For some unknown reason, nice, normal people turn into annoying narcissists when they board a plane.
There’s something about a plane’s aura that makes humans forget about basic decency and civility. (It’s either the aura or the food).
Like when one passenger brought her horse on a flight.
Or when another passager decided to pick the skin off his foot while seated between two other passengers.
But this time it’s something much, much worse.
One flight attendant didn’t… call someone Madam.
Passenger in SQ Flight Online Shamed SIA Girl for Not Addressing Her as ‘Mdm’; SIA Girl Responded in FB
On 29 Jan, flight attendant Ong Weiyu shared a bad experience she had with an overly-demanding passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight.
According to Ong, the passenger shamed her online because she didn’t address her as Madam during the flight, as well as other grievances.
It’s unclear where the passenger shared her complaint (looks like Facebook, though; after all, that’s where boomers people go to complain), but Ong said that the passenger had “put her name out there”, so it could have been on an online platform.
In a lengthy passage on Ong’s ‘bad’ service, the passenger lists all the things she found unacceptable during her flight on Singapore Airlines.
Here are her complaints:
1) The flight attendants did not address passengers by “Sir/Madam” when they were asked for their boarding passes
2) The flight attendants did not wish them “Merry Christmas” even though it was Christmas day
3) Ong in particular never addressed passengers by Sir/Madam until the passenger brought it up to her
4) When the passenger asked Ong for pillows, she allegedly replied: “We don’t have pillows for this flight” and walked off.
5) When Ong handed out towels, she didn’t address this same passenger by Sir/Madam again. Ong was then asked why she didn’t address them in this way and she allegedly walked away
She then says, “Basic courtesy is a must for service industry like a smile and salutation.”
“Not only throughout the flight she never smiled and yet she wasn’t apologetic.”
The annoyed passenger ends the complaint with “Has SIA downgraded its service standard?”
Here’s her entire complaint:
Unless you’re that filthy rich family from the Korean movie Parasite, you probably think this woman is being prim and demanding.
Ong certainly thought so, and responded to the accusations in a Facebook post.
In it, she says many things that contradict the disgruntled passenger’s claims:
1) That she was smiling throughout the flight. She added that all the other passengers “were happy and thanked [her] with a smile”.
2) That when the passenger asked her for pillows, she did say she would check even though it was a two-hour flight and she knew there were no pillows available. She later came back and said there were none available.
3) That saying Sir/Madam is “mandatory on every flight”. It is unclear if this means that Ong insists she called the passengers Sir/Madam, or if she meant to say it was not mandatory
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Ong also quotes the angry passenger as saying “Miss Ong you are very rude. You shouldn’t address us as sir and madam.” Presumably, she means should instead of shouldn’t.
Hearing this, Ong was “stunned” at her “ridiculous comment”. In response, she said “give me a moment I’ll come back to you”, because she was lost for words.
According to Ong, this female passenger was being “sulky” throughout the flight and was “not acting like an adult”.
Moreover, at one point, when Ong asked her if she wanted a drink, she did not “look or acknowledge” her.
She ends her post emphasizing that she did not let this incident ruin her Christmas.
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Who’s at Fault?
Since we don’t really know what happened, it’s hard to take a stance on this incident. The passenger may have been overly-demanding, but Ong may have been less than friendly too.
However, it does seem that this particular passenger was looking for something to be upset and complain about. If you’re going to make such a big fuss about someone not calling you Madam, then you’re probably not a very pleasant person to be around.
As I said, humans are not the nicest on flights.
