These days there are various traveling class differentiation by the airliners eg Economy class, Deluxe class, Business class, First class, last but not least, the ‘Beyond First class’.
Today’s travelers are smarter and more aware of their rights. They came onboard knowing inside-out of how the service is going to be carried out. They know exactly what is on the menu and their choice of drinks and snacks.
One flight, when boarding first commenced, I was surprised to see this family of four seated in the mid section of economy class cabin boarded early (priority is usually given to parents with young children, elderly or handicapped, etc).
They seemed to have a structured planned action. The father of 2 charged to the magazine rack and took a handful of magazines, next I heard “Put inside your bag”, the mum instructed her teenage son.
Well, I can’t do much and I don’t want to act as a policewoman, I simply pretended not to see anything.
Another flight, an economy class passenger parked himself at the front row and anxiously waving at the crew at the back to hang his jacket in the closet.
This particular crew has to beat the flow of boarding traffic in order to respond to his “less-urgent” request.
When I walked passed, the same pax asked me to get him magazines which he named a few. (Fyi, we displayed magazines in the rack for self-help purpose.) Geez…
Of course, with my experience in handling pax, I know my priority of work and not threatened by such request.
Later then I realized my this dear pax had indeed asked from another colleague. When I came to know about it, I re-prioritised. I took my time to settle other matters that are MORE important.
Sometimes, I simply put off by such character of passengers who like to double or triple request from different crew. Some ordered drinks from different person and when I delivered, I refused to take it back and made the person accept the drinks. Haha! (I guess, if it is chargeable, nobody would asked more than twice)
So I duly checked for the magazine request by the passenger and returned with a different set of magazine.
He looked disappointed and told me to check with Business or First Class. (??!!!) I politely told him that the magazines were taken from those classes as I couldn’t find his particular choice of magazines.
“I know you always carry xxxx, why can’t get a copy?” he said.
“Sir, we only carry one to three copies out of base. If the pax took the mag on the first sector and never return to us, then we would not have another duplicate copy for the return sector.”
“Oh, in that case, I’ll read it on my next flight then.” He added referring to his next business trip traveling on the Business Class.
I know thrifty is a good practice, but sometimes passengers simply stretching beyond our limit.
I ever have a First Class male passenger, named a long list of magazines that he wanted to read. Even the female magazines that I was about to offer another female pax were not spared.
“Oh, my wife (who was not on the flight) loves to read this copy.” He happily grip it under his armpit while holding his glass of champagne.
A colleague once said, there are indeed different classes of passenger (Not the class that is printed on the board pass, but the class of character) which means to say economy class passengers can be of a first class mannerism.
Trust me, if you are in the service industry, you’re pleased and always happy to serve whoever request with a word of ‘please’ or ‘only if you could’ or ‘when you come back again’…
Unrefined words would be:” I want, Give me, Get me….”. But being able to see a diverse cultural background, certain words that they said are not meant to be rude. It’s a limitation of vocabulary, I could understand perfectly.
What I meant here is a person who looks fairly educated and well dressed, yet the behavior is of a contrast. Our heartiest greetings are always exchanged with a request/order (Typically: I want a copy of newspaper).
A senior supervisory colleague ever commented that these are our new ‘educated’ breeds. For whatever Bachelor’s degree, MBA, PhD, etc that they acquired; they simply have not retained part of their early education on mannerism.
Well, be it whatever classes it is, I always have my soft spot for elderly pax. They are the one who interact and respond well, freely show their appreciation and outward gratitude.
Their word of “Thank you, my love”, truly melts my heart.
