I totally agree that the JQ product is a bone of contention for some customers... And people can be as annoyed as they like. Though there is NEVER an excuse to become VIOLENT toward any person - regardless of the tint of orange they wear! Especially when you know someone in uniform is not able to retaliate in words or anger.
I have noticed JQ customers swear and become voilent at such small things as a 5 minute ATC delay. Was one a flight where a man broke a seat (!) as we had run out of sandwiches. At least once a day I get told I am a c*nt or to f*ck off when I politely request someone to switch off their mobile.
Was on an airbus and arrived in SYD 20 minutes early. Had to wait around 10 minutes for a bay. Three pax came to the back galley and abused us, told us the company had "no f*cken idea" what it was doing. Pax disembarked 10 minutes ahead of schedule calling us a "pack of w*nkers".
Or how about the gentleman who punched his wife in the face then turned on the female flight attendant who came to her aid?
Just look at some of the comments made by some of DJs 'guests' regarding the MEL evacuation today. A pretty major event that I think DJ handled very well. Yet these swines lack the foresight to see beyond their $9 airfare (plus taxes) and vent their frustrations and inability to comprehend any more than the events fed to them through the televisions on easy targets - employees. All they could say of DJ was "digusting" "hopeless" "no planning". Was it DJ's problem? Could it have been handled better? Probably not.
It is these god awful people that make me long for a pompus frequent flyer to take his bad day out on me and ignore my greeting and complain about the seat/meal/whatever. I could handle that. I dunno how much longer I can take the sort of abuse that is being dished out to us.
I dunno what DJ is like to their frontline staff but 'The Star' is just hopeless. We get NO back up and we are told we are being negative and it is our problem - not the paying passenger's. We are totally powerless and just have to accept this uncalled for abuse.
I honestly used to think it was the Jetstar product that was the cause of so much anger in our customers. Though in the bulk of instances it is not. It is the wider market that is now able to travel and their inability to conduct themselves in a manner acceptable outside a zoo. The abuse is without reason. They do it because they can. We are powerless with ZERO support from the company. Those observing the abuse are virtually invited to do the same when they see these people get away with it.
I find it totally unacceptable that frontline employees are placed in situations where their safety is compromised. Even if the issue is the airline's fault (not normally the case in my experience) violence and abuse is wrong.