I was recently reading an article on Budget Travel.com’s website where they had a current “experienced” flight attendant give her opinions on what annoyed or made her job difficult, which then made your experience less than friendly. Some of the things that she listed made sense, others too me, seemed to be listed out of common occurrence which probably is what led to the article in the first place.
She started the article with the annoyance of those who bring their pet onto the plane and then proceed to not follow the FAA regulations of leaving them in their pet traveling case. I totally agree with this attendant in this case. We have come into an age where there are too many “older” women, yes women, who believe that they can let princess or Dolce run amuck and not keep them inside the carrier. Now, I am a pet owner and I still agree with the above statements. I have traveled with my puppy, when we first got her, on a flight and she remained in the case under the seat in front of me for the ENTIRE flight. (She lived by the way) She’s now 60 pounds and will no longer be traveling with me, but even if she still could, I would follow this rule.
The next gripe from the flight attendant is about “those” passengers who run to form a line in the terminal only to board the plane out of order, stick their overhead baggage in the first available bin they see and then continue to the back of the plane where their seat is located. This for me and I’m sure many others out there is very outraging, but the flight attendants solution to this problem would probably outrage me even more if I was put in this situation. The attendant stated that she has sent bags to “cargo,” and she admitted she was doing this out of spite and then taking joy in making this person do extra work to go get this bag that was now in the hands of the airline gods/goddesses. What would happen if this passenger flipped out, missed a connecting flight, lost their baggage, or needed emergency meds? What would the flight attendant or the airline say then…Anything? Anyone?
Now, her next point is a personal pet peeve of mine, but that may be because I’m biased because I am without children. However, I have 8 nieces and nephews so I’ve been around plenty of children and understand what acceptable behavior should and should not entail, so I feel as though I’m allowed to speak on the subject. I back the flight attendant 100% when she says that parents shouldn’t take their flight as a free space where they can pretend that their children are not their own. If you are on a flight watch your children and what they are doing. Not everybody thinks little Susie or Billy are the cutest, greatest thing they’ve ever seen in their lives. Don’t put it on me to tell your child to not kick my chair incessantly or scream at the top of their lungs because their matchbox car rolled to the back of the plane because it fell while we were taking off! Leave all the junk under the plane: toys, little nibbles of food, etc. because they are only going to lead to more annoyances for the rest of us. I’m not saying to not bring them on the trip out of town, I’m saying don’t bring them out on the plane. If your kid can’t last (and behave) on a 4 hour flight across the country without having his Nintendo DS, he has a problem and so do you.
The next issue I sort of agree with her. The reason I say sort of is because I have run into problems with my overhead luggage. Now, I’m not a crazy packer and know my limits of what I want to carry and lift. However, I stand at an amazing 5’0” and to this I say that no matter what weight my bag is if I have to juggle and shuffle other people’s belongings out of my way to make way for my appropriately sized carry-on just to accommodate it I would expect that a flight attendant seeing my struggle would assist me. She begs to differ and states that no matter what size, shape or condition you and your carry-on are in she would rather you fall and injure others than to help assist you in any way. This brings me to a previous blog I’ve written about customer service. I’m not asking for an extra bag of peanuts or for you to be in a weight lifting competition, or to even smile, however if you see me struggling and you can help me shuffle or if we can tag team the bag wouldn’t that be the appropriate thing to do, but I digress.
The next two complaints she has I completely disagree with, because I don’t think that it’s really an issue, for her. She states that she cannot stand the people who complain and whine about missing out on the exit row or those who complain about paying too much for their cross country flight. I’d have to believe that by the time someone is sitting in their seat and buckled in ready to take off that they would have got most of their complaining out of the way. Well, first you have your family to tell about your seat and the cost it’s taking to get to see them. Then, you have the booking agent who checks your ID’s and hands you your ill-fated ticket, as well as the gate agent who you stare down with your red daggered eyes. Hey, you even have your seat buddy who is 3 times too big for the seat he’s in which prompts you to remember that you didn’t get that seat you wanted or the fact that you overpaid for your seat, so why is he spilling into it…I’d have to believe after all the complaining to these filler people that by the time you saw your flight attendant and she was asking you what beverage you wanted you would have been out of complaints and simply stated Jack and Coke and they would have replied $10 dollars, too which you would have then had a legitimate fight.
Her last complaint gets on my nerves. “Act like you don't know the meaning of the words "under the seat in front of you." I completely understand what it means when they tell me to shove my $300 purse under the seat in front of me having everyone step on the straps and trip over the pieces that stick out of the sides because airplanes have magically shrunken in the last 10 years. I completely understand that my Ipod, Kindle, Cell Phone, and Wallet will all be smashed because it is completely nonsense that I could easily have put this in the overhead bin, but wait not one of the attendants would help me or there wasn’t enough room because they decided to be ruthless when it came to the idea of sharing. However, to me it seems that no matter how much I kick, push, jab or squish my small purse in tiny space in the seat in front of me, I somehow always find the flight attendant annoyed at how it slightly pokes out. If you don’t like it, fix it yourself.
Now, this blog wasn’t meant to be a rant, however when you think about it, just interacting with airlines these days causes the need to insure yourself. If you’re on a flight where the attendant “misplaces” your bag and you need your stuff once you arrive at your destination do you want to be stuck with the bill? What about, the chance of you throwing out your back trying to lift your luggage into the overhead bin that they refuse to help you with, because it’s not in their “job description?”
