Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Attendant Current
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Electronic Device; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
My other FA (Flight Attendant) informed me that 4B was giving her some attitude when she had asked her for compliance. 4B was on a phone call and the FA had asked her to finish up her phone conversation as the Main Cabin Door was being closed for departure. I agreed to tag team and verify she had ended her call. I walked by and she hid her phone down by her side; so I couldn't tell one way or another. I told the other FA I would check during final compliance. After our safety demo; I walked by and she was very clearly texting. I asked her to put her phone into airplane mode. I didn't want to appear that I was singling her out and hovering; so I walked away and checked on my way back up front. Again; she was very engrossed in her texting. She was sending and receiving messages and there was no airplane mode icon on her phone. It showed she had service. Again; I told her that her phone needed to be in airplane mode. I told her that we needed her to comply and put her phone in airplane mode now. She looked up at me; visibly annoyed; turned her phone away and said 'Yeah.' When I was standing there; she made no attempt to turn her phone into airplane mode. I didn't have a visual of the phone anymore but to my knowledge; she never did. Enroute; we caught a couple glances of her cell phone; every time it was not in airplane mode. It wasn't as if she was unaware; she actively chose not to comply.This passenger was a [premium frequent flyer]. Normally; passengers that are that non-compliant are asked to comply or to be removed from flight; however; neither one of us FAs felt the company would support removing a [premium member] over a compliance issue. We also feared we would have gotten in trouble if we had tried. I struggled with it because this passenger was purposely not complying and in an emergency; I don't know that I could count on her to follow crew member instructions.
Flight Attendant reported being unwilling to report passenger misconduct due to the possibility of company retribution.