Ugh, how many days have I missed??? I admit I was a bit distracted during my trip to MCO. I only got one entry in. Dang!
So, what is a seatbelt nazi? Well, I am sure many people have run into them before but didn’t realize such. A seatbelt nazi is a grouchy flight attendant obsessed with compliance while the seatbelt sign is on and enforces the sign in a very rude, abrupt, and non-empathetic manner. Unfortunately, my industry is plagued with them. Seatbelt Nazis are officially a pet peeve of mine. Interesting, I typed the world Nazis and the auto correct capitalized the ‘n’ (really good to know the Nazis get respect in a word document as a proper noun but the word god doesn’t). Anywuzzle, back to the topic at hand: The Seatbelt Nazi (dun, Dun, DUNNNNNN)!!!!!!!!!
The origin of the seatbelt nazi dates back to the 70’s when the airline industry probably changed forever. Prior to that, flight attendants were generally classy, polite, attractive, and nice as a standard for hiring. Not mention being a nurse. However with the deregulation of this industry, nam, the breaking of the American family, furloughs, unions, expansion, capitalism, job qualifications (loss of height and weight standard namely) etc., flight attendants, well, became bitches. Fat bitches. Not all…just some. Oh, and then they began to hirer men (most of the male flight attendants are gay which I absolutely love). I don’t think that is a bad thing by any means. I am just noting it as a change that has affected the industry.
So many changes and now what do we have? Crabby ass flight attendants obsessed with seniority and the seatbelt sign. These dumb butts make my job sooooo effin hard. All it takes is one flight attendant to be rude and bam, now all flight attendants suck and are mean! People compare flying to taking grey hound. Really? Really? Is this what it has come down to?
I am in no way a seatbelt nazi nor have I ever been. I will admit to a few seatbelt nazi moments in my career but that is when I kinda sucked at this. I mean, well, let me clarify. My sucking (hey, get your mind our of the gutter) is like a 7 on a scale of one to ten. Most flight attendants operate at 4. I guess my standards are pretty high. I hate shitty service for one, and two, presentation is everything. I guess I take it even more personally because they represent me and I them.
A few other things about the Nazis: it is my opinion that they are the way they are because they are powerless in some area of their life that they wish they had more power. This could be their marriage, struggles with weight, bratty demanding children, etc. Another reason for this behavior is poor training from the airlines that brain wash people about what are job really is. Some of them get a kick out of telling people what to do. Generally their service can be anywhere on the scale but they get classified with an automatic stank as soon as the nazi behavior reveals itself.
Eight times out of ten, their service sucks too. Helping passengers is not high on their list esp. with bags. And as obsessed as they are about that damn sign, their compliance checks seem to suck ass! They will not notice seats reclined or bags sticking out from under the seats. They wake up sleeping people who clearly have their seat belts on to make sure they have them on and that their devices are turned off. They make 10,753 announcements about the seatbelt sign being on and demand that passengers remain seated. They don’t even walk and talk all the time! It’s absolute madness and I can’t understand it! Ok, just had to get that out.
Why am I writing about this? Once again, I am 30,000 feet up and on a flight (guess I didn’t have to say on a flight unless I was super woman). Now, on my way to MCO the flight attendants were kinda nice for the Delta mainline crew. Coming home was a different story. A few dramatic things happened but I will limit this to my seatbelt nazi experience. I am currently on a flight from LGA to ORD. Someone in the back got up to go the restroom and the flight attendant up front, after a general announcement from the flight attendant in back about the seat belt sign still being on, made not one but two announcements about staying seated (I am sure if he new the passenger’s name or the color his shirt he would have identified such on the PA). Not to mention, this guy was already at the back and I am sure the other flight attendant would have properly handled the situation without a PA.
When I got on the flight, the front flight attendant did not offer to take my coat. At first I thought it was because I was on the phone, but he did ask me what I would like to drink inflight…
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w
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I told him that I didn’t know what I would like to drink in the air on the ground… He was not happy about that. Now, since I have already been through some shit with Delta today, I was not in the mood for stankiness. Yet, there it was before me.
There was meal on the flight and I was very happy about this except he didn’t know much about the meal, just said it was a sandwich or a salad. I asked for the meat to be taken off my meal, he gives me meat anyway. I asked him, what kind of soup it was, he said, I haven’t tasted it and that I should know because I serve it all the time. I told him, I have never served soup on a flight. I ask for potato chips instead and it took him several minutes to get me the wrong kind when I was very specific about what I wanted. Now, with this going on, I knew he would not be around to take my tray nor the other passengers in first class when we were done. So, we waited and he finally came. After taking my tray, he then asked if I want something to drink. I said, may I have some tea please? His body language was all wrong without a yes or no answer to the question. He brings the tea and literally dumps one sugar, one cream, and one sweetener in my hand. I tell him that I would like it black and he acts as if he doesn’t hear me and walks away. I even called him by his name to try to get his attention, but no to avail he is on robot mode. He is a seatbelt nazi.
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