People...

Seggy

Seggy

Well-Known Member
If you sit around in a corner of an airport for one hour you will see the best of people and the worst of people. A lot of you guys are VERY lucky out there to have been hired into a job with a door between you and the passengers. To give you an idea of what people are capable and doing during ONE flight....

As I was boarding them, I have some lady ask, "Is this plane safe?" (What do you think I am going to do fly around all day in a plane that is NOT safe?)

We have a closet that we keep our library, and crew bags. It is not really a closet but an area that is strapped up with a net. We have some woman huffing and puffing saying "I NEED to put my business suit in here for work tommorow" So she goes about MOVING our flight cases so her suit can fit. I said that we had it the way we need it to conduct a safe flight. She looks at me like I have two heads and says, "I paid 450.00 for this ticket it will be put in the closet." I then tell her "We can refund your ticket, you can drive, your garmet is going to be gate checked."

As we are dodging around level 4 and 5 thunderstorms we get a tap on the shoulder, "It is to cold back in the cabin, can you turn the heat up?"

During deplaning we have someone walk behind the wing to get their bag from the cargo hold. Even though we make numerous announcements not to.

And the FINAL one that REALLY REALLY REALLY got my blood boiling. We had an unaccompanied minor onboard this flight. I am responsible for this minor and I make sure they in my line of site during the flight. So I put them in 2A NO MATTER WHAT. I move a Chinese woman from 2A to 2F and put the minor in 2A. As we are deplaning this woman asks me, "Why did you move the Chinese woman from 2A to 2F and the minor into 2A, what happens if she refused?" So here I am thinking this idiot is either A) Going to write USAirways that the pilots are perverts and want to look at Minors B) Discriminate against Chinese people as we ask them to move rather than someone else C) WHY THE HECK IS IT THIS %$@*$ BUSINESS?

So I respond, "Miss my authority and why we do things is NONE of your business." She responds, "that is a little weird don't you think?" My response, "I HIGHLY suggest you walk inside the terminal before I call the TSA and have them ask you a few questions about why you are questioning flight crew methods."

All for one flight

People...
 
Someone once told me 'Never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance.'

Most passengers are utterly ignorant of what pilots 'do', with regard to the nuts and bolts of what happens. Hell, I was surprised when I first found out that pilots had to travel with charts - like every other sheep in the cabin, I assumed that you guys had all that stuff computerized on one of those little screens in the cockpit. (I know, the Saab isn't necessarily equipped like a 767, but most passengers assume most aircraft are the same.)

All the lady knew was that she paid for a ticket and thought she could hang her suit. So ya set her straight. The point is that she was likely not trying to irritate you.

Same with the thunderstorms - they/we (I consider myself a little more educated these days) have no idea what dodging thunderstorms really means - they simply don't understand. They're a little cold, and, they are repeatedly told by the airline "If there is anything we can do to make your flight more comfortable, just let us know." Bad timing, sure, but again - absence of malice.

Good for you on taking the minor situation so seriously. I'm always glad to see that. A simple explanation of, 'That kid is a minor and I'm responsible, so I want to be able to see him,' probably would have been sufficient and avoided a confrontation. People ask questions because they're curious. Sure, it wasn't any of that pax's business, but again - they just don't know.

Look - I know people suck - and as a heavy biz traveller I get annoyed with pax who forget that common courtesy and understanding go a long way with airline personnel. But they're operating from a position of ignorance and blind trust, really. Just trying to shed a little light here. :)
 
I hope it wasn't a passenger that tapped you on the shoulder. Yea, with Greyhound pricing your get Greyhound passengers.

Have a mechanic (in uniform) come on a flight (747) and talk to a young passenger that then deplanes and see what type of responses you get from passengers.
 
Gotta agree with KillBilly. I am also a heavy business traveler and I see it as plain ignorance as well. Luckily, I have had enough experience as military crewmember to know a few things. I always try to educate the passenger next to me when they get huffy because the pilot pounded it into the ground in a snowstorm, or we waited half an hour for a gate to open, etc….

I can see your frustration, but certainly in the case of the minor, I would have just explained why as well.
 
killbilly said:
Someone once told me 'Never attribute to malice what can be explained by ignorance.'

Most passengers are utterly ignorant of what pilots 'do', with regard to the nuts and bolts of what happens. Hell, I was surprised when I first found out that pilots had to travel with charts - like every other sheep in the cabin, I assumed that you guys had all that stuff computerized on one of those little screens in the cockpit. (I know, the Saab isn't necessarily equipped like a 767, but most passengers assume most aircraft are the same.)

All the lady knew was that she paid for a ticket and thought she could hang her suit. So ya set her straight. The point is that she was likely not trying to irritate you.

Same with the thunderstorms - they/we (I consider myself a little more educated these days) have no idea what dodging thunderstorms really means - they simply don't understand. They're a little cold, and, they are repeatedly told by the airline "If there is anything we can do to make your flight more comfortable, just let us know." Bad timing, sure, but again - absence of malice.

Good for you on taking the minor situation so seriously. I'm always glad to see that. A simple explanation of, 'That kid is a minor and I'm responsible, so I want to be able to see him,' probably would have been sufficient and avoided a confrontation. People ask questions because they're curious. Sure, it wasn't any of that pax's business, but again - they just don't know.

Look - I know people suck - and as a heavy biz traveller I get annoyed with pax who forget that common courtesy and understanding go a long way with airline personnel. But they're operating from a position of ignorance and blind trust, really. Just trying to shed a little light here. :)
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With the lady in the suit. People ask us ALL the time if they can put stuff in the closet. NEVER a problem. NEVER. We want to take care of the paying passengers. However, this lady just started moving OUR bags on the floor LEFT them on empty seats and wanted me to put them away. Asking goes a long way.

Would someone walk up on a 737 knock on the cockpit door and ask the pilots of that flight to raise the heat if they couldn't get in touch with a flight attendant? How do we know the person tapping our shoulders isn't someone trying to take over the airplane? The guys should be happy I didn't pile drive his A$$ on the floor.

The minor situation as well. How do I know where this woman is coming from? How do I know what her intentions are? What happens if she had a criminal history with minors? None of her business.

I am a VERY laid back person and LOVE answering questions. However, there is a line that should be followed. These people crossed that line.
 
GaTechKid said:
Livin' the dream baby!
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YEP! I do have to say though, I LOVE my job and am very fortunate I love getting up in the morning going to work. A lot of people I know that I am close to can't say that.

Yessterday I got up at 5:45 AM drove 3:30 hours from New Jersey to Albany. Did 6 legs. Block was 7:30 but flew 8:32 4 Approaches to close to Mins. Two ILSs 15R in BOS, the VOR 15 (I think) to SYR and then the LOC 19 in ALB. Went off duty at 11:30 PM

6.2 of handflying in actual :)
 
We had a time while at cruise, the prop started cycling in and out of feather, making the plane surge and shudder, so we feathered and shut down the engine.

We're running though our checklists and have our flight manual out doing the engine shutdown checklist, and the partition between the cockpit and the cabin pops open and one of the passengers starts yelling at us.

Hey you guys have an engine problem out there... (ya think) (pointing at the feathered prop and engine) (pause as he sees our open flight manuals) What are you guys doing reading books while there is an emergency going on? You need to pull your heads out of your **** and get that engine started up and not be reading yadda yadda

Captain tried to calmly tell the passenger to take his seat and that we're dealing with the problem. That wasn't good enough. The passenger starts ranting about us not doing knowing what we're doing. Captain tried a different tack - him being up front is interfering with us and we're now having to deal with him instead of the engine shutdown please sit down. That doesn't placate him. Finally the captain told him that if he doesn't sit down we'll have him detained after landing.

Passenger goes away in a huff we snap the partition back closed and go back to dealing with the engine and diverting.

Meanwhile, it's nice to know the plane still flies and lands pretty nice on one engine.
 
Vladimir Lenin said:
can you bid a saab? that would help with most of the problems
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No my friend, it wouldn't.

Your problems change (and multiply!) on larger aircraft!

I'll tell you the story of someone flashing their frequent flier card and proceding to attempt to cut me in line at Miami Subs at the airport, but I'm too unmotivated this early in the morning!
 
ComplexHiAv8r said:
I hope it wasn't a passenger that tapped you on the shoulder. Yea, with Greyhound pricing your get Greyhound passengers.

Have a mechanic (in uniform) come on a flight (747) and talk to a young passenger that then deplanes and see what type of responses you get from passengers.
Click to expand...
Of course it was a passenger - he's flying a 19 seater or less!! Who do you think would tap a pilot on the shoulder? No FAs in those planes my friend ...
 
woodreau said:
We had a time while at cruise, the prop started cycling in and out of feather, making the plane surge and shudder, so we feathered and shut down the engine.

We're running though our checklists and have our flight manual out doing the engine shutdown checklist, and the partition between the cockpit and the cabin pops open and one of the passengers starts yelling at us.

Hey you guys have an engine problem out there... (ya think) (pointing at the feathered prop and engine) (pause as he sees our open flight manuals) What are you guys doing reading books while there is an emergency going on? You need to pull your heads out of your **** and get that engine started up and not be reading yadda yadda

Captain tried to calmly tell the passenger to take his seat and that we're dealing with the problem. That wasn't good enough. The passenger starts ranting about us not doing knowing what we're doing. Captain tried a different tack - him being up front is interfering with us and we're now having to deal with him instead of the engine shutdown please sit down. That doesn't placate him. Finally the captain told him that if he doesn't sit down we'll have him detained after landing.

Passenger goes away in a huff we snap the partition back closed and go back to dealing with the engine and diverting.

Meanwhile, it's nice to know the plane still flies and lands pretty nice on one engine.
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I certainly hope you had him detained anyway.

That is CLEARLY a violation of several regs.
 
woodreau said:
We had a time while at cruise, the prop started cycling in and out of feather, making the plane surge and shudder, so we feathered and shut down the engine.

We're running though our checklists and have our flight manual out doing the engine shutdown checklist, and the partition between the cockpit and the cabin pops open and one of the passengers starts yelling at us.

Hey you guys have an engine problem out there... (ya think) (pointing at the feathered prop and engine) (pause as he sees our open flight manuals) What are you guys doing reading books while there is an emergency going on? You need to pull your heads out of your **** and get that engine started up and not be reading yadda yadda

Captain tried to calmly tell the passenger to take his seat and that we're dealing with the problem. That wasn't good enough. The passenger starts ranting about us not doing knowing what we're doing. Captain tried a different tack - him being up front is interfering with us and we're now having to deal with him instead of the engine shutdown please sit down. That doesn't placate him. Finally the captain told him that if he doesn't sit down we'll have him detained after landing.

Passenger goes away in a huff we snap the partition back closed and go back to dealing with the engine and diverting.

Meanwhile, it's nice to know the plane still flies and lands pretty nice on one engine.
Click to expand...
so, did you have him detained afterwards? i would have....having the local police explain that it's not a good idea to go intervene in a situation he can't help fix...that'll teach him to keep quiet, let the crews do their work and not do that to any other crew out there!

hell, his intervention could have caused a much larger problem.

people need to learn.. yes, they're curious and they don't know any better, but when they do something wrong, they need to learn and sometimes it takes learning the hard way.
 
Kristie said:
so, did you have him detained afterwards? i would have....having the local police explain that it's not a good idea to go intervene in a situation he can't help fix...that'll teach him to keep quiet, let the crews do their work and not do that to any other crew out there!
Click to expand...

It would be one thing if it was out of malice that he interfered, but it was out of pure ignorance. It would suck to be a criminal, simply because you didn't realize that you were an idiot.
 
Seggy said:
If you sit around in a corner of an airport for one hour you will see the best of people and the worst of people. A lot of you guys are VERY lucky out there to have been hired into a job with a door between you and the passengers. To give you an idea of what people are capable and doing during ONE flight....

As I was boarding them, I have some lady ask, "Is this plane safe?" (What do you think I am going to do fly around all day in a plane that is NOT safe?)

We have a closet that we keep our library, and crew bags. It is not really a closet but an area that is strapped up with a net. We have some woman huffing and puffing saying "I NEED to put my business suit in here for work tommorow" So she goes about MOVING our flight cases so her suit can fit. I said that we had it the way we need it to conduct a safe flight. She looks at me like I have two heads and says, "I paid 450.00 for this ticket it will be put in the closet." I then tell her "We can refund your ticket, you can drive, your garmet is going to be gate checked."

As we are dodging around level 4 and 5 thunderstorms we get a tap on the shoulder, "It is to cold back in the cabin, can you turn the heat up?"

During deplaning we have someone walk behind the wing to get their bag from the cargo hold. Even though we make numerous announcements not to.

And the FINAL one that REALLY REALLY REALLY got my blood boiling. We had an unaccompanied minor onboard this flight. I am responsible for this minor and I make sure they in my line of site during the flight. So I put them in 2A NO MATTER WHAT. I move a Chinese woman from 2A to 2F and put the minor in 2A. As we are deplaning this woman asks me, "Why did you move the Chinese woman from 2A to 2F and the minor into 2A, what happens if she refused?" So here I am thinking this idiot is either A) Going to write USAirways that the pilots are perverts and want to look at Minors B) Discriminate against Chinese people as we ask them to move rather than someone else C) WHY THE HECK IS IT THIS %$@*$ BUSINESS?

So I respond, "Miss my authority and why we do things is NONE of your business." She responds, "that is a little weird don't you think?" My response, "I HIGHLY suggest you walk inside the terminal before I call the TSA and have them ask you a few questions about why you are questioning flight crew methods."

All for one flight

People...
Click to expand...

enough years of restaurant/C.S. work and you learn how to deal with these kinds of things. if you're a waiter/ress and talk to your customers like that, then no tippy for you...you learn quickly how to get your point across, while also apeasing the customer. of course flying and serving are a seemingly distant analogy, but everything relates when it comes to customer service. just explain the situation, no B.S., and in a way a non-pilot can understand and things tend to be ok. now, that last thing with the customer who questioned you about moving the Chinese lady, man, sorry, but you handeled that like a complete • from what it sounds. why didn't you just let the lady know the situation. didn't need to say much. "ma'am, that young man was traveling alone and i am resposible for his safety from gate to gate, so i like to put kids in that situation in a seat that i can easily see from the cockpit." nuff said. why threaten to call TSA???
 
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