Aviator

The incidences of abusive pax far outweighs that of crew attitude and some pax try the patience of even the most seasoned flight attendant. There are some real jerks around.

Some points to remember when flying; failing to comply with instructions from a member of the flight crew is an offence, being drunk on an aircraft is an offence, being abusive to flight crew is an offence, the captain has handcuffs on the flight deck, can and will use them if necessary, many flights have air marshalls on now, not individuals to me messed with. This is all at the discretion of the captain. An aircraft can be diverted to the nearest airport in extreme cases and the person causing the problem may get the bill, even banned from flying. Anyone considered abusive may be met by the police at their destination. None of this makes the pax popular with their fellow travelers.

I had a situation on a flight, we diverted, nothing I could have done would have been close to what the guys wife said she was going to do to him (that was after she got him out of jail). I guess their vacation was cut short, we refused to carry them back and they had to buy a new ticket home with another carrier.

Oh the good old days!

Oink

But you have to admit the customer service level of the flight attendants and check-in people has become much more officious over the last 30 or so years. The Americans were always a bit stroppy but they seem to have taken 9/11 as an excuse to gain power through a less than warm attitude. As you rightly point out some passengers can be quite obnoxious although I suspect they always were.

The4BellsLondon

I dont think you have ever been allowed to open and consume your duty free purchases on the plane - yes you can eat and drink food and non alcoholic beverages that you have bought in the airport airside shops eg starbucks, boots etc,, but not the DF - it says so on the bottle, in the shop and in the plane info and magazines!

and TBH from you comments - you do sound like a mammary gland, yes its annoying when things dont go to plane, but hey ho it's life!

Aviator

I recall checking my mother in on a flight I was taking out that night. My uniform was not visible under my overcoat, so there was no visible indication I worked for the airline. We went the special assistance desk and waited patiently for her to finish the person in front and help my mother. After she finished with them she walked off, without a word for coffee break and left us standing there. I could not leave my mother on her own as she was a bit scatty, she was in a right panic, terrified hoped she would miss her flight. I could guarantee she would not miss the flight, it was going nowhere without me.

The flight left late, never did see that special assistance clerk again!

Have had to cuff pax before now too.

Third6

Mojovibe, nothing you have said has made me think any different than my original post. I recently left a job in a cinema where I encountered idiots much like yourself on a daily basis. Shouting and screaming at me for things completely out with my control. If you've honestly spoken to different people about this situation then it must have been all your closest friends who are as easily irritated as yourself. Must be great thinking you're above everyone else, huh?

If rubbish like that honestly irks you then you need to chill the f out. Who actually cares?? I fly with CA because they're cheap and get me to where I wanna be, If I wanted some top class airline I'd fly with someone else. I'm so sick fed up of upper class morons claiming "bad customer service" because they don't get free stuff at their peril. Customer service assistants have become a bit "stroppy" with customers because a majority of customers treat them like complete shite, just because you're behind a uniform doesn't mean you're an idiot.

mojovibe

I don't care what you think about me or what my attitude is, the reason being is because I don't know you and don't particularly want to. I'll bet that you go through life thinking that if you wear a uniform in your job, you can speak to and treat paying customers like they're there for you, not the other way round. When you had your job as a cinema usherette you probably didn't realise that it would involve speaking to people. When someone asks for directions to the toilet, they're not asking for something free and they're certainly not being an idiot, or being clever with you. If you think by standing my ground with a nasty gobby slag who has no idea whatsoever about customer service makes me an upper class idiot, then maybe its a good thing that you no longer work in the customer service industry. Maybe your better suited just going round to your neighbours houses every day when their trying to attend to their chores and moaning about everything in life, and not acheiving an orgasm when your having sex. (that's if you can find someone hard up enough to give you one).

I work in the service industry and my job invloves visiting some of the finest restaurants and hotels in Britain, along with care homes, prisons, hospitals, sports stadiums, mental hospitals, and health farms. Can you imagine the abuse I sometimes encounter from some of the proprietors, managers, and chefs? some of which are tv celebrities. Especially when I have to shut down their kitchens due to a major gas safety issue. I wouldn't dream of answering them back, not because I think their actions are correct, its because I know how to handle and deal with a highrate customer. Especially when they pay the bill to the firm where I work, that in turns means me having a job and getting a wage out of it.

I have had food and knives thrown at me, chefs try to to strangle me, and threaten to kill me because their equipment has stopped working. Its all in a days work but because I know about assertiveness and how to defend myself when the abuse starts to get physical, I can handle any such situation and don't complain like you did. Infact the said places always request for me to visit to do the repairs. When my customers ask me about my trips, I tell them them about the situation, and they agree with my actions wholly, as do my friends. Infact I will leave it to your imagination what they said what they would have done in the same situaton.

I'm not condoning their actions, but its part of my job to sometimes deal with and diffuse awkward situations. If I complained about it, I would be as bad as you complaining that you had to do your job that you chose to do, which in turn you wasn't any good at. So you packed it in because you couldn't do it and you certainly wasn't cut out for it, and neither was the gobby stroppy slag that offended me with her lack of assertiveness. This "bad," experience that you had with work will probably affect you for the rest of your life, and will probably mean you not being able to hold a job down for very long. There's a name for people like you... lazy b******s and useless c***s.

I didn't bother to assert myself in the said situation because I didn't feel it necessary as I had no idea that I was in the wrong, and she failed to let me know of that fact. She just jumped straight on her high horse with her strop to a paying customer who in turn couldn't beleive her attitude, so I decided to let her know about it with the same attitude. Not even the police speak to people in such a way and they are warranted to take control of situations much worse than less misdemeaners. I wouldn't reccomend Canadian Affair/Thomas Cook to any one who wanted more than third class airline, or who couldn't get a ticket from a decent airline.

Anyway "rubbish" like that as you so call it, will continue to "irk" me. So in the meantime I will, continue to chill after I have dealt with such "rubbish" including you.

tomtatew

I have used Canadian Affair on a number of ocasions and found them to be polite and helpful. Even when I have been booking on line and phoned with a querie they were very polite.

We flew here on April 20th, Gatwick to Halifax NS, £670for both of us including insurance. Air Canada was about twice the price and with two dogs it would have been around £4k. With Air Transat through Canadian Affair and Ladyhaye who moved the dogs it was around £2,300. Great.

GingerYank

Ooh, the travel industry. Enjoy your new life in Canada!

mojovibe

Yes I am aware of rules and regulations on flights regarding the FBI, the CIA, Adolf Hitler, the police, the devil, and stroppy flight attendants. Like I said in my other post I didn't know that I couldn't consume my own food and drink anymore until getting on that particular flight. I don't normally drink when I'm flying because I usually pick up a car at the airport, otherwise I get picked up. On one of my flights to Cleveland some years ago, I had a few tins of Tetleys smooth in my hand luggage as a gift to a friend of mine. I took one out for a drink, and one of the flight attendants cadged one off me because they couldn't get them in the US at that time. As I have been more aware of drink driving laws in the last 17 years than I ever have been. I didn't usually drink when the booze was complimentary. On this occasion I was in the wrong but I was treat like I had committed murder, when infact it was ignorance on my behalf but the airline operator failed to remind about the consumption of own alcohol, and other things as the tannoy had broke. And to be honest I've never read the label on anything that I've been used to consuming for years, so if it says not to be consumed during flight, I wouldn't have read or noticed it. I probably saw a label which has the usual not to be sold, or at least expected it to state that so I didn't bear it any mind.

All it would've taken was a simple, "excuse me but can I just remind you that it is forbidden to consume your own alcohol on this flight, could you please kindly refrain from consuming anymore and putting it back in the overhead compartment. I would've had no problem at all with that whatsoever, that is how I would have approached the situation in my job any way. But instead I got a hard "oi you, don't you drink your own alcohol on this plane, if you don't stop this minute and continue to do so I will confiscate it and you won't get it back!, it was clearly stated on the tannoy before take off so you have no excuse!" When in fact the tannoy was broken along with other things, and both my partner and me couldn't hardly hear what was being said. I was about to put it back in the overhead compartment, when she came over guns ablazing.

Using a mobile phone and any wireless comms device is a far more serious offence, it can potentially bring the plane down, but some people still persist to use them when the plane is in flight. When the plane broke down in Calgary airport back in May 2010, there was a young lass sat behind me using her mobile quite casually but at the same time trying to hide it from the everyone. I asked her politely if she wouldn't mind turning her phone off as she was making me nervous that her phone might cause further problems to the one in hand. She just looked at me like I was stupid and carried on using it. The flight attendant had been notified by someone else aswell as me of this, and when she approached the lass and assertively asked her to refrain from using it, she denied using it and continued to use it when the flight attendant had sat back down. So nothing got done about it and she carried on using it.

Then in turn the lass accused me of being a grass along with a load of other abuse. The flight attendant came back over and told me someone had complained about me swearing, when in fact it was the lass behind me with her attiude. I just told her not to speak to me in that way and not to call me a twat, and if she had any value for the safety for herself and everyone else on the plane, she would do the right thing and stop using it. I couldn't beleive it. So I informed the flight attendant what had actually happened, and I was backed up by the person who had made the complaint to the flight attendant in the first place. Later on when we were getting off the plane, the attendant had a brief word with me and applogised for her mistake, I told her that I understood that she was doing her job, and could only act on the information given to her, and it was a good thing that she took the time to listen and didn't come over guns ablazing and resolved the matter in a professional manner.

Now that is a example of assertiveness and good customer service. Seems like she knows how to excell herself and make peoples journey a comfortable one. It would seem she's wasted working for TC airlines, unlike the stroppy cow that thought she owned the plane and was picking up hitchikers and naughty children who can't do as their told.

mojovibe

You could consume your own food and drink a few years ago on flights. They have slowly deceptively changed the rules about drinks to create a captive audience to inrease their profits. There are security systems available that can detect the prescence of volatile fluids that should be in place by now. So the fact that their saying that liquids can't be brought through because of the fact that their equipment can't pick it up. Has allowed the airlines to pick up on this and charge what they like for booze. If anyone drinks to excess on a plane it is understandable that they should be dealt with for obvious reasons. But if they are really that worried about some people drinking to excess, they would ban alcohol altogether like they have with smoking.

I have got friends that have given up drinking over 25 years ago, due to the fact that only a small quantity of alcohol such as a pint or more, caused them to be aggressive and get into troble. So they were mature enough to eventually realise this and stopped drinking all together. All it would take on a plane is for someone with the same body chemistry and not realise it as yet that they have the same problem, to have a couple of drinks and then kick off. This is a potentially threatening risk that has either been overlooked, or a risk assessment has been carried out and come back as a low risk. So this is still alowing alcohol at an average prescribed dose of around two pints, to be sold on planes at an extortionate price to a captive audience, and still carries a risk of someone kicking off. This is why they don't like people drinking their own booze because it affects their profits and potential bad behaviour.

I dont read labels and instructions on bottles of booze, I already know how to use them. I wasn't aware of not being allowed to consume alcohol on planes anymore, as its not something I do on a regular basis. I was bored and with just about everthing being broke, especially the tannoy which we had informed them about we just got a dumb smile with a reply of alright then, and a half tin of lager being around the £4.00 mark or more I was totally disgusted. I didn't realise that I was doing anything wrong until the stroppy slag jumped on her high horse guns ablazing. If you think her attitude is justified then more the fool you. I'm not complaining about not being able to drink duty free, I don't have a problem with that, but I have a big problem with bad unprofessional holier than thou attitudes form people who aren't cut out to do certain jobs.

I wonder how you would sound when someone is being out of order and stroppy with you when you were unnaware of commiting a misdemeaner or any other act commited out of ignorance? Let me guess... you'd just sit there and put up with it, and give them a nice big gratuity tip and thank them very much for it. And tell them whenever they fancy venting their spleen in the future to come and see you anytime of day or night. You would sound like a total prostately glandular peice of flesh of the male anatomy if you were condone and put up with such an attitude.

The continuing ever increasing softness of the consuming public that no longer take back faulty goods and services never ceases to amaze me. Then they wonder why life is getting so expensive and unreliable.

Sue

mojovibe,

I understand you are upset, but some of your posts above are getting very, very, very close to stepping over the line (probably on the line). Calling other BE posters names, and another person a "slag" isn't the way to win friends and influence people.

Thanks

ann m

There is so much in this extremely offensive and personal attack against Third6 that I don't know which bit to quote first. Reporting you was my starting point however and I don't mind you knowing it.

Gentle ribbing, taking the mickey and general disagreement are all part and parcel of a forum like this.

You have gone waaaaay beyond trying to defend your actions and your attitude to life - and in doing so, just confirm what most of us thought of you in the first place. I am somehow not surprised that chefs have thrown knives at you.

Now on ignore list.

krasy

personally the more response that is given to movojibe the more you are giving ammunititon i personally would never have the time to sit and write essays like that maybe best to agree to disagree?? I only started the thread to explain that the tour operator prices were more expensive than travelsupermarket which i found surprising I have had good customer service with airtransat no complaints at all I have flew with worse............

lmartin999

Can we somehow pass mojovibes info and posts to CIC, CATSA and the CBSA to make sure he never gets back into Canada? Fingers crossed your application to move here gets thrown out. I can only assume the whole persona and posts are a wind-up as I dont think anyone can actually think and behave like this

lmartin999

Classic