After two and a half months, I'm finally back in Manila. But before I landed at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2, I was able to experience rudeness during my flight, for the Nth time.
image source: http://media2.ph.88db.com/DB88UploadFiles/2008/07/30/83BBDAF5-3433-4D0A-AF3C-4299813718AE.jpg
Everytime we go to Japan and back, we choose to ride Philippine Airlines, the country's flag carrier...trust me, it's been years! But none of those trips has been worth it. They never seemed to have improved on their services. And based on my experiences, the number one reason for their poor service is having a bunch of impolite, disrespectful, and annoying Flight Attendants. Let me share my actual experiences that made me arrive to this conclusion.
Other than saying "Good morning" upon entrance and "Thank you" upon exit with a smile, there's nothing else polite about them. In my flight to Japan last March 2010, I remembered how those flight attendants just stared at my grandmother and my 7-year-old cousin drag their hand-carried bags to their seats. It was evident that the senior citizen and the minor find it hard to walk along narrow aisles carrying quite heavy luggage and no flight ATTENDANT actually attended on them. I wasn't able to help much 'cause I was carrying another luggage as usual, which I had to put at the cabin stowage.
In my most recent trip, which was from Narita to Manila last June 13 on PR 431, I experienced the same thing. Thank God that there's a guy FA who helped me put our hand-carried luggage at the cabin stowage. But still, they didn't help my 69-year-old grandma and little cousin carry their stuff even if it was evident on their faces that they're having a hard time.
Upon take-off, my cousin (seated by the window), and grandma (at the middle) were both asleep. Then since I was at the aisle, a girl FA approached me and said "Pa-open nalang po ng window shades." The window shade covered just around 1/5 of the window. And mind you, that was already that way when we got to our seats. I was trying to wake up my cousin or grandma because I couldn't reach the window shade 'coz of my seatbelt. Fasten seatbelt for take-off right? Until the FA told me "Abot mo naman yata e ikaw nalang magsara." And in my mind I was like, "WTF?!? Edi sana before kayo magsakay ng pasahero inayos nyo yan, e inabutan namin yan na ganyan na tapos uutusan mo ko without using polite words?!" But I stayed calm, I just did what she said.
Came meal distribution time, a girl FA approached me and said they'll distribute meals to kids first. She asked what my cousin would want, Chicken or Beef? So I said chicken. But my cousin was still asleep so we let his food stay on his tray table. Then when it's our turn, we were informed that there's no more beef so we had no choice but to accept chicken. It's not just my taste buds, but I never liked a single meal they served since I started flying PAL. Anyway, that's not the main issue. A guy FA came holding a box, and he pulled out an ice cream cup. Without saying a word, he gestured his hand holding the cup, swung it twice towards my asleep cousin in front of my grandmother's face, implying that "THIS IS YOUR GRANDSON'S ICE CREAM FOR DESSERT, SINCE I CAN'T F*CKIN' REACH HIS TRAY TABLE, I AM ASKING YOU TO PUT THIS THERE." He didn't even look at my grandmother's face! Again, in my mind, I was like, "What the hell are you doing?!? Swinging your hand in front of my grandma's face, asking her to pass that effin ice cream to my cousin without saying a word?!? Not even please?" I think he should've just said "Ma'am ice cream for the kid's dessert, please put on his tray." So again, I stayed calm.
Oh, and they were already collecting trashes when they haven't even served us dessert! They forgot! My grandma asked another guy FA (not the rude one) about the dessert so he immediately got some, handed it to us, then apologized. Oh, thank God for at least ONE polite flight attendant!
I understand that FAs should speak fluent English because of course, they'll encounter lots of foreign passengers. But I guess speaking FLUENT English is a whole lot different from speaking OA English. They're talking to OFWs in OA English when those OFWs were actually talking to them in Tagalog. Let me define that for you. OA English - too much twirls of the tongue, twangs, conyo-ish effect that it gets too annoying already. Anyway, I'm not so sure if they were trained that way so I'll just let it pass.
And lastly, when we're on our first approach to landing, one of the foreign passengers refused to tighten his seat belt. And when the girl FA gave up on him, she approached another FA, who that time was standing just right behind me, and said "May pasaway na pasahero dun, ayaw higpitan yung seat belt eh inexplain ko na nga, blah blah" then the other FA approached that passenger involved. Whatever happened next, I didn't know because I was too far from that passenger's seat. But in my mind I was like , "Hello? Are you really talking about that in the middle of lots of passengers? Do you really want us to hear how you curse irritating passengers?!?"
I don't wanna compare PAL with other airlines but I think I get better treatment on budget airlines, which usually cost me just 1/4 of what I spend with PAL. I guess PAL should do something about it because passengers deserve to get the kind of service they really paid for. Now tell me, is it just me, or have you experienced the same thing too? I've got a couple of friends who experienced the same poor service as well.
My point of sharing this is not to humiliate PAL, but to call their attention so they can improve on their services, most especially, for them to train their flight attendants well. For them to pay attention not just on the safety of the flight but to the overall satisfaction of their passengers. I know that flight attendants undergo a tough training, but I just wish that special attention is given to their attitudes/manners because being polite and respectful is very important for anyone in that job. And with all due respect to PAL, its management, and employees, the airline you work for is our flag carrier. Let's not give foreign guests a wrong impression about Filipinos and our quality of service. And let's not disappoint our fellow Filipinos who choose to support by flying PAL.
very well written sis! I travel through PAL too (on DOMESTIC flights) but I don't experience the treatment. Probably because the FAs there are young and the ones in Int'l flights are already senior / older FAs, hence the attitude. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks sis. I shared it here so I would know other people's experiences with the same airline too. Thanks for sharing. Yes, they're better on domestic flights based on my experience too. I usually experience it with my Japan flights ('coz I fly via another airline in other Asian countries). I really hope they improve on this.
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