SKYEXPRESS - NEVER EVER AGAIN
I was traveling with my wife and two small children (11 months and 2.5 years), we encountered unacceptable treatment that made our journey incredibly stressful. Before taxi start following attendant’s instruction, the 2.5-year-old child was appropriately seated in their own seat, secured with a seatbelt, just like the rest of us. The attendant provided a seatbelt for the infant to the mother and instructed her to use the baby seatbelt for the infant sitting in her lap. The mother complied and fastened the baby seatbelt; however, the infant immediately started crying. As time went on, the crying worsened because the infant obviously did not want to be restrained. The infant could sit on the lap without any issue but protested strongly against the seatbelt. For the next five minutes, the infant was belted to the mother and continued to cry non-stop, moving up and down. To calm the infant, the only solution was to loosen the seatbelt, so the mother could hold the child in the arms and swing it. The airplane had still not taken off, and the attendant informed us that the seatbelt must be worn, strongly fastened. I politely explained that they could see for themselves (as we were in the front row of business class) that the infant exhibited irrational behavior when buckled tightly but was absolutely calm when seatbelt was loosened. I communicated my concerns in a respectful manner, but the attendant rolled her eyes and responded hysterically, stating that if we did not fasten the seatbelt on the infant, the flight would be canceled. To avoid further issues, I adjusted the seatbelt to be loose enough so the mother could hold the infant in her arms, which helped, and the baby eventually fell asleep and remained calm until we left the airplane. When we landed and were waiting for the door to open and to go out, I took the opportunity to explain to the attendant that we were not against the rules, but there are moments in life when rules can obviously produce more problems. When I asked to keep the baby calm for 1 minute with loosened seatbelt, not unfastened seatbelt just loosened, it was certainly not dangerous for the flight and should not have been a reason to cancel the flight, as we were not an unruly or violent family. I said this absolutely with full respect. During this short and normal conversation (less than 2 minutes) with the attendant with black hair, another attendant with blond hair entered the pilot's cabin, and the pilot came out and started yelling and threatening to call the police. I was surprised by his aggressive, emotional behavior, which was not in correlation with the events during the flight. He was yelling that he would call the police, and I replied in a calm voice that we were following the rules. Probably in a frustrated state of mind, he received incorrect information from the attendant with blond hair, and the captain seemed to be showing off in front of the attendants, behaving as if we were animals and the airplane was his animal shelter. Every time I tried to explain that the situation is far from any incident, he stopped me by yelling, ‘’Do you want me to call the police?’’. His behavior simply shows his point of view, which can be described as ‘’This is my airplane, and you cannot talk about anything, including explanations regarding the infant's seatbelt condition.’’ Three times he interrupted my attempt to explain to him in a calm manner, yelling: ‘’Do you want me to call the police?’’. Instead of asking where the problem was, which did not exist, and trying to resolve the situation rationally, as a captain should, he started acting ruthlessly. He insisted during his yelling that he would call the police if I didn’t like the rules. He used the term "like" instead of "following," . Again, I replied that I respected the rules and didn’t understand where the problem was, especially given that the infant was belted for the entire flight, and now we were waiting in front of the door for it to be opened. He was acting not like a captain but like someone who wanted to fight while also being ready to call the police. He manipulated the situation, taking advantage of the fact that we were foreigners, and separating the father from the rest of the family would have a psychological impact on the two children and their mother. I told him that calling the police for one baby who was crying with the seatbelt on was strange. I knew that if the police came, it would cause psychological shock for the children and their mother, so I chose to stop the conversation to avoid this situation. I would like to emphasize once more that all of this happened when the airplane's engines were off and we were waiting to disembark, standing in front of the door, and I did not speak for even one second in a raised voice, quite the opposite of how the captain spoke. When we took our baggage, I went to the police alone to clarify the situation and to ask if there was any problem since that pilot was acting as I described above. I would like to note again that the pilot used the situation of us being with two children, and obviously, it was my choice not to stress the children more. Regardless of whether it was a bad day or incorrect information provided by the attendant, especially concerning the relationship between the captain and the attendant, the captain cannot be aggressive to passengers, especially in front of small children, and again, without any reason, since we did not behave unruly or disruptively according to any officially published rules. There are rules and necessary steps defined by international regulations as well as company policies that should be followed by the crew and captain in the case of unruly passengers. These steps were not followed in our case, and certainly, none of those steps include yelling at parents in front of children and stressing the entire family. It seems that customer service is a foreign concept to Skyexpress. The lack of basic courtesy and respect is infuriating. Instead of providing assistance, the captain managed an already finished journey to make additionaly stressful. Skyexpress should be embarrassed by the way they treat their passengers, without the most basic level of decency. What is even more sad is the lack of empathy. The 11 month old baby was crying, it took just a little humanity to understand the situation. What kind of person doesn't have understanding for the upset infant? And for all the yelling infront of two small children? Shameful, just shameful. Due to this experience, they can count on my family and me never flying with them again. If this is how they treat those who pay their salaries, then Skyexpress deserve to lose customers. I’ve taken the time to write to them, though I fully expect to be met with silence on their end, given how we were treated. So I won't be holding my breath waiting for the apology that will never come.