “So now we’re making prison food on airplanes?” Another commenter joked that while they knew the attendant didn’t have a new contract yet, she certainly wasn’t “in jail.” People were clearly concerned, and I was mostly wondering where she got the water because even the coffee pots can’t be trusted.

However, the conversation quickly pivoted from mashed potato humor to the serious state of contractual negotiations between United Airlines and its flight attendants. Multiple commenters brought up the need for a new contract, directly addressing the airline’s CEO, Scott Kirby. Commenters like Dyeisha LeAundra wrote, “Dear Kirby, please get ya flight attendants a contract asap. They are struggling.”

This intense reaction highlights the deep dissatisfaction among the crew. The flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, overwhelmingly rejected the airline’s latest contract offer last month. Their demands show that the issues are much bigger than just salary increases.

The attendants are seeking to be paid for time spent waiting on the ground between flights and are pushing for less tiring red-eye flying schedules. They also want improvements for reserve flight attendants, contract compliance guarantees, and better layover hotels. The demands clearly point to a lack of respect for the time and effort they put in.

Despite the intense online reaction, Rachel defended her culinary creation. She explained that she was inspired to try the recipe after seeing an older video that featured people making mashed potatoes out of boiled Lays chips. She stands by her creation, claiming, “They’re not as terrible as people are making it seem.” She noted that she posted the video for “entertainment and educational purposes,” saying she wasn’t expecting such a dramatic reaction. It just goes to show you how passionate people are about their potatoes, even if they’re made with water and coffee creamer at 30,000 feet.