Rude Flight Attendants Take it Out on Passengers

The following is one from the archives, but it reminds passengers that sometimes crew members can be all too human.

Airline: United
Date: 20 October 2007
Location: En Route Buenos Aires to IAD

I wish to complain in the strongest terms about the customer service that I received recently on October 20, 2007 on flight UA846 from Buenos Aires to Washington Dulles. I was seated in seat 18F. The cabin crews were serving dinner. Up to that point service had been OK but somewhat short. The staff made repeated irritated announcements about not getting up when the seatbelt light was on and reprimanded a passenger for pressing the service light when the seatbelt light was on by asking the customer to put his hand up to identify himself. I know that it is a requirement for passengers to remain seated at these times but there are ways to make these kinds of announcements in a professional and polite way.

The female cabin crew member was coming up the aisle serving dinner. I had taken one of my headphone ear pieces off so that I could hear her but I thought that she was talking to customers in front of me as she was not looking at me and I could not hear her above the cabin noise. I was shocked when I heard her reprimand someone for not paying attention to her but did not realize that she was talking to me until she walked past me without serving me (I was waiting expectantly with my table lowered). When it became clear that she was not going to serve me I asked her for a meal and she rudely replied that I should have paid attention to her. I did get my meal a few minutes later. She continued to provide unprofessional service to other customers throughout the flight. This is especially surprising in that she did not know at this point if I even spoke English. Her colleague, an older balding man with a mustache heard the interaction but did nothing about it. The man next to me in seat 18E and the two woman in the row behind me did hear it and sympathized afterwards (they planned at the time to send in complaints of their own).

These two ladies kindly identified the hostess as Laura. I heard her and another male staff member be rude to several other passengers during the flight (in full view of their colleagues). As a final insult, near the end of the flight when the crew was picking up the leftovers from breakfast the same female crew member picked up my empty box. I also had a half full cup of coffee, just as I was lifting it to my mouth she picked it out of my hands while asking if I had finished. By the time she finished the question my cup was gone!

The overall atmosphere during the flight was like a war zone, crew members against the passengers. It was such a relief to find that the staff on my next flight, to San Francisco, were normal – that is they were polite, respectful and helpful – everything that was lacking on flight 846. I plan to fly to S. America in both of the next two years, if I thought there was any chance of meeting this cabin crew again I would purchase my ticket from another company regardless of price. In 30 years of flying this is the worst customer experience I have ever experienced on an airline.

AirSafe.com Responds
This is the kind of situation that would likely be unacceptable to any passenger on that flight, even if the rudeness were directed at another person. While it may not make sense to complain to another cabin crew member, it would be a good idea to both document what you see as much as possible, and to file a complaint to the airline's customer service supervisor at your arrival airport. If that is not possible, contact some other airline representative.