SWISS Cabin Crew Rudeness
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SWISS Cabin Crew Rudeness
Hey guys, as an airline pilot in a different company in a differeny country and continent (like so many of us 
) I decided to take a flight home and the first flight was a swiss flight from Sao Paulo to Zurich in a Airbus 340 flying economy (nowadays we airline pilots can't afford business seats 
).
Anyway, to the not so good news. When I entered with my girlfriend, she was well but just had this itchy feeling in her throat like the one you know you will be sick tomorrow with throat ache when you do not take multi vitamins. Anyway, I sat down and kindly asked for water and the reply was "not now, only in flight". Ok, I know the cabin crew is stressed, preparing, helping passengers that fly for the first time, bla bla bla but the answer was cold and to the point. Sure, no problems. So I stood up, walked to the aft galley where I saw two cabin crew chatting, I kindly asked for two cups of water while both looked at me extremely angry, one even turned his eyes like he would be annoyed and gave me one cup, half filled with water and stowed the bottle again. So myself, I kindly repeated that I needed 2 cups and more filled and that is where he shook his head and said "Non, non, non (in French) this does not work this way. You have to sit and we bring it in flight." So I told him again KINDLY (losing patience) to please fill me two glasses of water, we want to take vitamin pills and that is where he tore the bottle out again, smashed a plastic cup onto the surface, filled up the water rudely so that some major drops splattered all over the surrounding including on me, then said "THERE" this time in English and I kindly said thanks, took the two waters and went back to my seat next to my girlfriend.
During the flight, it was a nightflight, I wanted to stretch my legs, went into the galley and overheard a conversation in Swiss German (I am half swiss half brazilian so I speak both languages), anyway, the conversation was about a passenger that was spoken in front of me as I would not even be there and it was as follows "Oh god, that f-ing passenger in seat 32 F always bothering me for water (no no, it was not me on that seat hehe, but someone else) and now he is in the middle of his film, let me reset his entertainment system so the asshole can wait 15 mins for the boot up time" and both bursted laughing. Then I saw that there were water bottles and cups and I asked if I can serv myself, one of them nodded, so I served myself and emptied the bottle, which I then put in the trash (since I know where they are located), the cabin crew fellow freaked out, jumped up from his chair, in french again "NON NON NON" put his arm into the trash, pulled out the water bottle, shaking his head in anger and I just , well, you can imagine, was speechless.... wanted to save the effort for those people and then this. Well, then I stood there drinking and stretching for 5 minutes (nightflight, not much going on), after 2 mins the other stewerdess stood up and told me I need to return to my seat that I am not allowed to be there and said "go go go now" like I was a dog. No problem, I spoke to the Swissfrench guy in perfect Swiss German to call the chief flight attendant right away which they refused first, until I identified myself, my profession and how well awared of the regulations I am and then the chief flight attendant came, rude at first as well !!!! When I explained I was a pilot also flying jets, then she was suddenly smiling and friendly and when I said I what the hell was going on, she apologized and I was well treated for the rest of the flight.
Well, that is how the story ended. I was very ashamed for an airline such as Swiss. Where did all the smiles and professional treatment go, not all passengers are alike and me being one of those that understands the hard work of a flight attendant and do all the extra precautions to be nice and fair and friendly, even I am treated like garbage . This is not acceptable.
) I decided to take a flight home and the first flight was a swiss flight from Sao Paulo to Zurich in a Airbus 340 flying economy (nowadays we airline pilots can't afford business seats ).Anyway, to the not so good news. When I entered with my girlfriend, she was well but just had this itchy feeling in her throat like the one you know you will be sick tomorrow with throat ache when you do not take multi vitamins. Anyway, I sat down and kindly asked for water and the reply was "not now, only in flight". Ok, I know the cabin crew is stressed, preparing, helping passengers that fly for the first time, bla bla bla but the answer was cold and to the point. Sure, no problems. So I stood up, walked to the aft galley where I saw two cabin crew chatting, I kindly asked for two cups of water while both looked at me extremely angry, one even turned his eyes like he would be annoyed and gave me one cup, half filled with water and stowed the bottle again. So myself, I kindly repeated that I needed 2 cups and more filled and that is where he shook his head and said "Non, non, non (in French) this does not work this way. You have to sit and we bring it in flight." So I told him again KINDLY (losing patience) to please fill me two glasses of water, we want to take vitamin pills and that is where he tore the bottle out again, smashed a plastic cup onto the surface, filled up the water rudely so that some major drops splattered all over the surrounding including on me, then said "THERE" this time in English and I kindly said thanks, took the two waters and went back to my seat next to my girlfriend.
During the flight, it was a nightflight, I wanted to stretch my legs, went into the galley and overheard a conversation in Swiss German (I am half swiss half brazilian so I speak both languages), anyway, the conversation was about a passenger that was spoken in front of me as I would not even be there and it was as follows "Oh god, that f-ing passenger in seat 32 F always bothering me for water (no no, it was not me on that seat hehe, but someone else) and now he is in the middle of his film, let me reset his entertainment system so the asshole can wait 15 mins for the boot up time" and both bursted laughing. Then I saw that there were water bottles and cups and I asked if I can serv myself, one of them nodded, so I served myself and emptied the bottle, which I then put in the trash (since I know where they are located), the cabin crew fellow freaked out, jumped up from his chair, in french again "NON NON NON" put his arm into the trash, pulled out the water bottle, shaking his head in anger and I just , well, you can imagine, was speechless.... wanted to save the effort for those people and then this. Well, then I stood there drinking and stretching for 5 minutes (nightflight, not much going on), after 2 mins the other stewerdess stood up and told me I need to return to my seat that I am not allowed to be there and said "go go go now" like I was a dog. No problem, I spoke to the Swissfrench guy in perfect Swiss German to call the chief flight attendant right away which they refused first, until I identified myself, my profession and how well awared of the regulations I am and then the chief flight attendant came, rude at first as well !!!! When I explained I was a pilot also flying jets, then she was suddenly smiling and friendly and when I said I what the hell was going on, she apologized and I was well treated for the rest of the flight.
Well, that is how the story ended. I was very ashamed for an airline such as Swiss. Where did all the smiles and professional treatment go, not all passengers are alike and me being one of those that understands the hard work of a flight attendant and do all the extra precautions to be nice and fair and friendly, even I am treated like garbage . This is not acceptable.
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Sadly, your experience with cabin service on Swiss is not at all unusual. While there are certainly some cheerful and helpful cabin crew working there, far too many are as you describe: arrogant, bossy, surly, thoughtless and unhelpful. They seem to view passengers as a nuisance, interfering with their efficient procedures, and messing up the nice tidy cabin.
I have mostly given up flying Swiss, largely because of this attitude (which is shared by a good proportion of the ground staff too). I've heard that the arrogant you're-so-lucky-to-be-allowed-to-fly-on-our-airline attitude is inherited from the Swissair days, but I don't know if this is true - I have no idea how many of the current Swiss CC are ex-Swissair.
Added to the attitude problem is the comical ineptness with which they board the passengers. Honestly, I have never seen anyone take so long to get everyone on board and seated in an A319 - sometimes 40 minutes or more. The CC stand around either doing nothing at all or actively getting in the way. Compare this with the savage efficiency of Easyjet, where the crew work cheerfully, efficiently and hard getting everyone seated and hand-luggage stowed, sometimes in only 10 minutes. Or the gold standard of SQ, who I once witnessed getting everyone on board, seated and strapped in on a packed 777-200 in Jakarta in less than 15 minutes.
My (entirely subjective) opinion is that Swiss just thinks it is so much better than it actually is, and this delusion is a serious obstacle to improving service. So I suggest you write to them and tell them about your experience.
I have mostly given up flying Swiss, largely because of this attitude (which is shared by a good proportion of the ground staff too). I've heard that the arrogant you're-so-lucky-to-be-allowed-to-fly-on-our-airline attitude is inherited from the Swissair days, but I don't know if this is true - I have no idea how many of the current Swiss CC are ex-Swissair.
Added to the attitude problem is the comical ineptness with which they board the passengers. Honestly, I have never seen anyone take so long to get everyone on board and seated in an A319 - sometimes 40 minutes or more. The CC stand around either doing nothing at all or actively getting in the way. Compare this with the savage efficiency of Easyjet, where the crew work cheerfully, efficiently and hard getting everyone seated and hand-luggage stowed, sometimes in only 10 minutes. Or the gold standard of SQ, who I once witnessed getting everyone on board, seated and strapped in on a packed 777-200 in Jakarta in less than 15 minutes.
My (entirely subjective) opinion is that Swiss just thinks it is so much better than it actually is, and this delusion is a serious obstacle to improving service. So I suggest you write to them and tell them about your experience.
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Must Be a 1st
Congratulations on wringing an apology out of the chief flight attendant. 
It does not make me likely to fly Swiss anytime soon!
Every Swiss person who has made an error when dealing with me, has found various ways of avoiding simply apologising. Bluff and bluster, excuses, aggression and blaming others, sorry is such a little word.
I wonder if she needed a lie down afterwards.
It does not make me likely to fly Swiss anytime soon!Every Swiss person who has made an error when dealing with me, has found various ways of avoiding simply apologising. Bluff and bluster, excuses, aggression and blaming others, sorry is such a little word.
I wonder if she needed a lie down afterwards.
I didn't realise you could get so addicted to multi-vitamins that if you didn't get one on time you started going cold turkey, throwing up an' stuff.
I'll stick to class A's I think.
I'll stick to class A's I think.
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There's no excuse for rudeness, but was it really so important to have two glasses of water, filled to the exact measure you required, before take-off? And after you'd already been asked to wait until your aircraft was in flight?
It's not as if gulping multi-vitamins is going to stop a sore throat in any case.
It's not as if gulping multi-vitamins is going to stop a sore throat in any case.
Yup - no need to be rude but if vitamin consumption has to be to the minute to avoid the nasty itchy throat and possibility of vomitus then - er - maybe get a small bottle of water in the lounge? The rest goes off like a rant in E minor - interesting for a pilot of jets.
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but was it really so important to have two glasses of water, filled to the exact measure you required, before take-off
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First of all toad, you really are a toad it seems, great we both agree on that.
Getting a water in the lounge ? Ever heard of a chaos at an airport doing christmas time ? You get there even 3 hours early and security takes forever, people are calling for boarding and the last thing you do then is stand a long and slow line to go buy a cup of water if you can have it in the plane, whose ticket cost over 1000 bucks.
But of course, some here now say I am the wrongdoer. But if it was any of those that are really so sad to believe I was wrong, then I would have loved to see their face back in the galley when told "Ah, I just rebooted the entertainment system of that
a**hole" but of course that is tolerable. During the 10 hour flight they passed by 3x to serve water. Dinner, shortly after dinner and Breakfast. So 1 cup of water each time, you really think 3dl of water during a flight is good?
I do not ask to be treated like a King, as I said, I do not have the cash to fly First where you buy yourself that treatment, but the least a cabin crew can do is treat one with respect.
And it seems some people like toad, seem to totally lack in that so it is obvious people that lack in respect that do not even know how to show respect because they don't care if they are disrespected in return. People these days on forums are so funny, it actually amuses me. They come, read one line, write some dumb reply that smells so bad that it attracts all the flies that also got their tiny word to say. For 2 days this topic had 2 replies where people actually read and didn't sound like an idiot and as soon as a random toad comes in acting like he is the forumking (which in his world he probably is lol), then you got the flies all following its bad smelling leader.
Congratulations to those particular people, you think you might be A-Class but you show that you really got No-Class, which people like toad should be referring themselves as.
You can reply all you want, this topic for me is closed, just spent the extra minute so the forum warriors and kings can continue to work on their anger management, obviously they will as a result also prepare for a forum war and I bet, I would lose such a war lol. I mean, look at my forum posts compared to theirs, I really last no chance
but then again, it is the people that in real life got no word, that come in here to be idiots, because when they do it in real life, they get nothing else but this 
Getting a water in the lounge ? Ever heard of a chaos at an airport doing christmas time ? You get there even 3 hours early and security takes forever, people are calling for boarding and the last thing you do then is stand a long and slow line to go buy a cup of water if you can have it in the plane, whose ticket cost over 1000 bucks.
But of course, some here now say I am the wrongdoer. But if it was any of those that are really so sad to believe I was wrong, then I would have loved to see their face back in the galley when told "Ah, I just rebooted the entertainment system of that
a**hole" but of course that is tolerable. During the 10 hour flight they passed by 3x to serve water. Dinner, shortly after dinner and Breakfast. So 1 cup of water each time, you really think 3dl of water during a flight is good?I do not ask to be treated like a King, as I said, I do not have the cash to fly First where you buy yourself that treatment, but the least a cabin crew can do is treat one with respect.
And it seems some people like toad, seem to totally lack in that so it is obvious people that lack in respect that do not even know how to show respect because they don't care if they are disrespected in return. People these days on forums are so funny, it actually amuses me. They come, read one line, write some dumb reply that smells so bad that it attracts all the flies that also got their tiny word to say. For 2 days this topic had 2 replies where people actually read and didn't sound like an idiot and as soon as a random toad comes in acting like he is the forumking (which in his world he probably is lol), then you got the flies all following its bad smelling leader.
Congratulations to those particular people, you think you might be A-Class but you show that you really got No-Class, which people like toad should be referring themselves as.
You can reply all you want, this topic for me is closed, just spent the extra minute so the forum warriors and kings can continue to work on their anger management, obviously they will as a result also prepare for a forum war and I bet, I would lose such a war lol. I mean, look at my forum posts compared to theirs, I really last no chance
but then again, it is the people that in real life got no word, that come in here to be idiots, because when they do it in real life, they get nothing else but this
Yeah - you got it - I've never flown as a passenger ever. I've totally imagined the last twenty years doing at least 30, sometimes up to 80 flights per year.
Nice rant - however you should have noted that I said that there was no excuse for rudeness. But you've certainly shown your true colours so I'll hazard a guess you really have the same faults you accuse others of.
In fact that you show such gross and inappropriate intolerance and can not even spot the most obvious of humour - I'm not surprised you were treated badly.
Nice rant - however you should have noted that I said that there was no excuse for rudeness. But you've certainly shown your true colours so I'll hazard a guess you really have the same faults you accuse others of.
In fact that you show such gross and inappropriate intolerance and can not even spot the most obvious of humour - I'm not surprised you were treated badly.
Last edited by Load Toad; 13th Feb 2010 at 13:04.
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Oh dear JJ, have you any toys left in the pram or have they already been discarded.
Maybe a vallium is in order rather than Multi Vitamins?
Regards,
G-BPED
P.S. Have flown Swiss a number of times and always found their cabin crew to be of the highest standard with regard to customer service and attention!
Maybe a vallium is in order rather than Multi Vitamins?
Regards,
G-BPED
P.S. Have flown Swiss a number of times and always found their cabin crew to be of the highest standard with regard to customer service and attention!
Last edited by G-BPED; 15th Feb 2010 at 23:24.
Gemuetlichkeit...?
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Loadtoad I got your your attempt at humour However this is a written forum where only the written word is visible so if your feeling a bit peeved as JJ is then it may have been passed him by.
As for a rant? This is the SLF forum isn't it? He was flying as SLF (despite being a pilot) and SLF rant on this forum frequently
Have you read the security threads,T5, or more recently the BA thread on upsetting premium pax? The OP had a good rant on there but wasn't criticised by fellow Pax. The OP had good points on that one and so does JJ on this. Just because he is a pilot doesn't make his post less valid or up for ridicule.
JJ I'm CC and you should not have had to put up with this behaviour. The fact you walked to the galley to get your water for whatever reason should have flagged up a few questions from the CC like why you needed it/if your OK/just thirsty? If it's to take medication they should be investigating further as to whether the pax is fit to fly
I remember once just dishing out water when asked only to find on the taxi a pax having a heart attack. He wanted the water to take his aspirin which he thourght might help and get him to destination. Lesson learned for me there.
There is no excuse for giving you water with bad grace. The fact these two were gossiping in the galley when boarding a A340 demonstrates they didn't have enough to do anyway IMHO.
Personally I treat all pax the same because I don't know who I have on board. It could be a CAA/DFT inspector, Crew from another/my own carrier, management from my own company or Joe Public who has paid the lowest fare to fly. They all deserve t be treated with courtesy and respect
However this is a written forum where only the written word is visible so if your feeling a bit peeved as JJ is then it may have been passed him by. As for a rant? This is the SLF forum isn't it? He was flying as SLF (despite being a pilot) and SLF rant on this forum frequently
Have you read the security threads,T5, or more recently the BA thread on upsetting premium pax? The OP had a good rant on there but wasn't criticised by fellow Pax. The OP had good points on that one and so does JJ on this. Just because he is a pilot doesn't make his post less valid or up for ridicule.JJ I'm CC and you should not have had to put up with this behaviour. The fact you walked to the galley to get your water for whatever reason should have flagged up a few questions from the CC like why you needed it/if your OK/just thirsty? If it's to take medication they should be investigating further as to whether the pax is fit to fly
I remember once just dishing out water when asked only to find on the taxi a pax having a heart attack. He wanted the water to take his aspirin which he thourght might help and get him to destination. Lesson learned for me there.
There is no excuse for giving you water with bad grace. The fact these two were gossiping in the galley when boarding a A340 demonstrates they didn't have enough to do anyway IMHO.
Personally I treat all pax the same because I don't know who I have on board. It could be a CAA/DFT inspector, Crew from another/my own carrier, management from my own company or Joe Public who has paid the lowest fare to fly. They all deserve t be treated with courtesy and respect
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the BA thread on upsetting premium pax? The OP had a good rant on there but wasn't criticised by fellow Pax.
Having said that, I agree with you that no one should receive rude service as the OP describes.
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My tuppence worth....
CDG-ZRH - C- Great service onboard, hated the gate at CDG, the armpit of all star alliance gates.
ZRH-LAX - F - Absolutely outstanding
LHR-ZRH - C - Great service, love the BD Great British Lounge.
ZRH - CPH - C - Great service, too much champagne in the ZRH lounge tho
ZRH-JFK-ZRH - C - Great service, horrible seats on the 332 although I think they now operate the new 333 on most JFK flights.
CDG-ZRH - C- Great service onboard, hated the gate at CDG, the armpit of all star alliance gates.
ZRH-LAX - F - Absolutely outstanding
LHR-ZRH - C - Great service, love the BD Great British Lounge.
ZRH - CPH - C - Great service, too much champagne in the ZRH lounge tho
ZRH-JFK-ZRH - C - Great service, horrible seats on the 332 although I think they now operate the new 333 on most JFK flights.
