CX HK

First time I'm posting a "rant" or something of this kind in over 1k posts - hope it doesn't rub anyone the wrong way; understand this may be a one off. Took Y class HKT-HKG, understand that it seemed like a codeshare between some North American airline, and most passengers seated at the front of Y were scheduled to fly onward to destinations like SFO and MAN.

These passengers also caused serious discomfort to those seated around them, and were extremely rude to F/A's. Without stereotyping the "angry gweilo", the passengers spent a good 45 minutes complaining to the F/A about needing a personal escort from gate to gate, otherwise he would be "stranded in the middle of nowhere." Terrible attitude, loud voices. On the other side, 3 pax with 2 kids constantly held up boarding by standing in the middle of the aisle while accessing the bin countless times. More than once, they hit the F/A button asking them to retrieve items from the overhead bin when they could have done so themselves.

I'm not one to rant. But it's not my first time on CX/KA nor in HKT-HKG, and each time I've witnessed sub-par behavior from passengers on connecting flights. Am I alone in this observation? Do other pax and crew have the same views? Or am I just a nut who should keep his rants to himself

fairhsa

The longer I live outside of western countries, the more I cringe at my counterparts who come to Asia on a short holiday and act like they own the place......

clubeurope

Given all the sorts of people travelling these days, there will at some point, be some sort of an obnoxious passenger on flights.

I often find this to be the case on certain routes, given the influx of inexperienced flyers with unfounded expectations flying at the same time on such flights... Often can be obnoxious, but they're attitude is not a choice we can make...

One time, my flight was delayed for two hours, as someone was getting kicked off for making a stupid joke... and then a man came up front to complain that he was losing time for which he paid at his hotel, and demanded compensation for several thousand indian rupees... Bizzare to say the least given how it was a 2 hour delay on a morning flight scheduled to arrive at midday...

CX HK

I always wonder if they pull the same stunts on AA or other airlines. The crew there aren't as patient to deal with this type of garbage. I've seen my fair share of DYKWIA's in my years of travel, but this new breed of obnoxious and loud expat travel group is becoming unbearable.

Nicc HK

It remainds me of the 'Tai-Tai' rants I used to see.

I once commented to a gate agent "There goes a person in First Class with absolutely no class" after the way a passenger in front of me treated the staff.

Sadly in a world were personal responsibility counts for zero better get used to the 'new norm'

QRC3288

There is something about flying that makes people behave very bizarrely sometimes.

clubeurope

Since you said that, I've got another story on a BA CityFlyer flight I took a few months ago in CE. Was the only paid passenger in CE, so was expecting an empty cabin on an E-190. Last minute plane sub to an E-170, and CE ended up full with op-ups. One of them was very angry that they weren't getting CE catering (crew explained plane was catered in LCY or something), and was even less happy to see me get served a J Salad, which wasn't even good. He ended up piling up on the mini-Champagne.

Dr. HFH

One big difference bewteen Asia and the U.S. is that in Asia, if someone is behaving or treats the cabin crew badly, we all shake our heads and think to ourselves how rude s/he is. In the U.S., cabin crew is just as likely to tell the police that the person is a threat and have him/her removed.

Amelorn

As with many things, the ideal lies between extremes.


I will echo Fairhsa's sentiment. As a frequent sojourner and now peripatetic "resident" of sorts, I cringe when I see iterations of "Beer me, oriental slave!" or an attitude that Asia is some sort of personal narcotic/sexual/alcoholic playground.

swingaling

I suspect this sort of behavior is most common on the major tourist routes, as those are the routes likely to be frequented by, shall we say, inexperienced pax. And this is especially true of "cheap" destinations, like Phuket. I'm guessing DPS flights would get a decent amount of bogans, given its proximity to AUS. If anyone here has ever flown to MCO (Orlando) from basically anywhere, you'll see much the same thing. Definitely an "interesting" cross-section of the populace...

The most obnoxious pax I've seen in SE Asia was a 20-something Brit traveling on my PNH-SGN flight with QR. He was clearly altered (pain meds) and having a very loud conversation with an older South African couple at the gate. Basically, he'd been in Sihanoukville where he'd been hit by a truck and ended up in a coma for a month. He'd just been cleared to fly and was heading to SGN (and onwards to the UK, perhaps) to get "real" medical treatment (his words). His arm was clearly broken, but not in a splint/cast/sling and was obviously in pain. And he loudly discussed how he was going to get blotto once in the air. The GAs eventually approached him because of how loud he was; they were clearly trying to figure out if he'd be a problem on the plane and trying to decide if they were going to IDB him. He was allowed to fly; luckily he was in Y, so I didn't hear him from my seat in J.

nydave11

As a gweilo or lo fon if you prefer, I have found that every race and every culture has it's share of rude idiots. Add a little alcohol and some pills to these people and it's showtime!!!. Have fun with them. Tell them that they are right, the flight attendant should have brought them their first choice of meal, or not cut them off after 5 double vodkas. Agree that they should be waited on hand a foot, and that if loud is good, then louder is better.

I was on a flight from Miami once in business class and while on the ground seated across from me was a guy talking really loudly into his phone so we all could hear him. It got louder and louder. I put my thumb against my ear and extended my pinky and began to talk loudly into my pretend phone. As he spoke louder so did I. After about 5 minutes the rest of the cabin is looking at me and laughing. It took Mr. Important Phone Guy about 10 minutes to realize that the whole cabin was looking at him and laughing. He then ended the call and pretended to sleep the entire flight.

Pickles

If this guy had been in a coma for a month, he was clearly brain-damaged. Brain-damaged people can behave really erratically, within the bounds of "normalcy" but clearly off. If he was in a coma for a month the likelihood of this condition "going away" is pretty much nil. It's permanent brain damage.

CX HK

These situations are pretty much lose-lose, you don't want to get involved unless things are really getting otu of hand, but it also sucks when you're just stuck in your seat witnessing everything unfold.

On a side note, does this qualify as a first world problem?

FlyPointyEnd

There was a study how making passengers walking through First/Business increases the chances of people acting up....

24left

We can also blame all those bloggers and FF writers. One or two of may be useful, provide helpful info on aircraft and routings and such, but the vast majority of flyers these days are people who rarely fly. they lack understanding in how to airport, how to board, how to behave onboard, and have increasingly unrealistic expectations of they flying experience.

Add liquor and you end up with those headlines in the Daily Mail.


Um, just take a look at the report and video from the recent problem on a DL partner flight with this idiotic airplane mode on phones stuff.


See my comment above to clubeurope.

And to be clear, there are several groups of travellers who have no grasp of civility when it comes to airline travel - not just in their home countries.

While generally fine, why is boarding CX 829 in YYZ orderly and civilized, but boarding CX 826 in HKG a less organized experience with a lot of pushing and yelling? Just saying...and BTW, I find the same applies with some other airlines based on different departure points.


Exactly. We all recall the Dr. Dao mess on UA. As mentioned above, the recent return to gate and deplaning of several pax due to a phone setting and perhaps a FA on a power trip.