Don’t be such an a**hole, Mr. Passenger
Three nights ago, while on an American Airlines flight from DFW to BWI (AA 1388), I was quietly listening to music from my iPhone until a passenger started to treat the flight attendant like a dog. I won’t post what I think is the race or ethnicity of the individual but they looked and sounded foreign.
When we first boarded the Mr. Passenger asked the FA for a drink, she politely told him that catering was still loading the plane and that he should wait until the flight was airborne.
Once we were airborne and the FA was taking drink orders, she got to the passenger and he jumped to say “next time I want a drink, you get me a drink.”And that’s when Mr. Passenger started to be an asshole.
The flight attendant politely explained the reason as to why he didn’t get a drink before take off and he then said “well I want one now.” So she took his order down and came back to him in the same order in which she took the orders. He was seated in the 5th row of the first class cabin, I was seated on the opposite side of his row.
When he finally got his drink he told the FA “well that took forever so now you are purposefully giving slow service to get back at me” and continued to condemn her service. Which in my opinion was great for American standards, which as you may know sometimes is not the greatest.
The asshole passenger then proceeded to make the remark that she must have been a “US Airways spillover” which is a stupid generalization. I’ve had very very nice US Airways flight attendants, especially during my flight last weekend from PHX to PDX.
Anyways, after a few minutes I got up from my seat and approached the flight attendant. I gave her an “applause certificate” and thanked her for her service. I also told the FA not to let assholes like Mr. Passenger ruin the love she has for her job. I told her that other passengers, like myself, appreciate everything she did and we are thankful for her service to safety and comfort.
I also tweeted @AmericanAir and told them about the situation and praised the FA in my tweet. Another passenger in the row in front of him also gave her an applause certificate and thanked her later on during the flight.
She was thrilled to hear my compliment and it definitely lifted her mood.
So with that in mind, please… don’t be that asshole Mr. Passenger who thinks that just because he is EXP and has flown 100,000 miles (or more) that he deserves to be treated like Queen Elizabeth. A flight attendant may be the one who saves your life during an emergency.
@AmericanAir Another passenger was just an asshole 2 FA. The 1st class FA on flight 1388 is beyond friendly and attentive. She’s gr8 🙂
— Adam Rodriguez (@AAdam_flyer) September 15, 2014
@aadam_flyer We’ll be happy to pass this on to our Flight Services team, Adam.
— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) September 15, 2014
Great job Adam! Being a flight attendant myself I can tell you many stories like that. People think of us as slaves in the skies, that’s a huge error and misconseption on our job. Our main responsability is the safety of our passengers. We are trained in so many things people don’t even know. We go through very long and strict training to become Flight Attendants. I wanna thank you for respecting our job and for giving it the value it deservs.