Fabo.sk

That's not a bad idea. Make them see an actual economic impact.

johan rebel

That's a bit tricky, telling them how to do their job properly after they just did you and your partner a favor by upgrading him as well. Asking them politely to make sure the cabin supervisor is informed of the seat change would probably have been a good idea.

Gate agents and cabin crew don't always get along, especially when the former have screwed up boarding. I've experienced some instances where things went completely haywire due to what seemed to be sheer incompetence or lack of organization.

Johan

CyBeR

There is no need for that. Most people are just not capable of realising that this form of apology is not technically apologising, and their intent is to say something more along the lines of "I'm sorry I (or we) made you feel that way".

You're not technically wrong but I think this concept is applied way more often than it should, as I think most of the time the person saying that does actually mean to apologise.

NickB

This is a red herring. A single upgrade would not materially affect weight and balance. I would have thought that the attendant (wrongly) assumed a self-upgrade as the OP's bf had not been re-issued a BP. The handling was exceptionally cack-handed, though.

NickB

But if you are in a customer-facing role, it is part of your job to be aware of the impact of your words on customers and to not use turns of phrases or comments that will inflame the situation rather than calm it.

CyBeR

Again, you're not wrong, but you overestimate people's competence in this area.

FlyingBlonde89

I guess this is my overarching point... what's going on with the customer service skills? Why not provide training to the crew in the same way they provide it to ground staff?

Generally, if I've had a lost bag (or had some other unusual cause to speak to ground crew) they seem to have been trained on how to appropriately respond to issues (i.e. listen, acknowledge the issue, apologise and explain next steps (even if there isn't anything that can be done to solve the problem)... it's not the random person behind the desk apologising who lost the luggage but I've seen irate passengers go ballistic at these employees and they still (typically) respond with an admirable level of decorum. I'm not saying they should have to put up with the abuse (having been on the receiving end when I worked in customer care it's ridiculous what you're expected to put up with) but (at least regarding yesterday) I don't understand how the cabin supervisor seemed to have no training on how to deal with a difficult situation and seemed to take every opportunity to escalate the situation creating an embarrassing scene. (I actually asked her if she could lower her voice at some point when she was yelling about how passengers had to sit in the seat listed on their BP therefore my companion had to move... multiple passengers didn't have a BP listed with a correct seat and I pointed out that other passengers were told where to sit as well... (even the guy behind in 2F also didn't have a reissued BP...) I guess stress caused it but there were three FAs and maybe this one should have just sat at the back with a cup of tea instead of being upfront and behaving like this (she also snapped at another passenger who said 'My seat says 6A but there's someone sitting in 6A'... response: 'What do you expect me to do about it? You can sit somewhere else or tell them to move.').

CyBeR

Why do you assume she "had no training"? Perhaps she was just tired, overworked and/or stressed as many people these days are. You have had one interaction with her, and here you are on the internet chastising her.

Perhaps on other days she's the friendliest crew member anyone's ever seen, but she was having a bad day. You don't know.

irishguy28

On my last Cityhopper flight from Cork, I witnessed almost the exact opposite to the reported story here.

A lady approached the gate agents just as boarding was about to start, explaining that her daughter had paid for the €79 upgrade during check-in the previous day, but that her boarding pass had her still seated in her old Economy seat. She said that the check-in agent had rebuffed her claim and had refused to correct the boarding pass. (The lady obviously didn't realise/recognise that it was the same check-in staff now boarding the flight). She was again rebuffed and I assumed it was just because the payment hadn't been processed or was rejected; at no stage did either party suggest attempting paying again.

Anyway, the lady grabbed the cabin supervisor when she boarded, explained her sorry tale, and the cabin supervisor directed her to seat 2A "while we sort this out". Whether or not it was sorted out, she was allowed to remain in her new seat, and from what I could see even got the magic Wanders box of weird pastes and gels.

FlyingBlonde89

Setting aside my experience if she can't make decent judgement calls and is too compromised to work then she's jeopardising the safety of the plane and passengers.

On having empathy for her... I did initially but after being chastised and insulted in front of a plane load of passengers it becomes a touch difficult to give the benefit of the doubt. (Incidentally, I made the trip in part to deal with resolving issues around a deceased relative's estate so I was also tired, stressed and [though unrelated] overworked.. do you think she cares that all I wanted to do was debrief with my companion and be left alone regardless of whether I was in J or Y? ​​​​​​)

FlyingBlonde89

There is hope!

NickB

Well, it would rather worrying if the OP were to stalk the attendant, seek to ascertain the details of her life to determine what caused her behaviour.

Whatever the reason for her behaviour was, the fact is that it was unprofessional and the point of the OP was that it was not just the one individual but the purser too, whom you would expect to have more experience to handle difficult situations, also seemed to have zero communication skills either. It is not unreasonable for the OP to wonder whether cabin crew training pays enough attention and puts enough emphasis on communication and customer relations skills for individuals who are likely to be regularly confronted with situations that need defusing.

Now, should one jump to conclusions on the basis of a single occurrence? Probably not and the contrast that the OP paints between ground crew and inflight crew does not correspond to my own experience: I have also occasionally been faced by aggressive and confrontational ground staff at AMS (or, for that matter, in other places). That does not make the behaviour reported here any less unprofessional.

HalconBCN

Something similar happened to me on Delta on a US domestic flight a few years ago traveling alone. The gate agent couldn't add me to the upgrade list for some reason but just told me which business class seat I could sit in. I think the new seat number was scrawled onto my original boarding pass.
Soon enough the purser came over to challenge me in a rude tone - this is not your seat, who told you you could sit here? I just forced him to talk about it with the gate agent, which he did, and came back a couple of minutes later with an apology. It's best to let the staff sort it out among themselves than position yourself in the firing line.
In this situation, the gate agent agreed for your BF to sit in an empty seat, and the purser should have been made aware of this. In any event it was not reasonable to kick your BF out of the seat he had been given by the gate.
What we don't know is whether the other platinum member had a discreet word with the gate agent and/or purser to query why your BF had been put in business and they had not been.

FlyingBlonde89

I think that's why she waited until the doors were closed. She'd already discussed the overbooking and (general) seat switches with the colleague from the gate who made the decision. (She was discussing how she wanted him to wait until it was clear how much hand luggage needed to be offloaded among other things.)

That's true! (Status wasn't discussed at the gate but absolutely could have been questioned.)