Late last year, I’ve not only had the opportunity to travel a lot (because of work), but I finally had a chance to experience business class! I heard a lot of great stories and things to look forward to. All the way from the enormous leg room, to the champagne they greet you with, to the pampering you get from the flight attendants.
Due to the tight schedule, I had no choice but to have my first business class experience in patriotic style… flying Philippine Airlines. I was happy at first to find out that I’ll be supporting my late grandfather’s employer, unaware of the treatment and sharp decline in service I was about to experience. The seats fit the bill…. Enormous leg room, champagne upon reaching your seat, Evian water waiting for you… one thing was missing though… what happened to the legendary service??? I understand that the flight attendants were… well… more tenured, but why were they acting all snotty???
Just a background from at least what I’m aware off, there seems to be some labor disputes between the Airline management, and their labor union. Does this give them the right though to act like bitches and assholes??? Pardon the language, but I really find this very frustrating. Some specific examples of this behaviors are:
They seemed to be laughing at a passenger. I heard one of them, this bitchy looking old lady (no offense, but I just hate what she did!) mentioning what sounded like a seat number, followed by the group snickering.
Another instance was when it sounded like a passenger wanted to upgrade to business class and was willing to pay, and she DEMANDED (yes… DEMANDED) the ground personnel to provide the flight manifest.
And then I saw a passenger treated rudely when he asked a question, and got a sharp, sarcastic, and condescending reply!
Now tell me, is this worthy of the hefty airfare that the business class passengers pay!?! I looked back at those at Economy, and it was the younger, all smiling, and pleasant attendants! They may lack the tenure, but they sure showed maturity way above these snotty, poor excuse for flight attendants in business class.
As I said, I had nothing against PAL, in fact I was really happy to be flying with them because my Grandfather was a PAL pilot! I felt extremely connected with him… but after this experience, I’m NEVER flying PAL again… whether business or economy!
Fine, you’re in the middle of a labor war with management, but that does not give you the excuse to treat your passengers that way! No one deserves that kind of rude treatment from your disgruntled staff!
I wholeheartedly agree with you. It’s unfortunate things that you observed happened. I didn’t have that problem flying to Manila and back to SFO because I was in economy but I saw it firsthand in business class going back. The flight attendants appeared very snotty.
Though I like PAL because of the flight situation from SFO, I might look at something else in January 2012 like Hawaiian Airlines.
Happy New Year to you and an injury free 2012!
All i care about is the safety of my flight I will always fly PAL.
[...] few months ago, I blogged about the terrible demeanor and poor service I received from the stewards of PAL in my flight back [...]