Demo
 

Is it acceptable for pax to be shouting and 'mocking' crew during demo - would be interested in views pressure to meet take off times and all!?!?!?!

No it is not acceptable, if pax are behaving like that in the safety demo then God only knows what they will be like when we do finally make it into the air.

In my airline we will temporarily suspend the safety demonstration and b0llock the disruptive pax and recommence the safety demonstration once they have settled down.

And if they don't settle down, then we will happily taxy back on stand and kick em off! :E

I totally agree with getoutofmygalley. We ask for pax full attention in the demo spiel. If they continue talking I will pause safety demo and ask for silence in the cabin as there may be people who have not flown before. If this doesn't work I will pause one more time and say that it is the last time I will ask for silence before we will return to the gate. The crew also individually ask pax to be quiet. A lot of the time it is people who have flown heaps and reckon they know everything so I also go and have a quiet word at the end. Other pax always get off saying good on you for shutting up those twerps. Footy groups we usually go and say to them 'we know you want to have a good time onboard but now is the serious side of the flight.....'

And as previously said if you can't get their attention for this, what chance is there for them to do anything else you ask or say....

The worst offenders on the MME-LHR service are Mr and Mrs Blair, who talked constantly throughout the safety briefing.

Their kids trashed the cream teas into the seats as a form of amusement during the flight.

Perhaps it was just a "one-off"

MP;)

If they had been flying with me, I would have handed them a dustpan and brush and told them to clean it up :E

In contrast to the Blairs, I had a certain UK tv presenter on a flight recently - not naming names, but he has presented the National Lottery, presented a quiz show that was centered around tv programs as well as having a popular Saturday night prime time entertainment show which used to regularly feature gunge.

This tv presenter was travelling with his family (son & daughter, the son was probably in his 30's and the daughter about 10). He was sat there happily chatting with his family, but once the safety demonstration started, he told his family to pay attention and all 3 of them sat there and watched the demonstration. Throughout the flight, this tv presenter was a model passenger, when asked if he or his family wanted anything to eat or drink, he made eye contact, smiled, said please and thank you and at the end of the flight he made sure that his family left their row clean and tidy, re-dressed the seat pockets and crossed the seat belts. I can honestly say that he and his family were a joy to look after - pity about the over 140 or so rabble :{

Mr & Mrs Blair you should take note! :p

a swift whack with the safety card usually does the trick

Absolutely agree, any pax on my flight talking too loud or disrupting any other passenger from listening etc is promptly put in their place. As they should be, as if the s**t hits the fan, they'll almost certainly be the first one's screaming that they don't know what to do!

Oz

Yeah I agree, it's not acceptable - the demo is not the most exciting part of the flight, it's there to help save lives and it really doesn't take too much time out of ones day, so just listen!!!
Whenever I travel, I always count how many rows away I am from the exit - once crew, always crew.

I rememeber once doing the demo and this business man talked to his mate behind him throughout the demo. I did ask him to politely shutup but he carried on.

After the demo, I walked up to him and asked him if he could tell me how to don a lifejacket...he looked at me bewildered. I then asked him to tell me where his nearest exit was...still bewildered!! I told him that he did not know as he had talked all through the demo and had disrupted other people from hearing it too. I told him that we (Cabin crew) could get out like that (clicked my fingers) and that we were ultimately there for HIS safety and that next time he should pay attention. At least if he didn't want to, he should not annoy other pax.

He went bright red as other pax were all listening and looking.... I doubt he will be doing that again...:O haha

GFW

What do people think of using a bit of humour in a demo? I've been on a few DJ flights and a couple of times, the CS has added a bit of humour.

I was dead against it at first because it's serious stuff, having said that, the pax DID take notice and listen, if only in anticipation of something else being funny. Now, I don't mind, a friend of my partner did the demo once and bless her, put the lifejacket on the wrong side so her lights and whistle were not where they should have been. The pax certainly noticed that one! Do crew still play tricks on each other aswell???

thanx everyone for replies keep them comming you have just proved I am not being 'over the top' or need 'extra supervision' inasking people to be quiet - !

IMHO if you don't watch the demo then you are going to be the one passenger who is responsible for slowing down the evacuation of the most important person onboard.....ME!

Really irks me when a family are travelling with young kids and the adults read their paper during the Demo. They are sub-conciously making a decision that their kids also don't need to watch the video, as many are too young to understand and will rely on their parents in the event of an emergency.

Irresponsible parenting if ever I saw it.

Well iv got one of those scary glares when someone is talking over the demo...its one of those looks that says "shut up or ill but eye drops in your coffee and stuff your newspaper/blackberry/laptop/colleague up your a&se!!!!".

However, I have to laugh at the moment because my airlines safety video is soooooo old, im talking mobiles phones the size of bricks, shoulder pads and Mullet hairstyles OLD! I have stood there and listened to passengers giggling at it and even one lady who told her friend.."oh you need to watch this, its so funny"!!!! But what can I do, they are watching it and they are paying attention, for all the wrong reasons I know but still!!!!
However, alas, the video is being changed to an updated and animated one!!!!

Getoutofmygalley....

If you're talking about the personality I think you are, he is a pilot, so the responsible behaviour described should come as no surprise.

Wycombe

I am indeed talking about the personality that you think I am talking about (if you know what I mean? :confused: )

I know he is a pilot and therefore could be expected to pay attention, but equally he could have been obnoxious and thought that as he was a pilot that he knew better.

I was drawing a contrast between 'my tv personality' and the Blairs behaviour in MaximumPete's post :)

embarass them infront of all the other pax by telling them to shut up during the safety demo and that youre trying to do your job,then after the demo has finished ask them if they fully understand the safety procedures on board and get them to explain them to you,just to embarass them more :D

As a pax flying more frequently than the general public, but less frequently than road warriors, I'll fess up to not always paying attention, but I'm never disruptive. By the time I sit down, I've already counted the number of rows to the nearest exit, and if in the exit row, read the instructions for opening the door.

But, I have to say that I cringe whenever cabin crew use humor in safety or landing announcements. My first thought is that they're not taking this seriously. The second thought is how old the same stale announcment jokes get after you've heard them the third, fourth or twenty sixth time. I'd rather see crew take a swat at passengers for not paying attention than hear the same joke about "securing your own oxygen mask before helping children or people acting like children to do the same." Goes for the flight deck crew, too. I think I've heard them all.

I dont consider myself a bad hostie, i am always poliate to my passenger no matter how rude they are to me!
HOWEVER i have 2, ok 3 things i hate most
1. Standing up when seat belt sign is on, usually when taxi-ing to gate
2. Talk or not watching the demo
3. when i say "coffee" a passenger puts their cup on my tray and replies, "no tea thanks" as if im carrying a magic pot!

its god damn rude to talk during the demo, especially if ur at an over wing or emergency exit, but just do as i do
warn them or ask them once to please put ur paper down and pay attention, if that fails, wait till the end and ask a few simple questions, "where is ur nearest exit apart from this one" "how many exits in total" usually shuts them up!
but i had a gentleman on my flight last week who sat in row one with his paper in the aisle which ment i had to ask him to move every time i had to bend over to pick up oxygen mask or seatbelt etc... so i simply removed it from his hand! if ur reading this sir... sorry but it was p*ssing me off!

:\

Well if im ever on one of your flights i will be listening :ugh:

What do you all tend to do with regards to passengers who are seated in exit rows but are sleeping during the demo? Do you wake them up and ask them to pay attention to the demo? I must confess I used to just leave them...taking into account the fact that the passengers at the overwing would have been briefed prior to the demo on how to open the door etc

Wake the buggers up! I would but maybe im just a nasty hostie eh?!
Im sorry but if i was sitting the row behind the overwings and the guy in front of me is ment to be responsilble for opening my nearest exit i would rather he was listening, if it was to be blocked by anychance at least he will know where to send every one else!

I agree, if passengers are quietly talking to eachother during the demo without causing any noise, then you can't do anything, it's their perogative, same goes for someone sitting in an exit row, if they're sleeping i would leave them. Different story though if they were sleeping when i went to do the overwing exit briefing, i would wake them up quick smart.

Another thing with absolutely nothing to do with the thread, but i read something about it earlier. I cannot stand crew that walk through the cabin with coffee or tea and all they do is like robots walk through going, "coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee" or " tea, tea, tea, tea", it sounds terrible, especially if you're the F/A infront of them with the other pot of whatever, show some enthusiasm. I would get bored just saying that all the time, i have to change it around every time i say it just to amuse myself!

Oz

Yea i agree Middle Seat injecting humor into the demo itself i find needless, and unproffesional. It detracts from the importance and gives the wrong opinion i feel.

In the UK anyway and with my airline, the PA's that are issued are either inside a black box indicating that nothing in this box can be changed as it as been reviewed by the CAA and this is what it is we must say, nothing added nothing taken away. Any PA not ringed with a black box means ad libbing were needed is fine, ie you can add humor here.

I was under the impression that if a CAA inspector was onboard and you were adding bits or taking things out of the demo you could loose your license to fly.

Its bad enough trying to get some respect out of the pax never mind trying to do a stand up routine during the demo!