Awhile back I had an interesting situation arise on a flight from Chicago to Baton Rouge
We were at the end of our beverage service and wheeling the cart up to the front of the airplane. It was a little on the bumpy side. Nothing too terrible, but it made pouring drinks a bit of a challenge
We had almost gotten all of the way to the galley with the cart, when Mr. “Platinum” in 1B asked yours truly for some water. I nodded and proceeded to fill a cup with ice, and then with water. Mr. “Platinum” barked, “NO ICE!” to me just as I lifted the scoop out of the ice tray. Nodding again, I began to fill his cup with water, about ¾ full. Mind you it was a little on the bumpy side at the time, and I didn’t want to spill water on him.
“A little MORE water,” he barked at me again. So I added a little more water to his glass, trying not to spill it on him in the process. Still not satisfied he barked at me yet again, “MORE WATER!” So I added yet more water to his glass, still not trying to spill it on him. It was filled this time almost to the brim, and yet he demanded more. Finally I said, “Sorry sir, if I fill it anymore I am afraid that your cup will over flow. With that, I put the water away, and helped the other flight attendant stow the cart, before it got bumpier.
Mr. Platinum then gets up, slams his empty cup down on the cart right in front of my face, mumbles something and then sits back down. I stop what I was doing, turn to face him, and ask him what he just said. He matter of factly begins to tell me that he is going to write a letter to the president of my airline about how rudely I poured his water.
I paused for a second to ponder whether or not I was really in a bad episode of the Twilight Zone. He then continues to bark about how rude I was.
In shock I begin by apologizing and telling him that I wasn’t trying to be rude. (I really wanted to tell him, “go ahead and write, I don’t care, see where that gets you”. I bit my tongue instead) He stops, and his eyes begin to widen as he stared at me.
“I am sorry that you felt that way sir, but I wasn’t trying to be rude. I was however trying NOT to spill water on you. If you feel that me not over filling your glass with water, because I didn’t want to spill it on you is rude, then so be it. If you feel that your ONLY justification in the matter is to write a letter to my company about me, then do so. But keep in mind sir; I was merely trying NOT to spill water on you!”
His face suddenly softened and all me muttered to me was, “Oh… Okay, okay” before returning to his book.
I wonder how upset he would have been had I just filled the glass up all of the way, handing it to him, and splashing him in the face in the process. Giving him exactly what he wanted, rather than being cautious from the get go.
It’s frustrating when people like to use me as a verbal punching bag to pamper their childish ego trips. They believe that I am forced to take all of the abuse that they dish out. This was yet another example of how sometimes you can’t seem to please anyone no matter how hard you try.
2 comments:
If he make a habit of lodging complaints like that, the odds are that his FF record is already well annotated.
Yea, like I said, I was in total shock when he did that to me. I think the guy was having a bad life and decided to take it out on me. I will never forget the look on his face, it was very matter of fact like he was getting off on trying to threaten me. When I stopped to explain my actions, he just stared at me stunned.
I get passengers threatening to write me up at least once a week, due to weather delays, our carry on bag policy ect. I usually just show them the customer service section and say, I agree with you, and only YOU the passenger can CHANGE that.
I understand that there are alot of blatently rude flight attendants out there, but on the other hand there are alot of blatently rude passengers as well.
There's no doubt that guy has a habit of writing up people. Alot of people know that if you complain, especially if a top flyer, get free miles, vouchers ect. And that's why I told him that if it's his ONLY justification is to write me up, then do so, but i was just TRYING not to spill the stupid water!
Post a Comment