Hopefully,
Judd, you are preaching to the converted in here.
Unfortunately, (and there is no need to tell
you this, you'll get:
* homesick businessman who's resenting having been sent and just wants to get home
* person who's just come through new! friendly! security
* someone's who's had an horrific connecting flight and has done the 1,000 metre sprint in Olympic qualifying time to get to the gate
* business traveller whose company is too cheap to pay for J travel
Been there, got the T-shirt. Thanks to sound thrashings as a child, I'd like to think I'm too well brought up to resort to being rude, especially to a stranger with whom I'll be in contact for the next thirteen hours.
From what I can gather from your anecdote, I can only presume they want to retreat into their shells, more in need of a hug - which might be overdoing it
. Perhaps if you posed it wanting to know their names during the flight? A tall order with 400 passengers, but an interesting memory exercise for a selected few.
Anyone can understand your frustration with people barking - and it's dam' rude. If we apply Occam's Razor, it's because they are rude people - and should be treated accordingly, notwithstanding the categories outlined above who would certainly not behave that way normally.
What I would really like the airlines to do is to follow truth in advertising and have announcements such as: "Welcome aboard! We're all trapped in this tin can for thirteen hours - you won't like it, but we didn't force you to do it, so shut up, we'll try to make it as painless as possible. Let's get it done, and then you can go."
BOFH
No longer in marketing