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Old 26th Jul 2009, 22:54
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Capetonian
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
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Age: 70
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The worst PA I've ever heard was an unintelligble rant by an Italian easyJet pilot who did not know what purpose the full stop serves. It caused utter bemusement for passengers. And I speak fluent Italian in case anyone calls me a monoglot!
Consistently the worst cockpit and cabin announcements I've ever heard are from Spanish airline crews (it would be unfair to say Iberia as they are all equally atrocious in this respect). At least Vueling's announcements are mildly amusing : "Thank you for vueling with Vueling. We wish you a vueling good day ...."

'layeesanshemeneesverriimportanyouleesencarefooeydisannounce '

I speak fluent Spanish and it sometimes takes me a few minutes to work out which language they are murdering at any given time as the Spanish is usually just as appalling as the English.

Iberia .... shabby, dirty, cramped 'planes, poor timekeeping, and the rudest staff, scruffy and insolent, both on the ground and in the air that I've encountered in 30 years of short and longhaul flying. I have a wide range of experience with them and other carriers. Their employees seem to be specially trained to make every part of the experience as miserable as possible. I should add that this is by no means typically Spanish, and I suspect that Iberia has a training academy to instil the very un-Spanish qualities of nastiness and rudeness into its staff.

Add to that, that when anything goes wrong, and you're lucky if it doesn't, it is dealt with in the worst possible way. Their customer relations department is, by its own admission, too busy to answer complaints within an acceptable time scale.

They treat passengers who don’t speak Spanish with even more contempt than those who do. When I tried to intervene on behalf of an English speaking family who had missed their connection, the monoglot ticket agent at Madrid Airport told me that they were (roughly translated) ‘stupid as ****’ (‘unos tontos de mierda’ was the phrase used) for not speaking Spanish.

Most of their cabin crew, particularly on the long hauls to South and Central America, where they have little competition, are bitter and twisted battle-scarred veterans waiting to retire. One gets the impression that the airline is run for the convenience of its staff and their friends travelling on rebated tickets.
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