Angry_Orc

Regional airline pilot here. Deep_Rights is doing an outstanding job here, but I couldn't resist chiming in on this one.

One time I was taxiing to the runway in a 34 pax turboprop. I made the "prepare for takeoff" PA for the flight attendant. She calls up the the flight deck on the interphone and I simultaneously start pumping the brakes in quick, small motions, pick up the interphone and ask her "so what DO 34 chickens look like anyways?" The idea was that she would be strapped into the jumpseat, facing toward the rear of the plane, looking at 34 unexpecting passengers, heads all bobbing back and forth like chickens. It must of worked, because she didn't properly hang up the interphone after that and we could hear her laughing for at least the next 5 mins after takeoff. :)

Regional airline pilot here. I deal with rude pax and FA's sporadically, usually more so when aircraft maintenance is needed and/or bad weather arises. For the most part, day to day is pretty uneventful.

I did have an angry Aussie guy get in my face a few weeks ago at the gate after I had just arrived there. He had been on an earlier flight that cancelled due to weather, and he was pretty upset that he had waited 5 hours and still wasn't getting on a plane. He told me he wanted to get on our flight, but when I explained that it was already full from previously booked pax, he stepped in closer to me, like invasion-of-personal-territorial-bubble closer, and asked me if this was the kind of poor service I gave to all our passengers. At that point, I told him a gate agent could help him with any other questions, and he starts yelling at me and following me as I am walking away. The gate agent working the flight had been watching us, and she had called the airport police as a precaution(Later, she told me he had been picking fights with her all day). I hadn't walked 10 steps before an airport cop showed up and made the guy a better person. It was pretty uneventful, really. I was more bummed about meeting a mean Aussiethan traumatized. I thought everyone from Oz was so happy until that day...

Anyways, the most common rude passenger scenario I deal with, usually indirectly, is when they are unwilling to turn off their phones/laptops. The flight attendant usually gets them to turn it off, but if they don't, the FA will call the flight deck, we'll make a PA, and If they still won't comply, we might return to the gate.

Another common angry pax scenario that happens to me quite often is when someone mistakes me for a gate agent, usually asking me about delays or misconnecting flights on bad wx days/our plane breaks. This happens when I walk up to the gate and attempt to use the computer there to check my schedule for re-assignment/status of the broken plane/etc. Angry pax will approach with a very gate agent-y question about seating assignment, flight re-booking, etc and I will explain to them politely that I have no way of answering their question and that they need to find a gate agent. At this point in the conversation, I hope that they will just go find a gate agent to solve their crisis, but sometimes the pax thinks I am lying to them, and they will persist with complaining until I either walk away, or a gate agent miraculously appears.

I could probably avoid the gate scenarios a large portion of the time if I wanted to, but truthfully, I don't mind when passengers ask me questions, even if I can't answer them. Sometimes they ask basic stuff, like what gate they are departing from, or what time a flight departs/arrives, and that's stuff I know how to look up in the computer.

I do see crews that won't answer any questions at all; when a pax walks up, before they even finish talking, they will cut them off and tell them to find a gate agent. Personally, I don't like when I see that. Regardless of how many grumpy people you may encounter at the airport, I think everyone should remember that you have no idea what any given person's circumstances are. They might be going to a funeral. They might not have flown in 20 years and are unfamiliar with the whole process.

Anyways, if you guys want to hear about some grumpy flight attendants, I'll tell you about them too, but give me a day to get to a keyboard. This ipad is wearing me out! Hope this was informative/helpful!