In a perfect world everyone would get along, work together, hold hands, and sing in perfect harmony. We all know that just isn’t the case. The same holds true in the pressurized metal tubes that fly 35,000 feet above the earth. Personalities clash, work styles don’t quite mesh, conflicts arise. As much as I would love to say I’d be thrilled to work with each and every person at my airline, that’s not the case. In fact, I think you’d be hard pressed to find any flight attendant where that’s the case. Each flight attendant has in the back of their mind their own personal No-Fly List.
Admittedly, there are people I have flown with that I don’t have any desire to fly with again. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them, It just means that I don’t necessarily work well with them. Fortunately this list is pretty short for me. The people I don’t want to fly with are people I have flown with in the past. As flight attendant’s main form of entertainment on the plane is gossiping, you often hear horror stories about other flight attendants. While sometimes these stories are true, I have heard things about people and when I fly with them they have been a pleasure to fly with. Other times the stories are 100% true. I’d never add someone to my no fly list from stories, or even one bad trip. Everyone has a bad trip once in awhile. Being overtired, feeling sick, or having something going at home can cause someone to have a short temper or be lazy. Who knows. Repeated though, and they might just have a bad attitude.
No once someone has earned a place on your no fly list, how do you avoid flying with them. Usually the answer to that is sheer luck. Airlines have a ton of flight attendants, and sometimes you can go months or years without flying with someone. There are flight attendants in my base I have never met, let alone flown with. Most people I don’t want to fly with have shown up on a trip once, and I haven’t been awarded a trip with them since.
My company’s old bidding system (we have since changed) had an option to buddy bid. This is where you say you want to fly trips with a specific person. It also had the option to avoid trips with a specific person. My airline disabled that option, saying it was detrimental to a sense of teamwork, and if you had a problem with someone you should talk directly to them. While I can see the point, at the same time it can be detrimental to the passenger’s experience if the flight attendants are bickering in the back. Once a trip is awarded, and someone you don’t want to fly with is on your trip, theres 2 options to deal with it: Drop the trip, or hope they drop the trip. They both have their ups and downs, and it really depends on how strongly you feel about not flying with the person.
I’m lucky that I get along with most people at my airline, and the people I don’t work the best with like different types of trips, different days off, or are at different bases now. I have never dropped a trip because someone I didn’t want to fly with was on it. I just think positive thoughts, remember that at most its only 4 days, remember that I don’t have to hang out with them on the layovers, and make the best of it.
And thatgossipping in the back is exactly why i get very last row isle and its close to the bathroom