“ ‘What are you, a boy or girl?’ ” Was the question a Delta supervisor out of McCarran International Airport—given the alias Dee—was met with when attempting to enforce Delta’s mask policy. Sydney Orpano, a 25 year old ticketing and gate agent who worked with Dee illustrated the incident “...the passenger was seated in first class and was one of the very first passengers to board. While the aircraft was boarding, the flight attendant gave him three warnings to put on his mask. After the third time she called for my supervisor. Dee asked the passenger if everything was okay and if he would put on his mask because it is required to fly. Dee identifies as a gay man but presents feminine with long hair and nails. [After the customer's comment] Dee asked the passenger to go back to the gate with him with the intention of refunding his ticket. The passenger became aggravated and started yelling at Dee and he felt threatened. Las Vegas Metro was called, and the passenger’s ticket was refunded and he was placed on Delta’s No Fly list.”
Orpano knew firsthand how disgruntled and overly satiated customers were, “Passengers throw fits often, especially after missing their flights. With the current mask mandate, we do have more fits from people who do not want to wear a mask. Thankfully, Delta is very strict with our mask policy and if anyone refuses, they will have their ticket refunded and placed on Delta’s No Fly.” With the help of social media sites like TikTok and Twitter, videos from staff and passengers alike gave those of us at home an inside account of flights and airport crowds, showing us the sheer amount of destruction that was being left in their wake. What were once considered friendly skies and mile high fun, was now a pressurized can full of mounting tension going 500 miles per hour.
According to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), around 2,500 incidents had been reported in the first half of 2021, 1,900 being about unruly passengers who refused to comply with the federal mask mandate (1). In the past year, passengers have airdropped photos of bombs, knocked out the teeth of flight attendants, been taped to their seats and come to blows in the terminals, all incidents that will land you on the no fly list. It’s become so ridiculously out of control that the FAA has begun implementing fines of up to $25k for these acts.“ I remember seeing headlines about fines for assaulting gate agents, but I am not aware of the policies in place,” Orpano states.
Have airports and planes always been considered the wild west or has a year in lockdown simply caused people to snap?
For a few months in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, it seemed as if air travel had completely shuttered. With countries denying entry from their allies and mass layoffs across airlines—despite the $15b given to them from the government in the first rounds of the $900b coronavirus relief bill—Americans settled into the routines of staying in and biding their time in an attempt to stay sane.
Though this should’ve been a time to take a step back from everything and catch a breath, corporate America attempted to save themselves by needlessly laying off millions at the time. Though companies like Sephora fired people in group emails, airlines like American sent out emails in the fall, warning workers that they’d be laying off 25,000 of them (2). “I think Delta did a good job. They implemented social distancing in our workspaces and break rooms. They provided us with disposable and reusable masks. We implemented new cleaning procedures for our aircrafts, within the airport and in our break rooms.” Orpano starts, “For every flight until May 2021, Delta blocked middle seats to create more distance between passengers. Additionally, they gave the option of voluntary unpaid leave from 30 days to one year to help cut down on their costs. As an incentive, for anyone who takes at least 30 days of unpaid leave Delta will give two round trip tickets to anywhere with no expiration. They also gave buy out and retirement packages for those ready to retire or those wanting to find new careers.
“Ed Bastian, our CEO, and Board of Directors all took six months without their salary, and many other executives took 75% pay cuts for six months. After many employees took packages, instead of hiring new people Delta gave the option of full-time to all their part-time and seasonal employees which made up about 50% of Delta employees. Delta was the only domestic airline that did not layoff any employees, which I am grateful for.”
With the introduction of several vaccine’s from companies such as Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca over the winter of 2020 and 2021, governments across the world pushed its citizens to get back into the saddle and live life again, choosing to ignore the fact that this decision caused several variants to develop and spread—the US Government quite possibly forgot that there were several rhetorics encouraging people to deny the free vaccine. People, tired of being cooped up in their homes like children and being beckoned into vacations across the world, began to pack their bags and book their “Wanna Get Away” tickets en masse. Things began to seemingly head back to normal until passengers arrived at the airports with its lack of staff, the ones leftover being severely depleted and facing exhaustion.
With the way the average service worker is abused by consumers and corporations, the next logical step during a pandemic that treated them so callously had to be for them to leave their jobs behind. There’s an obvious shortage in the food and retail industry due to abuse, lack of a livable wage and a blatant disregard for their wellbeing but what if it’s a service industry job that does offer those things? Flight attendants and airline workers on the ground are unionized and are usually paid at least the national average minimum wage of $15/hr. You don’t often hear complaints coming from airline workers, unless it’s about the customers.
To play devil’s advocate on behalf of the petulant passenger, the customer was usually right. In 1909, Harry Gordon of the department store Selfridges coined the term (3) and because of the rise of consumerism after the second world war, many companies and workers began to live by the saying. This instilled entitlement helped foster a toxic environment for workers in any aspect of the service industry on all levels. The manners we were taught meant nothing when we saw our elders yell at the 16 year old cashier at her after school job or belittle a 40 year old manager with two decades worth of experience.
Maybe it’s easy to look right through a service worker as they bag your food, clean up your trash or ring up your purchase. It might be possible to release your inhibitions when you’re 35,000 feet in the air or brimming with anticipation before a trip but when things begin to get physical, we must step back and do some self reflection. Listen to the pleas and heed the exhaustion of airline workers and then ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to do worth a five figure fine, a felony and life on the no fly list?”
In the past couple of weeks, airlines such as Spirit have been cancelling flights by the thousands, sometimes in the same airport. Staffing shortages, an unprecedented amount of summer storms and technology outages had kept passengers stranded at airports with no way to get home and nowhere to go for the night. Spirit CEO Ted Christie expected cancellations through the first weekend in August, American Airlines has also experienced a few of these problems. In June 2021, Southwest began to offer pilots double pay to avoid some of these same problems throughout the month of July. Delta and American Airlines are also on a current hiring surge with flight attendants. Though airlines thought they’d make money by cutting so many from the roster last year, they didn’t have the foresight to prepare themselves for so many people to try to get back into the swing of things so quickly.
Citations
Press release – faa proposes fines against 5 passengers for allegedly interfering with flight attendants. (2014, September 19). https://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=26140.
Slotnick, D. (2020, July 15). American airlines is notifying 25,000 workers of possible layoffs - almost 20% of the company. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/american-airlines-furlough-layoff-warn-coronavirus-2020-7.
Council, Y. E. (2021, April 26). Why 'the customer is always right' is bad advice. Inc.com. https://www.inc.com/young-entrepreneur-council/why-the-customer-is-always-right-is-bad-advice.html.
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