Rude Cabin Crew

[126.9]

Hey, I'm probably opening a can of worms here, but my curiosity has finally got the better of me! I would sincerely like to know: do easyJet and Ryanair actually train their cabin crew to be downright rude and bolshy, or do they select people that are naturally that way?

Last week I did my last passenger flight with both of those airlines because I honestly can't stand the patronizing pusharound from the cabin staff. Having flown with them around 10 times each; it really was 10 times too much!

[Touch'n'oops]

Tell you what! These girls and guys do a great job. They have loads different types of customer to deal with. They will respond to how the customer acts, towards them and anyone else on the a/c.

So unless you just happened to catch them on a bad day (which they wouldn't show most of the time). Maybe you should review how you look at them.

I.e Show them respect and manners, then I am sure they'll love ya!

I've worked/flown with Easy jet's, Ryan's and Go's girls. So by applying this philosophy, I've found them to a great bunch of girls and Guys!

Hope the next flight is more enjoyable!!!

[BarryMonday]

Don't you see 126.9? It's not the CC at all, it's all your fault!

[Floaty]

EZY

Considering what I paid for my ticket Zurich-Gatwick-Zurich this week-end, I don't think complaining is appropriate....
Not only that! I'd show a huge amount of patience and understanding towards the crew, considering what they have to wear to reduce your ticket's price! Gotta give it to them: how would you feel wearing a huuuge orange Star Trek techno bomber and serve the worse coffee available in Britain???
Still I believe c.c. have nothing to do with your disappointment... they are a bunch a friendly people, nothing to say.

Mrs. FloatJockey

[kenoco]

hmmm!

well guys if it all goes tits up you will have to depend on these low-fares crew to save your life,even though the vast amount of Ryanair crew are just out of nappies and tend to swear a lot inthe cabin(no really,I was on several internal Euro flights during the last couple of weeks,around France,and ALL the crew swore several times during the flight).One of the crew told me that they do about 75 flights a month which works out at about 10 hours a day non stop,5 to 6 days a week,and really the CAA are the people who make these crazy regulations.So really the crew are always tired and Ryanair make these poor people work to the limit.Hence why they are always sooooo depressed.I think its really bad that people who work in much safer places like banks and supermarkets etc,on the ground have more regulations than cabin crew.Lets be fare here its all about money in the low fares area so as long as the airlines are paying up,ye all know what I mean,the hours will be long and the crew will be used and tired and the CAA or IAA will turn a blind eye.I can't imagine what it must be like working for Ryanair or Easyjet,but from the crew I talk to its a situation they would rather get out of.

[126.9]

Please don't talk to me about the cost of the fare! I've paid up to GBP180 for a flight on easyJet! Secondly; I have no doubt that they work their butts off in both of those pathetic outfits. My question however, relates to the reason I percieve there to be a blanket policy of rude and almost bullying behaviour from the cabin crew in both of these companies (I will refrain from calling them airlines!) And I haven't even got to the point of including specific incidents, of which there have been many.

What is it with the philosophy that the minute someone complains about something in aviation; then THEY must be to blame? Get a life!

[cargosales]

Sorry 126.9. Can't agree with you either.

Haven't flown Easy much but been on lots of MOLs planes in the past twelve months. My own experience has been that Ryanair crew are no better or worse than most other short haul.

Seems to come down to the crew on the day - it's pot luck whether you get a great, motivated crew or one which is busy having a collective sense of humour failure. Happens on all airlines I've been on, both long and short haul.

If you think the FA is being rude, try smiling and being extra polite. Usually does the trick

CS

[Cart_tart]

126.9
YOU seem like you're the type of pax that instantly puts us in foul moods. You're aggressive from the word go. I'll bet you your 180 quid that you're like that on the flights, never say please and thank you, demand rather than ask, treat us like peasants and can't seem to find it in your soul (if you have one) to crack a smile. We are all generally people picked for our personalities. We are there to look after your safety as our no 1 priority and your comfort as no 2. If you're one of THOSE that rolls their eyes, or argues with us when we ask you to put your cabin luggage in a locker, put your seat in the upright position, open your window shade, put your tray table up, ask you to fasten your seatbelt.....should I go on.....we don't do it for the fun of it and forgive us if we look slightly p***ed off when you have infuriated us and acted like a pig for the 10th time that day!
Take a long hard look yourself and at how you treat the crew. Maybe then you'll get the answer you're looking for.

[b747 flightboy]

Now now girls this is all going too far. 126 person, as you've probably gathered your comments aren't really appreciated. If you find the crew on low cost airlines offensive then I suggest you try a different carrier, you'll find £180 squid doesnt get you very far, and the crew on the bigger airlines can roll their eyes just as well as the rest of them.

Take a chill pill

[kenoco]

True

Just because the companies are low fares dosn't mean the crew are low on anything.On my travels on low fares airlines I have met some really nice cabin crew.Not all are miserable,and if they are they don't show it.ARev.

[126.9]

Actually no, I'm not like that! I'm the guy who gets aboard without any hand luggage, greets everybody, straps in, watches the demo and then inevitably falls asleep within the first ten minutes of the flight! Usually don't require any food or drinks and prefer to sit down at the rear of the aircraft. Also, as you'll see from my three postings in this thread; I do not launch into personal attacks on them. Nor do I do "Instant Psycho-analysis" of them and post it publically: as you do! Nope, I merely ask the question in an orderly fashion that brings out the true traits of the various levels of society involved in this profession! (As it's done with you) And one other thing before I move on Cart_tart, if they picked you for your personality (as you say they did) why is my safety your number 1 concern? Surely my safety would require a completely different set of personal criteria from your human resources department? Just a thought!

What I am tired of though, is being woken up by cabin-crew, swearing and slagging off the pax, whilst in the rear galley? Quite a common occurence actually! For example: just the other day, a young Ryanair lady told the gentleman sitting next to me, in no friendly manner, that his cardigan (which was on his lap) had to go in the overhead stowage. When the man enquired as to why that was, he was told "beacause it's in the aviation regulations!" Now please! What are we? A bunch of morons that we would believe that nonsense! That was not the end of it though. She then went into the galley and proceeded to relay the story to her colleague. The version she passed on was punctuated with profanity beyond belief! The facts had been distorted, and become charged with emotion. All of this, within earshot of the customer...!? And she's going to take charge of my safety in an emergency? Not a chance!

[kenoco]

yep

you can't hide everything with makeup ,I have also been a passenger around Europe and on Ryanair flights the vulgar swearing coming from cabin crew is terrible,and in several different languages.

[Iaingrant]

Could it be that the man with the cardigan was in row 33 the exit row and that is why she asked him to put it up seen as you sit down the back.

I myself am cabin crew with RYANAIR and no matter how i feel on my first day or the last day of my week i always come in with a smile, but no matter how much you smile pax's can just be so rude and it's does not make you feel any better.

[captcat]

Of course it should have been an overwing exit row. But that's not the point, a pax shouldn't feel imposed without explanation.
I believe the big problem with Ryanair and Easy is just that they are all very young. In a big company, the juniors can learn from the seniors. The most difficult thing about being a C/A is the Human Factor part. So being confronted with pax, they are not trained on how to react.
In my opinion, having flown with them, it is true that most of them really don't look like C/A. They just look like lost kids put in a grown ups game. Especially their Pursers don't impress me much. The other C/A seem to fear them (when I try to talk to them they always look sideways in the direction of the Purser with a scared look). It usually happens when you give too much power, and too soon, to an undertrained person. They abuse of their power. And so did the lady with the pax regarding the cardigan.
And I'm sure demotivation about their working condition doesn't help. I am sure the average Ryanair C/A doesn't feel like greeting pax at the end of a long and unrewarding day with a big smile.

[flapsforty]

Flown Ryanair a few times to get to PPRuNe Bashes. They were cheaper than my staff tickets. And with 2 lovely exeptions, the CC were as described by the number person.
Did I mind? Not at all.

Cheap tickets do not happen by themselves. They are cheap because the company providing them saves on everything it does not deem absolutely necessary.
So if they spend their FA training budget on the flight safety aspects and neglect the customer friendliness part, I can live with that.
If they make young kids pursers while they lack the maturity needed to create a service minded atmosphere on board, I can accept that.
If they work their FAs so hard that they drop from exhaustion, I for one do neither need nor expect a radiant smile from them.
As long as they can open the doors in an emergency, which I am confidant they can, anything else is a bonus.

What worried me far more were the things their pilots told me while we were sitting on the asphalt at Stansted for 2 hours and had time to chat.
So I flew BA to the next Bash.

I am amazed often at people's attitude regarding these carriers.
When nothing in life is free, where do people get the idea that they can fly with an airline that toutes itself as cheap and still recieve the same service one does on a major?


Hint: Tinstaafl!

[Zerfas]

Get a Grip

Oh please! It's so easy (pardon the pun) to mass generalise about the low-cost cabin crew. I used to be crew for easyJet and I don't recall one occasion when I was rude to a passenger. I was also a crew trainer, and I know for a fact that the cabin crew are trained to the same extent as any other airline (minus the meals training obviously)!

126.9
In my experience, regardless of the airline you fly with, you will find crew who are good and crew who are bitter and rude. From B.A. to Buzz.....and needless to say-Behaviour Breeds Behaviour, so I'd put it to you that if you would just get down from your moral high-horse, you'd probably find the cabin crew would treat you a little better. I'll even provide you with an escape slide to get down, coz its a long way to fall!

[flapsforty]

Whooooooooooah Zerfas!
No offence intended at all; if I've given it anyway, please accept my apologies.

The above first of all my personal experience.
After those trips described, I was susprised at the attitude I had encountered. So I tried to figure out the reasons for it.
Believing that almost all FAs get into the work because they like people, I always think that when service is less than expected, there must be weighty grounds for it.

Very few people in our line of work are rude for the fun of it. Quite the contrary, most FAs manage to stay pleasant under circumstances where an ordinary person would have a screaming fit. Or break down crying.
So when FA behaviour actually is rude, it makes me speculate.
The conclusions of my speculations is what you read above.
You obviously know more about easyjet than I do, since I've never flown with them nor worked for them.

I aøso grant you that my anecdotal evidence from 6 trips with R is not conclusive by any means. But it did make me wonder. Seeing how careful and strict they were on the safety front, and how surly and bad tempered they were on all other fronts led me to believe that SEP training hab been excellent but service tarining less emphasised.
May-be I was wrong.
So please, without antagonising anyone, could you possibly tell me if my experience with them was a-typical?
And if it wasn't, as some other posts here seem to indicate, could you possibly share with us what the reason for the less than sterling attitude could be?
I'm not taking the p!ss here, I am genuinely interested. And if my conclusions as reached above are wrong, I'm happy to amend them.

[maninblack]

I for one have not seen any trend for rudemess bewteen airline types except that on the "low cost" ones the staff are generally busier and slightly more abrupt because of it. I vertainly have never seen crew on a low cost being rude.

If I was going to generalise I would say that the least friendly cabin crew have been BA although saying that I have met some delightful BA crew for whom nothing was too much trouble. I don't blame the crew for this, it is a management attitude that demoralises and produces a lack of interest amongst some crew.

The friendliest crews I have come across as a rule have been on United and American on internal US flights. In mitigation though they were perhaps nice because they don't get many young Englishmen in a suit flying and so I stand out from the crowd.

My long winded point is that in general, smile and the world smiles with you. Whilst most airline think theat they pay their staff to smile I have found that if I smile first then the one I get back is genuine, not corporate. I think it may have been Flaps who nailed me earlier this year for referring to a flight attendant as "two legged in flight entertainment" but in seriousness it is not a job I could do, I'm too miserable and I admire anyone who works those hours.

[FlapsOne]

126.9

You cannot have a cardigan, jacket or anything else on your lap for take off or landing. It is a rule and it's there for a reason.

In the event of an evacuation on the ground being necessary, for whatever reason, any lose item will undoubtedly fall to the floor and instantly become a hazard to other pax trying to make an escape.

It's potentially dangerous and could cost lives!

So you decide for yourself whether you are 'a bunch of morons who would believe this nonsense' or not. Whether you like it or not - it IS a regulation!

Why must you continue to display your ignorance with such postings?

[captcat]

I am sure 126.9 was not referring to that but to the tone of the answer. Anyway, "that's in the regulations" is not an answer to why a cardigan or anything else cannot be on an overwing exit, at least for the average pax. It's just a way to shut up someone. It's like when your parents tell you "you must do it because I told you" when you're little. And it doesn't work on adults! Usually adults whant to know the reasons. Sometimes because they are genuinely interested, sometimes because they feel like losing face in front of the wife/girlfriend or wathever on obeying an order they don't understand without a reason. They are just hoping for a smile and a reason to make them feel they are not just being imposed.
A good C/A usually knows how to avoid that kind of clash with a pax. We are the ones paid and trained to take care of them, they are not paid to smile at us (but that doesn't mean they can be impolite).
I personally have never flown with Easy. But as I said I have flown with Ryanair and without generalising, on MY flights C/A really didn't seem to have never attended a Human Factor class.
Do you in Easy? (and it's not a rhetoric question, I really would like to know).
In my company we also have classes in Psychology of Service, where they analize the relation C/A-pax step by step to try to avoid common mistakes and the degeneration of a transaction. Even if the pax is rude and doesn't smile at you!
I personally doubt they run such classes in Ryanair, and if they do I suggest they fire the teacher. But excuse me for doubting, but I really don't think that in low costs they have the same training than in, say, KLM, or BA, especially on the customer care side.
And please Zerfas, stop trying to make people feel guilty for having been the victim of bad manners. We C/A should know better than being rude to people, it's part of our job!
I personally had no clash with anyone in Ryanair, but can take notice of what's going on around, how people are in their job etc, especially since we are supposed to be on the same branch