I travelled from ZRH to LCY yesterday and was polite to the CC, especially when they apologised for the delayed departure, which saved my bacon.

I got totally stitched up by the exec lounge, who told me the flight was delayed, when it was not and the FIDS which did not display boarding until a minute before the flight closed - and I couldn't see the gate from the lounge, so was not even aware that the a/c was on stand.

Then after I got told quite brusquely at the gate that it was my responsibility to be on time (despite the lounge being run by the same agent) and offloaded, I had to buy another ticket and rush across to the other terminal to get the delayed flight.

Of course my suitcase did not make the flight and I was also polite to the agent at LCY when he did the PIR.

Yes, I know it all comes down to me being reponsible for being at the gate,
but one does rely on the lounge to give the right info and the FIDS to give rather more than 60 seconds warning.

What was particularly infuriating was that three ground staff lied to me to cover themselves, one denied telling me that the inbound was delayed and the other at the gate said they had called the lounge to make an announcement, which wasn't true as I was sitting next to the desk and they did not receive a call at all.

The last one informed me that my bag hadn't made the flight but would be sent on the next flight that evening (there was not one, but obviously he thought I was too stupid to realise this.)

The net result is that I am about GBP190 out of pocket, with absolutely no recourse, even to my travel insurance policy.

So please crew, if we are sometimes a little grumpy (and I was not yesterday), have a little empathy for us as we don't always get great treatment in the airport and sometimes this carries across to you, which isn't fair, but then again what happened to me yesterday was not either

It's probably not just SLF getting worse, society is getting worse. Rudeness, and a lack of basic manners seems par for the course.

As SLF myself, I try to be polite to the CC, I tend to find if you treat others with a bit of respect usually you get it back. Treat people like rubbish, and that's what you get back. Not rocket science.

I admit I am usually one of the first out of my seat but I do at least wait until "Doors to manual" has been announced, but otherwise I am pretty well-behaved. I always switch the phone and BB off on the way to the gate, the last thing I want is someone calling me as I am trying to get on the plane (and I like the peace and quiet of not being called!). I have never had a problem with showing the boarding card at the door, what is the issue with holding the bit of paper out? It's not that heavy, surely?

The main problem is that flying is now too affordable and people who in the good old days would never have allowed within a million miles of a plane are now able to do it. Hanging's too good for them.

I like your post and tone Rush2112, but pleeeeease wait for the seatbelt sign to be off. That's the best signal we've all got to be sure we've finally stopped. It's not the moving of the aircraft that's a problem but sometimes the stopping of the aircraft. Obviously most of the time we come to a gradual stop, but not always.

happy flying to all....

Please - Thank You
 

Do you mean it? Does the SLF mean it?

I was on a US Cruise Ship and we noticed that the ice Cream Lady always had a blank expression even when we said P&TY or if we asked her how long her shift was.

One day a tourist of the same nationality came, said "one of those, one of those with nuts, one with choc chips" got served and left.

Our turn, P&TY, still a blank look. "When we say P&TY do you think we mean it?" - No.

I assured her that we did and when we asked how long she was working for we actually meant it. Thereafter we got a beaming smile.

Politeness is not just in the words but in the mannerisms as well. Do the eyes sparkle or make contact?

I still remember the glass of champagne on Air France before the doors were even closed :)

AF is AF. It's probably the only airline to have Champagne on the MEL.

Self-defence department
 

I'll just point out that we LCY regulars most probably are the ones who found the money to finance your airline's initial capital, financed the purchase of all your aircraft, lent the company the money needed because fuel prices have shot up - etc. No £10 fares out of there for us, either. I also always hoped you found most of us quite pleasant, as well.

I just get annoyed with time wasters, I had a chap yesterday who got on and immediately asked to speak with the Purser. He was annoyed by the fact we no longer pre board families with children. I asked him where his children where.... His answer... "I don't have any"

I want those 5 minutes of my life back please.

__________________


Hahahaha thats gold...

There are fruity people everywhere...

This thread seems to reflect the fact that passengers, in these times we live in, are frankly P**** off with the flying experience generally. I'm "SLF" and the only time I enjoy flying is when I'm in the left hand seat of a paper mache Warrior.
The "glamour" of flying is a thing of the past, and the depressing and humiliating experiences at airports world wide means that, for 90% of punters, that they are totally sick of the whole business by the time they reach the departure gate. It is no surprise to me that Cabin staff get the brunt of their angst.It doesn't excuse the fact however.
You have to add to this that people generally are far less polite than they were when I was a lad. (my old man made me give up my bus seat for a lady on every occasion we travelled together) and working for the Airlines becomes just one more of lifes disappointments!!
My daughter was kicked in the stomach, scratched, and nipped, by a guy the other day. He seemingly was upset that she thought it unwise to give him his methadone two hours after she had painstakingly weaned him off his ventilator following a particularly tricky triple bypass. No one is immune from the ignorance of our fellow citizens.
Sadly respect for fellow human beings (in this case the cabin crew who refer to their paying customers as " SLF") is no longer a priority on most peoples agendas.

A bit politically correct Parsnip.
SLF (I'm One) is simply an easy term to describe all passengers, good, bad and indifferent.
I take my hat off to CC's. How would you like to serve 300 meals, tea, coffee drinks etc - I wouldn't - put up with the demands of the SLFs.- I wouldn't - spend nights away from family and friends - I wouldn't - miss weddings funerals because of shift demands - I wouldn't - constantly fight with an operator for decent pay and conditions - I wouldn't. Telephones, IPODS, Computers - I wouldn't - SLF'S WHO DO NOT KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE - I WOULDN'T NO WAY.
Polite and considerate behaviour seems to be a thing of the past especially on Airlines.
(Cheap tickets = Cheap People ?? )
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK CC'S - I'M WITH YOU !!!!!!!!:ok:

Some interesting discussions here.

My own view is that Society as a whole are changing. More and more people have no respect for others, more and more people are becoming lazier and lazier, more and more people are selfish, more and more people think they are above the law.... and so it goes on.

I am mere SLF and am always polite with a smile and a "hello" and goodbye and thank you at the end of the flight. I honestly cannot see what the problem is in showing your boarding card when you step into the plane. I cannot see what the problem is in 5 minutes of your time to listen to the safety announcements. I cannot seewhat the problem is in waiting until the Captain has switched off the seatbelts sign when you land etc etc.

I think if you work in any customer facing organisation you certainly meet some rude, arrogant and ignorant people. I used to work for a bank and believe you me all the types that are described on here, I have seen and been verbally abused myself.

The airline I have flown the most with is BA and it is amazing from SLF view what a difference a good team can make. For example on our flight out from LHR to DXB the crew were absolutely fantastic, helpful, cheery, full of smiles. However the return journey one week later was a completely different story. It started as soon as we got onto the plane and we were seated right at the back. The overheads were full and my husband said to the CC who was stood at the back and she gave us a dirty look and told us "you will just have to find somewhere else" The rest of this team were the same including the young male CC who had a face like thunder for the whole journey, couldn't muster up a comment or a smile. This is the one and only time I have experienced a poor team.

Do the obnoxious passengers not realise that the lovely passengers are getting far more out of their flight as we will generally move heaven and earth to help them? I recently operated a domestic flight and on takeoff, one of the ceiling panels fell out hitting a lady on the head. Luckily, these panels are light but I was mortified and full of apologies. Whereas some people would have been on the phone to Injuries Are Us or whatever they call themselves, this particular lady laughed it off. As a result, a quick message to base resulted in her and her mother being upgraded to club and treated like royalty on their connecting flight to Turin! Sometimes, it pays to be nice!

c2lass

I don't know what to say regarding your recent experience. There's no excuse for that sort of treatment and I can only apologise for this crew. There really are some people that shouldn't be doing the job but we're not all like that, honest!

JSL

I can think I can say I have only flown with one indifferent FA. It was on a 'local bus' trip. Aberdeen to Lerwick. I guess most passengers just treated the Viscount as a bus, get on, shop, go back.

Anyway he said that if we wanted coffee to press the bell and then settled back to read the Press and Journal or whatever:

PING!

He was lucky. We had seats at the back and the rest of the SLF probably didn't realise that he was doing a regular coffee run just for the two of us.

On SLF again tho, how do you draw the attention of the FA to the pax next to you that has not strapped in? (the FA had not spotted it). I was far too intimidated by the two ladies in comfortable shoes to tell them myself. Besides they had all ready sworn about me :}

Pontius,
They hadn't spotted it..? Honestly, what I love about my job, irregular hours,(weird I know), the lack of repetitiveness, fun on board, interacting with the public. I have to say checking seatbelts isn't my favourite part of the day, however it's not that difficult, and it is what we are paid to do...

Tricky situation, I agree, as a pax... I think I would very politely, mention it to the pax. I realise what you mean though about being intimidated.. If they were closer to the window than me, i'd be tempted to ignore it, they wouldn't be blocking me. If you press the call bell, (and the crew have time to respond to you), you'll still be drawing attention to yourself possibly. Or you could pretend the call bell was an accident, very sorry etc., and the CC may spot the undone seatbelt. But without drawing attention to you, tricky.

Pontius,

I am without sides at your marvellous 'comfortable shoes' comment !

As regards the debate re CC/Talking Baggage - hardly anybody has mentioned the recent (since the likes of Ryanair et al started charging for hold baggage) trend for pax to board with totally non-conforming 'hand baggage'. I have regularly seen stand and CC totally ignore same. The overheads are full almost straight away and anybody boarding after the first influx struggles.

It isn't actually fair to blame the CC as surely there are several opportunities further up the line to prevent oversize (and weight) baggage making it to the a/c?

As for the LCY comments - I've never yet met a City type who didn't have delusions of ability and who was capable of talking at less than 130 dB whilst disappearing up his own vortices. Funny how most of the news is about how many of these august institutions have horribly backed the wrong horse or, even worse, didn't even have the right racecourse.

Eagle402

As has been said by other posters before me, there are good and bad on both sides of the divide but thankfully in the minority. There is too much generalising, especially the constant harping about cheap fares that make it possible for people to travel by air who otherwise could not. Not everyone who buys a cheap ticket is a moron and not everyone in first/business is a saint.
Personally, which part of the aircraft I sit in depends on what kind of ticket the company travel department paid for. Sometimes it's business, mostly it's economy but either way I always try to take my halo as carry on.

s37

Hi Shack37,you're absolutely right,
and I try to treat all people I meet the same, whether I'm at work or not, always the same, but I have to be honest, I wish everyone did. That includes crew and pax alike, it's always the minority though, (thankfully), in all camps...

It works both ways...*some* SLF are getting worse and CC similarly...mind you given factors such as:

a) being treated like s*** by airport security
b) ripped off in airports to buy water, food etc - all those WMDs that you can't get through security

then you start to understand. Though generally I have to agree that things are getting worse regarding people's behaviour.

Anyway to all CC, from me you'll ALWAYS get a "please", "thank you", "hello" and a "goodbye" at the minimum. If things start getting "problematical" (abusive SLF, stupid SLF etc) or you just need a hand* then I'll be more than happy to help as much as I can.

E145 Driver

* leaving Franfurt once as SLF, weather had deterioated, one rwy closed for the night and maintenance and a big backlog of arrivals meant that we were late departing. A couple of SLF started getting s****ty with the CC who really had no more information than what the captain had just announced. When one of the SLF started to show off his "flight knowledge" I stepped in and precisely explained what was going on in terms of how traffic control works, flight plans etc etc. CC appreciated that as it shut the SLF up (I guess his girlfriend wasn't so impressed by his "knowledge" after all).

ps: SAS Dublin->Arlanda crew last week ... great flight thanks to helpful, friendly, smiling, talkative crew - thanks! Made the flight enjoyable.

It's probably not even 1 person on every flight who I find a little irritating, it could be 1 every 3 flights, and I'm on 747s, so that's a lot of people, so like in all walks of life, most people are charming, you'll always get fools or rude, ill-mannered folk, unfortunately. And they probably won't be like that only in the air. I think the rude are getting ruder, but the lovely ones are getting lovlier !!

This happens in my job as well, the rude ones are getting worse, at least I have sanctions like detention after school to allow them to contemplate the error of their ways :E


I just think, well at least I don't have to wake up next to them..!

Then you get the pax who make you think, I wish I could wake up next to HIM!!

its an age thing dear, happens to me as well

I can understand SLF maybe not saying please and thank-you, complaining about silly things we can't control etc. But what I cannot understand is when they make personal, rude comments to the cabin crew.

On a recent flight we had sold out of cigarettes on the duty free cart (well, not strictly true we had one packet of 400 left, but was not the brand this particular gentleman wanted) and this passenger became very abusive in a personal way towards me. The other passengers sitting around him were shocked at what he said, as was I. I simply turned around to him and said "There is no need for that is there, sir."

This is happening more and more at my airline (I can't speak for others) and is totally unacceptable. What gives people the right to think they can speak to other people in that way?! It has happened so many times that I actually brought it up at my annual SEPs with the safety trainer and asked if we should treat these passengers as 'disruptive passengers'? The trainer told me that unless they become threatening or violent, then we should simply just not let it get to us. Their comments don't hurt me, as I know they are not true, but what really agravates me is the fact that they feel they can get away with speaking to cabin crew like that. After all, the only reason we are on that aircraft is for their safety!!! And to get abusive just because we don't have the cigarettes he wants...its ludicris!

To my mind he was being verbally abusive which is unacceptable behaviour therefore a disruptive passenger