As a Flight Attendant, often dealing with over 500 passengers a day, your patience will be tested over and over.  Just like having a handful of toddlers at home, you need to speak clearly, not raise your voice and hold back from screaming like a wild banshee when asked the most inane questions.  After presenting the safety script, including the portion on how to buckle a seat belt, you will, at some point in your Flight Attendant Career, have a passenger ask you to repeat it.  While you’ll want to remind them that had they looked up from their issues of Star magazine long enough to see it the first time, you wouldn’t have to take time away from your duties to demonstrate the complicated task of buckling a seat belt one-on-one.

How about the passenger who asks if you can get them a discount on items listed in the in-flight magazine?  Or the passenger who inquires if there’s any softer toilet paper on board than that in the bathroom.  It gets better.  I’ve been asked if I could get a passenger a cappuccino.  “Sure.  No problem.  Will that be a venti skim or no-whip, no foam?”

I’m constantly amazed at how some passengers have no hesitations about their requests.  Can I get them discounted flights?  Can I make the tea water hotter?  Can I hold their baby while they adjust their headsets?  Do I baby sit in my spare time?

Smiling, trying to always accommodate passengers’ requests and acting in a professional manner are all topics covered in Flight Attendant School.  Maybe there should also be a quick course on patience building.  A good strategy would be to bring in a group of 4 year-olds for the day and see how many potential flight attendants are left with their sanity intact at the end of the day.

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