A Sense of Entitlement...

So I may wear the uniform of an airline. So I may be employed by said airline. Does that give anyone the right to yell, berate, harass, bother, pester me, or impede with my job duties?

Some will say yes. They will say that I am an airline employee, and that they are a customer. They come first.

And they are right. They do come first. After a couple of other things.

First and foremost comes safety. You can have the airline with the greatest customer service in the world. But if you are operating with unsafe conditions all the time, or crashing planes all the time, no amount of customer service will fix that.

Next, security. I can't elaborate much on this subject, but let's just say that part of our job description includes preventing another 9-11.

Those two things come ahead of customer service, and justly so. I'd rather get a miffed person as opposed to a person who receives my help only to get his or her self, or someone else, hurt or killed.

A couple of nights ago, a person came up at the baggage belt, which I was watching over, and noticed after the bags made one lap, his did not make it.

"Can you do something about it?" He asked. I replied that I will as soon as everyone gets their bags, as I cannot leave them unattended. He became upset at this. I wasn't in the mood to tango either, and I told him again, sternly, that when all the bags are picked up, I will go in the office and help him.
"Oh, come on! Don't be like that! DO SOMETHING!", he yelled. I put up my hand to stop him, and I told him again, "For the last time. When the bags are picked up by their respective owners, I will be able to pick up the bags. If you don't want my help, the police will be willing to assist me in helping you." At that point, he backed off.

Was invoking the name of law enforcement necessary? He drew my attention from watching over the bags, and the entry and exit areas in the terminal. I'm not willing to lose my job over that. Especially in this economy, forget it! And I say this for all of my airline customer service brethren around the world.

Working baggage, you learn to expect the worst from the passengers. When I was assigned this position, this is what I feared the most. Prior to this, I would rarely see passengers upset (rare being 2 to 4 times a month). I mean, yes they are upset, but not to the point where they would physically display their anger.

We'll see how things go.

Part "Één"...A first post

Working at the airport, you see a lot of things. You get to meet a lot of people, and you get to indirectly learn about psychology. You see extremes at the airport terminal. Ticket counter, gates, baggage, I've worked all three.

I work for a major airline, as you can see in my profile text. Just recently, I had my two-year anniversary with my airline. And so far, I'm satisfied with my job. Every day, I encounter different people, and have made some sort of effect in their lives, which I find satisfying, and enjoyable.

This first post I'll take to relate some of the things I have seen people do at the airport.

My first day on the job was okay. I was very nervous, and rightly so. I had no idea of what I had to do, and I was practically thrown to the wolves.

My second day on the job, I was yelled at for the first time as an airline employee. The customer's bag was a few pounds overweight. First thing I did was look to my supervisor who was next to me, who then said, "You need to take some weight out of that bag". They replied "That's how it came down". The supervisor said, "Well, at that weight, the bag will cost $50." He moved the weight, I took over, and he said "your #### airline sucks, m#########", and walked off. My supervisor saw what happened, and simply smiled and said, "Welcome to the airline industry, Gil!".

I have seen the strangest things in my life. The nearly 700 days I have been employed by my airline, I have seen many things that I will tell my grandchildren, and that you will now know.

Have you ever seen a woman, a mother, walking around in a polo shirt? I'm sure we all have. Have you seen one with all her shirt buttons undone? Or how about one with a breast hanging out (covered only by her bra)? One with her breast hanging out of the shirt neck, undone, and not even notice? I think not!

It is customary to show your ID to the agent tagging your bag. What happens when you do not have one?

Well, I had an interesting encounter with a man who claims he lives in a nudist colony not far from the airport (his shirt said so...ironic he had one on). This man was looking for his wallet after I asked him for his ID. Now mind you, this man is a good 80 years old. His daughter is in her 60s. After about a minute of the old man searching for his missing wallet, his daughter pulls out a magazine. She asked me if I could see his picture in a magazine. Before I could finish saying that I had to see a government-issued ID, she opens the magazine to show the same old man without so much as a thread of fabric on his body. They caught me off-guard. This made me the laughing stock of the ticket counter, and where even other employees of the same airline in other cities knew about my encounter of the naked kind. He ended up finding a wallet in a pocket in his cargo shorts (apparently, he didn't know how to use them).

I have also seen an old lady, standing across the hall from our ticket counter, drop her rolling bag, open it, and promptly change in front of everyone, and not even noticing that people are around her, staring in disbelief.

Another thing that I have noted is people's sense of entitlement. Especially when they pay a dirt-cheap fare. They pay for McDonalds and are expecting Cordon Bleu service. On top of that, the way people get so riled up about even the smallest things shows just how ridiculous people can become.

But that's just what I'll post for now. More funny things later!

Happy flying!