Abusing the airline staff

These are someone’s child.

So if you have a 30 year old being a knob there must have been crap parenting within the 60 yr old ish consortium as well.

I think this is the result of an increase in individualism. We see on here that people who are kind and considerate of others are labelled people pleasers, pushovers etc when actually all they are being is ‘nice people’. But this seems to be considered a weakness now.

The natural consequence of that is that people become more selfish and when their needs aren’t met, they don’t look at the bigger picture but dig their heels in instead. Of course most of this won’t end in arguments but add the right conditions (alcohol being one of them, maybe a bad day, maybe hangry and hormones) and people are more likely to kick off because they’re so focussed on themselves.

<waits to be lambasted by all the people who think kindness is a weakness>

I think there's a bit of truth to that, booze and sometimes pills don"t help.

A lot of people are anxious flyers and how often is the advice offered on-line, including MN, something along the lines of either "take xxx", or you see comments such as "I'm fine after a couple of glasses of wine"...

Some of the crowds in airport bars might also be a manifestation of that..

And bad behaviour onboard isn't new, but as flying has boomed we see more of it, and of course these days is all captured on phones.

There is simply no respect or tolerance for any kind of authority or rules at all nowadays, along with an absolutely breathtakingly arrogant level of self obsession and entitlement.
This is perpetuated by a palpable level of over-the-top aggression underpinning society at the moment.

No matter what anyone says, no matter what ‘problem’ they have, this behaviour is a choice that people make. Poor mental health, the cost of living, etc are not excuses to behave like this. They may be reasons, but the behaviour is not acceptable. We all have a choice in how we behave. Respect, tolerance, accountability, morality, self-responsibility all seem to have fallen by the wayside.

Social media is one of the greatest toxins of the modern world. It drives, feeds and encourages shitty behaviour. There are zero consequences for behaving like a total arsehole. Intelligent people are being silenced so as not to offend stupid people. More stupid people than intelligent people are having children, and more crap parents are having more children than good parents are. It will only get worse.

I hate to see drunk people being held up by friends still managing to make it onto a flight. Staff are more focused on the size of bags.

I used to be horrified at China's social credit system, but I'm starting to think we need something similar.

Anyone who doesn't just sit down and and fuck up on public transport needs a good shoeing TBH.

We got an early morning Eurostar last weekend and there was a drunken stag party of men. They were a right PITA, shouting loudly, swapping seats, playing some sort of stupid board game in the aisle.

One of them tried to grab my thigh as I was walking past them with two hot drinks. They quietened down a bit when I said firmly and tartly "do that again and you'll get hot tea over your head and a complaint to the crew for sexual harrassment".

It depends on the airline and the disability, we always book special assistance as my husband has a physical disability, the only seat he can’t be in is the emergency exit rows. He almost always books and sits in an aisle seat.

I first started in retail over 20 years ago and you got a really difficult arsehole customer maybe twice a month if you were unlucky. Now, in the last few years it’s twice a shift or more sometimes. I mean rude, aggressive, patronising. Not even including the shoplifters…

I think there needs to be a national zero tolerance campaign. Where every business and service in every industry just boots these fuckers out and bans them for life from wherever they’ve been misbehaving: scream at someone in Sainsburys? Don’t want you back in here. Get pissed and abusive on an easyJet flight no more flying with them. Make your waitress in Wagamama’s uncomfortable with your creepy behaviour? Off you fuck. And mean it. Do the same when they kick off at hospital/school staff.

Watching all the morons getting tanked up in Weatherspoons pre-flight is something to behold.

Nobody should be allowed on a plane in that state.

To the best of my knowledge disabled passengers must sit in a window seat, so whether or not she’d booked one is irrelevant really. She might have booked an aisle seat but been moved when it became apparent she had mobility difficulty.

Regardless of that, the other passenger didn’t need to be a twat about it.

We live in Italy, and explosive, dramatic outburst are common place here. I've come to see it as a very transparent form of bullying, to get their own way. I just ignor it on the whole, which is taken as culturally odd (it's normal to shout back!) and it often descends into racism when they can't get a rise out of me.

Just yesterday, a women driving whist on her phone, smacked into a kid on a vespa sending him flying as he sat at a red traffic light. She got out and started screeming at him! Apparently he was an idiot for being in the middle of the lane, not off to one side.

Good for him! More of the same and a few stories of bans/arrests in the press might help.

So many years of being told we're not allowed to judge bad behaviour, we don't know what's going on in people's lives, etc etc. Bad behaviour should be judged, called out and receive consequences. Airlines need to start kicking people off planes (preferably after take off 😁) for drunken and/or aggressive behaviour. They need to also stop serving alcohol on board, and properly police alcohol service at airports. The thought of being caught on a flight with a drunken, abusive arsehole fills me with dread - been on a couple with stag/hen parties, loud, but luckily nothing worse, but in a restricted environment it's awful.

Whilst poor behaviour towards crew cannot be excused, the now common practice of having to pay extra to select seats on most airlines (as opposed to just the no frills ones) is definitely a factor in this. People pay £X and therefore expect to be able to sit on their chosen seat.

I fly almost weekly for work, and the biggest issue is always cabin bags/stowage. I’ve seen a middle aged business man make a very young crew member cry when she politely told him his (huge) wheelie case would need to be stowed. In this case the seasoned London/Dublin commuters rallied around her and he was shamed into apologising.

@MalleusMaleficarumm glad to hear it!

DH is a captain, people are like this all the time. He’s so fed up of it now that he will just stop people flying, nobody should be treated like that at work. Honestly some of the stories of poor behaviour you wouldn’t believe!

We recently returned from a short break in Europe. Flew with Ryanair - aware not everyone is a fan, but it is crystal clear when booking what you have paid for, and that any extras require additional payment.

Incoming flight - I had booked seats together for 3 teens (in one block) and me (first seat opposite across aisle). Get on to find woman causing merry hell, shouting and screaming that her 14yr old was in a seat a few rows away; refusing to put her carry-on in the locker and being verbally abusive to crew. Eventually calmed down enough to sit and as luck would have it was next to me. I was politely asked by crew if I would consider moving seats to enable her 14yr old to sit next to her. I (also politely) declined, as I had paid to ensure I was sitting with my party - 2 of us nervous fliers, plus 1 has some medical issues which benefit from adult supervision during flight. Would have had less issues swapping seats if I’d been travelling alone.

Woman not happy at this. I observed to her that not sitting together is a chance you take, if you’ve opted not to pay for seat selection. Her 14yr old son was then moved to his final seat by crew once everyone else had boarded, (a few rows further away) and was similarly abusive to them. Was very much hoping at this point that crew refused to let them fly, but unfortunately remained on. I had the pleasure of listening to her approx 6yr old old sitting next to her game on 3 different devices, loudly (shooting) without headphones, for the remainder of the flight. Didn’t bother her though, as she had a £600 pair of noise-cancelling headphones on - perhaps bought those with all the savings from previous flights on not booking seats!

Outgoing flight - latecomers moaning that they may have had to put their carry-on in locker perhaps 1 or 2 rows away from seat, refusing to fasten seatbelts, taking the piss loudly during safety demo. Family with children getting up to swap seats and try to fetch stuff out of lockers actually as the plane was taking off on the ascent! Verbal abuse to crew who had to get them back in their seats whilst at 45 degrees.
My son had back of his seat kicked continually by approx 10yr old who was old enough to know better, whilst parent just watched her.

The rudeness to airline staff (cabin crew and on ground) seems to be worse every time I fly, but not surprised by this as I’m an NHS medic, and we see exactly this too. And the litter - when crew make 2 passes with a large bin for you to put litter in, why exactly would you choose to just drop it on the floor instead?

Any sort of altercation on a plane is my worst nightmare. I'm quite a nervous flier and really need everyone else around me to sit down and shut up so the crew can concentrate on their jobs and get me to my destination safely. Although it was quite funny when Nigel Kennedy (remember him?) and his entourage started kicking off about their seats on the way back from Prague many years ago. It was only bloody Easyjet! He tried the "don't you know who I am?" card with the captain who gave him extremely short shrift.

It doesn’t excuse it but I sometimes think on flights that it’s fear that brings out the worst in people, they have heightened emotions and use alcohol to help before taking it out on the crew.

I couldn’t do their job.

I’ve noticed poor behaviour on flights becoming more common, we need Jane Boulton on every plane.

Flying is public transport, some people seem to think they should be treated like royalty once they step on an aeroplane. I just don’t know how anyone can have the nerve to be so awful and then have to sit with the same people they have abused for hours on end.

DH and I were out for dinner last night, somewhere fairly casual, quite a lot of families with young kids. Most were well behaved but one couple had a little boy of about 4 and a girl of maybe 2, who were awful.

The little boy was drinking from the squeezy red sauce bottle, licking the top of the salt dispenser and both kids were wailing and screaming at the top of their lungs. Parents did nothing to address any of the behaviours. Dad was glued to his phone and mum was clearly a fan of "gentle parenting".

Those kids will grow up to be the abusive, nightmare customers of the future.

The last flight I was on I had a 10 year old brat kicking my upright seat for over an hour. The cabin crew were really trying to help but the mum refused to deal with him and started abusing the cabin crew for asking him to stop for the 3rd time, after I and the rest of my row repeatedly ask him to stop and her to deal with him. In the end she was barred from ever using the airline again and my entire row got moved seat and I got an upgrade to extra legroom seat as it was the only available isle seat (I need the isle seat and always pay to book it).
Honestly I'm surprised that he didn't break the seat but the fact is some people are just lazy entitled twats who think that everything should revolve around them and their spoilt entitled brats and that noone has the right to tell them how to parent their child (this gem was actually screamed at the poor aircrew) and we all know what sort of man she's raising her son to be.

From what I hear behaviour is getting
worse in schools and in society. For some reason people think they will get their own way by being rude, when often the opposite is true. Being genuinely pleasant, polite and kind, yet assertive, is far more likely to achieve what you want.

Had the pissy woman in the flight paid for the seat next to her? Was that her issue?

@Needtosoundoffandbreathe Dominican Republic

@MichaelandKirk The week prior, someone was bottled on a flight to St Lucia. I don’t think it’s destination specific.