I feel your pain...
I am working in the "small airplane" end of the biz now, although I have worked as a regional airline pilot as well. I do five on/five off so that I get to enjoy a minimum of ten regional and ten medium-haul flights as SLF per annum, plus the obligatory German holiday trips, turning around to fly back to hot, sunny places except this time I have to pay instead of get paid, as if that should make a diffo.
This security thing has squeezed whatever pleasure was left in flying right out of it. Shoes off, belt off, pockets emptied, all my goodies disappearing down the X-ray machine while I am stood there in my socks on a grotty floor waiting to go through the metal detector... The flight could go right on the minute after that and I would still be unhappy, so that the crew has an uphill struggle, these days.
It is the little things that really count, like paying for a glass of water. Turns out that under EU law you just tell the hostie that you need to take your medicine, washed down with a glass of water. It is a very tiny pill, invisible in fact.
Given that on my aircraft there is just me and an FO, there is no hiding, even if I wanted to. Never mind the charming fantasy that any situation can be defused with a nice, honest demeanour. Some passengers just think that buying a ticket allows them to be im-flamin'-possible, full stop! Most of them, yes, if you give them an honest explanation that helps a lot but there are still an awful lot of jerks out there loose in the world, what seems to be more than ever...
Has anyone ever flown a charter for a Porsche-drivers' club that was delayed? I would like to know what that is like.