Fliers Better Behave

[rjh]

Doesn't matter!

I'm not in the Custoer Service business! THEY ARE! That aspect was part of the job when they took it.

When my clients scream at me I can't have them arested so deal with it. They have the tools (As they should)

I agree with you Bob. I worked in retail for 12 years-unfortunately, part of the work is putting up with rudeness.

If the customer becomes abusive or violent--that's another thing.

If one passenger is rude to an employee, that doesn't give the employee justification to be rude to others.

Without sounding too philosphical here ..same goes for life in general.

 

[CLTBWIDAYSYR]

Doesn't matter!

I'm not in the Custoer Service business! THEY ARE! That aspect was part of the job when they took it.

When my clients scream at me I can't have them arested so deal with it. They have the tools (As they should)

While you are right, I have been known to snap back when snapped at. Especially after a 14 hour day with three passes through PHL.

 

[john john]

I most incidents management will not back you up when the passengers becomes a problem HE SAID SHE SAID. Management has sent this message out over the years when you refuse to take the passenger it becomes a management problem. Management likes to turn it around so you won’t bring them another problem. More work for them. Paper work explaining to there bosses ect…. This is why you see so many incidents on the plane, Put them on shut the door. THE AGENTS HAVE NO BACKUP. The captain always backs up the flight attendant .

http://cwa-union.org/search.jsp?query=airp...it=Submit+Query
The Communications Workers of America is fighting for real protections for US Airways agents in the wake of an assault on a gate agent in Charlotte, N.C., the fifth serious incident at the Charlotte airport in six months.
Deep staff cuts among airport and reservation agents at US Airways are hurting customer service, according to a scientific survey of 400 agents commissioned by CWA. The survey is intended to focus management's attention on staffing...
CWA and US Airways management are continuing their joint campaign to alert passengers, airport security and airport management to the federal law prohibiting assaults and attacks on passenger service agents, and the tough penalties
CWA and US Airways continue their joint campaign to alert passengers and airport personnel to the federal law prohibiting assaults and attacks on passenger service agents, and the tough penalties that law requires.

 

[czerny]

No one is perfect. As a flight attendant, I'm trying to do the best job that I can every sector, every day that I'm scheduled to work.But, there is no excuse for treating me like S*&!t. I don't make up the FAA regs. and I'm there to enforce it. Had a woman yesterday who refused to put her purse up in the OHB (she was seated at the bulkhead,) despite repeated polite requests and despite a word for word reading from my inflight manual in front of her. What was I supposed to do? Went to the captain, told him the situation and he said, either she complies, or she gets off. Now, how many times do you want me to tell you to please put your purse in the overhead bin for takeoff and landing? These are ADULTS acting worse than children (I taught piano for ten years, I do know what I'm talking about!). Any other fa would have had this woman removed but I made every possible attempt to accomodate her stubborn, viciously rude behavior. She snapped at me, "I'M NOT GIVING YOU MY POCKETBOOK.You can't tell me that you are going to tell every woman on this flight to put her purse up." Well, I did. I made pas about carryons, but do you think the average passenger is listening?

To recap, she finally complied after her travel companion grabbed her purse, gave it to me to put up, and we finally got on with the flight. Now, you tell me, is this kind of behavior appropriate and necessary?

Byron.

 

[john john]

What was I supposed to do? Went to the captain, told him the situation and he said, either she complies, or she gets off.

The agents do not have this kind of support
"Management insists that rage is a 'non-problem' that can be handled by calling the police, having a manager step in, or 'walking away,'" Perry said.
Other US Airways local officers have said managements' solutions don't work in real life and cited numerous examples of customers behaving in an out-of-control manner. Worse yet is management's policy of siding with irate passengers, they said.
Managers don't have any specific training to handle rage incidents, and Perry said many managers leave the scene so they won't be required to "step in."

 

[Art at ISP]

Czerny's story reminds me of an experience when boarding a flight PHL-LAX a couple of years ago. An older lady at the bulkhead (in F) refused to part with her bag, and became obstinate. Two FA's were polite but firm in dealing with the woman, who became more and more agitated. Finally, they got a gate agent, followed by a supervisor, then followed by the police, who removed the lady from the flight.

The lady, who was Oriental, was shouting race discrimination, which was absurd, since the FA's were each of different ethnic backgrounds.
She also claimed that one of the FA's struck her. To me that was the final outrage. As she was being led off, I called the supervisor, gave him my business card, and told him that in no way was the FA abusive, nor did she even touch the lady--and offered to testify on the FA's behalf if it ever got that far-which it never did.

It amazes me that people can behave in such a way. I guess maybe some of the episodes of "Airline" are in fact real. It is, by the way, MOSTLY (note not ALWAYS) the low fare paying once a year traveler, who is the source of such disturbances. Not to say that some of the frequent travelers could use behavior lessons though.....

My best to you all....

 

[2clippedwings]

No one is perfect. As a flight attendant, I'm trying to do the best job that I can every sector, every day that I'm scheduled to work.But, there is no excuse for treating me like S*&!t. I don't make up the FAA regs. and I'm there to enforce it. Had a woman yesterday who refused to put her purse up in the OHB (she was seated at the bulkhead,) despite repeated polite requests and despite a word for word reading from my inflight manual in front of her. What was I supposed to do? Went to the captain, told him the situation and he said, either she complies, or she gets off. Now, how many times do you want me to tell you to please put your purse in the overhead bin for takeoff and landing? These are ADULTS acting worse than children (I taught piano for ten years, I do know what I'm talking about!). Any other fa would have had this woman removed but I made every possible attempt to accomodate her stubborn, viciously rude behavior. She snapped at me, "I'M NOT GIVING YOU MY POCKETBOOK.You can't tell me that you are going to tell every woman on this flight to put her purse up." Well, I did. I made pas about carryons, but do you think the average passenger is listening?

To recap, she finally complied after her travel companion grabbed her purse, gave it to me to put up, and we finally got on with the flight. Now, you tell me, is this kind of behavior appropriate and necessary?

Byron.

I ask/request twice. I'm lucky to have had to remove only 1 person (drunk) in my career. Hindsight is 20/20 but just like dealing with a toddler, try to give the passenger a choice. "Ma'am, if you would prefer to put that purse under the seat in front of you, I'll be happy to move you to another seat" (23 middle? LOL) You can always find a bulkhead taker that will not give you grief. The subject is not open for debate. It's a reg and I want to leave on time and so does everyone else. Peer pressure works wonders! 😉

 

[MarkMyWords]

I will never forget one of my first days as a Supervisor at the gate. A Customer came to the gate with a LARGE hard sided suit case that she claimed would fit in the overhead bin of an MD80. After the agent attempted to check the bag several times, I was called to the gate. I again explained to the "lady" that the bag would not fit and she had a choice at this point. Check the bag or we could refund her ticket. She reluctantly checked the bag (which I carried to the waiting reamper at the end of the jetway).

When the "lady" got to the aircraft door, she put one foot in on the plane and one foot on the jetway and said, "I am not moving until I get my bag back." We again reviewed her options of taking a seat, in coach, or we will refund her ticket. She was combative and arguementative and I was just not going to play that game. I picked up the jetway phone, called the police to remove her. As we were waiting for the police to arrive, she continued to belittle and berate me. The Capt attempted to get involved and when he saw me calling the police, he returned to the cockpit.

As we were standing their waiting for the police, a customer in First Class was getting very aggitated at the situation and the delay. He came up to the woman and told her to just take her seat already. When she threw a few colorful adjectives his way, he litterally picked her up, moved her into the jetway, returned to the airplane and said "now, let's go already, I am sick of her sh!t." I moved between her and the airplane, the agent and F/A closed the door. Buh Bye Beeotch! LOL The rool up door came down, the jetway moved back as the police arrived. The ramper (who was in the jetway too) retrieved her bag and sent it to baggage claim.

 

[JS]

I will never forget one of my first days as a Supervisor at the gate. A Customer came to the gate with a LARGE hard sided suit case that she claimed would fit in the overhead bin of an MD80. After the agent attempted to check the bag several times, I was called to the gate. I again explained to the "lady" that the bag would not fit and she had a choice at this point. Check the bag or we could refund her ticket. She reluctantly checked the bag (which I carried to the waiting reamper at the end of the jetway).

When the "lady" got to the aircraft door, she put one foot in on the plane and one foot on the jetway and said, "I am not moving until I get my bag back." We again reviewed her options of taking a seat, in coach, or we will refund her ticket. She was combative and arguementative and I was just not going to play that game. I picked up the jetway phone, called the police to remove her. As we were waiting for the police to arrive, she continued to belittle and berate me. The Capt attempted to get involved and when he saw me calling the police, he returned to the cockpit.

As we were standing their waiting for the police, a customer in First Class was getting very aggitated at the situation and the delay. He came up to the woman and told her to just take her seat already. When she threw a few colorful adjectives his way, he litterally picked her up, moved her into the jetway, returned to the airplane and said "now, let's go already, I am sick of her sh!t." I moved between her and the airplane, the agent and F/A closed the door. Buh Bye Beeotch! LOL The rool up door came down, the jetway moved back as the police arrived. The ramper (who was in the jetway too) retrieved her bag and sent it to baggage claim.

 

[N965VJ]

There is a point in my decision matrix that will just have me ignore the situation and move on. I believe a number of incidents arise from both sides believing they are right and refusing to back down. At some point, you have to disengage.

One year at recurrent we had a little role playing exercise where a pax quietly moved from coach to an empty FC seat in the air. When confronted, the pax became abusive and we then were given different scenarios to disarm the situation.

The whole exercise was geared to best confront the pax. But why confront them in the first place? Did they ask for food or free drinks? Were the other FC pax disturbed? No.

When I brought this up I was told it was not fair to the FC pax that paid to be there. True, but neither is having someone drop the F-bomb at the top of his lungs or diverting to ICT when you have to be in LAX for a meeting.

 

[sharktooth]

When you fly alot, little things tend to get blown out of proportion.

<snip>

I pay for a service I EXPECT it to be delivered.

Ah.....expectations.

I believe SWA does well because the entire corporation goes to great lengths to not raise expectations, whereas LCC tends to advertise service that rarely exists.

Instead of hacking away at margins with little or no back-up, SWA tends to say, hey, we are "low cost", right up front. LCC, on the other hand, slyly makes half-promises and when the margins evaporate, strands the passengers expectations if not their physical being, upon which angry behavior _should_ be expected.

I wish, just once, LCC would take someone who has never flown commercial (reputedly 50% of Americans) and, while observing the subject, watch and ask questions about what they are thinking and feeling the entire time, from the minute they make the reservation to the minute they step off the flight. I bet we could gather quite a bit of data and actually make intelligent changes that would tend to defuse tense situations as well as help us develop our own identity.

'Course our management could just watch A&E "Airline" to see a masterful manner of dealing with clients as well as employees, not that I think many LCC managers would learn anything.

 

[john john]

There is a point in my decision matrix that will just have me ignore the situation and move on. I believe a number of incidents arise from both sides believing they are right and refusing to back down. At some point, you have to disengage.

This is call the squeaky wheel theory

 

[JS]

Dear Byron, THROW HER ARSE OFF NEXT TIME!! Your request was not some arcane unknown regulation, it's pretty common knowledge unless you were raised by wolves.

No, it's not common knowledge unless you are a frequent flier.

Besides during turbulence that handbag could easily become a missile and injure someone.

Then why are handbags on the floor allowed during cruise?

In reality, if the turbulence is so bad that a handbag is going to become a missle, the wings will have already snapped off and it's irrelevant where people's things are stowed because they are all doomed.

On something that basic they get TWO requests followed by a visit from City Police. Just my opinion.

I hope the cops are planning to hire lots more officers.

 

[N965VJ]

This is call the squeaky wheel theory

I profile.

 

[SUNBAKED]

As a flight attendant for US Airways... I have seen many/many passengers abuse/curse/and even attempt to hit flight attendants/gate agents/and many other staff.

I feel that it is a two way street. Flight Attendants need to be nice to passengers but (R.E.S.P.E.C.T.)....IS a key element.....

Its always a two way street. I have also see flight attendants not handle situations well also... My thing is .... "IS THIS THE HILL I WANT TO DIE ON TODAY" ....

I try to get another flight attendant to work/assist the passenger that is not being nice/or not following the instructions..... that I say....

VIA: Most flight attendants tell passengers rules/reg's given to them by the FAA....... FAR"s... and that is something that they should obey...

Which was passengers follow.... I will say but there are times when I personally can't handle a situation and use another flight attendant in the situation.

Like I say 98% of passengers are great. But there are a few that I dont think were taught common courtesies to other human beings. They are so self centered that they only care about them selves....

There is a great video about it... Customer Services:

L.A.S.T. Listen/Apologize/Solve/Thank....

If they still give me a problem.... I ask the gate agent to put something in there P.N.R. and tell them about the problem. Most Supv's are great and de-plane them... But like I said it is very limited that it happens...

Personally I just wish a few of the gate agents gave me: Or were nice to me... I know with the hassle... But I have been on more of the vent's about passengers/plane loads/etc... and been feeling sad about the situations some gate agents get in....

I know they dont mean to vent/scream/yell at me... personally.... But some times I wonder..... I guess its just venting to someone who they can....

As a flight attendant we can say they are a security concern... but gate agents are just the dart board for many passengers (unhappy lives).... SO I feel really bad for them. 🙁....

But I think that it is ok... But thats my two cents. 🙂