STAFF at discount airline Jetstar face daily abuse and threats from irate passengers, a new survey shows. Check-in staff at Avalon airport called for more action to be taken against unruly customers.
The Australian Services Union survey found 97 per cent of its Jetstar frontline workers nationally experienced air rage.
Almost 60 per cent said they witnessed it every day. Incidents included:
A PASSENGER throwing a stapler at a Sydney airport worker.
A CUSTOMER becoming violent after being escorted from the Avalon terminal building.
A PASSENGER throwing an itinerary over the counter at Avalon while threatening and swearing at a staff member.
Several Jetstar staff at Avalon called for more security, including the presence of Australian Protective Service officers.
The survey found 59 per cent of respondents unhappy with security.
About half of the ASU's 139 Jetstar members completed the survey late last year, several months after the Qantas subsidiary started operations.
It followed a similar survey in 2003 involving mainly Qantas and Virgin Blue staff.
ASU national secretary Linda White said yesterday Jetstar workers faced more air rage than other airline staff.
Ms White said Jetstar policies involving late passenger arrivals, no seat allocation and excess baggage had angered many travellers.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said air rage was rare and the airline was satisfied with the security it provided.
These problems would probably have arisen because of the 30 min rule J*. Just put yourself in the pax's shoes for a minute. You have paid for your family's airfares with J* + accomodation at the carvan park + your V8 hire car then all of a sudden someone dressed in orange tells you that the flight has closed and now because there is 29 minutes to go they couldnt possibly get you on the flight because all the paperwork has been done and all the guests are on board. Then you get told the only possible flight to get you to your holiday spot doesnt leave till tommorrow morning and will cost 10 times the price you paid for the original ticket. These "counter-rage" incidents need to be put into perspective with the whole story being told, people dont just walk up to the counter and start throwing staplers.
These "counter-rage" incidents need to be put into perspective with the whole story being told, people dont just walk up to the counter and start throwing staplers.
HOWEVER ... people DO just walk up to the counter, blithely unaware that they are late/stupid/smelly/intoxicated etc. and when they get told of this fact, THAT is when they get upset.
Agreed, people don't just walk up to the counter and start throwing staplers ... and check in staff don't just deny boarding for the hell of it!
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.
All I can say after today is that there are a lot of guests today who handled themselves with dignity and treated DJ staff with respect. As always there were a few wankers who hopefully wont be able to get on a flight for a week.
Disgusting that your management gives you no support in relation to this kind of crap ditzy, in a previous job in retail where we too were times treated like crap by the public, if we were ever abused by the public and we called a manager this manager always had a go at the person by saying well whilst I do see your point that gives you no excuse to swear at my staff, if we had the public swear on the phone we told them to cut it out or we would hang up, and if they called to complain that we hung up the person was told it's policy if you swear at the staff......they were at times bastards to work for but never stood for us taking too much crap from the public.
Your management is just being weak, our management at least understood that some people it's not worth having their business, and to let them go to annoy the opposition
Unfortunately, the socio economic bracket that has been targeted with cheap fares delivers more than its fair share of interesting individuals.
The cabin crew in particular see too much of this rubbish on an all to regular basis. The APS are doing a roaring trade. Especially in Cooly. A sad comment on the state of Australian society these days really.
