Which Airlines tell their captains to lie to the customers?

[paull]

I remember a delay with Sabena and the captain coming on the PA after a while to say that they have an honesty policy about delays and that basically they had forgotten to schedule pilots for the flight - he had been up a ladder painting his house an hour earlier, the copilot was currently thrashing a motorbike down the autoroute to get there - the effect was very positive.

Compare that to last night, two couples no-show at boarding, suddenly we are "Ready to go, but ATC have given us a delayed take-off time". The bumping noises from the hold told the true story, bags off-loaded, need to re-schedule take-off. I now have a captain that I have no respect or trust in.

So, lets hear it, which airlines tell the truth, which lie? (Incidentally, I count last night's incident as technically true but intended to mislead)

[safelife]

We are asked not to tell the truth because of the delay compensation, giving reasons harms the company in the way that it gives passengers more ways of claiming the compensation.
Used to be honest until a year or so. These times are unfortunately over.

[kwateow]

Like:

"Engineering is currently working out whether we can go with the hole in the fuselage"

or

"They are trying to unblock the drains which the hosties clogged up with coffee remains"

[Kalium Chloride]

Once had a skipper tell the passengers that the reason for dimming the lights on take-off was to give us a better view of Hong Kong harbour at night.

Inventive, I'll give him that. :}

[Nothrills]

A Brussels Airlines flight from BRU to DME, April 2005.

The plane gets to the lining-up spot at the beginning on the runway, then suddenly turns back.

CC announcement: "Unfortunately our catering is out of hot water, so we have to get back to fill it".

Captain 2 mins later: "The pilots of the aircraft behind us have noticed that our cargo door is not properly closed. We are getting the technicians have a look at it".

Going to the technical wing of the airport, waiting there for about 15 mins (presumably while the door was closed and checked).

CC after it has been fixed: "We now have hot water on board, so we are ready go".

Ridiculous...

[txeriff]

@Nothrills lol.

i hope they didnt turn back for toilet papel once in air.

[rcsa]

Air Zimbabwe, 767 overnight Harare to London about ten years ago. At rotate there's a bang and flash off the s/board engine. Bird strike.

Full power gets us up. Capt comes on the PA a minute or two later, says "sorry to tell you we ingested a guinea fowl back there, I'm going to land and check it's all ok".

Some perturbed murmuring and tightening of seatbelts among the pax.

Stewardess stands up, takes up her little pa mic, and says, "Ladies and Gentlemen, on tonight's menu Air Zimbabwe is delighted to be able to offer you our new special, Char-grilled guinea fowl."

Big round of applause.

We land, an engineer goes up a ladder with a torch and toolkit, and an hour later we're on our way.

That's the way to do it!

[Avman]

Nothrills, you just didn´t get it did you. The cargo door opened and the hot water tank fell out! ;)

[angels]

What a sad post from safelife.

I like the honesty approach. I was due in AMS for a Very Important Dinner. BA forgot to provide a plane for the trip and we finally left three hours late.

Nigel came on and apologised, noting that he was in severe hot water as he was missing an important dinner that his wife had arranged.

His voice intimated that his wife would be waiting for him -- rolling pin in hand -- when he finally got home.

I've often wondered what happened to him. :)

[golfyankeesierra]

I understand you think he was lying just to buy some time to load some late bagage?
The bumping noises from the hold told the true story, bags off-loaded, need to re-schedule take-off. I now have a captain that I have no respect or trust in.

At a lot of airports with automated bagage handling systems the minimum connection time for bags is longer then for passengers. So probably there was still some late luggage and they just took the opportunity to load it during the delay while normaly on-time departure has priority over late bagage.

[Doors to Automatic]

BMI used to have a guide for pilots with what to say in certain situations.

A thunderstorm was never to be referred to as such but as a "heavy shower" and a go-around was always due to "the aircraft in front of us being slow to clear the runway"

[2992]

Well, I was going to Mexico as PAX. We left the gate, made it halfway to the runway, then returned to the ramp area. We were told we had no water on board - yeah right!

We sat on the ramp for 15 minutes until a catering truck showed up with 2 cases if water. 1 was distributed to us PAX.

The captain then told us that the second case was for the crew for the overnight in Mexico. Company policy was to bring bottled water so there would not be any Montezuma's revenge!!

Sometimes it sounds too crazy to be true!!

2992.

[PAXboy]

In my experience, the craziest explanations are often true! This thread reminds me of a lesson I received in mgmt bull$hit.

As a young fellow, I was working in a very posh London hotel [The Berkeley in Knightsbridge] and we were very short staffed one evening and really rushing around. The duty manager was in our room to see how things were going and heard me apologise to one guest on the phone: "I'm sorry for the delay, Sir, but we are short staffed this evening."

As soon as I put the phone down, I was giving a ticking off and the mgr said: "The Berkeley is never wrong" :hmm: :rolleyes:

I was glad that he taught me early on that mgmt can be so stupid and make things worse for themselves, their staff and their customers by lying. That was over 30 years ago and I doubt that things are much changed - in some companies.

[Northbeach]

I have never been instructed to lie to the passengers about anything; including delays. I have learned that one will never please all the passengers, because passengers carry different expectations, temperaments and board with a wide range of dispositions.

There is a constant tension regarding how much information to divulge. Often my information is not perfect, therefore by passing on “everything I know” I may create false expectations and incorrect perceptions that when disappointed cause further anguish. Because everything I think I know about the delay may not in fact be correct.

When you, the passenger, show up to fly it is in our, the airline’s, interest to get you to your intended destination. We only exist to serve your traveling needs; you choose to part with your hard earned money. Further, you choose to travel with us and in most cases you had other options; the perception that airlines enjoy tormenting, disappointing and lying to their customers is inaccurate.

It may be helpful to remember that you are dealing with fellow fallible members of the human race in your flight crew. A given individual may not perform as well today as the same individual will in a decade with more experience behind them. Not every crewmember manages a stunning personal performance with you the passenger on every flight and point of interaction.

In the last 60-70+ years of commercial air transportation I am certain that lies have been told. That would be a fairly safe bet. However, lying as a policy or business strategy, has never been imposed upon me by any manager or procedure.

Respectfully,

Northbeach

[PAXboy]

Reading Northbeach's helpful post, I'm reminded that we had a long thread on this subject about a year ago. It centred around delays and we got some VERY good posts from flight crew. Perhaps the OP paull, would like to try seaching the archive of this particular forum, not the whole site.

[TightSlot]

I believe that the thread/post that you refer to was also made by Northbeach - (HERE (http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight/423764-inside-look-flight-cancellations-those-who-wonder.html))

It was a calm, measured, intelligent and accurate assessment, and as such, was not commented on by the usual 'hate-airlines' crowd.

:hmm:

[CommandB]

I find this thread very interesting as it gives a different view on how certain PA's can be taken.
First off I have NEVER been told to lie about anything however sometimes you have to use common sense. There is no point in saying something that will cause panic or anger so it is prudent to sometimes twist the truth! Ie: Instead of saying "we've have an engine failure and we have shut it down and making an emergency landing" may be better to say something like "we've had a problem with an engine, it has been secured and as a precaution we are returning."
You have to remember that as SLF / non pilots (and I dont use that as a derogatory term) there is alot going on "behind the scenes." So just because you think you know whats "really" going on, doesnt mean you actually know!

With regards to PAULLs post - I think you've got the complete wrong end of the stick. This happens all the time. We arrive at the crew room to see we have a slot. The best/only way to get a slot improvement is to board the PAX and tell ATC we are ready and to send a ready message. (not ideal for both PAX and crew but thems the rules!) Now while this is going on the dispatcher comes to the a/c 2 pax late with bags - we decide to offload them and their bags so no more added delays. It just so happens that ive done the PA telling you we have the ATC slot, put the ready message in hoping to get an improvement while the ground staff are searching for the offloaded pax bags. Also it is not uncommon for the ground staff to leave the hold doors open until we are ready to pushback and closed on their final checks.

If the flight crew tell you something over the pa chances are its 99% true the only reason to perhaps stretch the truth would be to prevent any panic or anger (as i said before).

I was called a liar the other day as I apparently knew about the french strikes half a year so I shouldve somehow replanned the flight for 3 hours later for when our slot was. The lovely passenger in question refused to believe that the slot is only generated on the day and infact I have no input into how / when my airline schedules flights!!

[TightSlot]

Thanks CommandB - A sensible and considered answer. I don't see that anything further can be added to this post beyond some form of apology from the OP (which isn't going to happen) so we'll close it now.