For all Who Work With Rude Customers, isn't it a shame WE can't actually do this! An award should go to the Virgin Airlines desk attendant in Sydney some months ago for being smart and funny, while making her point, when confronted with a passenger who probably deserved to fly as cargo.
A crowded Virgin flight was cancelled after Virgin's 767s had been withdrawn from service. A single attendant was re-booking a long line of inconvenienced travellers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said, "I HAVE to be on this flight and it HAS to be FIRST CLASS".
The attendant replied, "I'm sorry, sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these people first, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out.."
The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear,"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?"
Without hesitating, the attendant smiled and grabbed her public address microphone:"May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please," she began - her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal.
"We have a passenger here at Desk 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Desk 14."
With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the Virgin attendant, gritted his teeth and said,"F... You!"
Without flinching, she smiled and said, (I love this bit)"I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to get in line for that too."
sandsmere said
07:34 AM Nov 20, 2010
Good one Ma !
There's another airline one about a very abusive , uncouth , up himself , idiot , that demanded this , demanded that and generally gave the lady at the checkin desk a very bad time .
The next person that came to the desk congratulated the lady on the polite way she had handled the bloke .
She looked up with a big smile and said " that's OK . He's on his flight to New York , and his luggage has gone to Moscow " .
Ma said
08:12 AM Nov 20, 2010
If you look and think hard enough you will find devine retribution for every time this sort of thing happens...................good on the check-in chick I say......
jimricho said
06:53 PM Nov 20, 2010
Variants of this story have been doing the rounds for years but it's still a good yarn...
I can relate an experience I had back in the mid 90s when I was still gainfully(?) employed. I was heading for USA on a work related trip and had "pulled strings" to get an upgrade to business class that was subject to availability (read "no show").
I was waiting at the reception desk in the business class lounge at Sydney where the receptionist was being given a bad time by a particularly bombastic Texan who was insisting that he always gets an isle seat but had been allocated a window seat.
As it happened there must have been a "no show" so she was able to reallocate the said gentleman to an isle seat and he went away saying something along the lines of "about time too".
The receptionist called me over and advised that a very nice seat was now available on the upper deck of the 747 and reallocated me from economy class to this seat. As I left I asked "was that his seat" she smiled and said "yes"
When I boarded the plane I noticed that he had his isle seat, but in the middle row on the main deck.
-- Edited by jimricho on Saturday 20th of November 2010 06:56:54 PM
For all Who Work With Rude Customers, isn't it a shame WE can't actually do this!
An award should go to the Virgin Airlines desk attendant in Sydney some months ago for being smart and funny, while making her point, when confronted with a passenger who probably deserved to fly as cargo.
A crowded Virgin flight was cancelled after Virgin's 767s had been withdrawn from service. A single attendant was re-booking a long line of inconvenienced travellers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said,
"I HAVE to be on this flight and it HAS to be FIRST CLASS".
The attendant replied, "I'm sorry, sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these people first, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out.."
The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear,"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?"
Without hesitating, the attendant smiled and grabbed her public address microphone:"May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please," she began - her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal.
"We have a passenger here at Desk 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Desk 14."
With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the Virgin attendant, gritted his teeth and said,"F... You!"
Without flinching, she smiled and said, (I love this bit)"I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to get in line for that too."
I can relate an experience I had back in the mid 90s when I was still gainfully(?) employed. I was heading for USA on a work related trip and had "pulled strings" to get an upgrade to business class that was subject to availability (read "no show").
I was waiting at the reception desk in the business class lounge at Sydney where the receptionist was being given a bad time by a particularly bombastic Texan who was insisting that he always gets an isle seat but had been allocated a window seat.
As it happened there must have been a "no show" so she was able to reallocate the said gentleman to an isle seat and he went away saying something along the lines of "about time too".
The receptionist called me over and advised that a very nice seat was now available on the upper deck of the 747 and reallocated me from economy class to this seat. As I left I asked "was that his seat" she smiled and said "yes"
When I boarded the plane I noticed that he had his isle seat, but in the middle row on the main deck.
-- Edited by jimricho on Saturday 20th of November 2010 06:56:54 PM