Bottom 5: 1st of September 2013

At the end of each month I´ll give you a small resume of my top 5 and bottom 5 passengers´ nationalities to work with

1) Indians: it´s a cultural thing and there is nothing I can do about it. It is very difficult to work with certain Nationalities because the cultural background and the cultural settings may clash with what you are may be used to. A clear example about this is hygiene. Hygiene has been always a clear part of my life, it doesn´t matter where I am or how tired I am, I like to feel that I´m clean and fresh. Apparently for most Indians this is not the case. It may be because many of them don´t have running water in their homes or they have a very limited access to it and that may be one of the many reasons why they don´t pay much attention to this key point. Another example, they wash their cloth and they bath in a sacred river (Ganges River) in which corpses float around being eaten by crows and that is perfectly normal and even good for them from their cultural point of view. The problem is that when you have an extra long haul trip let´s say to New York, the odor that you may feel during the whole flight it may be nauseating. Nevertheless the problem is not only personal hygiene but also manners. As they constantly defend what they do because they are always “proud” (even if they are wrong) they tend to be very responsive in what they are saying. Do you have an idea how many times I had problems with passengers paying a Duty free article and then they kept “accidentally” a U$S 2 difference? Even more, in several occasions I have seen them in rage just because we ask them to remove their bags from the emergency exit.

2) Nigerians: would someone please tell me what´s with the fact that they pretend that they understand when you are speaking to them and then they do totally the opposite? Maybe it´s just because of ignorance and by the fact that the really don´t understand what you are trying to express. But if we make clear certain points as for example “mobile phones must be switched off since the moment we close door until we open them back”, why do they insist in turning them on to try to make a phone calls? Is all about trying to understand them trying to be patient with them but sometimes they tend to go over the line and push the limits a little bit further. Another point is that they tend to travel in packs and besides that they like to switch seats all the time. Problem comes when you do the “head countdown” before taking off and as they stand up to go to the bathroom or to switch seats or they try to walk around the cabin while others are trying to board it may becomes somehow of annoying. Double check and even triple check the head count.

3) Chinese: my beloved compulsive buyers of fake brands, we simple love them. Usually on board (not in all flights) they carry on too much bags that are too heavy for the over head compartments, so not only it becomes more than a physical job to try to close the bins but also during turbulence, taking off or landing they just open. Problem is when those bags start to fall over on others and we are responsible for it when actually the ones to point the finger are the ones in the check-in counter that allow that. Nevertheless we try to understand them when they try to order a meal in which it becomes almost impossible to comprehend their requests as not many crew speak fluent mandarin or Cantonese Chinese (chin-English, for many, is an impossible thing to figure out). Hygiene, still a mayor issue for many of them, soap and shampoo? No thank you.

4) Mexicans: there is something called ego that many times is not an easy thing to handle. That ego combined with a bad day has terrifying results, total rudeness towards Crew. Not only some tend to show off everything that they have and what they had and who they know but also they don´t like to be told the world “no” and many times unfortunately we have to say the unpronounceable. For example someone orders a meal which we run out and even so we try to please that request by offering them a business class gourmet choice they just become rude with a very cut decisive tone, they just want to eat what they want and nothing else. If drunk they may become not only loud but also aggressive towards others because of that particular ego that they carry. Limits is a “thing” not well known and less handled by some.

5) Russians: grey zone. Cold hard and distant. Sometimes they may be coarse and they don´t notice it but on the other hand they don´t do it on purpose. They may be correct and very responsive people towards crew and other passengers but if they get drunk they get fuzzy and sometimes they don´t know how to behave in the proper limits, how? They keep ordering more and if they are told that they “had enough” well, you can imagine. Besides that they might by friendly but at the same time cold and distant as they tend to analyze what is happening on the other side and because of this you may feel that you are being suddenly placed in a hot-spot.

(I don´t own the above picture)