Originally Posted by
PFactor
I had a pax in FLL just walk up to me out of the blue and tell me to go "F myself". Apparently I was the sole cause of his twenty minute delay arriving in to FLL that evening. Sometimes it can be hard just trying to keep from laughing at certain situations.
You know I am not trying to judge you, but IMHO based on no additional information, when something like this happens you get the next cop and have that person removed. There are limits to what anyone can say in public places especially to employees that are more or less officials. Walking up to people and tell them to f themselves is considered an assault in many states. Go try to do that with TSA and see if you will fly that day. What is the next thing he is going to do when on board and after an additional 20 min delay? Why risk a diversion later and screw everyone's day?
On the topic. I had way less upset pax at NK than when I was flying the ERJ for a bunch of different legacy carriers. Those guys/girls were constantly upset and often for good reasons. Bags left behind, on time performance, overbooking, boarding issues etc... Mainline really overdid the RJ thing. And they have paid a higher price for the ticket in that 50 seater compared to a LCC price. Those folks were paying legacy prices and they did not even know that they were not flying on the airline that was painted on the side of the plane.
When I was still on my 2 leg commute for almost 2 years I had pax coming up to me and complain thinking I was the pilot of that flight. I can only recall two occasions when I was not able to calm them by explaining the likely reason for the issue. And I was not even part of the crew. Most people just need a little conversation and just a bit of insight so they can understand what is going on and how the system works. It was definitely not less frequent than at NK. If you think NK has much worse service than anyone else I think you are not jumping offline very often or may be everything changer for the better in the last years since I have not been commuting anymore.... riiiiiiiiiight. People are upset mostly because they don't know what is going on and they feel out of control. It has little to do with how much the gate agent is smiling or are they going to get free diet coke on board or not. If they are ****ed, it is booking, connecting, and bags. I think those three summs up 90%. Every airline has issues in these areas, and often it is not even their fault.
Besides, airlines can't afford to charge for good customer service anymore anyways primarily because most people are not willing to pay for it.