Abusing the airline staff

[Dontcomeflyeithme]

Why is this such a big thing these days? It seems to be the same throughout all customer service roles.

We we're going on holiday this evening and witnessed a fully grown woman on our flight throwing a raging hissy fit at the cabin staff.

The reason for this was, the staff were moving a disabled person into the window seat to allow her to sit with her partner.

The woman refused to let them use the seat beside her and demanded the staff tell her why they were moving someone.

The staff explained that she had no right to know this other person's personal information. This resulted in a 10 minute screaming match.

Never in my life have I witnessed something so crazy. As far as I could tell she looked completely sober.

Then you had idiots shouting at the staff as there was no space directly above their head for the cases. What do people expect when they come on later?

What are these people hoping to achieve?

I can’t answer your question. I think it’s a reflection of the nasty slippery slope that society is going down.

ln this particular case, the carriage of any passenger is at the discretion of the captain. I’d like to see them refuse to fly people more who won’t respect staff including cabin crew and ground staff.

I work in a&e, there has been a real escalation in physically violent and verbally abusive behaviour over the last few years in general.

I was flying home from New York a couple of years ago. A woman behind me was asleep with a blanket on and the crew, unfortunately had to wake her because her seat belt wasn't visible and the sign was on.

She went absolutely bananas and was arrested when we landed which sadly was 3 whole hours later. The announcement said make sure seat belt is visible so we don't have to disturb you.

Totally uncalled for. I think most of them are drunk or on something.

I think more people are demanding and on the edge of their tether.

Yep DD was cabin crew and some of the stories she told were awful. Not just anger and aggression but so much inappropriate behaviour from men.

There are too many entitled people in the world now sadly. Selfish and self centred folks, thinking people who work in customer service or civil service are there to ‘serve’ them. They ‘use their words’ to say what they like because it’s a free country and they can.
Honestly it’s a terrible reflection on our society that there is so little thought of other people or how the actions and words of one person can affect others.
People should be held accountable and treated appropriately like this awful woman who should have been arrested on landing for being so rude and obstructive in that situation.

I work in an airport.

We see some absolutely disgusting behaviour.

I've also had it directed straight to me.

And it's not always the people you'd expect it to be either!

I can’t answer your question. But I guess we don’t know their story. I use the contents of my carryon on the flight, and I check everything I don’t need. On a short haul flight it might be just the size of a bum bag, and long haul I may need a bigger bag. It would annoy me if I had to trek up and down every time I needed something and it would also mean I block the aisle, but I get the impression that’s not the case here.

You’d think with the chance of being filmed and called a ‘Karen’ online it would put them off causing a scene. I think they just enjoy the attention.

I'd have filmed it and put it on social media with the caption "do you know this woman?"

It's time to name and shame these arseholes and the airlines should have them arrested when they touchdown.

I’ve no idea, but in 2023 I flew to the DR & a couple of people got so blind drunk and they were F’ing and jeffing, physically lashing out, hit crew & other passenger. The pilot came out, they were handed a document, read their rights and one more peep and we were being diverted for their arrest. It’s actually quite scary. They were arrested on landing in DR.

Sorry I’m not quite sure I understand. No the woman shouldn’t have had a tantrum. However are you saying the disabled woman hadn’t booked a seat next to her travelling partner so just expected everyone else to move to accommodate her?
I sometimes feel really irritated that other people can’t think these things through so I have to change what I am doing.

99% of the time, I refuse to move to a worse seat, I fly a lot for work and pay extra for a preferred seat. If asked to move for a disabled person, or small child, I would.

Was this a case of hissy woman having paid to book a specific seat, and disabled woman & partner not having booked? There's no excuse for being abusive to staff but I wouldn't blame someone for politely refusing to move in those circumstances.

I agree there's no need for shouting and swearing. I can understand someone being upset at being moved if they've planned and paid for a specific seat. Often travelling means losing sleep, you don't know whether they have a fear of flying, etc. and all these things have a cumulative effect.

@JustMyView13 where's DR?

It's not a new thing, it's just that everyone has phones and videos altercations these days. I've been flying for work since 1996 and have seen abusive and aggressive people since that time.

Dominic Republic and quite honestly it’s the cheap Caribbean with some charter flights. Sister went a few years ago and she said the behaviour onboard was embarrassing. People drinking at the airport, filling up further on the plane and then either falling asleep, being sick or kicking off often with the people they were with or when they didn’t work with others around them who told them to keep it down.

When arrested I suspect they claim they don’t like flying or have mental health issues!

@Needtosoundoffandbreathe Dominican Republic

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.