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Rude Airline Staff: An Expert Guide on How to Get Friendlier Service
We’ve all seen videos of passenger meltdowns and agressive behaviour toward airline staff and flight attendants. But what about those times when the tables are turned and airline staff are rude to passengers? What’s happening to fuel this, and what can you do about it as a passenger?
In this guide, we’ll examine why airline employees can be rude and steps you should and shouldn’t take if you’re ever treated badly when flying.
Defining Difficult Behaviour
Each passenger has their own tolerance threshold for rudeness, but generally, difficult staff behaviour can manifest in three different ways:
Refusing to Help
This could also be described as passive aggressive behaviour where the staff member refuses to acknowledge your presence, answer you, or offer any solutions for your concern.
For example, you approach the gate agent and respectfully ask why your flight was cancelled. If you do this politely and you are ignored and/or not offered assistance, then this would count as difficult behaviour.
Verbal Abuse
Verbal abuse can be seen different forms including an agressive, demeaning, or hostile tone of voice, shouting, swearing, insults, and name calling. Threats and intimidation are also forms of verbal abuse.
Non Verbal Abuse
Glaring, eye-rolling, hostile body language, as well as mocking or other displays of contempt.
Why Are Airline Employees Disagreeable?
While a lot of focus is placed on flight attendants, airlines have many other customer-facing departments whose staff have been accused of rudeness to passengers. Ground staff can include:
- Customer service staff both in person and on the phone,
- Check-in and gate agents,
- Reservation agents,
- Baggage handlers
Also, it’s not easy to pinpoint one single cause for rudeness among airline staff, but there are some factors that play a role in fueling it. One of them is the way in which airlines have positioned themselves in the marketplace.
Consumer advocate and journalist, Christopher Elliott says,
I think airlines like to advertise themselves as a premium and even luxury product when it is, in fact, basic transportation. Customer expectations are high and flight attendants and employees are often at the receiving end of the frustration when air travel doesn't meet their expectations.
Increased Passenger Aggression
The number of unruly passengers on flights has actually decreased over the last year or so, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says that during the first 6 months of 2024, there were 915 reports of unruly passengers with 106 of them being fueled by intoxication.
In a report by CNN, Liz Simmons who has been a flight attendant for 17 years said that,
disruptive passenger incidents can cause physical, emotional or psychological injury for flight attendants.
Daniela Modonesi, chair of the European Transport Workers’ Federation added in the same report that
unruly behaviour can “lead to attrition across the aviation industry.” She said she “regularly sees fellow ground staff leaving work, crying, following interactions with aggressive passengers.”
But while some staff respond with tears, others respond with their own aggression.
Low Pay, High Stress
Workforce.com indicated a huge correlation between high stress, burnout, and low pay.
In fact, Grokker found that
87% of the workers in the transportation industry say that stress had led to feelings of job burnout, 28% to a great or extreme extent.
When you consider the personal stress caused by financial struggles and add it to a high-stess role like that of a flight attendant or customer service agent, then you have recipe for irritability and rude behaviour.
Staffing Shortages
Staffing shortages have plagued airlines since the pandemic. Because understaffing has become such a chronic problem, more employees are feeling stressed and burned out as a result of bigger workloads. This leads to increased frustration and less patience, which can produce a higher incidence of rude and snarky comments and behaviour.
Insufficient Training & Support
Some airline staff, especially flight attendants, have voiced concern about not getting enough training to help them diffuse tense situations with passengers. On top of that, some employees feel they lack the support from airline management which contributes to feelings of burnout and helplessness.
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What to Do If Airline Staff is Rude
If an airline employee seems rude or unhelpful, remember they work in a high-pressure environment and deal with hundreds of passengers each day.
It’s also important to understand that flight attendants and ground staff don’t set airline policies or passenger rights rules, and they are not responsible for a flight delay or cancellation caused by operational issues.
So, with this in mind, here’s what we recommend if you encounter a difficult employee.
Stay Calm and Respectful
Remember, you’re talking to a person who is probably as stressed as you are, so by staying calm and trying to show some compassion for their situation, you might find that the employee will be as compassionate about yours.
Elliott says,
If someone is being rude to you, it’s best to de-escalate the situation. Don’t return fire. If that doesn’t work, you can appeal to a manager or to the lead flight attendant on board.
He adds,
Humour sometimes works. Making a joke or brushing off the rudeness by saying, I’m sure I misunderstood you. You didn’t just say, X.
Take Notes and File a Complaint
He goes on to say,
Airline employees are often empowered to fix problems in real time by offering better seats, free drinks, or even apologizing.
But if you’re still being treated disrepectfully, write down the name and title of the person you’re dealing with along with the time, date, and any other relevant information. If you can’t resolve the situation, then you should file a complaint with the airline. Remember to include all your notes and documentation.
When you file an official complaint, it will be added to that airline’s official records, meaning that it has a higher chance of being addressed in a formal way. Depending on what happened, it can sometimes lead to a formal investigation.
The downside is that this can be an exceedingly slow process.
Posting to Social Media
If you want your complaint to be acknowledged quickly, posting to social media channels will surely get results, especially if your post gets traction from likes, comments, and shares. As you’d imagine, airlines want to keep a sunny public image, so to protect their reputation they are likely to respond quickly.
Posting publicly on social media does have its downside. If you post your complaint and it doesn’t get many reactions, the airline will probably ignore it as well. Not only that, but if your post isn’t well received, you could end up getting a barrage of negative comments that will only add to your stress.
Complain to Aviation Authorities
If your airline doesn’t respond the way you’d hoped, you can always escalate your complaint by contacting the regulatory bodies in the country where you’re traveling. You should also do this if your situation was severe and involved serious misconduct by the employee or if the employee was in violation of airline regulations and policies.
Where to File a Report
Once you make a report with the airline, you can escalate your complaint to a regulatory body if the airline fails to respond.
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) - Send your formal complaint to the Aviation Consumer Protection Division.
In the European Union, each country has its own National Enforcement Bodies (NEBs). You can find a complete list of these here.
The United Kingdom (UK) has the Civial Aviation Authority (CAA), but you can also contact an Alternative Dispute Resolution Body (ADR) that is CAA approved.
In Canada, you can file your complaint with the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).
Will Skies Be Friendly Again?
There’s been an interesting surge of reports of passengers getting particularly friendly and helpful service, but some speculate that this is a result of airlines playing nice (in the US at least) ahead of certain DOT regulations.
It seems, though, that airline staff will continue to grapple with high stress, heavy workloads, and a ever larger swell of passengers to please which will inevitably lead to more rude interactions. This could all change however, if airlines begin providing better training and support for their staff and continue working to fill the many vacancies that plague the industry today. Until then, we should all work to foster a culture of professionalism, empathy, understanding, and mutual respect.
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Author:
Joanna Teljeur
Job/Position: Senior Editor & Content Lead
Joanna Teljeur is a senior editor and writer with 15+ years of experience in editorial leadership, journalism, and content development, specialising in consumer rights, aviation law, and public-interest reporting. Her work focuses on transforming complex regulatory and legal topics into clear, accurate, and accessible content for international audiences.
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