Uncomfortable Flight

On Saturday evening, I got a "courtesy call" from crew scheduling letting me know that I had a 0725 show time at DIA on Sunday for a turn to Ft. Lauderdale - around 8 hours of flying in one day. I was fairly happy until I saw that I would be flying with a couple "senior mamas" (women who have been with the company forever). I decided, though, that there are some really great senior mamas out there, and maybe these are a couple of them. NOT!

Let me start out by saying that both these ladies were very, very nice. The problem I had with them is that they do things their own way, and not the way I was taught. Again, it was the old "They teach you one thing in class, but this is how it really works." I've been around long enough to know that the way they teach us works just fine, as long as you pull your heads out of your behinds and be open to change.

Anyway, it started going bad very quickly...during the safety demo (I was in the middle of the plane) the B attendant skipped the entire intro section! That totally threw me off! There I was waiting for her to introduce us by name to the passengers, and she's already fastening the seatbelts! I looked really, really stupid. AND we had 11 non-rev gate agents on board, going down to take a cruise to the Bahamas, so they witnessed my ineptitude. Argghhh. After the demo, I told B that she really threw me off with her announcement - she told me she likes it this way...she feels it is stupid to introduce us before they've fastened their seatbelts. Huh?!?! She also told me that she was sure that I would let her know all the things that she is doing wrong...

Well...things went from bad to worse. Announcements skipped important pieces of info, some were made by A when it should have been C. On the return flight, a passenger started yelling at me regarding bags in the overhead (he later apologized), and the A closed the airplane door before I had briefed the exit row (a big no-no). They said a limited beverage service wasn't necessary, they let passengers on the plane while I was still cleaning it - lots more happened, but bottom line was NO ONE WAS LISTENING TO ME.

I tried to let both the A and B know that the reason I follow the rules is because that's what we're SUPPOSED to do, AND that the FAA is really cracking down on us to make sure we comply (and I'm not going to pay a fine because someone else won't follow the rules) - but I got "oh...it doesn't matter who says what," "people make mistakes...we're only human," "safety is what matters (I agree), so it is not important if we don't wear the uniform correctly," etc.

It was SO FRUSTRATING. I finally just shut up and did my job the way I was taught. These are our senior people...they are supposed to be setting a good example. Ha! I think I'm going to chat with my manager and get some tips on how to handle this situation a bit better in the future.