Holiday travel, without a doubt, is an anxious time. It can start at home with family stress, grow on the congested freeway as traffic snarls, compound further on long TSA lines while agents who’ve lost their patience hours ago start barking at people to take their belts off (who then forget to remove their keys from their pocket and start a screaming match at the metal detector), and, after a breath of fresh air taken after a long bathroom line in the terminal, start again at the gate. There’s the couple who keep attempting to board with first class despite being in the back of the cabin, the “gate lice” who insist on blocking the entrance to the podium to allow others to actually approach when called, the person with 45 bags (all ‘Louie Vitton’, of course) who is never stopped to gate check any of them. Once making it onto the jetbridge and crossing the threshold of your aircraft, you find you still aren’t home free; you’ve got the people that decide to sort through their bags yet feel compelled to leave one foot in the aisle to block the way to your seat – but then, if you’re like me, you decide you can no longer tolerate the foolishness and somewhat gleefully run over his foot with your bag after saying “excuse me” three times to no avail.
Though I avoid airplanes and airports like the plague during the holidays, let me tell you – I feel your pain.
But all I ask of you, as you feel the veins on your forehead pulse with anger and frustration thanks to fighting your way through the Thanksgiving throngs this month, to please, at the very least, not take it out on your crew.
It should come as little surprise that holiday travel is hard on us as airline employees, but during the times I have had to work them, I have been nearly driven to tears when a simple thing such as lack of a person’s meal preference or request to stow a bag has unleashed the fury of an overtired and overloaded parent on me, when, instead, I would have loved to have been in her shoes – traveling to spend the day in the kitchen, cooking Thanksgiving dinner with my mother, shooing my son away before he eats all the hors d’oeuvres.
Flight attendants bid for a schedule in seniority order. So while there are always people at the top, who get to work whenever and whatever flights they choose, there are always those at the bottom of the ladder; the newer, lower paid flight attendants, who likely didn’t opt to work that day. While there are, depending on the airline, small pay incentives for working these days, they usually aren’t enough to convince those who can hold that day off to come to work – especially in the chaotic environment of the airport at Thanksgiving time. So the person who will be serving you and your family is likely paying his or her dues as a new hire. The same goes for the pilots as well. But some have seen little seniority movement over the years. Some haven’t had Thanksgiving or Christmas Day with their families in 15 years or more! While everyone gets used to just celebrating important days on other days instead, it can still be a punch in the gut to have to wake up and go to work as the rest of the country spends time with their loved ones.
So if you’re traveling this season, and find yourself frustrated with the whole process, believe me – we all are. But if a delayed flight gets your blood pressure rising and you begin to feel the need to let your flight attendant have it, take a breath and remember that unlike you, they will likely end the day alone.
[Photo: Chick Lam]
Amanda Pleva November 08, 2016
Be polite, yes. Also don't whine about a job you chose.
You forgot to mention ground staff. It's no picnic for them either and many people "take it out" on them as well. All of us at one time or another have worked the "horrible" shifts including years of weekends and holidays. We knew at hiring and are still reminded that it is what we signed up for. The job descriptions always mention in one form or another -- "must be available to work different hours, shifts, rotating days off, weekends and holidays". Most will agree, it has all been worth it.
Thanks, for reminding us all of what it is like to work on a holiday. When flying on a holiday, I try to bring a little cheer -- maybe some candy to say thanks. But I've also had some great holiday flights -- the AF purser who moved the 3 of us in the PE cabin to an otherwise empty business cabin (and apologized that we would only be getting the PE meals since they had only boarded enough business meals for the paid business customers). Still a very nice present from the crew for the 12 hour flight from SGN to CDG. Or the DL crews who decorate the cabins for Christmas day flights. Anyhow, thanks.