Has a pax ever made you cry ?

[cabinboy]

Hi Everyone,

Just interested to hear if a pax has ever made you cry ? Be it for listening to their sad story or because they have shouted at you ?
What did you do ?

CB

[flyblue]

Yes. in my previous company we had a couple of destinations that had an unusually high load of miserable pax, especially in Business. I was undoubtedly already stressed and tired because of the company situation (previous owners sold to a bunch of incompetents) and workload. So that pax in business aggressed me because I didn't set the table for his wife fast enough (for his liking). She was in the middle seat, and he was on the left side aisle seat. As we started the service on the right aisle, I usually set the table for two pax travelling together (one of which on the middle seat) at the same time. He started calling us names, saying we had been doing nothing the whole flight (yeah, right...), that we were incompetent and that everything had been wrong since the beginning, like delay on departure (for which the Capt had made an announcement explaining ATC problems) etc etc. I responded nothing (impossible due to the overflow of abuse), went to see the Capt and reported the matter. The Capt (God bless him) went to see him, and asked what was the problem. He couldn't come out with anything that couldn't be confuted, so the Capt told him that if he had any complaints he could write a report, but this should include FACTS, and officially warned him not to abuse the F/A or he would be met by the Police at the airport. While this was happening I cried (hidden behind a curtain!) not because I was sad but mentally/phisically exhausted! I really felt fed up taking all that, added to what we had to take from the new "management", added to increasing lowering on the pax level, on the crew conditions on board, dropping hotels level etc. Comes a moment when enough is enough. When you realise you have hit the bottom then it is a good incentive to react positively. Switched to AF a few months later :D :D :D
HAPPY ENDING!

[Evacu8]

Made me laugh (at them )? - yes!
Made me angry? - yes!
Given me a headache? - yes!

But made me cry? - never!

I have been flying for 9 years now, over three airlines.

On my very first flight, my line trainer told me the golden rule of cabin crew.... never take it personally!! (even when it's comments that are aimed personally at you!).

Most pax who are angry, arent angry at you personally!

Usually they are peed off about the company....and as you are the 'face' of the company, and spend more time with the pax than anyone else (and cant 'escape' them!!), they tend to take their frustrations out on you..... you really do get used to it.

I tend to find it amusing these days as to exactly how worked-up some people can get over the smallest things!!

If people go that beserk at me, I tend to stop them half way through their ranting and raving, with a smile on my face let them know "I'll be back later sir, when you have calmed down a bit", and just walk away.... it usually works, and makes them think about how stupid they are making themselves look.

Now that I am in charge of, and responsible for, other crew on board, any customer makes one of my crew cry through abuse, they have two choices:-

1) appologise to the crew member for their behaviour.

2) continue 'causing a disturbance'/ 'abusive behaviour' on board the aircraft, be met by police at the destination and face charges which means a jail sentence and/ or a hefty fine.

Fortunately we now have the laws to protect us from abusive and disruptive customers.

Crew just need to familiarise themselves with the laws, and use their knowledge of the laws to help them in these situations.


A major part of the job these days is customer service, and it's true that cabin crew make a lot of difference between whether or not a customer will fly that airline again.......but it is always true also, that there are some customers you simply dont want flying with your airline again ;)

[tonyt]

'I will never fly with this airline again!!'

- yes well I'm sure our competitors loss will be our gain sir...

[MinimumRest]

Only once. Asked a guy (politely) to wait until the seatbelt signs went off before he went to the toilet. He was fine, but his wife went wild, shouting and screaming that he wasn't a child, I had no right to tell him what to do, etc. I kept calm and tried to explain all the usual "Your not insured'' ''You might hit your head'' stuff, but she wouldn't leave it. She made some really nasty comment which I can't remember word for word (this happened years ago) along the lines of she was gonna call the head office and report me and have me sacked, etc, but the way she spoke to me was evil. Even tho I knew that wouldn't happen, it was my 6th early in a row and I was just tired and she really got to me. I walked back into the galley and, when the purser asked me if I was ok, I burst into tears! Then all hell broke lose - the purser went mad at the pax, telling her that she will not have her crew spoken to in that way. She then told the captain, who came out of the flight deck to speak (very loudly) to the pax, who was sat half way down a 757, telling her if she had a problem with obeying the orders of the crew and/or the illuminated signs, she was breaking the law and would be arrested on arrival and banned from travelling with our airline ever again. She apologised, although never to me, and very wisley declined all food and drink for the remainder of the flight from DLM. Quite funny when I think about it :D

[Xenia]

Made me cry??? NO! probably I made few of them cry http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/ignore.gif

[shifatur]

talking from a pessangers point of view..........

i am not an american, though......whenever i fly back home to meet my parents.......i need to take atleast three connections before hitting the frontdoor of my room........most airlines have the sexy, young attendants.......and some of them tend to take it personally.........like would be pleasant with white and not be friendly with me.........

it hurts me because i fly business all the times.......and i expect decent service in return.......the attitude does spoil the fun of going back home to meet ppl back home...... it is usual, i would say........and we got the word "racist" for that..........nothing personal, but instinctive.........then again, i have been treated like a king by other ppl of the same airlines.....so, that makes up.......

what i am claiming in this short message is, no matter how u try.......passengers would make u cry and happy........and vise versa.......in my case....i just have to deal with the crying part......however, i never cry.......and laugh inside myself when such stupid, dumb blondes r trynna make me feel inferior.......

ok, time for my origin.......from bangladesh...........and expect to get into the cockpit of a fokker f-28 soon!

be good to passengers.......doesnt hurt u at all to be good to ppl

ciao
shif

[Call_Belle]

ALL crew and pax have at some stage said or done something on a flight due to stress, fatigue etc. that they later regret. However, racism is inexcusable and should never be tolerated. Shifatur, I hope you never again encounter it, either as a pax or in the cock-pit.

[shifatur]

dear call belle!
thanks for the reply.......... yea, ppl do tend to take things personally for some unknown reason and beats me why, though........

flight attendants r human beings and being racist, especially if they r from europe(not gonna name countries) then racistic attitude prevails from deep down the heart.......then again, not all r like that.......infact, out of 5 flights, i would fly atleast 1 where i would be "felt" that i am from an inferior race (!!! :confused: ) .........

i also got some of the best services from europeans and they made me feel like a "king in the castle"........

just that ppl have to be aware of coming out of their prejudice when they r on uniform.......being racist doesnt make anyone smart.......add the word "@$$" to it...........:D .......

and once i hit the cockpit........that is be a pilot ( pretty soon would that be), any irrational back-yard remark would be dealt with sever blow.....:D .......so, racists, chill!

belle.....thanks again for your sweet words.......absolutely sure that u r not a member of the gang! ;)

ciao

[Shadowpurser]

No one's has ever made me cry (Being a hunky butch man who doesn't do that sort of thing - lol).

But observation over the years does point to PAX seeming happier verbally attacking the female crew than the guys (especially the straight ones!!) perhaps they are seen as easier targets? I think I can probably count to one hand where someone has really had a go at me since being cabin crew, however have seen people verbally abuse the girls often.

Since being purser - well... whenever one of my crew informs me a passenger wants to talk to me, the gripe seems to turn into appology by the time I get there.

Funny and almost infuriating - as I look forward to the challenge to turning a neagtive a positive.

[quilfaitbeau]

Well, it was on a LHR, from DXB. I work in First Class, and so happen to be walking past Business Class. This was a B777-300, and the first two rows of business just before the galley at LR2.

Anyway, there was this pax, he was screaming at one of the crew..."Are you trying to poison me?"(with an Indian accent). The crew stopped whatever he was doing and looked confused and concerned, asked him what the matter was. He said again,"Are you trying to poison me??" He asked him why.

He was mad as hell and said to the crew,"This wine you gave me is off! Are you trying to poison me?" The crew looked at the bottle and wondered what was he really trying to say. The pax said,"This wine of yours. Terrible! It's off! It's 1997!! Are you trying to poison me?"

The purser and I who was at the Business Class galley heard all of this and just couldn't hold ourselves that we rushed back to the First Class galley so he wouldn't see us rolling on the floor laughing. Even the pax in First Class overheard the pax complaining and couldn't stop laughing. We were all laughing so hard...we were in tears!!!

[Cris L]

Sorry :D
but that has really made my day !