2 of 26

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 2

beverage cart. My family & I had actually caught this connecting flight after a 10 hour flight from Hong Kong, and so had pretty much been up all night. The flight attendant asked me if I wanted anything, and I replied that I would like a Coca Cola. She paused, gave me this very sour look, and said "You want a Coca Cola?" "Yes," I repeated (I did not drink coffee at the time, and I wasn't in the mood for a tea). She proceeded to give me a lecture at how it was not good for me to be drinking a soft drink at that early hour. Now I was 19 years old at the time, so clearly I was not a child, so I found this rather peculiar that she was doing this. What was even funnier was that she was giving me this lecture right over top of my parents (I was sitting in the window seat), and it was clear that these people WERE my parents, so I had to keep myself from laughing. My father got extremely indignant and started yelling at the woman. And she started yelling back! My mother & I chuckled through the whole thing, because it was just so absurd. It took 15 minutes, but I finally go my Coca Cola.

*The Canadian Airlines incident was also over food, I wonder if that's a coincidence? Who knows. My family & I were flying back from Europe one year, and we were seating in the very last row of the plane. This can either mean you get your meal first or last. On this flight, it meant last. As I mentioned earlier, my stomach tends to get upset when I travel, so I often don't eat the meals provided, but I usually take the tray and pick at the food. By the time they got to me, all they had left was fish, and as I don't eat seafood, I decided to forgo the meal entirely. My mother proceeded to argue with the flight attendant that I was to get a non-seafood meal, and that she (the flight attendant) should check around to see if there was an extra meal somewhere on the plane. The flight attendant was rather condescending and snotty towards my mother, so I kept telling her to forget it. At this point it was more the principle of the thing that had so enraged my mother, so she kept hammering the point home. She just tore a strip off the flight attendant, asked to see the Chief Purser and would've asked to see the Captain if he wasn't busy flying the plane. Finally the Chief Purser came by about 30 minutes after everyone else had finished eating and the movie had started, and he gave me one of the left over first class meals, a pepper corn steak, along with profuse apologies on behalf of the staff. Needless to say we never flew Canadian again, and I believe my mother even lodged a complaint against that particular flight attendant as well.

In all my travels around the world, the best experiences I have on airlines are with ones that have good customer service. If you're nice to me, I'll forgive almost anything. But if you're nasty, look out, I have claws too, and I'm not afraid to use them.

Learn more about this author, Julia Borgini.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2

Add your voice

Know something about Best and worst experiences with airlines?
We want to hear your view. Write now!