Originally Posted by TwinNDB
grab the baton from the flight deck, hit them over the head and tell them not to do 'it' again
LOL sounds an excellent idea...
I once had a clash ( i was only flying 3 weeks) w/ a boisterous pseudo bourgeois Parisian couple who I believe flew that day to make me and my colleagues live hell onboard.
I was at the front at the cabin w/ the Senior doing the boarding & greetings pax and stuff..They arrived, I greeted them, no reply...( sweet commencement)..Anyway, it was early in the morning, and i assume people tend to be slightly sleepy...Fair enough... Well, they rushed to the first row and demanded w/ a touch of condescendence to sit in 1E & 1 F...I told them that they could sit there if they wished ( we don't have allocated seats anyway) nonetheless, at the same time, I informed them that the seats were restricted and that they had to put all their belongings in the overhead compartment.( Of course I insisted on the fact that purses too had to be stowed in the lockers)...They said " Like we don't know that" ...
charming,eh ?
Anyway, I assisted the man in stowing his numerous pieces of heavy luggage ( the check-in staff just dind't do their job of baggage filtering...they let people board sometimes w/ a zillion pieces of luggage or oversized baggage... ) and when it came to ask the lady if she could hand me her bag, she literally shouted at me and said :" This is not a bag, it's a Louis Vuiton"... I told her that if she truly wanted to keep it, she could always move to another row...She looked hot and bothered and finally told me that she would stow it herself...Fine... 15 minutes later, the boarding was almost completed and her Louis Vuitton Bag was still on her laps !! she didn't do what she told she would do. What a surprise !!! Ok, so w/ all my charm and courtesy, i gently asked again if she could give me her bag so that i could stow it... She said she was going to do it herself, that she just needed to take a few things out of it... Right, the wrinkled wench was basically making fun of me..I turned to the Senior, told her everything and asked her if she could deal w/ the grandma...She went to see Madame and w/ a very severe look and tone, demanded the bag...Madame flipped out, insulted the Senior of Nazi harasser, shouting like a fury at us and asking us to stop tormenting her because she basically had the power to cancel the flight if she wanted to...whatever Madame was also a pilot in a raving parallel universe...Her dandruff-haired companion stowed the bag and we finally were able to do the safety demo...Ok, take-off went fine, the flight cruise too...and then " Cabin crew, prepare the cabin for arrival"...Landing announcement ( ladies & gentlemen, we'll shortly be landing in...blah blah" please put your SEATBACK UPRIGHT, armrests down & blah bla" ) Guess what ?? The lady's seatback was completely down and of course while doing my cabin secure check, i asked her husband to wake his wife up so that she could put her seatback upright..He just pressed the seat button, the seat went upright and she immediately woke up..I kindly told her that we were about to land and that she should put her seatback upright...She looked at me straight in the eyes with a smile playing on her lips and she simultaneously pressed the button to put her seatback down..I tried to explain her that the procedure was that it had to be upright because in the event of an evacuation, her seatback was literally blocking people behind to evacuate... She replied " I don't give a **** to what you're saying, just give me a break"... I said, OK, enough is enough...It is an obligation for you to comply with the safety and securety rules of this company and if you don't, you're just in an illegal situation that might lead us to call the Police at arrival....She laughed out loud... I went to the back of the aircraft, ask for a colleague to go see her and persuade her to abide by the rules...From a distance, i was observing the scene, my colleague was talking to her..She forced the passenger to put the seatback upright and then the lady pressed the button to put it down again and so on and so forth...That was quite comical retrospectively...Anyway, after minutes of vain discussions, my colleague pressed the call bell to switch on the blue light and made a PA announcement, it was something like : " Ladies and Gentlemen your attention please, As Passenger sitting on seat 1F refuses to put her seatback upright and comply with the safety procedures of this aircraft, we are unable to land for the time being. " People were rumbling and screaming " put your seatback upright" ... the lady felt so embarassed that she did put it upright...
I think the main mistake that day was made by the Senior cabin crew...When the passenger insulted her, she should've had offloaded her w/ the captain's agreement..It is unacceptable to have passengers that don't comply with the rules...It is for the sake of their OWN safety ater all. I think the Low cost culture and companies have made it possible for people to be careless... Flying is like taking the bus or the tube. It's cheap, cabin crew are not credible or don't look professional wearing orange or cheesy costumes.. And of course, there's always gonna be bastards flying too...Voilà, that was my little contribution.