Cabin Crew Decisions: The Everyday Challenges!

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As Cabin Crew your job will involve using a lot of initiative, and making a lot of decisions on each and every flight you work on – from the mundane, everyday decisions to the dramatic and even life-saving ones!

Because a large part of the role will involve you providing customer service to the passengers, a number of these decisions will revolve around the requests and wishes of your passengers.

It’s up to you as Cabin Crew to decide whether it’s appropriate or possible to fulfill these.

Some requests will of course be completely unreasonable, as is always the case when you’re working with members of the public!

But making the decision to help a passenger out and make their flight a bit easier can have an impact on both their flight and your career.

“I was working on a flight with a few empty rows of seats. I had noticed while the passengers were boarding a pregnant woman travelling with a toddler (sitting on her lap) and a slightly older child – sitting in the window and middle seats with a stocky older man, obviously not travelling with them, in the aisle seat.

Though we had various passengers asking to be moved to the empty rows after take off I made the decision to move this lady, which meant that for the duration of the flight she had a seat each for her children and could stretch out a little herself and get a bit more comfortable.

She thanked me repeatedly and I was delighted weeks later when my supervisor told me that the passenger had contacted my airline online to compliment my behavior – the decision I made had obviously meant a lot to her!.“

Laura, TUI Cabin Crew

If there is a serious issue with a passenger on board it’s the duty of the crew to make the call and inform the captain that the safety of the flight could potentially be compromised, which may mean the flight will have to be diverted.

“It’s difficult when you have to make the decision to deplane a passenger for being drunk before the plane has even taken off! Sometimes people are just nervous about flying, and have one too many not realizing the effect it’ll have on them. But it’s too big a risk if there’s the chance they’ll become aggressive in the air.“

Ryan, ex BA Cabin Crew

It’s also up to the crew whether a passenger will be allowed to purchase or drink alcohol on a flight, and when to stop serving them. The decision to refuse service more often than not doesn’t go down too well!

On a lighter note we’ve heard tales from Cabin Crew of how they have secretly swapped caffeinated coffee and tea for the decaf version to help induce sleep for their passengers on flights!

“Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to make the decision to let a nasty comment or bad experience go. Being angry because a passenger has been acting angrily towards you or said something that’s upset you can not only ruin your shift but also impair your judgement.“

Lauren, Ryanair Cabin Crew

When you’re on a busy flight, and already stressed to the max with passengers ringing the call bell, or voicing complaints, it can be hard to think clearly about what the best thing to do might be.

However it’s important that with whatever decision you make you always take the bigger picture into account, and try to avoid reacting in a ‘knee-jerk- manner and making a decision you might later regret.

Cabin Crew Wings Team

0 960 2 minutes read