While flying isn’t the most pleasant experience in the world, kind and helpful flight attendants can really improve the experience. These folks didn’t get so lucky, however. People share the times their flight attendant was out of line. Content has been edited for clarity.
Ms. Snotty Loudmouth
“I was on an American flight with my boss about 25 years ago. I am 4’10” and weighed about 135 pounds. I was seated next to my boss (a tall skinny guy about 45 years old) in the emergency exit row and the female flight attendant came up to me and said loudly, ‘You need to change seats.’ I looked confused but got up and my boss and I traded seats.
She said, ‘Not like that! You have to move to a different row. You are too fat to sit in the emergency exit row.’ She said it very loudly so all the people around me heard her clearly. Now if she said I was too short, I might understand but too fat? Excuse me! I wore size 10 ladies’ clothes. My boss told her that we were not moving. She said he was okay but I wasn’t. I was so humiliated that I just said I’d move and to find me a seat to trade.
A really big guy in the row behind me said he’d trade, so we did. Then he sat down and asked Ms. Snotty Loudmouth for a seat belt extension. She got him one. Not a word about him being too fat. When we landed, my boss and I sent a letter to American Airlines about the incident.
In a return phone call, they said they’d be counseling the flight attendant, and offered me free flights for a year. I accepted, with the condition that I receive a personal apology from Ms. Snotty Loudmouth. Which I got, apparently very reluctantly from her tone of voice. But at that time, I was flying about 300,000 miles a year, so I guess it might have been worth the humiliation.”
Sprung A Leak
“I was on a British Airways flight seated in a row that was an Emergency Exit which was on the wing and slightly behind the port engine. After about ten minutes of cruising altitude, I looked out the exit window and noticed that there was a slight white trail coming from the engine. In order not to frighten other passengers, I went to the rear galley and said that there was a suspicious leak coming from the port engine and that I think she should have a look at it.
The flight attendant said, ‘Oh, its just clouds we are passing through,’ which I knew to be a lie as there weren’t any above or below us. I repeated the fact and she said that if I didn’t go back to my seat and was quiet, I would be restrained by the onboard crew and arrested.
Fed up, I walked through the curtained-off area at the front to Business Class and spoke to the purser and explained the situation and what had happened with the rear flight attendant. She went white, then red with anger, went into the cockpit to speak to the Captain who came with me to my seat to look at it, groaned, thanked me and went back to get a priority landing at Heathrow.
As I was leaving, I was asked my name and number by the purser and a few weeks later a letter arrived stating the flight attendant had been sent for retraining and that I was to be awarded 2000 Avios points and a free upgrade for my next flight.”
“Not My Job”
“I remember flying on American years ago and this little old lady of about 85 came down the aisle pulling her bag. When she got to her seat, she had to lift it into the overhead locker. Which, obviously, she was physically unable to do. So she asked a flight attendant to assist her.
The guy just berated her: ‘Ma’am, you are not supposed to bring luggage aboard if you are incapable of lifting it into an overhead locker. It is not part of our job description, we are not supposed to help you lift bags.’
I was really stunned that anyone could be that aggressive toward a person of that age. In my world there is a bright white line between ‘not my job’ and ‘I refuse to help people who need assistance because I am an asshole.’
This flight attendant was definitely on the latter side of that line. I just got up, put the lady’s bag in the overhead bin, and glared at the flight attendant the whole time. He said nothing at all – just turned his shoulder and flounced off. What a dick. I hope he was made redundant.”
Upright Position
“Several years ago I was on a flight and the flight attendant during the preflight check told me to put my seat back in the upright position. I hadn’t declined it at all so I didn’t think much of it, but just in case it was reclined during the previous flight, I attempted to adjust it but it wouldn’t raise anymore. I could see it was slightly further back than my wife’s seat but we are talking less than an inch. I also noticed other seats seemed to be about the same degree of recline as mine, so no big deal I thought.
The attendant comes back around for final checks and starts to berate me for not paying attention. I explained the issue and how I hadn’t reclined the seat but checked to make sure it was up as far as it would go. She didn’t believe me and threatened to kick me off the plane. My wife tried to intervene and explained the same thing. We offered to allow her to try it, but she refused and told us that we would have to de-board the plane.
I asked why as we hadn’t done anything wrong and I also asked if we could speak with the flight crew leader. The crew leader comes over and both parties explained the issue. She tried to raise the seat to align with the one next to it to no avail. Then she tells us since the seat is broken, we have to take another flight.
At this point, I’m agitated and getting upset due to how this is being handled and the disrespectful nature of the interactions with the crew. I had to present solutions that they should have just offered, such as moving to new seats as the plane wasn’t even full. At first, they said no until other passages told them they were being ridiculous and how other seats were the same degree of decline and that there were other unoccupied seats. Eventually, they determined that we could just sit somewhere else, but decided to make it known that if it were not the case, we would have had to take another flight.”
Late To The Bahamas
“My dad had just driven an hour and a half to drive us to the airport. My son (under a year old), me, and my mom were going first class from Logan Airport, Boston to the Bahamas in 1994. Children that age do not require passports and I had a copy of his birth certificate with me.
The check-in staff decided we needed a certified, notarized copy of his birth certificate. It wasn’t a requirement six months prior. The manager came out and confirmed the policy. He was a complete a**hole to us. My mother got on the flight all of our luggage to the Bahamas and I had to stay and wait another hour for my dad to get home in order to tell him to turn around and pick me and my son up (felt so bad!).
I then called the hospital where my son was born, picked up a notarized copy same day, and was on the flight the next day. I saw the same check-in staff the next day and that’s when the truth came out. Turns out the flight was overbooked and they decided the mother with the infant needed to be eliminated. F. U. American Airlines!”
Rude Much?
“I was an executive platinum member of American Airlines and was sitting in the bulkhead seat (first seat in coach) when the flight attendant came over and asked if I wanted a drink. I mentioned that I had gotten an email as I was executive platinum that snacks were free to me such as sandwich’s and tubes of chips etc, that they would normally sell.
I asked for a sandwich as I had not eaten and it was a 3 hour flight. She walked away, came back, and then demanded to see my executive platinum card (there were none). I explained that it said ‘executive platinum’ next to my name on the flight manifest and she could confirm my status that way. With this, she came back and dropped a 20 lb flight manual on my lap from as high as she could get and demanded I show her where I’m entitled to free snacks.
This scared me and the guy sitting next to me as well. I told here never mind, I would like to buy the entire plane anything they wanted as long as I got her employee ID. She grabbed the book and stormed off. I found the email from American Airlines about the complimentary snack just in case things got nastier. We were only 20 minutes into a 3-hour flight.
Finally, the first-class steward comes over, apologizes profusely, and says the other attendant was way out line. The first flight attendant never apologized but American Airlines gave me 100,000 as a result.”
Pay Up!
“I gave up my first-class seat to a soldier in uniform. When the flight attendant came by in coach asking for our drink orders, I said, ‘Whiskey and diet coke please.’ He replied, ‘You know, I am going to have to charge you for that because you are no longer in first-class.’
I literally said, ‘Are you kidding me? I have done this over 100 times and never has a flight attendant insisted I pay – I once even got a whole bottle of wine signed by the flight crew!’
He insisted I pay. The guy behind me said, ‘I will buy his drink.’
I said, ‘That is okay – I have a whole stack of free drink coupons from Delta.’ I gave him one and had my drink, but when I deplaned I asked to speak with the captain, who was himself a veteran. He was pretty pissed off and said he would have a word with the flight attendant.”
Window Seat
“A while back I was in a window seat and had to use the restroom. The guy next to me had set up his laptop and a bunch of other stuff out like we were in his office. As I didn’t want to deal with disturbing him, I held on as long as I could, but eventually, I had to pee badly!
I cautiously asked him to let me out. He sighed and was annoyed, ‘Oh great!’ and scrambled to let me out. He pretty much just leaned back in his seat clutching his laptop close to him. I managed to squeeze past his legs.
The guy in the aisle seat was cordial and stood in the aisle with a smile. I made my way down the aisle to the restrooms. I was met with a surely older flight attendant who told me the restrooms were occupied and I needed to go back to my seat! Nobody was allowed to wait in the aisle.
I nicely tried to explain I was in a window seat at the other end of the plane and had to go really bad. She wasn’t having it! She threatened me that if I didn’t comply, I’d be charged with interfering with a flight officer and the marshals would arrest me upon landing! I was miffed!
So I went back to my seat and made my aisle mates get up. I explained we’d be doing this again. The center seat clod was now angry. I hunched over trying to stand so I could see the aisle. Every time a restroom opened, someone much closer in an aisle seat would pop up and use it!
Finally, two restrooms were empty. I pushed my seat mates to move quickly. Someone closer took one of them. I made it to the empty one. At the end of the flight, the officer nodding at passengers as we left got an earful!”
White Knuckle
“Many years ago I was touring China and got on a commuter plane to travel to a different city. It was an old Soviet model with Chinese lettering on the outside and Russian writing on the inside. We were getting on with the locals and who were bringing on live chickens and as far as I could tell- dead fish.
The flight attendants were busy yelling (yes, yelling) at the people to get into their seats while practically kicking them to move along. It was like watching the last roundup at the old corral! We were barely seated when they came along to pass out snacks. I think they were peanuts but they just literally threw them at the passengers who weren’t in aisle seats. Better catch them because they’re coming fast!
This was definitely a white-knuckle flight because the pilots in those days only used VFR (Visual Flight Rules) and didn’t even go out on cloudy days. That would have required IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) which I’m not sure the pilots were rated to do. And even with a load of 80 to 100 passengers, it was a pretty rough ride, which I don’t think I’ll ever do again.
Things may have changed by now but not sure. An interesting factoid is that in a true Communist society, everybody gets paid the same wages from the hairdresser to the pilot. Except that the former can make more because of tips. What was really funny is that after we landed, I saw the pilot get out of the plane and hop on his bicycle to go home.”
“First-Class Only”
“I was on Delta, traveling their first class service, Delta One, with my mom. I was about 27–28 years old. There was some type of mix-up when we boarded, and they moved me to a single-seat row at the window— 2 rows back from my mom, and they sat someone else next to my mom. I don’t know why, but that’s not really important. Everything was fine, we didn’t make a big deal about it. The flight attendant served me a welcome glass of champagne and all that first-class jazz.
Partway through the flight before meal service, I got up to use the restroom. Walking up to the front of the plane, the flight attendant asks me if I need anything/what was I doing. I said I needed to use the restroom to which she responds, ‘These bathrooms are for first-class passengers only. You can’t use the bathroom up here. Go back to your seat or use the ones in the back.’
I looked at her with so much confusion and tried to explain that I was a first-class passenger. She would not listen to a word I was saying. She was determined to kick me out of the area. The flight attendant walked me back up the aisle, ushering me along the way. I sat down in my seat as we were passing it. She stopped talking for a moment, in shock, so I said, ‘You served me a glass of champagne when I boarded, and that’s my mother right there. HOW do you not remember me?’ Her face went blank and she walked away. I got back up to use the bathroom in the front.”
“What Really Happens?”
“So she wasn’t technically a flight attendant yet but was only a week away from graduating. Some background, I was a new hire at a small airline and was in pilot training with 22 other guys for about 10 weeks. The hotel where the airline normally put the pilots was being renovated, so we were assigned to the hotel with the flight attendant trainees.
Their training lasted about 6 weeks I think. Anyway, the two groups became friendly so we’d get together for drinks and whatnot after class. One evening, a few of us were having drinks and one of the flight attendants asked, ‘So what really happens if the plane loses pressurization?’ I chimed in with the standard, ‘Oxygen masks drop down for the passengers and the crew puts their oxygen masks on.’ Simple, right? No, she looks at me, gets real serious, and says, ‘No, what really happens?’
I was confused and made eye contact with one of the guys in my class who looked just as confused. So, I decided to have a little fun. I said, ‘Well, look, we’re not supposed to tell you guys this, but if the plane depressurizes, the masks you and the passengers use won’t really do anything. The guys flying the plane will put on their masks then eject the cockpit from the plane and parachute to safety.’
I figured that was so outrageous no one with any sense would buy it. She got all red in the face, balled her hands into fists then screamed ‘I KNEW IT!’ Holy cow! Really?! I couldn’t believe it. I then had to spend the next 10 minutes explaining that I was joking, but I’m pretty sure she still didn’t believe me.”
