10 Easy Ways To Keep Your Flight Attendant Happy
A happy flight attendant makes for a happy flight, and 24-year-old flight attendant Brandi Lynne has a list of 10 things you can do to make your next flight a little more enjoyable...
10. Smile! Just like your mother always said, positivity is contagious.
9. Don't Hog The Overhead Compartment: Your jacket doesn't belong in the overhead compartment, and you don't want to be the guy with the seat in the back stealing the overhead up front.
8. Keep The Aisle Clear: Nobody likes obstacle courses. Keep your things out of the aisle or you will get hit with a galley cart.
7. Keep The Demands Reasonable: Not all flight attendants can help you lift your bags. If you're told no, don't roll your eyes.
6. Listen To The Safety Briefing: Yeah, we've all ignored the briefings, and apparently it really annoys the flight attendants. Pay attention for just a minute and they'll love you forever.
5. Take Your Headphones Off When Ordering: It reduces confusion and it's not like you would talk to anyone else while wearing headphones.
4. Be Nice: Don't tell flight attendants how to do their job. They'll help if they can, but if they can't, an attitude solves nothing.
3. Appreciate What's Left Of The Food: Well, well, well, look who feels bad for making fun of airline food all those years. Now it's gone and you're still complaining? The flight attendants aren't hiding hot meals in the back. If you're that upset, write a letter.
2. Deal With Dirty Diapers Yourself: Do not hand these to your flight attendant, ever. Lavatories have baby changing stations. Use them.
1. No Touching! Do we really have to tell you not to poke your flight attendant? Apparently!
For extra-decent service, offer candy to your flight attendants. They won't forget you.
The 10 Most Annoying Passengers, As Told by a Flight Attendant [Lemon Drop] (Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fabiolund/ / CC BY 2.0)
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Comments:
I remember trying to be nice one time. I offered candy at first, and that seemed to help a lot. But then booze, a ride to their hotel (in my van), to walk them to their room, to help them unpack, to order them dinner, to draw a bath, to give a back rub, to heat their bed, and to serve them breakfast.
They didn't bite though. The TSA officer did (in an entirely different way).
Somehow, I think I missed something in there...
the whole "I wear my undergarments high on my waist so others can see them" fad hasn't passed yet? ugh
I always raise myself halfway out of my seat before the plane lifts off to inform the passengers & crew: "There's nothing to fear: I speak Jive."
@Bobby Laurie: Yes, by all means, leave the busy flight crew unmolested. I mean, Jeezus, there are 150 passengers to chose from.
Be nice and they MIGHT be nice back and perhaps do their job. They seem like they are doing the paying customers a big favor most of the time.
#5: is unfortunately wrong. Good advice yes; but the douchebags who talk to flight attendants with their headphones on do it to EVERYONE. They leave them on while ordering at restaurants, at the cash register, getting tech support and while driving.
Sorry, this just comes off as condescending. The passenger's job is not to make the flight attendants happy. That is why they are called an "attendant". Because they are supposed to attend to the passenger's needs. I am respectful and kind to everyone the same way. I don't need to be told that I should be kissing someone's ass to get a Coke.
@savdavid: I dunno, all the airline attendants I've seen have been reasonably nice. Not that I fly lots though. Maybe it's just the flights I was on.
@nybiker:
Why does "witch" have to have a negative connotation? Except in fiction, Withces (esp. Wiccans) are generally the NICEST people you will ever meet...
@Trai_Dep: You know, when you read the memorable quotes from the movie, you can actually watch the movie in your head (granted, you have to have seen the movie first).
@youbastid:
You will soon be told, in a likely condescending tone, that the flight attendant's job is not to attend to your needs, but to ensure everyone's safety. If they happen to serve you in any way that's simply a bonus. Think of the terrible things that would happen if they were not there to tell you how to buckle a seatbelt....
@youbastid: Nobody is saying you should be kissing their ass. Just don't be mean to them and treat them with the same respect with which you want to be treated.
@MostlyHarmless: @Dooley: Learn something new everyday. I have not met a Wiccan (at least not that they've told me). Thank you.
As for the HP link, I have not read the books, so you are correct about that as well.
Generally speaking, my frame of reference is that when calling someone a witch (or some derivation of the word), it hasn't been with the nicest of intentions. In the future I will refrain from assuming such intent.
@youbastid: That's not what anyone is asking you to do. Just show respect for people. It doesn't matter whether it's their "job" to get you a drink. Just show proper respect.
@youbastid: Maybe you don't need to make them happy but you damn sure don't need to be surly to them. You also should make their job easier by not being an a.. (I'm talking in general, not to you personally).
Smile and be nice are apparently tricks that don't come naturally to some people. Watch people in Walmart or any large store with aisle to a cashier or a restaurant. Customers that speak up -- "How's it going today?", "Big crowds, huh?", will always get good service. Even the most snarly customer service person on a bad day will react positively to someone that is conversational. Always works, always.
At first I thought this was going to be one of those "Wah! Here's where we tell you its your fault that we don't treat you well..." type of stories, but upon reading them, they are all common sense. I find it especially troubling that in the 21st century, people have to be told not to try to fondle flight attendants.
@youbastid: You're right, it's not your job; it's your responsibility as a decent human being. Paying for a service does not grant you the right to treat someone like crap, it grants you the right to the service performed.
See? Simple.
@The_IT_Crone: They are the same people who cause three car pileups on a highway while yapping on their cell phones and when the cop pulls them over a little bit down the road, they are clueless (yep, saw this happen....one cop at accident and one cop speeding after the bitch.)
@youbastid: It is amazing how many people in this society that you have to tell to be nice to other people. Appreciate them for the jobs they do just as you would want appreciation for whatever job you may or may not do.
Whenever someone asks, "how are you?" and you say, "good," or "doing well," try to immediately follow with "how are you?" because people never expect to be asked that anymore. But even if the person asking never means it to be any more than courtesy, it'll most likely make their day a little brighter when you just ask how they are. Even if you don't really care. Just ask, and nod when they reply.
@humphrmi: Yep, no smacking them on the ass. Most of this article I felt was written by Captian Obvious, but you are right. It is amazing.
@humphrmi: Yup. I would guess that most people who would need to be told this are beyond salvation anyway, but good on her for trying.
The best FA I ever encountered was on a little Northwest Airlink flight--she was the only cabin attendant, and she was a marvel of smooth efficiency and control. She ruled that plane. I think perhaps she was flying it as well.
@nybiker: Actually it is quite safe to assume that when someone calls someone else a witch, its not with good intent. But depending on the context, you can often tell when the person means it in a good way.
Like this one, for instance.
@nybiker: Yes, I do. They are, for the most part, unpleasant people. But that's not a reason to treat them poorly, or not help them if you can. As annoying as air travel is for you, it is more so for them.
Plus, they can get you drunk for free if you're nice.
@Esquire99: Did I hear you correctly? Did you say place the small metal flap into the buckle or place the buckle over and around the small metal flap? I'm a simple man; I do not possess an engineering degree nor am I mechanically inclined.
@Bobby Laurie: And they didn't even buy you a drink first? How rude.
Seriously, I look at the way some people act on planes and wonder: "What on earth are they like with people they know?" It's like something in the air regresses them to "me me me me" 5yr olds.
Luckily, it's a small percentage - at least as far as I can tell.
And what should one do when already fulfilling that list and still encountering bad attitudes from some of them?
Regarding #5, I've had stewardesses, on two different occasions, grabbing headphones and literally trying to yank them off me.
The head phones were around my neck, not on my ears.
The jack was visibly not plugged in, the cord hanging around my neck and jack at chest level.
I've also encountered stewardesses who expected people to back up ten rows, rather than let me or others sidestep an obstacle course by stepping into an empty seat. Instead of letting someone go two feet forward and left, people are expected to go 20 feet backward.
Most of the time air travel is fine, but I've seen more power tripping in recent years.
I do all these things the right way already, but let's not forget who the customers on an airplane.
Something about opening the overhead bin and finding my flight attendant in that position is hot.
Wow, need to slow down. Meant "let's not forget who the customer is..."
so basically, people need to practice common human decency. It's so sad that someone actually has to tell us this.
Don't puke on them either. They really seem to hate that.
@nybiker: Yeah, I've found that wiccan and pagan people are fairly common but don't often identify themselves publicly because...not everyone is exactly accepting of that identity. Same reason I keep my lack of theistic beliefs to myself.
I've had people tell me they've never met a gay person before (well, "a homosexual" or just "a gay"), and I just laaaugh and laaaaugh...
@Don't take anything aaron8301 says seriously: From the first half of your comment I expected you to make a roofies joke, and I'm glad to see you didn't.
@Hoss: Why should people have to kiss ass to get customer service people to treat you like a person. I am always kind, but almost never get a hi, or welcome these days. That is SUPPOSED to be part of the job. I even see signs reminding the workers of it and the still don't do it. In this economy, I just skip those stores and go to the ones where I get the service.
10. That may be a problem; I'm constantly smiling and it makes them wonder what evil I'm plotting.
9, 8, 7. Easy. I only carry a backpack, and it slips nicely under the seat.
6. Hard to do when you're trying to read the safety card.
5. Oh definitely. They get drowned out by the noise of the airplane, and canceled out by the headphones.
4. Easy to do; they already had a long day.
3. Short trips, and peanuts? No prob, now that you're allowing a meal to be brought on board (I'm flying Southwest alot now).
2. No baby. No problem.
1. You don't know where those attendants have been! Literally!
@youbastid: Attending to your "needs" is getting everyone on the plane in an orderly manner, preparing the aircraft for takeoff, instructing you on using the safety equipment and properly evacuating the aircraft, getting you to your destination in a timely manner as a result of all the above, and ushering everyone off the plane at the correct moment and in reasonable fashion.
Unless it's a very long flight, absolutely everything else is a "want".
I just don't fly anymore. I have the type of luck that my name will match some drug mule and I will get the TSA guy with the really big hands demanding a cavity search. Plus all the other nightmare stories I read on this site about theft ,arrest , and abandonment has me driving.
Hey, hey, if you would take a second, take the little sticks out of your head, clean out your ears, and maybe you would see that I'm a person who has feelings, and all I have to do is do what I wanna do and all I want to do is hold on to my bag and not listen to you! And the only way that I would ever let go of my bag would be if you came over here right now and tried to pry it from my dead, lifeless fingers, okay? If you can get it from my kung-fu grip then you can come and have it, okay? Otherwise, step off, bitch.
@Dooley:
I live in the Pacific NW, so I know some. My friends are really cool (obviously), but there are wacky wiccans. My friend had a class with a girl who was very dumb, always answered questions wrong. She said she didn't like people because "They make fun of my beliefs because I'm a wiccan and because I don't believe in gravity."
She apparently wasn't all that nice, either.
Skywitches is very funny.
@reynwrap582: Why do they call them roofies when you end up on the floor?
Wait a minute... The ROOF!
I once assisted a flight attendant with a rude passenger on a flight from NYC to Tokyo (very long flight) and, upon arrival, she spoke to the gate agent in Tokyo and got me a free upgrade to first class on the flight back.
I've been a sweetheart to the skywitches ever since!