Hit and miss. Most are very helpful and friendly. More and more have put up with enough crap over the years that they've become jaded and just don't give a crap.

Sincerely,

Steven Slater

I think FAs are like most people - the profile fits the standard distribution. A very few are borderline psychotic. A roughly equal number are Zen buddhists. The rest are pretty normal people who work in a difficult customer service role.

I believe in smiling, please-and-thank-you, and always engaging them as human beings first and customer service second. 99 times out of 100 they respond in kind.

Title response: I think FAs are sometimes tired from the long trips.. may not look like they like the flying public if they are tired..

But I don't think they hate us..

its been an us against them (being the airlines in general) relationship for me since the mid 90's

^

I agree. It is forgotten that most flight attendants are there for safety reasons, not to be nannies. I see many people treating flight attendants like servants, and sometimes worse than servants.

I'm not a flight attendant and I have run into many I'll mannered attendants, but it's not easy being cooped up in a tin can with 300 to 500 people for 2 to 10 hours who feel that they should be waited on hand and foot. I suspect that you will find more rude people flying than rude flight attendants.

It does seems like flight attendants feel free to show more attitude than they used to. There has been a decline in civility and dress among the passengers, too. It's just a busload of common people acting common for the most part.

This pretty much sums it up and from 1985.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTEjCc8VI2o

The "there for your safety" is just a tired excuse airlines use to cut back services and FA use when they don't feel like providing service.

The phrase is "primarily for safety reasons." So Job 1 is safety, but Job 1A is to serve the customers. Many FAs forget that.

Exatly.

Any flight attendant who has the attitude that they are there for our safety and providing good food and beverage service (specifically in first/business) is beneath them should get out of the business. They are the ones who give wonderful flight attendants a bad name.

I've read some accounts on here but have never had a bad experience with a flight attendant myself. I agree with the person who said it has something to do with being pleasant and getting pleasantness in return. That's my motto not only on planes but everywhere. In my experience there's usually one or two outstanding FA's, which makes the sourpuss who hates his/her job stand out all the more.

No matter what kind of day the FA is having or what kind of imbeciles they have had to deal with earlier that day, they are being paid to be there. The passenger is paying to be there. They deserve to get the entire service they are paying for without being made to feel like they are a bother.

Im confused, isn't serving also part of their duties per their job description. As for safety, its their job to instruct us pax what to do pre-flight, if we do something that hampers safety before or during the flight, or if an event occurs, but the rest of the times, they have other duties assigned to them which includes serving the pax whatever they are entitled to receive based on COS.. is that an incorrect assumption???

FAs who apply for the job, should be keenly aware what the responsbilities are for an FA.. including administering drinks, snacks, food, ear pieces for music, snacks..

I can remember the good old days, where the daily paper was handed out..

I live in Washington DC. From where I sit, it is at least 20%
:p

Try working in a service industry with the General Public
 

Any industry that has to deal with the "General Public" is a tough industry to work in.
Service industries are not easy.

I worked my way through college in retail dealing with hordes of people with thousands of different personalities, demands, and attitudes.
After a while, I became jaded. I started to see most people as demanding, self-centered humanoids that wanted to vent on the poor schmuck in the store.
There seems to be an underlying tone of "The Customer is ALWAYS Right" no matter if the customer has spent 29 cents for a pack of chewing gum, or 299 dollars for an airline flight. Some customers will want preferential treatment for that, and demand high expectations and servitude from those they deem "should deliver" on the payment that was made.

Flight Attendants have to deal with all sorts of weird personalities. Not everyone is well dressed, upscale, and level-headed. Not everyone is rational. I once witnessed a passenger go off on a flight attendant because he asked the man to pull down his window shade for a movie. The passenger demanded his name, and stated he would "Have his job" when he got done with him. If you deal with that nonsense for a few years, you are going to lose faith sooner or later in human common decency and begin to see your passengers as a pain in the behind. And you may get "numb" to a human interaction. This may come off as "hating" the passengers, but IMO, it's simply a human response to being treated harshly by passengers over time. Surely, some may have brought attitudes into the job with them, but for the most part, humans tend to become products of their environment. Being crammed into a small aluminum tube for thousands of hours a year dealing with the general public is not exactly a relaxing job.

I'd probably last two weeks (and I'm being generous with my estimation) if I had to be a FA. Dealing with the general public is very difficult.

I usually just smile at FAs and do what they ask of me. And I rarely ask anything of them. I hope I never have to ask them to help me in an emergency. If I do, I'll be glad they are there for me. :)

+1