“You’re Incompetent.”

Posted in A Day in the Life of a Flight Attendant | 11 comments

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I’ve been writing a lot about winter weather in the recent weeks and with good reason. It seems to be that a snow storm is scheduled for every Tuesday and Wednesday along the east coast of US this winter. Airlines have cancelled a record amount of flights stranding passengers in airports across the country.

I had the “pleasure” of working a relief flight into Washington DC last week after a storm. Generally speaking the passengers on board were happy, calm and glad to be going home. Except for one.

We were just about finished boarding, and there was roughly 5 to 6 passengers still in the jet bridge waiting to board. One of them was giving the gate agent a hard time about having to check his carryon bag since we were out of room.

The gate agent asked me if I could explain to him that we’ve fit the bags for 140 people but unfortunately we were out of space for the last 10 passengers to bring their belongings on board. As I started to explain the situation to the passenger one of the other flight attendants started to bring bags that didn’t fit forward. For some reason the passenger had the idea that we were checking bags from the overhead bin to create space for his luggage. Not so much.

In a fury after the agents took his bags he stormed onto the plane and as he made his way down the aisle he opened every single bin. Standing at the exit row was another one of my crewmembers about to brief the passengers. He pointed at her face and yelled “you’re so fu***** incompetent!” She quickly replied, “excuse me?”

“You have one job, and one job only during boarding and that’s to create space for luggage and you can’t even handle that!”

She didn’t respond. I don’t know how she didn’t, I would have lost my cool.

He then continued down the aisle until he reached the back galley. There, he repeated his rant and called my other crewmember “incompetent.”

From the front of the aircraft I had noticed the confrontation at the exit row and proceeded down the aisle to ask my FA what had taken place. As she was retelling me what the passenger had said I could overhear, from the back, him yelling at my other crewmember.

I made my way to the back, interrupted his tirade, and asked to see his boarding pass. I called the passenger by his name and asked “is there a problem I can help you with?”

He looked away from me and proceeded to yell at my other crewmember. I called him by his name again. And, this time added “is there an issue with my crew that I can assist with? I’m trying to understand why you’re so upset.”

He began to tell me that every time he flies he has to check his bags and he’s tired of “lazy” flight attendants who are to (you guessed it) incompetent to do the simple task of making room.

I explained to the passenger that we fit the bags for 140 people on board and my crew worked diligently to fit as many bags as they could in the bins before declaring them full. I also noted that his boarding pass listed him in boarding group “A” and should he had boarded with his group he would have had space and avoided this problem. I apologized for the weather in DC (not that I had to), for the lack of space (again not that I had to) and told him that I “understood” why he was upset but I also added that if he had any further issues with my crew to take it up with me and not with them.

His face turned red as if he was about to explode. “But, that doesn’t fix the problem that I have to deal with incompetent flight attendants for the rest of this trip! You people are fu***** useless.”
“Oh, I can fix that problem, Sir.” I quickly replied. “Please grab your bag and come with me.”

“No! I’m not leaving!” he yelled.

“Actually, you are. I’m sorry, but if you continue to act in the manner that you are you won’t be flying with us today. Not to mention you’re yelling at my crewmembers for a situation beyond their control.”

As I walked up to the front of the plane with the passenger to applause from the cabin. The gate agent responded, “he’s not going… is he?” — “Nope.” I replied. “I’m sorry, but I’m not dealing with him for the next 5 hours. There’s 149 other people on board who require attention, assistant and service and he’ll take up the majority of our flight time.”

This situation makes me wonder.. As passengers, have you ever witnessed a fellow passenger be to stern and/or upset and irate with a crewmember. Have you ever gotten involved? What did you do or say?

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  • http://twitter.com/ptahcha p-tah::cha

    Good for your for standing up to the rude passenger! You should have bitch-slapped the guy like on Airplane!.

    • Anonymous

      Hear, hear! I wish:

      a) he would have his money refunded, his frequent flyer account closed (no doubt he has a substantial balance if he’s in Group A), be told he would never fly again on your airline, and

      b) he could be blacklisted from flying on any U.S. airline for some period of time.

      I’ve seen some a**holes on flights, but never anyone that bad. Anyway, good on you for getting him off your flight. Your job is tough enough without having to put up with self-important jackasses like him.

  • Cedarglen

    As I began reading this post, my thoughts were leaning toward, ‘Why don’t you toss this *sshol* off the airplane and make the trip a lot easier for the other 100+ pax. At that moment, I did not know that you had about 150 seats. Good Move! In my view, it (Refusal or Carriage) ought to happen more often. If this jerk was, in fact removed from the airplane, CONGRATULATIONS. The FAs do not need that crap – and neither do the other 149 pax, regardless of ticket class. You already know that your captains will support you in these decisons. Your gate agents may not be thrille becasue the Alpha Hotel then becomes their problem. That said, useing the removal tool a bit more often might improve the environment for the rest of us – a lot. Thanks for standing up for the rest of us.

    Of note on FA blogs: I’m a far too frequent flyer, from a family of crews and flyers. While not a pilot or FA, I fly enough that paying attention to details is worth the effort. In my experience, the pilot blogs provide valuable background and helpful details for PAX. More oftehn than not, FA blogs just bitch about bad PAX. You may want to keep that in mind.

    Thanks for your great work and a sometimes amusing blog, Cg

  • http://mhaithaca.livejournal.com/ MHA

    Bravissimo! (And, heh… “Alpha Hotel.”)

  • Cedarglen

    I’m glad to hear that a few others hold similar thoughts. Would this Jerk have disturbed the flight? Who knows? He has already disturbed the FAs to a degree of concern and If I had been near him, me too. At least during the boading process, what is wrong with sit doen, buckle up and Shut Up? If a staffer says that you carry on must be checked, the Damn Bag MUST be checked. There are not three negotiable alternatives and the airplane is not moving until you comply. At this late moment, you can check the bag as re quested of got off the damn airplane. I wonder what part of that simple statement the Alpha Hotel did not understand – seems pretty clear-cut to me. One most also add that 90+% of PAX behavior issues are related to alcohol consumption, before boarding or in-flight. Drink all you like folks, but do not do it on the airplane. If really necessary, perhaps ONE is enough? In the unlikley event of of an “Unplanned Event,” that requires an evacuation of the aircraft, the drunk Alpha Hotel is going to be last one off the airplace. I promise.
    If one must fly, just pretend that it is the old days! Behave like a gentleman (or lady) and y our flight will be a pleasant experience. Nuff Said.
    _Oh Yes, as a frequent PAX, the crew has my absolute support when removing and Alpha Hotel PAX, and even if it delays us a few minutes. What is ten minutes from a 5 hour flight. We’ll all be happier with this Jerk OFF the airplane. Gc

  • http://twitter.com/brandonwberg Brandon Berg

    I absolutely appreciate that you took control of the situation as the lead FA on the flight. I have definitely witnessed situations where passengers get rather angry and actually I have witnessed fellow passengers be the ones to stick up for the FAs. I have never had to get too involved other than replying to a seat-mate who was ‘commenting loudly’ and letting it be known that I didn’t agree with them. Upon realizing that they didn’t have the support of fellow passengers, people will often shut up. :)

  • Joelfreak

    First, let me say you were 100% right in what you did. However, what I have seen happening lately on ALOT of airlines is FA’s announcing the need to gate check before even 1/2 the plane has boarded, almost in the hopes of ‘thinning out’ whats left to board. People trust this, and then I see planes leave with empty bins. Again, what THIS guy did is over the top, but remember that alot of crews are not as truthful as you guys, and unfortunately people group FA’s together.

    • Bobby

      It’s true. Some bad apples set the bar for the rest of us. Just realize there are some out there who love their jobs and do it as well as they can.

  • Krista C

    Kudos to you Bobby!! I had a passenger tell me to check the crew’s luggage (my plane doesn’t have a closet for our bags). I was speechless, I couldn’t even figure out what to say to that one!

    • Bobby

      Ha! A while back there was someone who wrote in the USA Today that we should travel with less bags and not use the bins..

  • stephaniej

    I was already throwing him off when I read “You have one job, and one job only during boarding and that’s to create space for luggage and you can’t even handle that!”