Attendant Issues
DESPICABLE SERVICEI was called to come to San Francisco from Dallas because my mother was dying. I am disabled and must use a wheelchair when I travel as I can't walk very far. I told the airline about this when I made my reservation.
Dallas went off with no problem. When I arrived in San Francisco I had to wait to deplane because there were three other passengers who needed wheelchair assistance. I waited patiently. Finally, after almost thirty minutes had gone by, it was my turn. I got off the plane to a waiting wheelchair and was pushed up the ramp by one male flight attendant accompanied by a female attendant. As they pushed me into the terminal an announcement was made for the next flight. They looked at each other and then stopped the wheelchair and LEFT, leaving me right in the path as people boarded. Dozens of people pushed by me. It was like being in the middle of a stampede. No one looked at me. I sat and sat. I kept looking around for some help. No one came. I began to cry.
A nice woman, a fellow traveler, walked up to me and asked if she could help me. By this time I felt absolutely humiliated, helpless and angry. As I explained what had happened she looked shocked. I had been sitting there by this time for over a half an hour. Finally, a porter - not any sort of manager - walked up, apologized, and wheeled me to get my luggage and transport. I was never contacted by anyone, never offered any sort of official apology or any sort of compensation for the completely crappy way I had been treated.
My mother died two days later. I just didn't have it in me to deal with those jerks. I rented a car to drive home. 12/07
THE FLIGHT WARDEN
While flying from Frankfurt to Philadelphia, my family and I encountered a very disgruntled flight attendant. My husband and I, being seasoned travelers in our pre-baby lives, had traveled to Europe to visit family with our son who was just shy of 2. Knowing the headaches of traveling with young children, we had obtained 3 business class seats, although our son qualified for lap-seat.
The beginning of our long leg was fairly uneventful, until our son started to get tired and fussy. Doing everything in our power to keep him calm and quiet (walking, snacking, cuddling, reading, playing), he finally started to fall asleep. Noting that this took no longer than 20 minutes, we felt that we had done our best to keep the peace on the flight. He fell asleep for about 10 minutes when the flight hit turbulence, startling him awake. Again, we did our best to calm him.
Then our flight attendant decided that shushing him in the most obnoxious, in his face, spittle-flying manner was the best way to calm him. Not only did she spit on my husband and child, she scared the crap out of our boy. Then the crying really started. Before this, the whimpering was annoying, now he was screaming. We finally got him down again, asleep for about four and a half hours. Although he was asleep we could hear a child screaming from the back of the plane for most of the flight.
After he awoke, we had set up a play area for him in front of our seats. At that time, a little German boy passed by and noticed the toy area (the same boy who had spent most of the flight screaming in coach), and invited him to play. Finally! The two boys were playing quietly, very content, and his dad went back to his seat.
Then the flight-attendant who loved to scared small children approached us, demanding in a loud voice to tell us who’s child he was. I told her that he was a passenger from the back of the bus, but that the boys were being very good playing in our make shift play area. Her response was that they could not play in this part of the plane, and would have to play together in coach. WHAT?! Where in coach is there room?
So the now scares-children-stuck-up-I-work-in-business-class attendant storms back into coach and fetched the boy's father. Having to separate the boys from their new found buddies ensues in ear splitting screaming from both business and coach classes. As my husband paces the aisle in front of our seats with our son to calm him, he inadvertently steps back on the same attendants foot, resulting in her screaming out OUCH as loud and as obnoxiously as possible. I should mention that my husband is of smaller stature, weighing about 150, and was only in his socks. The attendant was wearing thick leather shoes and was no taller then he is. The rest of our flight results in her glaring at us with every pass, and no doubt spitting in our breakfast. So much for paying the big bucks to fly. 12/07
HELPFUL PASSENGER UPSETS THE QUEEN
I was flying from London to San Francisco on United recently. The British guy next to me was, I'll admit, a little "tipsy." Our flight attendant was a fairly scowly and very grouchy somewhat queeny guy in his late forties. On one of the flight attendant's trips around to offer water, the tipsy British guy knocked a few cups to the ground. Though I obviously had no cause in the incident, I silently helped pick up some of the scattered cups. Rather than a smile and a courteous "thanks" or even a nod, I was scolded.
The flight attendant shouted, as though I was a bad school kid, "Thanks a lot! Now I can't tell which cups are clean and which are dirty!" YIPES.
I said, "ya know, I had nothing to do with the cups falling. I know you work hard and was just trying to help. Why don't you try to be a little professional?"
He nearly shouted back "I AM professional!"
REALLY?(!)
I got scowls for the rest of the flight, but thankfully no other upsetting treatment. It's just too bad I had to sit next to the lavatory, which had an unberable STENCH. Blegh. United sucks. Even British Airways is better. Note to United flight attendants: If you hate your job, quit. 12/07
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