Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Galley Gossip: Flight Attendant Pet Peeve #2: Back to your seat, please!
Socks on the airplane have been the subject of many conversations in the galley. As well as the cause of a flight attendant nightmare or two. Personally, I don't care what you wear - shoes, socks, even no socks - but it's where those shoes (socks and even no socks) are headed that bothers me. Why? Because they're wandering up and down the aisle and into the lavatory. And...umm...you do realize that's not water on the bathroom floor, right?
The socks have just exited the bathroom and have now entered the galley.
"Excuse me, miss, can I get a glass of water?"
"Of course," I say, as I place my lunch on the counter and try not to flinch when I see the socks. I reach for a plastic cup and a bottle of water as you inch your way closer to me. I smile. You smile. We're both smiling as you slowly bounce up and down on the toes, jangling loose change in the pocket.
"Here you go," I say, handing you the glass, but before I can even twist the cap back on the bottle of spring water, you say, "A little more, please."
"Oh sure." I untwist and pour. Hey, you don't have to explain it to me. The glass is small. You're thirsty. I get it. That's fine.
But now you're peeking inside an insert. I imagine you're thinking to yourself, hmm...what do we have in here? Just orange juice and dry ice, I want to say, but don't, because that's when I notice you're eyeing a cup of lemons and limes with a little too much intensity. I'm just about to ask you if you'd like one, when I watch in horror as a hand reaches inside and takes a few.
You smile at me, so I smile back at you, even though I no longer feel like smiling due to the fact you've just stuck your hand in there without asking, a hand that recently exited the lavatory before entering the galley. I make a mental note to toss the lemons and limes as soon as you leave. Then I find myself wondering if you're ever going to leave, because you've just placed your empty cup on the counter and you've decided to enjoy the view outside by cupping your hands around the small port hole located on the other side of the galley. Now I can't breathe. Why? You're still in the galley. Don't you know it's against federal aviation regulation to loiter around the galleys and lavatories. Didn't you hear the captain's PA?
Guess not. Because you've just draped your arms over the other jumpseat, the one right beside me, resting your chin on your arms as you take in a view from the back of the cabin. I try to remain calm. Surely I won't have to say anything because you'll be taking your seat anytime now, right?
Wrong.
You bend over and touch your toes. You've decided this would be the perfect time to start doing those doctor recommended calisthenics. While you're bending and stretching, I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. I'm sorry, but I do get a little claustrophobic from time to time. I don't know why. Perhaps it's because your butt is now in my face.
Look, unless you've actually been invited into the galley (it does happen), you do not - I repeat - you do not, for any reason, step onto the linoleum floor - for any length of time. And if you do, try to make it quick. Do not loiter. Do not help yourself to whatever you happen to see. And please do not bring your baby to the back to crawl around. It's filthy in there. Not to mention, we break glass in there. And do you really need to do your exercising in the galley? Can't you simply take a walk the length of the cabin to get the blood flow going when the seat belt sign is not on. I mean is Pilate's really necessary?
Imagine I came to your place of work and peeked into your drawers and helped myself to all those little nicknack's you have on your desk - ya know, the jelly beans, the picture of the wife and kids, the Rubik's cube. What's the problem? I just came by to say hi. To see what's up. Don't really care if you're eating lunch or in the middle of a project. Not when I want to be near you. What's the big deal? I'm just taking a break. Stretching the legs. Inviting whomever passes to join me in your tiny little office space. Mind if I do a few lunges in here? Right beside you. Rubbing up against you. Hey, you gonna eat that sandwich?
Admit it, you'd get a little annoyed, too. Now go back to your seat. The seat belt sign is on.
Filed under: Airlines, Galley Gossip
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
marjorie white Aug 13th 2008 1:46PM
Is it just me or does it seem like these flight attendants bitch about EVERYTHING! I agree, the basic public is annoying - they do annoying things but you CHOSE this profession. Do your job or get a new one but your continuous whining is just too annoying for words. I live in NYC and can tell you tourists (in general) bother the hell out of me, however, I am not going to bitch blog about it - It's called life - Go get one
Martin Aug 13th 2008 4:59PM
Great blog, I am learning sooo much about life on board an airplane and seeing things from the side of the cabin crew has given me renewed respect for them and the difficult job that they do. I have had many laugh out loud moments reading your blog this evening, thanks!
However, I think that you also need to see the galley issue from the passengers’ side. Most passengers believe that any area not hidden by a closed curtain is a public area and as there are no signs warning them not to step onto 'the linoleum floor' they really can't be blamed if they happen to step into a restricted area whilst are waiting for the toilet or are wandering about. However, I agree that doing callisthenics, breathing down the neck of a crewmember or any other type of invasion of personal space is unacceptable and you shouldn’t have to deal with that.
During the middle of a very boring transatlantic flight in June I was at the back of the plane waiting for the toilet to become unoccupied and I noticed that there was a pocket low down on the wall near the toilet door, full of magazines. As they were the same magazines that were available free at the gate for passengers to take on board I must have ‘stepped onto the linoleum floor' and took one out of the pocket to thumb through whilst I waited. Big mistake. I then had a crewmember come up to me with the most amazed look on her face, snap 'THOSE ARE OURS!' at me and took the magazine out of my hands! I was so startled. It was really a genuine error on my part but to me the magazine was in a pocket on the wall in the passenger cabin and there was no sign to indicate that they couldn't be read by passengers. It simply didn’t cross my mind that the area was out of bounds. The crewmember told me off in front of other passengers and I apologised to her. How did that make me, the passenger, feel? I doubt if she gave it one second's thought as she went back to her work. As I am a very sensitive person I felt hurt, embarrassed and humiliated. She probably looked at me walk back to my seat with my tail between my legs, not knowing that inside I was feeling utterly mortified and horrified because someone thought that I had stolen pne of their things. For the rest of the flight I was upset and it spoilt the start to my vacation, I hate to upset anyone and beat myself up over things like that.
If we have taken something we shouldn't, we may have just made a genuine mistake possibly because the item isn't identified as belonging to the crew. Obviously a McMuffin isn't going to be standard airline issue but perhaps other, less obvious things lying around on a counter for instance like a magazines or snack (which may appear to a passenger to be one of the free snacks that are handed out with the drinks) should be stored away rather than left out. This would be a simple common sense solution to the problem, surely?
Anyway, keep up the blog I think it is great!
Donald Aug 13th 2008 9:41PM
I have been flying globally for about 25 years now. I can understand some of the gripes like people walking in those stupid socks that THE AIRLINES PASS OUT TO CUSTOMERS, but I really had no idea that the galley is off limits to passengers. It just seems to me that with all the training, exposure to a variety of cultures that the FAs would know to take all of this with a grain of salt. I am tired of hearing about 9/11 as the reason for FAs, Rentacops, etc to start thinking they are the ones chasing down Bin Ladin himself. Lighten up like the rest of the FAs on foreign carriers! When was the last time a domestic carrier was nominated for the best service in the industry? Funny how Singapore Ai is right up there all the time and dealing with the exact same issues. HMM, maybe our domestic carriers should outsource to save money and get better passenger service!! Bottom line is we all have to be in that confined space (the jet) and try to get along as best we can.
Chinaflite Sep 8th 2008 2:48PM
I Do have to say in fairness that I have had some really great FA's (though they were usually older) and some hideous FA's as well. It seems customer service standards have declined sharply in the last few years. Of late it seems the younger, newer FA's are more concerned with finding their date for the night than actually getting the blanket that was requested a half hour ago. I am generally a happy traveler, I say please and thank you and I greet the FA's when boarding and when departing, I pay a hefty price for my seat and a little bit of courtesy doesn't have to hurt. Whilst the FA's may have to deal with the same problem from many different people, it is not a conspiracy to annoy or make the FA's life miserable. On the other hand to have an FA be nasty and testy with me because some one else asked the same quest is not fair either.
Tammy Sep 8th 2008 5:35PM
OMG! I can't believe how annoyed I am by this serious of pet peeves. First of all, I fly a LOT and I bet only 5% of flight attendants are actually pleasant people. Normally they are in pissy moods and taking it out on those of us who have no control over our lives for the period of time we have paid to sign it over to the airlines who have completely lost any sense of customer service what so ever! The last flight I took to Germany, all the business class seats were taking on the least annoying of the airlines I fly on so I flew in coach. I planned it well that I had an empty seat next to me, I was able to do that because of the number of miles I fly on the least annoying of all the airlines I fly on. But the flight attendants decided they needed to commandeer the last three rows of seats so they had a place to rest on the 7 hour flight to Germany. So my empty seat was filled by a mother with her sick infant who in turn got me sick for my entire trip to Germany, France and Austria. Just the way I wanted to spend my week. So I paid to be on a flight to get sick while the bratty whiny flight attendants who get paid to be on the flight stretched out in the last three rows of the plane (mind you they have business class seats available to them in their "break areas" too!)
Flight attendants and airlines suck. We all have things that annoy us as work...its part of work. The biggest part of my work that annoys me is dealing with whiny flight attendants. Suck it up!
Jim Sep 8th 2008 6:17PM
I'm not a FA and have not flown since Aug 2001. Maybe some of the stress of FA's may be that anyone of the psychos that board a plane may be the next unibomber. Yes it is their chosen profession but clearly, those customers who feel they are above anyone in the "service" profession should do us all a favor...Jump from the plane at 25k feet....NO PARACHUTE!
KMo Sep 8th 2008 6:48PM
I have been very fortunate that the FAs on my flights to Brazil have been very Kind. I am not naturally a very still person. I may sit 1-2 hours in a given day, So I find sitting is a small seat for 9 hours very taxing. I do admit I spend a good bit of time in the back, but I do stand way in the corner and keep my hands to myself. I also go to my seat when they begin preparing meals. Thank you the FAs of Brazil Air Lines!!!
Barb Sep 8th 2008 6:53PM
I'm wondering what is the difference between shoe soles picking up the pee on the lav floor or the socks that are issued by the overseas airlines....either way you are tracking the yucky germs around. Ok, I don't want wet feet from the aforementioned liquid. I recall Lufthansa FA's, telling us we couldn't loiter around the stairs to the lavs. The airbus has the toilets all down a set of stairs that one is not supposed to hang out on, right by the galley???...and there isn't much space to wait down there...where are we supposed to wait??? and we aren't supposed to block the aisles. I need to have ESP and to know exactly when to leave my seat and wander down the aisle to time my visit to the lav..and as to needing water on a 12 hour flight and not being allowed to carry it on in the Frankfurt airport...even if it's purchased in the secure part of the airport...that's a recipe for deydration and lots of requests for water. Once inside the gate with the security guard that took away my hastily purchased water there is a vending machine but I don't have Euro coins cause I carefully used them up so I wouldn't be stuck with them and the flight is boarding...talk about annoying..
Tom Kukuk Sep 9th 2008 1:22AM
Wow, I am up to complaint #2 and am already sick of hearing this whining. Allow me to introduce you to a concept called "Customer Service". See when there are competitors, one business can actually win more customers and more business by treating their customers better. That's why I fly American when I live in Minneapolis. I didn't win that seat in the lottery and your paycheck depends on more morons like me sitting there, so give the customer a break about not hearing your drink request. I am on 4-6 flights a month. I realize there are some very rude passengers and for the most part you grin and bear it and those times you truly get my respect. But this was a chosen profession you selected, slavery was abolished 140 years ago. You don't have to stay in a career or job you hate, please do yourself a favor and find another so I can ask you "wha"?
Nan Sep 17th 2008 6:34PM
I try to be courteous to the FAs. I can't imagine balancing all the personalities on multiple flights. I have thought it must take a a special person to care for others on a flying straw with very little/no personal space. At least most people have a door on their office!
I am appalled that people take such freedoms in a space they have reason to believe is "not theirs." I really liked the reference to "office." While I've never really thought of the galley as an office, have even considered the outer portion of it, technically, as " common area," I've always recognized that common or not, it's the only place a FA can take a break - and sometimes that break means preparing items for passengers w/o the passenger's being underfoot!
With only one exception, I've yet to meet a discourteous FA - and, frankly, I believe I "asked for it" due to 'passenger's lack of protacall knowledge' as opposed to my being rude. (This involved touching, (nothing terrible!) i.e. REALLY personal space as contrasted with 'office' personal space.
I just don't know how you all do it, any FA man or woman. THANK YOU!!!