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?

Clearly nobody was inconvenienced in this case though, and I'd have to say that if someone acted like this around this "disabled lady" the airline staff wouldn't have needed to tolerate it - I'd have put her in her place without any trouble.

@PhilippaGeorgiou They certainly did put her in her place, as did all the people around her, much to my delight.

Why so hostile? It’s this level of impatience and tendency to look for an argument at the slightest thing which makes conflict so much more common.

Unless I’ve missed it, at no point has this poster #BeenKind. They’ve literally just said they can understand some of the frustration of air travel.

I’ve never had money taken by Amazon until my stuff was on its way. But anyway, I suppose I see that as different from not getting your prebooked airline seat. If you order a washing machine from Argos and they can’t fulfill your order, you can buy one from somewhere else. Whereas if you prebook a window seat with extra leg room, and you end up stuck in a middle seat with no legroom, you can hardly get off and just go to another airline going the same way. And Argos are reliant on other people to supply their products, but airlines (should) know exactly how many of each seat they have on their planes and how many are available.

but airlines (should) know exactly how many of each seat they have on their planes.

That's an it depends.

A few airlines run just one varient of one type.

OTOH some airlines have multiple type, and then sometimes several varients within a type.

Type/varient to be used on a route is usually decided weeks/months before date of flight but just sometimes if e.g. an aircraft breaks you can get a type/varient change at the last minute which can stuff up the seating plan.

Sure. If something happens which is outside of their reasonable control, like repairs meaning that a different aircraft is suddenly needed for a particular route, then that’s one thing. I see that as being like Argos being let down by their suppliers. If there are no aircraft changes, then it’s different and that’s the airline’s fault and they should deliver what they contracted to deliver.

Sorry, this wasn't an invitation to brag. It was a scheduled flight, Manchester to London, not a charter to Ayia Napa. Nice swerve of the question though.

Believe me, you can get obnoxious behaviour in Business Class as well.

I remember being on a Virgin Atlantic flight to Jamaica years ago, 2007 I think, when someone was smoking in the toilets. The pilot made an announcement that if they found out who was doing it then the person would be arrested on arrival, possibly put in jail, and banned from all airlines so have to find another way home. 😳 I don't even know if it is possible to get someone banned from all airlines but the threat seemed to work cause there were no more reports of smoking in the toilets.

That happened to me. I spent a whole day prepping Sunday lunch for a couple I'd invited over. Then the morning cooking it.
They never showed up and their phones were switched off.
I ran into them some time later and asked why they didn't show up. They just shrugged. I certainly didn't bother to contact them again. People have the manners of pigs these days.

She sure didn't sound sober though.

@RumNotRun

I don't even know if it is possible to get someone banned from all airlines

I'm a bit out of the loop nowadays but I"ve never heard of any mechanism that would allow that.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) have floated the idea on occasions in the context of passenger misbehaviour but I don't think it has ever gone beyond a discussion item.

They just shrugged

What the actual.........Who behaves like this, FFS.

I generally get given a glass of champagne on the plane no matter what time of day. Doesn't turn me into a badly behaved oaf

Nor me. Mind you, the time I flew business on Air France, which had in a deeply French way failed to register my request for a vegetarian meal, and the apologetic cabin crew gave me a couple of apples and bread rolls and an entire bottle of champagne, I also didn’t start fights or puke in the aisle.

@MichaelandKirk I have to know, was your dog okay? How awful 😢

Our dog was OK. They punched it and gave it a few kicks and then locked it in a room with a Mars bar they had. Why didn’t they just throw the chocolate bar in the room. Why the punches and kicks? Totally feral.

@MichaelandKirk you're not wrong, they are scum and a literal waste of oxygen.

According to GOV UK they could have been removed from the plane.