Manfred, Its all very good saying that we should apologise for whatever the situation is and explain to the passengers whatever!!! But sometimes that is just not enough for certain passengers.
Sometimes the passengers want to make more of it than is neccassary OR make more of it to the point the crew cant deal with the situation and further methods are required. Airlines are not placing "Zero Tolerance" policies and handcuffs on board aircrafts as a threat to tell passengers to stop moaning! They are being placed onboard because some passengers and thank god only a teeny tiny minority will go head for leather given half a chance.
To be honest, most problems I have encountered on flights have not had anything to do with delays or problems of same such nature, it usually starts with pax argueing amongst themselves, or pax being refused more booze etc etc, these are the passengers to be worried about and who will make most of the unpleasant comments.
Others who may not go far enough to do that will get personal with a crewmember to the point where they are not getting enough satisfaction out of abusing the name of the airline so instead they will abuse the crew member personally....now like i said before, you can scream bloody murder at me about the airline I work for and the uniform I wear and I will stand there patiently, listen and apoligise when I get a chance to get a word in, BUT I WILL NOT TOLERATE A PERSONAL VERBAL ATTACK OR OTHERWISE (Sorry to shout) Nor should anyone else, this is completely unacceptable from any human being!!! And as far as Im concerned, a passenger slagging my profession to me while I am trying to serve them is a personal attack at me.
Obviously I will weigh the situation on the day to see if its worth going out of my way to give the passenger his/her commupance but it really is not acceptable and the book should be thrown at people like that.
Now boy....1.2.3...Breath and exhale!!!