Flight Attendant Agency Problems

George Hobica got a retired flight attendant to open up to him at wrote about it in the Huffington Post. Much of it is the expected  complaining about passenger behaviors (e.g., having to repeat oneself to passengers wearing headphones). But some are represent mild to severe agency problems.

1. You know that coffee you ordered? It's actually decaf even though you asked for regular. We'd rather that you sit back, relax and fall asleep so you don't bother us too much. Our airline sent around a memo wondering why the decaf supplies were going so fast, noting that decaf costs more than regular coffee.

Not good but not too bad.

4. If a flight is late, the airline might have to pay us overtime. If the flight is going to be late anyway, we've been known to delay it even further in order make sure overtime kicks in, which on our airline means up to double the hourly pay. We might find some minor defect in the aircraft or use some other ruse to make up for the money we don't get paid waiting for take off.

More severe (and this may have happened to me recently).

12. Yes, we do ask the captain to leave the seatbelt on long after the turbulence has ended so we can serve in the aisles.

Pretty mild.

13. On night flights, we sometimes hold off on meal service as long as we can so that you'll be asleep and we'll have less to do.

Actually quite petty.