My Rome flight

[AirHostess]

So last week I posted how nice all my passengers have been...

last night I had a Rome and back flight. Rude passengers, half of them looked like wanna-be models! They complained that the plane was late taking off (due to a safety related problems with the fuel packs) some people wanted a pen (bring your own!) no-one listened to the safety demo and some rude Italian girls sat there giggling. Pax stood up in the aisle all flight and small children ran around screaming.

So we sat in the back galley eating our yummy crew food and bitching about them

[Becks]

Planes leave on time? I have GOT to quit flying out of Newark...

[Tutorgal]

I flew home from europe a few weeks ago. Not only did we takeoff exactly on time, we also landed 45 min early.

I was shocked. Absolutely shocked.

[Rapscallion]

So, what you're saying is that for good food on a plane ride, I need to be really chummy with the crew?

That's a good hint for the forthcoming marathon trip I'm facing...

Rapscallion

[Gravekeeper]

I to am unfamiliar with this "on time" concept. I get calls all the time at night from stranded passengers that have been dumped off their airline due to missing connections, etc.

....and all of those passengers are, without fail, night after night, ALWAYS from America West/US Airways. ALWAYS. Once in a blue moon we'll get some folks from Air Canada or Alaska that were stuck due to weather. But thats it.

America West seems to just dump people off at random, on a daily, at Las Vegas and Phoenix then tells them "Tough $@$^, here's a coupon" and tells them to go find a hotel room by themselves ( Which they of course have to pay for. ). They always seem to give them the impression that they'll cover the room, because they give them this voucher. But the voucher is only good for like 10% off a room and only at certain hotels.

They also give passengers our number for flight information or even so they can rebook their flight when we have *nothing* to do with anything except hotels.

I can always tell who the regular flyers of America West are because they always tell me they were flying "America Worst" when I ask. -.-

<shakes fist>

You don't work for America West, do you? ><

[imal'sheva]

Old El Al (Israreli Airline) joke.

Hello, this is the captian speaking. We have landed and are approaching our final docking point. Please stay in your seats with your seatbelts fasted and don't turn on your cell phones until the plane has fully stopped in is docked...

For those standing in the aisles with their cell phones, Happy Chunauka. For those sitting in their seats, Merry Christmas.

[Enjis]

I'm going on a trip to Africa next Friday, and boy will it be a long flight! We go to Amsterdam first (from Michigan), and from there to Africa (Tanzania)

Bringing a bunch of friends, books, iPod...but it still is one LONG flight. I do feel sorry for the stewards on the flight...they have to do this ALL the time!
I know they have duties, but how do they keep from being bored?

[AirHostess]

I'm going on a trip to Africa next Friday, and boy will it be a long flight! We go to Amsterdam first (from Michigan), and from there to Africa (Tanzania)

Bringing a bunch of friends, books, iPod...but it still is one LONG flight. I do feel sorry for the stewards on the flight...they have to do this ALL the time!
I know they have duties, but how do they keep from being bored?

We don't have much to do. We can sit in the galleys with magazines/newspapers/books or chat to one another. Long haul planes have crew rest areas with bunk beds and crew can sit in passenger seats and watch the inflight movies.

[wj_737_700]

They complained that the plane was late taking off (due to a safety related problems with the fuel packs)

I just don't get people that complain of a delay with a SAFETY related problem.
"Okay because some of you people are complaining that we're late taking off we will, despite a proper engine part needed. But please don't complain to our Flight attendants when were late to our destination because we lost power to that engine. Have a nice flight. "

I guess i've been lucky, i've never really had a large delay. The only one I can remember is a Westjet flight to Toronto. We were late taking off because of a weather delay out of toronto. There was one other time where an Air Canada flight was late getting INTO the gate (we already landed) because of a baggage miscount at the aircraft that was at our gate.

IMAPseudonym - I think qualifications differ from airline to airline. I've been looking into being a Flight Attendant (with an ultimate goal of being a pilot) but I need a second language (I know french just not enough for fluent conversation)

[karma_gypsy]

So the plane was a little late in taking off due to a safety issue . . . has anyone ever taken the train? I'm not naming the service (like there are many out there!!). On our way back from vacation (from Sacremento, California to Kelso, Washington) normally, a 16 hour train ride.

We waited in the Sacremento train station for 9 hours. Our train was suppose to arrive shortly after midnight (we arrived at 9PM 'cause we got a ride to the station from a relative). Train didn't arrive until 6AM. Why? Train had a fatality earlier down the line, down by San Jose. Not only was the train late, but had to pull the train off the main track (you know, onto one of those side tracks) to allow freight trains to pass. Needless to say, the crewmembers were not in the greatest of moods. Poor them though, that's a lot of hours in only a few days.

[Gravekeeper]

I just don't get people that complain of a delay with a SAFETY related problem.

You're forgetting the SC equation:

Ignorant Convenience > Risk of Injury, Death or Property Damage

[skeptic53]

Old El Al (Israreli Airline) joke.

Hello, this is the captian speaking. We have landed and are approaching our final docking point. Please stay in your seats with your seatbelts fasted and don't turn on your cell phones until the plane has fully stopped in is docked...

For those standing in the aisles with their cell phones, Happy Chunauka. For those sitting in their seats, Merry Christmas.

I once flew from London to JFK on a 747 that had originated in Israel. The passengers were 90% hyperactive young teens (13-ish) returning from a summer in Israel. About 9% were Hassidim (Ultraorthodox, those guys in the black hats, black coats, beards and sidelocks). The other 1% were a motley group of gentiles. The flight was a long difficult one for the crew due mainly to cultural differences (it was British Air). For instance, the Hassidic guys insisted on standing in the aisle to pray while the seatbelt sign was lit for turbulence, just one example of many difficulties. But when we finally landed... holy guacamole what a zoo. It took over 1 hour to deplane all the passengers. It was near-pandemonium. But that paled in comparison to the scene later at baggage claim. This was pre-9/11 (by about 24 years) so every kid had his whole family with him as the luggage showed up on the carousel. I have never seen so much arguing, gesticulating, and general over-the-top hyperness before or since. It was amazing. It was like a caricature of negative Jewish stereotypes. It was a huge relief to get on the bus to the Port Authority.

[BusBus]

If there is one thing never to complain about, it's a plane leaving late. More often than not, there's a damn good reason for it. Better late than never, eh? I have been on many a delayed flight (or flights that have had to return to the airport due to "technical difficulties" i.e. a whole wack of birds getting sucked into the engine). I have just glad that there are professionals who are making sure that the planes are safe to fly!

[bigjimaz]

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

I would much rather have someone discover a problem while the aircraft is on the ground than the pilot discovering something is wrong at 35,000 feet at Mach .8 or better.

[South Texan]

On a flight from Dallas to London in 1991, we already were over the Atlantic and in the middle of dinner when the pilot came on the PA speaker and asked if there were any doctors on the plane. Two people from tourist/steerage rang that they were, and the flight attendants whisked them away to the business class section. Less than three minutes later, the pilot was back on the PA telling us the plane was turning around and heading to Boston due to a medical emergency. That is all that was officially said, but word quickly got around the plane that a seventeen-year-old woman had eaten nuts on a salad and was having a serious allergic reaction.

Immediately, a woman near me rang for the flight attendant and began to berate the poor attendant about how inconvenient this was for her and how she hated to be on airplanes and how this had better not make her late for her tour group in England and why should she suffer just because some stupid girl didn't know what she was eating and why was there nothing medical on board to cure this anyway. The attendant never had the chance to respond as several of us sitting nearby loudly told the cow to shut up and think about someone besides herself. This was in an era when booze was free on such flights - and everyone back there had been consuming large quantities - so it may explain (at least a little bit) why the woman acted that way. I know it had a lot to do with me speaking up like I did.

The poor seventeen-year-old was taken off the plane by Boston EMS and we continued on our journey. I never found out what her fate was, but the cow in my section was mollified by being only forty-five minutes late in arriving at London - something I considered to be an amazing feat by the pilot.