Quote:
Originally Posted by jimworcs
There is no excuse for aggressive or obnoxious behaviour and you will see in some of my posts when I think the passengers expectations are unreasonable I will say so. I too have seen passengers blaming agents for weather delays, missed flights due to the passenger being late and making inflated claims for lost baggage.. and nothing I write should be interpreted as justifying this behaviour. Nevertheless, there is a clear pattern of poor communications by airlines and I believe that they are in a very powerful position over their customer. In a restaurant you can walk out, poor service can be addressed with supervisrs or shoddy goods taken back. In the airlines, if you complain agents have the power to make you miss your flight or make your life very uncomfortable. The ability to resolve the problem later is not available to the passenger and this power imbalance has been abused by the airlines.
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You are right. The airlines ultimately have a lot of power over their customer. They, in effect, have that person's life, in their hands, figuratively speaking, and also literally, when on the aircraft. The airlines, in many cases, forget this. I think that communication is the missing link. I think many passengers would be much more understanding of some of the inconveniences, if there was simply more communication about what is going on.
I do agree with SilentBob. There are quite a few instances in which the customer is the one who instigates the rudeness. As agents, we are not paid, nor hired to have to put up, or deal with a passenger being rude toward us. In fact, where I work, we have been instructed that if a passenger becomes rude, especially using foul language, etc., that we are to refuse further service, and refer them to the 1-800 number, while also documenting their reservation with their behavior, so that the customer service line, and other agents can see how they acted (that means good luck getting any vouchers, etc.). The airlines DO NOT cater towards unruly passengers. Many passengers would find that having a much more understanding, and kind attitude toward the agents, in person, and on the phone, they would tend to get what they want.
There is no excuse for poor behavior by agents, or passengers, and it can often go both ways.