How do you handle grumpy Flight Attendants ?
Feb 5, 2018 | 2:23 pm
#1
Original Poster
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kan@da
Programs: Anything with sweet spots
Posts: 1,790
How do you handle grumpy Flight Attendants ?
How do you handle grumpy Flight Attendants in your cabin ?
Does the presence of a grumpy FA considerably ruin your enjoyment of the flight or trip ?
- Confront or comment directly to the grumpy FA about their grumpy attitude
- Make a passive-agressive comment to the grumpy FA as a way to point out their grumpyness
- Smile and be extra pleasant to the grumpy FA in the hope they become aware of their grumpy attitude and change it
- Be grumpy, unsmiling and unacknowledging back to the grumpy FA
- Comment about the grumpy FA to other FAs
- Comment about the grumpy FA to seatmates who are not your travel companions
- During the flight, request and fill a complaint-form (is there a more specific name for this form ?), and hand it back to crew
- After the flight complain to the airline's about the grumpy FA, with or without expectation of a compensation
- Put on your headphones, avoid interacting or making eye contact with the grumpy FA
- Do you handle the grumpy FA in another way ?
Does the presence of a grumpy FA considerably ruin your enjoyment of the flight or trip ?
Feb 5, 2018 | 2:41 pm
#2
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,677
I just don't let it impact my flight or my day to begin with. As long as I received the products and services (food, drink, etc.) that I was supposed to for that cabin and flight, I'm not all that concerned with their demeanor, really.
Feb 5, 2018 | 2:43 pm
#3
Join Date: Sep 2015
Programs: LH SEN; BA Gold
Posts: 8,437
- Confront or comment directly to the grumpy FA about their grumpy attitude
- Make a passive-agressive comment to the grumpy FA as a way to point out their grumpyness
- Be grumpy, unsmiling and unacknowledging back to the grumpy FA
- Comment about the grumpy FA to other FAs
- Comment about the grumpy FA to seatmates who are not your travel companions
- During the flight, request and fill a complaint-form (is there a more specific name for this form ?), and hand it back to crew
- After the flight complain to the airline's about the grumpy FA, with or without expectation of a compensation
- Put on your headphones, avoid interacting or making eye contact with the grumpy FA
FWIW I apply my #1 maxim when it comes to interacting with staff (as a customer or a co-worker/superior): Treat them as you expect to be treated.
Feb 5, 2018 | 10:00 pm
#8
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 4,374
Maybe assume that the F/A has a bad day. Everybody has those and it is difficult to keep smiling when you have a sh** day. Even F/A have days where everything goes wrong (from minor stuff to major things such as breakups, death of a relative, serious health problem of a child, etc.).
I don't confront grumpy FAs, I just keep my interactions with them to a minimum (they'll miss my jokes) and I'll make a note of the poor service in a post-flight survey if I'm sent one.
If the grumpiness is absurd I'll write in proactively to the airline, but I've never met any FA so egregious - only a GA whose employment was summarily terminated (and I noticed because she worked at my relatively small home airport at the time, and I never saw her after my complaint).
Feb 5, 2018 | 10:15 pm
#11
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 4,374
Feb 5, 2018 | 10:30 pm
#12
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Mid-Atlantic
Posts: 5,024
In general, I try to have as little to do with the FA's as possible. Often my interaction with them is limited to "Ginger ale, please. No ice" followed shortly by "Thank you".
Feb 5, 2018 | 11:13 pm
#14
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: MidSouth
Programs: AA; Delta GM
Posts: 728
Anybody can have a bad day. I've done customer service in the past, and I always tried to be my professional best no matter what was going on with me at the time.
I try not to make assumptions, but just smile at the people taking care of me on the flight. I say please and thank you. I do that because I want to be a kind person.
I try not to make assumptions, but just smile at the people taking care of me on the flight. I say please and thank you. I do that because I want to be a kind person.
