Letter Of Apology To The Flying Public (From Flight Attendants)
This “letter of apology” was originally posted by an anonymous flight attendant on Airiners.net. To whoever you are, thank you. I could not have said it any better!!
“To the Flying Public: We’re sorry.
We’re sorry we have no pillows.
We’re sorry we’re out of blankets.
We’re sorry the airplane is too cold.
We’re sorry the airplane is too hot.
We’re sorry the overhead bins are full.
We’re sorry we have no closet space for your over-sized bag.
We’re sorry that’s not the seat you wanted.
We’re sorry there’s a restless toddler/overweight/offensive smelling passenger seated next to you.
We’re sorry the plane is full and there are no other seats available.
We’re sorry you didn’t get your upgrade.
We’re sorry that guy makes you uncomfortable because he “looks like a terrorist”.
We’re sorry there’s a thunderstorm and we can’t take off.
We’re sorry we don’t know when it will stop.
We’re sorry you’re crammed into a space so small that if you were an animal PETA would protest.
We’re sorry our plane has no music or video entertainment for your 3 hour flight.
We’re sorry we ran out of your favorite soda.
We’re sorry there are no more sandwiches.
We’re sorry that Budweiser costs $6.
We’re sorry we don’t have diapers for your baby.
We’re sorry we don’t have milk for same baby.
We’re sorry you can’t hang out by the cockpit door waiting to use the bathroom.
We’re sorry you can’t hang out at the back of the airplane.
We’re sorry you have to sit down and fasten your seat belt.
We’re sorry you have to put your seat up for landing.
We’re sorry we don’t know when we’re going to land.
We’re sorry we don’t know whether your plane to (substitute any city in the world) will be waiting for you when we land.
We’re sorry we’ve been diverted because we ran out of gas waiting to land.
We’re sorry for these and so many other things that we have absolutely no control over but which we are held accountable for EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Please understand. Flight attendants are not the enemy. We share your space. More than anyone – we want to have a nice, pleasant travel experience.
There is a reason behind everything we ask you to do. It may be a FAA directive. It may be security related. It may be a company procedure.
We don’t just make stuff up. We don’t spend 8 weeks at the flight academy learning how to pour a Coke. There are many things that flight attendants are watching for constantly on every flight FOR YOUR SAFETY. It’s not because we’re bored or so controlling that we just enjoy telling people what to do. I, for one, would like to have one flight where I didn’t have to repeatedly tell people to put their seats up for landing. Seriously. Can’t you just do what we ask sometimes? Without the glares, eye rolling and disdain? For the record – putting your seat up for landing may not seem that important to your personal safety. However, it is very important for the person sitting BEHIND YOU. If you have ever tried to get out of a row where someone has their seat back you know it can be a challenge. Try grabbing your ankles (emergency brace position) or getting out of that row quickly with smoke in the cabin.
Understand a little better now?
Many of the things we ask passengers to comply with are FAA directives. Like carry-on bag stowage and exit row requirements. When we can serve drinks (in the air) and when we can’t (after the aircraft door is closed or on an active taxi-way). We are only allowed to move about the cabin during taxi out for safety related duties. We can’t get you blankets, or hang coats, or get you drinks. It’s not because we don’t want to. It’s because we are held personally responsible if we fail to comply with FAA directives. Meaning that the FAA can fine us personally up to $10,000 if we fail to comply or enforce an FAA Directive.
Like no bags at the bulkhead. No children in the exit row. No one moving around the cabin during taxi. Perhaps now you know why flight attendants get a little testy when people move about the cabin when they’re not supposed to. It’s not the company that gets in trouble for that. It’s us.
Personally, I wish the airlines would show worst case scenario safety videos. Like what happens if you walk through the cabin during turbulence. There could be a guy who has just fallen and smacked his face on the metal armrest and now has a bloody, gushing broken nose. Or an elderly lady who now has a broken arm because someone walking to the bathroom fell on her.
Maybe a passenger with a broken neck because somebody opened an overhead bin during turbulence and a suitcase fell out and onto the person sitting beneath it. These things can easily happen in a fast-moving, unstable air environment.
Please just trust that we are looking out for your best interest and stop fighting with us about everything we ask you to do. It is exhausting.
Finally, please, please direct your hostility and frustrations in the direction where they will be most effective: The customer service department. They are the ones equipped to handle your complaint and implement procedures for CHANGE.
Think about it. Complaining to the flight crew about all your negative travel experiences is about the same as complaining to the office janitor because your computer isn’t working. It may make you feel better to vent about it – but it really won’t fix anything. More than anybody we are already aware of the lack of amenities, food, service and comfort on the aircraft. Please share your concerns with the people in the cubicles at corporate who need that information to make better decisions for the flying public.
It’s frustrating that so many people are in denial about what the travel industry is about now. The glory days of pillows, blankets, magazines and a hot meal for everyone are long gone. Our job is to get you from point A to point B safely and at the cheapest possible cost to you and the company. So be prepared. If you are hungry – get a sandwich before you get on the plane.
If it’s a 3 hour flight, anticipate that you may get hungry and bring some snacks. If you are cold-natured – bring a wrap. Think for yourself and think ahead. Otherwise, don’t complain when you have to pay $3 for a cookie and are left with a crusty blanket to keep you warm.
We hear often that the service just isn’t what is used to be. Well, the SERVICE we provide now isn’t what it used to be. When I was hired, my job was to serve drinks, meals, ensure that safety requirements were met and tend to in-flight medical issues.
Since 9/11 my primary job is to ensure that my airplane will not be compromised by a terrorist. 9/11 may be a distant memory now to many, but be assured that EVERY DAY a flight attendant reports to work he or she is constantly thinking about 9/11. We feel a person al responsibility to ensure that something like that never happens again. We can never relax. We can never not be suspicious about someone’s intentions.
It is difficult to be vigilant and gregarious at the same time. Especially when most of us are working 12 hour days after layovers that only allow 5-6 hours of sleep. Not because we were out partying and having a grand time on the layover – but because the delays that you experience as a passenger also affect us as a crew, so that what was a 10 hour layover is now 8 hours which doesn’t leave a lot of time to recover from what has become an increasingly stressful occupation.
Despite everything, I still enjoy being a flight attendant.
I am writing this letter because I do still care about my profession and about the public perception of flight attendants. In the increasingly challenging travel world it is becoming more imperative than ever for people to just be decent to each other. I can go through an entire day without one person saying anything remotely civil. I will stand at the aircraft door and say hello to everyone who enters and maybe 50% will even look at me and even less will say hello back.
I will try to serve someone a meal who can’t be bothered to take their headsets off long enough for me to ask them what they want. Most of the time the only conversation a passenger has with me is when they are complaining.
Is it any wonder why flight attendants have shut down a bit? After suffering the disdain of hundreds of passengers a day it’s difficult sometimes to even smile, much less interact. We are human. We appreciate the same respect and courtesy that passengers do.
The next time you fly, try treating the flight attendants the way you would like to be treated. You may be surprised how friendly your flight crew is when they are treated like people.”
author unknown
To the author of this wonderful “apology”, contact me if you’d like your name to be made public: sassy@rantsofasassystew.com.
Very well put.
I am not an airline professional, but I do think that flight attendants for the most part get the short end of the stick. Unfortunately, they, along with the gate agents, are the ‘public face’ of the airline and as such, take the brunt of the complaints.
You know, it really is amazing how easy “please”, “thank you”, and a smile is to say and do and how much it helps to ease the stress of the situation.
I must have missed it. Tell me again what it is you still enjoy about your job.
My colleagues, the flexibility, meeting fun & nice PAX, etc.
Two other things though:
1. As mentioned above, I did NOT write this article.
2. I am currently looking for a new (non-FA) job.
To sum up your rant; don’t complain. I don’t care. Got it. In fact I get it every time I fly when I don’t complain and get cold stares from your compadres in uniform even though I try very hard to ask only answerable questions and fulfillable requests. While your job does suck in a lot of ways don’t even think about taking it out on people like me who try their best to make sure that what I say does not end up with Federal Marshals waiting for me in the concourse. If you want to properly vent then do so on the IDIOTS that place their bags cross-ways in the overhead, travel in tank tops and flip-flops (instant casualty if ANYTHING goes wrong) or think that the aircraft is their personal conveyance with a lot of extra, useless people. Call them stupid, Tase them or shove those people out of the emergency exit and nobody will say a word. Keep fit, wear your uniform with pride and if you must plaster on a smile don’t make it obvious that you are faking it. My dad was a Purser for Pan Am for 35 years and your whining is nothing new and just as applicable in 2012 as it was in 1962. He would come home and take about a day to get over the JERKS he had to deal with. And that was before terrorism threats made traveling excruciatingly tedious and a flight crew person can have the offending passenger easily arrested. As a frequent passenger take some advice; stop complaining because sooner or later you will be taking it out on people who try hard to be good passengers or change jobs. Oh yes – lose ten pounds; you don’t have to look like the gorgeous stews of yesteryear but you don’t have to look like that if the plane had a problem I’d be helping you out of a door not the other way around. In the meantime take a big cup of STFU and hop on another flight down the line.
You do realize I was not the author, right?
Nice letter!
I’ve been a Flight Attendant for a while and I can totally relate! I don’t know how many times a day I have to say to “turn off electronics”, phones to be specific, and still, no one cares. Eye rolling and what not. But I learned that as long as I smile, I can get through it and sooner or later the people will comply. However, there will always be that one person who doesn’t know how to be happy. A complainer, if you will. Everything else I can deal with and still enjoy the job. With the complainer, I just turn my back on them. No matter what I say, it won’t be the right thing.
Andre made me laugh. Yes, some FA’s could lose more than a few pounds, but then again, they shouldn’t hire people who have to go through the cabin sideways even if there aren’t any pax on board. Pilots don’t deal with the daily crap of a FA, nor do they want to. I’ve been told that many times. Yes, there are many pax who appreciate our service and hearing it, makes my day. But Andre, I don’t think whoever comes to your office/work place, yells at you on a regular basis because your work place is small and you don’t have the right drink to offer. Am I right?
Many people think we’re there for their complaints and not their safety. Would you enjoy your day if you knew that there will be someone yelling at you about things you have no control over?
This says it all! Kudos to this F/A..
Andre,
Seriously, if your father was a Pan Am stew, you’d never talk to us like that. Back off. Take a second look, and respond again respectfully.
My dad was a Pan Am captain and he’d never address those in authority as did you.
Walk a mile in our shoes.
Signed,
The F/A who knows how to save your ass.
Uhh…fella did I read that right, that you are including in your tirade that flight attendants should lose 10 lbs in order to look more competent? I have a feeling we have identified one of the Problem People here….
I hate flying (commercial) – the flight crews are overworked and pissed off because their retirement disappeared in the last takeover/bankruptcy. The airlines now cater to the great unwashed and combine that with the security theatre in every concourse (aka TSA) to give me all of the fun of a rail car ride to a Nazi death camp. Lastly discovering the new ways airline management has found to squeeze another $20 out of me. I think they should charge by the pound – person and carry on weighed at the gate – $0.00125 per mile per pound from LAX to JFK– that way it will be harder to understand what the real cost is and help balance that fuel factor the MBA’s are looking at daily.
I am a TSA trusted traveler, have access to most exec clubs and have status level with several airlines but I still hate it. In spite of background screening by the CBP and Canadian Customs, I’m still looked at like the next terrorist, and most FA’s seem to do the same. (Although my last flight to Madrid on DL in first seemed like a 1970’s time machine – a flight attendant that actually cared and was pleasant).
I now drive for all trips under 500 miles. It is less hassle and the time is about the same, with the 90 minutes before, the 60 to 90 minute flight (plus 60 minutes in NYC area) and the 60 minutes after for luggage and the rental car multiplied by the aggravation factor it is a no brainer.
If it makes you feel any better, I have been pat down 3 times in the last 2 days. I was on duty, in uniform. The pilots get the same as well. It totally sucks, I hear you!
Very nicely done letter I must say!! As a fellow Flight Attendant I must say it hit the head pretty much square on!! I LOVE my job and my colleagues and the OCCASSIONAL polite, mindful and respectful passenger. Why just yesterday I was taking a duty free payment, holding out my hand for the cash, the woman spit out her gum into my hand!! But did I slap the bitch like I would have done on the street??? No, my smile never wavered, my temper did not flare. I simply layed it on her tray table and politely directed her to the nearest bathroom. HONESTLY??????
I wonder how diplomatically you could handle this situation Andre??? Sat at you’re desk with over 100 screaming at you because its you’re fault the meals were inedible, spitting out gum at you, leaving their s**t lying around for you to trip on AND having to do it EVERY time you come to make a living for you and you’re family??? POINT MADE!!
You have to love you job. You would´nt do it if not. But you´re in a very exposed position. I think it´s the time makes customers so rude and selfish. Everybody should treat other people the way he wanted to be treated himself. I know it´s just a foolish wish but I dedicate it to all flightattendents in the world.