We’ve seen all the viral videos of unruly, demanding passengers in the air. Needless to say, our minds are blown by the entitlement a few passengers have when boarding a flight to their final destination. Every job has its share of unfortunate encounters, but maybe because we’re travelers, we hear the accounts of flight attendants and hotel staff more often. Below, we gathered a few horror stories, as told by a group of flight attendants, and a quick reminder to spread kindness throughout your travels.
Ashley, 23—I Literally Just Got Hired
“I just graduated from our flight attendant training program and hopped on a flight back home to celebrate. We landed and headed over to baggage claim to grab my stuff. I guess there was a problem with our flight specifically, and we had to change carousels to pick up our luggage. Just the carousel, not the terminal. I had my new badge on, and a random passenger saw it, guessing he was from my flight, and started yelling at me like I couldn’t do anything about it. I said I don’t work for baggage claim and he said it’s your f****** airline. Mind you, I just got hired four hours ago.”
Tiffany, 34—The Unsightly Disgust
“Maybe not a horror story, but a massive disgust. I’ve seen my few share of people doing strange things. But nothing triggered me like seeing this one passenger on a flight foregoing shoes, slippers, and socks, walking barefoot on the plane to the bathroom. I literally gag thinking about it. How they avoided the sticky puddles in there, or if they even did, is beyond me.”
Laura, 28—We’re Not Waitresses
“I like to think I’m pretty nice. Passengers, for the most part, are nice and keep to themselves. But the one who makes a problem, jeez. On any normal day, I can pass and ignore the rude comments. But not this one passenger. Not only did we have to cut them off, but they had the audacity to yell at me, ‘We don’t need you; you’re just a waitress.’ And to that, I sarcastically replied, ‘But who is gonna help you find the bathroom or help you open the door?’ I was so over it.”
Amanda, 26—The Chaotic Reshuffle
“I’ve had a 15-member family, with kids, board my flight from LAX to JFK. Nothing wrong with kids or 15 people, but the kicker is: that they didn’t reserve seats, so they were all placed in the open middle seats spread around the economy. One mama asked if her kids could sit with her, and when one mama asked, everyone asked. I couldn’t outrightly say no, but I could at least ask if people were willing to make a switch, but the catch is, that passengers in the window and aisle paid for their seats.
Here commences my attempt for a reshuffle. If the passenger said they didn’t want to switch, I moved right on to the next one. In the midst of this shuffle, this family kept asking for things. Keep in mind, that we’re still boarding. They were asking for water, water bottles, and diapers! Who asks for diapers? If you’re traveling with an infant, bring your own diapers. We don’t have them on board. I said no to all these requests, as we didn’t even take off yet. Listen, I’m already attempting to put you all together; please don’t distract me.
Anyway, I was able to move all the little kids together with the parents but the big kids were harder. I explained it all to the parents, and while disappointed, they had absolutely no choice but to accept it. So we took off. Three hours into this flight, I got a number of complaints from passengers about these big kids away from their parents. Kicking chairs, running back and forth, climbing over them! Some passengers who initially refused to exchange seats eventually swapped because they were so unruly. I had to talk to the parents, and the kids, asking them to please behave. I had a sinking suspicion that the parents and the kids were all in on it to bother the passengers and attendants to eventually get seats together. But before I got enough evidence, we finally landed at JFK – to what seemed like the longest flight of my career, and I do internationals. The moral of the story is to book your seats together and save yourself–and us– the hassle.”
Sarah, 31—It’s Up to Who?
“You’d think parents would want to keep their baby clean. Most pack the diaper bags with diapers, wet wipes, etc. Not this dad. His baby was crawling around on the floor and the aisle. I asked the dad to please pick his child up from the floor, as it’s dangerous with people passing by, and you know…it’s the floor. And he goes, ‘Well, it’s up to my two-year-old if he wants to stay on the floor.’ What utter BS.”
Megan, 29—Thanks Captain
“It happens, we have a full flight, and sometimes we’ll need to check passenger’s carry on. Whatever happens at the gate, happens at the gate. I can’t do anything about it but apologize for the inconvenience and move on. Usually, passengers are annoyed, and muster itty-bitty curses under their breath. But this one lady threw the biggest tantrum over her carry on that had to be checked. She kept screaming at me as if it was my fault. I kept trying to calm her down and coax her to quiet down, but nothing worked. It’s not like I could walk away. It was to the point where we almost had to kick her off the flight because she wouldn’t stop. She only stopped because the captain walked all the way back to defend me and shut her up.”
