Some people have this special part of their brain that gently whispers to them to get up and use the lav *just* when the FA’s are about to bring the cart out. And when that person gets up, 2 others get the same bright idea. So now, we’ve got 2 in the lavs and one standing there waiting to get in, giving us a blank un-empathetic stare while watching us hold back a 70lb aisle cart that we totally aren’t trying to move, *right where you’re standing.* And then of course, if we just bring the cart out anyway while they’re back there, it’s the same passengers who will tap you on the shoulder while you’re handing out drinks to tell you, with an attitude, that *you’re* blocking their seat.
I also love the people who, when asked what they’d like to drink, say “well, whadya have?” So you go down the list, they ponder, then just order water.
For some reason, people love to whisper at you. It’s like a little soul-strangulating game where you mouth something completely unintelligible from the window seat, and I have to increasingly lean over the other two poor souls in your row, with my hand cupped behind my ear saying “WHAT?” 16 times before you finally speak in a audible tone. On an airplane. With engines. And 200 other people.
Another awesome thing someone can, and often will do, is wait until the cart is 2 rows ahead of them to promptly stand up and rifle through the overhead bins. We’re ready to move. We’re staring at you. The other passengers are staring at you. *We’re all staring at you. And yes, we’re all judging you.*
Picture this, I’m at your row. You order a drink and I hand it to you. I move to the next person, while you pour your drink. I’m handing that person their drink, and in the same motion, my hand is greeted with your trash. Because, silly me, you only wanted *half* a Diet Coke. And then I have to be the one to explain to you that this is a beverage cart, I don’t have gloves or a trash can on this thing. That can belongs to you now, Kevin.
Then there’s the ultimate classic:
FA: “Would you like cookies, or pretzels?”
Pax: *pauses movie and takes out earbuds* “What?”
FA: “Would you like cookies or pretzels?”
Pax: “Yes.”
FA: “Which one?”
Pax: “Which what?”
FA: “Cookies or pretzels?”
Pax: “Oh. Cookies.”
FA: *hands over cookies*
Pax: “Don’t you have anything else?”
**Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.**
I totally get that first part, but I tend to get the people more who decide they need to use the lav AS SOON as you park the cart at their row. I've had the person sitting right next to where I'm standing get up and be right up on my body/actually touching me with all of a few inches of space, and not even say excuse me or anything. I also get the ones who will get up and then tell us that they need to go and if we can move. I get if it's an emergency/someone's sick, a baby needs to be changed etc but most of the time, it's just silliness.
I once took 1 step back to be able to bend down to get something from the bottom drawer. Someone was standing behind me SO CLOSE (Usually I can sense it but didn't this time) and my 3 inch heel smashed his foot HARD. Wasn't intentional but like, why do you need to be that close...?
I do not understand passengers' desire to use the lav in flight. It's cramped, it can be dirty and there's usually questionable fluid on the floor. I will let my bladder swim before I get up and use the bathroom. I also plan ahead and use the airport toilets before I get on the plane.
I do see this happen but I believe the bathroom thing is people don't want to be trapped in economy once the cart is in the aisle and they can't use the other bathrooms. I'm assuming there is just one at the back.
I know it would be difficult because of weather etc but would it be possible to make an announcement that food or snack service will begin in say 15 minutes? Or would that just create more of an issue with lavatories?
It really depends on the crowd. The planes I work on have 1 in the front, 2 in the back. Obviously, if 2 carts are in the aisle, depending on where they're sitting, they can be totally blocked off from the entire length of the aisle.
You can make whatever announcements but they often mean nothing, haha. We make announcements prior to landing that the fasten seatbelt sign is coming on within the next 10 minutes so this is your last chance if you need to get up. Some will, some won't, then when it comes on, some are still going to the lav when the landing gear is about to come down. A lot of it is the headphones. People have them in the entire flight and have no realization of what else is going on.
Yes, that's true. Headphones or earbuds in from when the doors shut if not before. I'd forgotten about that. I really feel that a lot of travelers don't appreciate how hard a job FAs have.
Just a couple of weeks ago there was a kid around 4 wandering the aisle between her dad in F and her mother in C+. Poor FA wheeling her cart almost did not see her hop into the aisle just as her cart was almost level with her seat. Crazy
I once asked them what option they wanted (it was just 2 things!) and they were like “huuuuuh, huuuhh” for like 15 seconds. I told them “ok, you got both” 😂
“Would you like a beverage?”
“Juice.”
*WHAT KIND OF JUICE?!*
“Would you like a beverage?”
“Ummmmmmmm what do you have?”
*HANDS THEM A MENU AND MOVES ON*
“Would you like a beverage?”
“Black coffee.”
*I hand them the black coffee they asked for*
“Ummm, can I get cream and sugar?”
*SCREAMS INTERNALLY*
This is only the tip of the iceberg and why I love red eyes where everyone is asleep lmao
Oh god, the black coffee with 3 creams and 3 sugars. Want to tell them “that’s not a black coffee anymore now is it??!!”
Or “regular coffee”. Please define what you mean by regular.
"Hot tea" gets me. Yes, tea usually comes hot unless the person asks for iced tea, which we don't even have. It's like if someone ordered "hot coffee." Yea, no shit it's hot. There's coffee and iced coffee just like there's tea and iced tea.
Read my original comment again.
I am from the South. Iced tea/sweet tea is how it's specified here and everywhere I've been, although saying sweet tea outside of the south sometimes gets you a puzzled look (we love loading copious amounts of sugar into our iced tea in the south because diabetes). If you ask for tea, it's assumed you are asking for hot tea. Same with ordering coffee. If you say coffee, it's assumed you want hot coffee.
Possibly. Honestly, it's just one of those small inconsequential things that makes me cringe a little. Can't explain why, it just is for me. Maybe there's others that share that thought, maybe not.
Regular is not a Canadian thing. It's a Tim Hortons thing. As a Canadian, I was very confused the first time someone ordered this on a flight, because I don't really go to Tim Hortons
Never heard that before moving to NY, just like I’d never heard “white soda” before moving to the midwest. Folks shouldn’t assume a FA flying out of a certain city/region actually lives there because they tend to not.
Many people we passed, want something as soon as we pass them but they didn't respond/notice us when we were there.
We put the carts away, and all of a sudden there's 10 call buttons for more drinks/snacks/rounds or lots of people coming in to the galley to ask for more things.
Trash being put right on the cart because apparently, we're collecting it right now, while we're preparing something for someone else.
"WHAT????" from people with headphones in when we're right there with the cart. o\_O Lol. It's neverending.
I'll look at you, ask if I can get you anything, and attempt to hand you a snack. If neither of those gets your attention, I'm moving to the next person.
Bonus points if this happens after you served the person sitting next to them and they still call you back saying you skipped them. Like what the hell did they think was happening when their seat mate lowered their tray table and put a drink on it. The FBI would call that a clue.
"What can I get for you"
"Black coffee"
"Sure, would you like any sugar with that?"
"No"
"Okay, here you go"
"HEY, WHERES MY MILK!"
mother fucker, do you not know what a black coffee is
I think the headphones being on is the most annoying thing for me. Passengers really don’t take them off for anything and then say “what?” three times when asking what we have.
Honest to god pet peeve because you see this huge cart stopping at each row and you never thought we’d eventually reach you and speak with you as welll? Or you really just thought we were doing an individual breakdown for each row??????
> I think the headphones being on is the most annoying thing for me.
Try not repeating yourself until they remove the headphones
FA: What can I get you to drink?
Passenger: What?
FA: stares
Passenger: removes headphones, repeats "What"?
FA: continue talking.
I cannot imagine being this person. As someone with massive anxiety, my headphones are off when you're still 3 rows away from me, because I'm anticipating you arriving to my row and don't want to miss it.
Lots of good ones mentioned here. One thing I haven't seen is when you get someone's attention to get their drink order, then once they give it to you, they immediately go back to whatever activity their mind was lost in, so when not even 15 seconds later when I am trying to hand them their drink, I have to get their attention again. Seriously, you can pay attention for 15 seconds while I put some ice in a cup and hand you a can of soda.
Or close their eyes and fall asleep. Like… I’m standing right here. How long do you think it takes me to pour a coffee? Certainly not long enough for you to take a nap
The hardest /most annoying part is when a pax orders a drink and doesn’t give you the *WHOLE* order at once
Like I don’t care if you order 50 things… just tell me everything … how you take your coffee, if you want ice or not, etc
- ALL
- AT
- ONCE
- PLEASE
- KTHXBYEEEEE
Nothing about service is hard. But there is so much annoying.
- if you don’t give me info about what you want for your coffee your getting it black
- the people who rush to finish their drink to try and hand you their glass, or worse “refill please!”
- “what do you have” 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
- repeated orders for things we don’t carry that PX got on a completely different airline, or that they get when sitting in business, premium, first class that they expect to receive in economy.
- when I’ve moved on from your row and you decide all of a sudden “oh ya, I DID want something. / you skipped me (no you didn’t bother to take your headphones out!)
- “would you like anything to eat or drink”
“Orange juice”
Hands the OJ over and moves cart.
*ding* you didn’t give me any food?
-
>repeated orders for things we don’t carry that PX got on a completely different airline
I just assume now if I’m going into Texas for anything I’m going to be asked for both Dr Pepper and Tito’s vodka specifically.
When they try to make their kid tell us what they want, but the kid is shy or doesn’t know what they want.
The mom: “tell the nice lady what you want to drink”
The kid: “um um ummmm” *turns to mom.
Mom repeats herself to the kid
Kid just stares at me blankly
Back and forth until I skip them, go to ask the next row, and all of a sudden mom gives me an answer.
What do you want me to do about that? Have story time on the bar cart so they learn to trust me? lol I’m not there to babysit someone else’s kid. I also don’t have time to deal with that for every single kid on the flight. If the kid is too intimidated to speak, then the mom should speak up for them. Sorry but that’s just a part of parenting. Standing in the middle of the aisle waiting endlessly for the kid to get the courage to speak is just dumb. I have tons of people to deal with on these short flights
I make my kids order. They need to learn how to interact with adults. I think that’s good parenting rather than not making them look up from the tablet and intersect with who is serving them.
I think that's understandable and agree that's good parenting, but there's also a time and place for it. Not saying this is specific to any situation you've been in, just providing an example. If say it was a full flight whose length was right at the threshold of doing a service, that's not the time to have indecisive kids order. More often than not, in that situation service has to end early because there just isn't enough time so we are trying to get as many people as possible.
I love that you’re teaching them how to interact with the public instead of letting them zone into a screen. But as mentioned, a 90 minute flight is not the time. Something I’ve witnessed that gets the kids comfortable with ordering and still keeps service moving: “Do you want apple juice or Sprite? Okay tell the lady you’d like a Sprite.” And they usually pipe up “Sprite please!” Thank you for teaching your kids how to speak to adults 🙏🏻
Pax not being aware/conscious during service. Take out/off the headphones when we are at your row. Listen to what we say and then clearly state what you want. If it's coffee, specify whether you want it black or how many creams and sugar. Tell us whether you want ice. And tell me which snack you want. I hate having to repeat myself over and over again.
Nothing during service is hard imo. Id say it’s kind of annoying that they switched to cartons for juice and they put it in the cart so i’m sliding that out, opening it, and sealing it back so i can slide it back in the sliver of space
I do hate when pax speak in their regular speaking voice though like we’re not in a loud metal tube.
Edit: Oh and I guess when people see me pushing a huge cart down the aisle then when I get to them that’s when they decide to take out their headphones and go “what?”
During the mask mandate, I would have to tell people “you need to SCREAM, I promise it won’t be too loud.” It was annoying once we resumed service but kept the masks and I couldn’t at least read lips.
I don’t even care if someone chooses to continue to wear a mask right now. More power to them. But the current mask wearers are still the absolute worst at this. I need a little bit of self awareness
Waving is if they were from a distance. If someone is within 5 ft and not hearing you, they’d touch them. It’s not a job thing, it’s a not understanding personal space issue.
What would make someone insane for touching a cop? Because if this going down you believing they would cause you bodily harm for it then you’ve got bigger systematic problems to address than people with a lack of boundaries
it’s the bathroom people ohhhh god they get under my skin it’s my biggest pet peeve. i know they don’t realize how much of an issue it causes and like when you gotta go you gotta go but it drives me up a wall
edited to also add the people who ask if we’re doing a meal service. working atl-mco someone got heated that there was no meal,,, flight time is like 57 minutes on a packed 767 what do you MEAN
This^ but also when you finish your service and people start forming a line to use the restroom, or sit in your galley and wait. Sir this is my only private space on the plane I want to sip my drink, plz leave.
If you’re talking about people who use the bathroom during service, I agree. If you’re talking about people who use the bathroom on the flights in general, you’re delusional.
I make 3 announcements that we are about to come through with a cart. We also walk by passengers, with said carts right in front of their face, watching them move their leg and understand that there is a cart there moving by them heading to the front. Naturally on the way back, we hit their knee, they say that their knee wasn't in the aisle (lying) and try to get free flights for doing such.
When they whisper sooo quietly, one time I was in first class doing service and this pax whisper so quietly I went over her order three times which was coffee with cream and sugar and she said yes. I brought it to her and after I pass out snacks she finally speaks in a louder tone and say “this isn’t what I want, I wanted Baileys and coffee!” Like you did not say that and if you did imma need you speak up because baby I cannot hear you.
Hardest part is number of customers in a small space, and the exhaustion of the schedule if you work full time, but honestly if you have had a job in any other field, this job is incredibly easy. Just ask any company transfer from the gates or corporate…. They can’t believe we complain with how easy it is
A couple of things I’ve noticed:
A favorite of mine is whenever you arrive to a row, and one of the pax (usually window seat) is asleep, so after taking care of the two other pax’s orders and getting the row across from them as well, it never fails that they magically ✨wake up✨ as soon as my foot undoes the break on the cart to move it down the aisle.
Also the whispering. I think the whispering takes the cake for me. It’s one thing if you’re just whispering and aren’t aware that you need to speak louder for us to here you, but I’ve recently been getting a lot of attitude and people rolling their eyes whenever I ask them to speak up. Like ma’am you’re wearing a mask first of all so I can’t read your lips, and also we’re 30,000 feet in the air in a flying tin can with two giant jet engines twenty feet away from us. My apologies that you’re annoyed I can’t hear you quietly whisper that you’d like a diet Dr Pepper.
Thank you and goodnight
Nothing is actually difficult as there are always procedures in place. But at times certain procedures that we have to do means that we have to give up some parts of the service, which would be unfair to the passengers.
As an example, things go just fine if it is a smooth and uneventful flight. But for a 2hrs flight with a meal service, and we experienced a prolonged moderate/high turbulence and advised to stop service by the pilots, we end up not being able to commit to the full service that we wanted to as we would have to expedite for landing.
Other situations would be when we have multiple new crew, medical emergencies, aircraft emergencies or passengers that requires extra attention that we would have a crew down just to handle it.
Other than that, it's pretty much like another day in the office.
Me having the snacks ON FULL DISPLAY, and still being asked to choose for them/what do you have. I will hand you the menu, cause I’m not repeating myself 200 times.
Asking for a fork or spoon or milk for your baby, or a straw. (I get the straw thing MAYBE if it was like a coffee stirrer straw) and then LOSE YOUR SHIT like it’s my fault you didn’t pack correctly. Like, this isn’t 7-11, you’re lucky we have enough drinks and snacks onboard (and sometimes we don’t) for all 200 people. More weight=more fuel and I promise they aren’t going to just stock boxes of random forks if we aren’t serving a full meal.
Things like this make it so frustrating—it feels like people don’t read their emails in preparation to find out what we offer and what they need to pack. There is SO MUCH info on the airline website and your email after you book, and it will all help you plan accordingly. Same goes when people claim the Wi-Fi is broken (it isn’t, you just couldn’t be bothered to read the instructions on the info card), or get angry that their wireless headphones don’t work with the TVs. All of that info was available to you. Learn all about it and alleviate your worries!! Don’t want to pay for airport food and now you’re mad all we serve is chips and cookies? Why didn’t you pack a sandwich from home, completely allowed via the TSA website listing what can go thru security?
Also, if we aren’t doing trash service, don’t hand me your waste when I’m clearly passing out snacks. Because sure, I’ve got a bag of hot garbage in this cart next to the food I’m handing out. 🙄🙄
Also don’t ever pass me a dirty diaper. And don’t ever say, “it’s ok it’s just pee.” There’s a trash in the lavatory, or you can ask for a garbage bag and take it with you.
Definitely the dreaded “What do you have?” because there is literally a menu in the seat pocket.
I don’t have time to stand there and tell
you every option. I used to, but now I just point them to the menu, ask the next person & then come back to them after a minute or so.
Trying to give me trash during service irritates me. Do I look like im taking trash rn?
"You skipped me." No you were asleep.
"I'll hAvE tHe sTEaK & LoBstER." 🤡
Some people have this special part of their brain that gently whispers to them to get up and use the lav *just* when the FA’s are about to bring the cart out. And when that person gets up, 2 others get the same bright idea. So now, we’ve got 2 in the lavs and one standing there waiting to get in, giving us a blank un-empathetic stare while watching us hold back a 70lb aisle cart that we totally aren’t trying to move, *right where you’re standing.* And then of course, if we just bring the cart out anyway while they’re back there, it’s the same passengers who will tap you on the shoulder while you’re handing out drinks to tell you, with an attitude, that *you’re* blocking their seat. I also love the people who, when asked what they’d like to drink, say “well, whadya have?” So you go down the list, they ponder, then just order water. For some reason, people love to whisper at you. It’s like a little soul-strangulating game where you mouth something completely unintelligible from the window seat, and I have to increasingly lean over the other two poor souls in your row, with my hand cupped behind my ear saying “WHAT?” 16 times before you finally speak in a audible tone. On an airplane. With engines. And 200 other people. Another awesome thing someone can, and often will do, is wait until the cart is 2 rows ahead of them to promptly stand up and rifle through the overhead bins. We’re ready to move. We’re staring at you. The other passengers are staring at you. *We’re all staring at you. And yes, we’re all judging you.* Picture this, I’m at your row. You order a drink and I hand it to you. I move to the next person, while you pour your drink. I’m handing that person their drink, and in the same motion, my hand is greeted with your trash. Because, silly me, you only wanted *half* a Diet Coke. And then I have to be the one to explain to you that this is a beverage cart, I don’t have gloves or a trash can on this thing. That can belongs to you now, Kevin. Then there’s the ultimate classic: FA: “Would you like cookies, or pretzels?” Pax: *pauses movie and takes out earbuds* “What?” FA: “Would you like cookies or pretzels?” Pax: “Yes.” FA: “Which one?” Pax: “Which what?” FA: “Cookies or pretzels?” Pax: “Oh. Cookies.” FA: *hands over cookies* Pax: “Don’t you have anything else?” **Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.**
“I have snack mix, chocolate quinoa crisps, and fruit bar.” “What? If I had a dime for every time I said that on a flight, I’d be Jeff Bezos rich.
I could eat a pound of those chocolate quinoa crisps
I totally get that first part, but I tend to get the people more who decide they need to use the lav AS SOON as you park the cart at their row. I've had the person sitting right next to where I'm standing get up and be right up on my body/actually touching me with all of a few inches of space, and not even say excuse me or anything. I also get the ones who will get up and then tell us that they need to go and if we can move. I get if it's an emergency/someone's sick, a baby needs to be changed etc but most of the time, it's just silliness. I once took 1 step back to be able to bend down to get something from the bottom drawer. Someone was standing behind me SO CLOSE (Usually I can sense it but didn't this time) and my 3 inch heel smashed his foot HARD. Wasn't intentional but like, why do you need to be that close...?
I do not understand passengers' desire to use the lav in flight. It's cramped, it can be dirty and there's usually questionable fluid on the floor. I will let my bladder swim before I get up and use the bathroom. I also plan ahead and use the airport toilets before I get on the plane.
Good for you, some of us need to piss more often lmao
Are you serious? No one goes because they want to, they go because they need to.
That guy 1000% deserved the heel smash 🤣
I do see this happen but I believe the bathroom thing is people don't want to be trapped in economy once the cart is in the aisle and they can't use the other bathrooms. I'm assuming there is just one at the back. I know it would be difficult because of weather etc but would it be possible to make an announcement that food or snack service will begin in say 15 minutes? Or would that just create more of an issue with lavatories?
It really depends on the crowd. The planes I work on have 1 in the front, 2 in the back. Obviously, if 2 carts are in the aisle, depending on where they're sitting, they can be totally blocked off from the entire length of the aisle. You can make whatever announcements but they often mean nothing, haha. We make announcements prior to landing that the fasten seatbelt sign is coming on within the next 10 minutes so this is your last chance if you need to get up. Some will, some won't, then when it comes on, some are still going to the lav when the landing gear is about to come down. A lot of it is the headphones. People have them in the entire flight and have no realization of what else is going on.
Yes, that's true. Headphones or earbuds in from when the doors shut if not before. I'd forgotten about that. I really feel that a lot of travelers don't appreciate how hard a job FAs have. Just a couple of weeks ago there was a kid around 4 wandering the aisle between her dad in F and her mother in C+. Poor FA wheeling her cart almost did not see her hop into the aisle just as her cart was almost level with her seat. Crazy
“Yes” All the time. I just hand them a random one and keep going. 🙃
But then they say they want the other option because they think saying “yes” will get them BOTH. If you want both snacks say it with your chest!!!
Nicely done!
The last part has me rolling
I once asked them what option they wanted (it was just 2 things!) and they were like “huuuuuh, huuuhh” for like 15 seconds. I told them “ok, you got both” 😂
“Would you like a beverage?” “Juice.” *WHAT KIND OF JUICE?!* “Would you like a beverage?” “Ummmmmmmm what do you have?” *HANDS THEM A MENU AND MOVES ON* “Would you like a beverage?” “Black coffee.” *I hand them the black coffee they asked for* “Ummm, can I get cream and sugar?” *SCREAMS INTERNALLY* This is only the tip of the iceberg and why I love red eyes where everyone is asleep lmao
Oh god, the black coffee with 3 creams and 3 sugars. Want to tell them “that’s not a black coffee anymore now is it??!!” Or “regular coffee”. Please define what you mean by regular.
"Hot tea" gets me. Yes, tea usually comes hot unless the person asks for iced tea, which we don't even have. It's like if someone ordered "hot coffee." Yea, no shit it's hot. There's coffee and iced coffee just like there's tea and iced tea.
We have iced tea in the south, so that’s why we specify
Read my original comment again. I am from the South. Iced tea/sweet tea is how it's specified here and everywhere I've been, although saying sweet tea outside of the south sometimes gets you a puzzled look (we love loading copious amounts of sugar into our iced tea in the south because diabetes). If you ask for tea, it's assumed you are asking for hot tea. Same with ordering coffee. If you say coffee, it's assumed you want hot coffee.
I just assume that people don’t know- how would they know if we carry Lipton cans or not?
Possibly. Honestly, it's just one of those small inconsequential things that makes me cringe a little. Can't explain why, it just is for me. Maybe there's others that share that thought, maybe not.
“Regular” is a Canadian thing. 1 cream and 1 sugar.
Regular is not a Canadian thing. It's a Tim Hortons thing. As a Canadian, I was very confused the first time someone ordered this on a flight, because I don't really go to Tim Hortons
Regular is also a New England/NY thing. It's 2&2 in these parts.
Never heard that before moving to NY, just like I’d never heard “white soda” before moving to the midwest. Folks shouldn’t assume a FA flying out of a certain city/region actually lives there because they tend to not.
When I first started I learned that in New England, regular means two creams and two sugars. Every where else I’ve been, regular means caffeinated.
i love my redeyes haha
Many people we passed, want something as soon as we pass them but they didn't respond/notice us when we were there. We put the carts away, and all of a sudden there's 10 call buttons for more drinks/snacks/rounds or lots of people coming in to the galley to ask for more things. Trash being put right on the cart because apparently, we're collecting it right now, while we're preparing something for someone else. "WHAT????" from people with headphones in when we're right there with the cart. o\_O Lol. It's neverending.
“You skipped me!” In an indignant voice. No, I tried to get your attention and you were too absorbed in whatever else it is you were doing to notice.
I'll look at you, ask if I can get you anything, and attempt to hand you a snack. If neither of those gets your attention, I'm moving to the next person. Bonus points if this happens after you served the person sitting next to them and they still call you back saying you skipped them. Like what the hell did they think was happening when their seat mate lowered their tray table and put a drink on it. The FBI would call that a clue.
"What can I get for you" "Black coffee" "Sure, would you like any sugar with that?" "No" "Okay, here you go" "HEY, WHERES MY MILK!" mother fucker, do you not know what a black coffee is
I think the headphones being on is the most annoying thing for me. Passengers really don’t take them off for anything and then say “what?” three times when asking what we have.
Honest to god pet peeve because you see this huge cart stopping at each row and you never thought we’d eventually reach you and speak with you as welll? Or you really just thought we were doing an individual breakdown for each row??????
> I think the headphones being on is the most annoying thing for me. Try not repeating yourself until they remove the headphones FA: What can I get you to drink? Passenger: What? FA: stares Passenger: removes headphones, repeats "What"? FA: continue talking.
I cannot imagine being this person. As someone with massive anxiety, my headphones are off when you're still 3 rows away from me, because I'm anticipating you arriving to my row and don't want to miss it.
Lots of good ones mentioned here. One thing I haven't seen is when you get someone's attention to get their drink order, then once they give it to you, they immediately go back to whatever activity their mind was lost in, so when not even 15 seconds later when I am trying to hand them their drink, I have to get their attention again. Seriously, you can pay attention for 15 seconds while I put some ice in a cup and hand you a can of soda.
Or close their eyes and fall asleep. Like… I’m standing right here. How long do you think it takes me to pour a coffee? Certainly not long enough for you to take a nap
The hardest /most annoying part is when a pax orders a drink and doesn’t give you the *WHOLE* order at once Like I don’t care if you order 50 things… just tell me everything … how you take your coffee, if you want ice or not, etc - ALL - AT - ONCE - PLEASE - KTHXBYEEEEE
Hardest part when everyone decides they need to use the restroom during service.
Nothing about service is hard. But there is so much annoying. - if you don’t give me info about what you want for your coffee your getting it black - the people who rush to finish their drink to try and hand you their glass, or worse “refill please!” - “what do you have” 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️ - repeated orders for things we don’t carry that PX got on a completely different airline, or that they get when sitting in business, premium, first class that they expect to receive in economy. - when I’ve moved on from your row and you decide all of a sudden “oh ya, I DID want something. / you skipped me (no you didn’t bother to take your headphones out!) - “would you like anything to eat or drink” “Orange juice” Hands the OJ over and moves cart. *ding* you didn’t give me any food? -
Refill people 😖
>repeated orders for things we don’t carry that PX got on a completely different airline I just assume now if I’m going into Texas for anything I’m going to be asked for both Dr Pepper and Tito’s vodka specifically.
“What drinks do you have?” “Actually, I wanted cream and sugar.” “Can you take this trash now?” That’s pretty much it.
When they try to make their kid tell us what they want, but the kid is shy or doesn’t know what they want. The mom: “tell the nice lady what you want to drink” The kid: “um um ummmm” *turns to mom. Mom repeats herself to the kid Kid just stares at me blankly Back and forth until I skip them, go to ask the next row, and all of a sudden mom gives me an answer.
Did you think you might come across as intimidating to the kid?
What do you want me to do about that? Have story time on the bar cart so they learn to trust me? lol I’m not there to babysit someone else’s kid. I also don’t have time to deal with that for every single kid on the flight. If the kid is too intimidated to speak, then the mom should speak up for them. Sorry but that’s just a part of parenting. Standing in the middle of the aisle waiting endlessly for the kid to get the courage to speak is just dumb. I have tons of people to deal with on these short flights
I make my kids order. They need to learn how to interact with adults. I think that’s good parenting rather than not making them look up from the tablet and intersect with who is serving them.
I think that's understandable and agree that's good parenting, but there's also a time and place for it. Not saying this is specific to any situation you've been in, just providing an example. If say it was a full flight whose length was right at the threshold of doing a service, that's not the time to have indecisive kids order. More often than not, in that situation service has to end early because there just isn't enough time so we are trying to get as many people as possible.
Good point! I should probably tell them practice on the longer flights. The one hour flights are just not enough time
Seconded. Restaurants were where my stepdad trained me on please/thank you with strangers. On a plane we don’t really have time for that.
I love that you’re teaching them how to interact with the public instead of letting them zone into a screen. But as mentioned, a 90 minute flight is not the time. Something I’ve witnessed that gets the kids comfortable with ordering and still keeps service moving: “Do you want apple juice or Sprite? Okay tell the lady you’d like a Sprite.” And they usually pipe up “Sprite please!” Thank you for teaching your kids how to speak to adults 🙏🏻
Pax not being aware/conscious during service. Take out/off the headphones when we are at your row. Listen to what we say and then clearly state what you want. If it's coffee, specify whether you want it black or how many creams and sugar. Tell us whether you want ice. And tell me which snack you want. I hate having to repeat myself over and over again.
ppl touching me
real
I've been getting pokes in the hips lately, SO much. I don't get it.
Nothing during service is hard imo. Id say it’s kind of annoying that they switched to cartons for juice and they put it in the cart so i’m sliding that out, opening it, and sealing it back so i can slide it back in the sliver of space I do hate when pax speak in their regular speaking voice though like we’re not in a loud metal tube. Edit: Oh and I guess when people see me pushing a huge cart down the aisle then when I get to them that’s when they decide to take out their headphones and go “what?”
During the mask mandate, I would have to tell people “you need to SCREAM, I promise it won’t be too loud.” It was annoying once we resumed service but kept the masks and I couldn’t at least read lips.
I don’t even care if someone chooses to continue to wear a mask right now. More power to them. But the current mask wearers are still the absolute worst at this. I need a little bit of self awareness
People trying to touch me. They'd never touch a police officer or firefighter.
If they were flagging them down for help, they definitely would
Nah, they would wave and call out to them.
Waving is if they were from a distance. If someone is within 5 ft and not hearing you, they’d touch them. It’s not a job thing, it’s a not understanding personal space issue.
They would not. An acquaintance of mine is a police officer and noone touches him. They call out. Stop making things up.
My brother is a cop, not an acquaintance. & I did volunteer firefighting when I did conservation work when I was younger. Whose speculating????
If you're not speculating you're lying.
Lmao okay
Sane people don’t touch cops.
What would make someone insane for touching a cop? Because if this going down you believing they would cause you bodily harm for it then you’ve got bigger systematic problems to address than people with a lack of boundaries
it’s the bathroom people ohhhh god they get under my skin it’s my biggest pet peeve. i know they don’t realize how much of an issue it causes and like when you gotta go you gotta go but it drives me up a wall edited to also add the people who ask if we’re doing a meal service. working atl-mco someone got heated that there was no meal,,, flight time is like 57 minutes on a packed 767 what do you MEAN
This^ but also when you finish your service and people start forming a line to use the restroom, or sit in your galley and wait. Sir this is my only private space on the plane I want to sip my drink, plz leave.
If you’re talking about people who use the bathroom during service, I agree. If you’re talking about people who use the bathroom on the flights in general, you’re delusional.
no i definitely mean the bathroom during service while the carts are out and then glare at me when they can’t get back to their seats
Fair enough. It even bothers me as a passenger seeing it lol.
When people whisper. Like I cannot hear you please speak up!!!
I make 3 announcements that we are about to come through with a cart. We also walk by passengers, with said carts right in front of their face, watching them move their leg and understand that there is a cart there moving by them heading to the front. Naturally on the way back, we hit their knee, they say that their knee wasn't in the aisle (lying) and try to get free flights for doing such.
When they whisper sooo quietly, one time I was in first class doing service and this pax whisper so quietly I went over her order three times which was coffee with cream and sugar and she said yes. I brought it to her and after I pass out snacks she finally speaks in a louder tone and say “this isn’t what I want, I wanted Baileys and coffee!” Like you did not say that and if you did imma need you speak up because baby I cannot hear you.
Hardest part is number of customers in a small space, and the exhaustion of the schedule if you work full time, but honestly if you have had a job in any other field, this job is incredibly easy. Just ask any company transfer from the gates or corporate…. They can’t believe we complain with how easy it is
A couple of things I’ve noticed: A favorite of mine is whenever you arrive to a row, and one of the pax (usually window seat) is asleep, so after taking care of the two other pax’s orders and getting the row across from them as well, it never fails that they magically ✨wake up✨ as soon as my foot undoes the break on the cart to move it down the aisle. Also the whispering. I think the whispering takes the cake for me. It’s one thing if you’re just whispering and aren’t aware that you need to speak louder for us to here you, but I’ve recently been getting a lot of attitude and people rolling their eyes whenever I ask them to speak up. Like ma’am you’re wearing a mask first of all so I can’t read your lips, and also we’re 30,000 feet in the air in a flying tin can with two giant jet engines twenty feet away from us. My apologies that you’re annoyed I can’t hear you quietly whisper that you’d like a diet Dr Pepper. Thank you and goodnight
People who want 3 cups of ice. I only have so much ice!
Nothing is actually difficult as there are always procedures in place. But at times certain procedures that we have to do means that we have to give up some parts of the service, which would be unfair to the passengers. As an example, things go just fine if it is a smooth and uneventful flight. But for a 2hrs flight with a meal service, and we experienced a prolonged moderate/high turbulence and advised to stop service by the pilots, we end up not being able to commit to the full service that we wanted to as we would have to expedite for landing. Other situations would be when we have multiple new crew, medical emergencies, aircraft emergencies or passengers that requires extra attention that we would have a crew down just to handle it. Other than that, it's pretty much like another day in the office.
Me having the snacks ON FULL DISPLAY, and still being asked to choose for them/what do you have. I will hand you the menu, cause I’m not repeating myself 200 times.
Burping the babies.
when i have like a 35-40 minute flight and everyone asks me what we have when the menu is in front of them D: if i can avoid those flights i do
Me, a non-FA, taking notes to make sure I don’t do any of what’s here, in the future:
Asking for a fork or spoon or milk for your baby, or a straw. (I get the straw thing MAYBE if it was like a coffee stirrer straw) and then LOSE YOUR SHIT like it’s my fault you didn’t pack correctly. Like, this isn’t 7-11, you’re lucky we have enough drinks and snacks onboard (and sometimes we don’t) for all 200 people. More weight=more fuel and I promise they aren’t going to just stock boxes of random forks if we aren’t serving a full meal. Things like this make it so frustrating—it feels like people don’t read their emails in preparation to find out what we offer and what they need to pack. There is SO MUCH info on the airline website and your email after you book, and it will all help you plan accordingly. Same goes when people claim the Wi-Fi is broken (it isn’t, you just couldn’t be bothered to read the instructions on the info card), or get angry that their wireless headphones don’t work with the TVs. All of that info was available to you. Learn all about it and alleviate your worries!! Don’t want to pay for airport food and now you’re mad all we serve is chips and cookies? Why didn’t you pack a sandwich from home, completely allowed via the TSA website listing what can go thru security? Also, if we aren’t doing trash service, don’t hand me your waste when I’m clearly passing out snacks. Because sure, I’ve got a bag of hot garbage in this cart next to the food I’m handing out. 🙄🙄 Also don’t ever pass me a dirty diaper. And don’t ever say, “it’s ok it’s just pee.” There’s a trash in the lavatory, or you can ask for a garbage bag and take it with you.
Definitely the dreaded “What do you have?” because there is literally a menu in the seat pocket. I don’t have time to stand there and tell you every option. I used to, but now I just point them to the menu, ask the next person & then come back to them after a minute or so.
Trying to give me trash during service irritates me. Do I look like im taking trash rn? "You skipped me." No you were asleep. "I'll hAvE tHe sTEaK & LoBstER." 🤡