I work in an operations office for an airline. We don’t work with the general public, but we do support our airports and often get calls from airport agents across the network. Our number is private, but there are occasions when an airport employee gives it out instead of the actual call center. It’s a pretty quiet day until I get this call.

Me: “Thank you for calling [Team] for [Airline]. You’ve reached [My Name]; how can I help you?”

Elderly Caller: “Who?!”

Me: “You’ve reached [My Name] at [Airline], [Team]. How may I assist you?”

Elderly Caller: “Yes… can I take my medication with me?”

Me: *Pause* “I’m sorry, are you a passenger? This is an internal line; I can transfer you to the call center if you need assistance?”

Elderly Caller: “What?! No, dear, I just want to know which medication is better.”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I don’t have an answer for you. Let me transfer you to the call center and, hopefully, they can assist you.”

Elderly Caller: “See, I’ve got the name brand, but the generic is cheaper and I want to make sure I take the stuff that won’t get taken away.”

Me: *Setting up the switchboard to transfer her call* “I understand, ma’am, but I don’t have the answer. Let me get someone on the line that hopefully should be able to assist.”

Elderly Caller: “I thought the airline would know. How do they not know? Why can’t this be easy? Why’d the government have to make this so complicated? It’s all those space aliens, I bet. The moment they blow up something like New York, everyone starts panicking all the time. Why don’t you guys know what you accept and what you don’t?”

Me: *Lets her finish her tirade* “I’m sorry about that, ma’am. I’ll transfer you to the call center right now for those answers you’re looking for.”

Elderly Caller: “Nah, don’t bother. I’ll just go with the name brand.” *Click*

I’m trying to book a ticket to fly out to my brother’s for Christmas. It’s a pretty expensive flight for me, and I’ve done a couple of things, including applying and getting approved for an [Airline] credit card to help with things. The card also gives some decent benefits, including early boarding, a free checked bag, etc.

When the card shows up, the limit is a lot lower than I was expecting and lower than the cost of the ticket. I call the credit card number first because I am confused about the limit.

Representative #1: “I see that you have a personal card. I just want to let you know that you’re working with a representative for the business card.”

Me: “Um, okay… Well, I was wondering about my limit. Based on what I saw when I was approved, it looked like there was a temporary limit of [limit] for if you needed to use the card before you physically had it, but then once the physical card was activated, the limit would go up. Was I mistaken in my interpretation of things?”

Representative #1: “Let me transfer you to a representative for the personal cards. Bear with me for a moment, please.”

He puts me on hold and transfers me to another representative.

Representative #2: “Hello, Miss [My Name]. I hear you have some questions about your limit?”

Me: “Yes. Currently, it’s showing that my limit is [limit], and I was under the impression that that was like an automatic temporary approval limit when you apply or get approved, and then once the physical card got activated, it would go up. I just activated my card the other day, and it’s still sitting at this limit.”

Representative #2: “I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Most of the time, this card is automatically approved for [limit] initially. You can request an increase in three to six months, but because this is a new card, you can’t increase right now.”

Me: “I was hoping to use this to pay for tickets, and the tickets that I’m looking at are [price less than $100 over the limit]. When I used the option on my account to see if I’d be approved, it said it was partially approved, and I could possibly get it approved by making a payment, but I have no payments to make since I just got the card.”

Representative #2: “Okay, well, have you tried to purchase the tickets to see if it will go through?”

Me: “Um, no. But give me a second and I can.”

I go through the process of choosing seats and adding my card information.

Me: “It was declined.”

Representative #2: “Yes, I see the authorization attempt and that it was declined because it was over the limit. Well, have you done a wire transfer? You could just transfer the extra from your account to put your card over the limit, and that would be approved.”

Me: “Um, are you sure?”

Representative #2: “Yes. One moment while I get you the information.”

She gets me the information and we end the call.

I decide that rather than doing a wire transfer — because I’m just not sure that’s actually a valid option — I’ll just use two cards. I didn’t want to do this, but I figure I’ll just put the majority on the airline card and use the balance on my other card. Unfortunately, when I try to purchase online, it only allows multiple cards if one is a gift card. I call the airline customer service line.

Representative #3: “How can I assist you today?”

Me: “Hi. I’m trying to book a flight, and I need to use two cards to do that.”

Representative #3: “We can’t do that.”

Me: “I’m sorry?”

Representative #3: “Yeah, we can’t do that. You’ll need to go to the airport and buy at the counter where you physically have the card.”

Me: “Wait, really?”

Representative #3: “We can’t do that.”

I’m ready to cry and feeling slightly sarcastic.

Me: “Well, that’s great, thanks!”

Representative #3: “Yep.” *Click*

The call dropped into a survey before I could fully process what had just happened. I ended up posting on social media calling out the airline, and when I got the email survey, I was not nice about it. I acknowledge that the sarcasm may not have been warranted, but I was frustrated, upset, stressed about everything, and tired of everything that was going on with this. I was also worried about the prices going up again as they’d jumped almost $200 in the time between being approved for the card and physically getting it.

I ended up buying an e-gift card for what I was going to put on the other credit card because the ticket counters at the airport close before I get off work, and I didn’t have the option to go during lunch this time. I did finally get tickets for Christmas, so I hope the rest of the trip planning and the trip itself go better.

I’m one of three Disrupted Operations Supervisors (DOS) for my airline, which means when something goes wrong with a flight at my airport, I’m the final authority. For some stupid reason, headquarters (HQ) decided that at my airport, there has to be a supervisor on duty twenty-four hours a day, even when it’s closed. (I tried to find the logic in this but I gave up.)

I was picked for the night shift — 20:00 to 6:00 — despite my functions, due to scheduling isues.

One day, an executive at HQ summons us DOS to an emergency meeting there on the day of a major holiday, requiring two of us to fly there from our respective bases.

I’m supposed to end my shift and go on vacation that day, so I try to convince HQ to let me video conference in order to save them money and time on my part — both via phone and email with cost estimates. I’m told no way: be there or be fired.

Since the earliest flight leaves one hour after I clock off, I don’t have to actually clock off. I catch the flight — ninety minutes — arrive there, and wait for three hours to have a thirty-minute meeting with a young executive, who tells us he’s our new boss and that we have to run everything by him now. After that, I go to the airport, wait another two hours, catch my flight back home, clock off, and go on vacation.

The cost of this little power trip to the company, you ask?

Total number of my hours: nine hours and thirty minutes paid at twice the usual rate due to the holiday, multiplied by three due to vacation interruption, and multiplied by one and a half for out-of-base work. It came to 2565€.

Travel expenses, including meals: 450€.

So, just because a moron had to have a little moment of dominance over three women, I got an extra 3015€.

I’m a flight attendant for a major airline. Several years ago, I lived in Miami Beach in an oceanfront apartment building. Several floors of the building were operated as a hotel, but it was mostly residences. The parking garage was underneath the building.

I had just worked a long international trip and was exhausted. I got home, parked my car, and got in the elevator. It stopped on the lobby level, and a couple who had just checked in to the hotel entered. The husband saw my uniform and started loudly griping about their flight to Miami.

Man: “We were stuck in Houston for five hours and they didn’t give us a hotel room!”

I take a lot of abuse from people who need to vent, and it mostly just rolls off my back, but that is when I’m on the clock at work. I couldn’t believe I was getting b****ed out IN MY OWN HOME about some airline thing. I was tired and over it after a ten-hour flight and I let him have it.

Me: “You had a stopover in Houston, so I’m guessing you must have flown on [Airline], right?” 

Man: “Yes.”

Me: “Well, I don’t work for [Airline], and even if I did, I still wouldn’t give a s***. This is where I live. How dare you get in my face — in my own home — to gripe about your minor inconvenience?”

I don’t remember everything I said, but by the time we reached my floor, the man was backed up against the wall. I do remember shouting, “Buh-bye!” as I stomped out of the elevator. I used to be a people person, but people ruined it.

I worked for a terrible airline company. They started a smaller company that could hire and train people to run the planes but pay them way less at certain airports. Whereas my colleagues at other airports were making over $20 an hour, I was getting paid $10.25 for the same — and sometimes more — work.

It honestly would scare you to know how little they pay the people who are the ones that make sure your plane takes off safely. All of us had two to three jobs to be able to pay rent, and we were all in the job for the benefits — free flights to anywhere in the country on standby.

I could tell many stories about how terrible my boss was. Here’s just one.

I had to go to the hospital from the airport because of intense pain in my stomach. It turns out that because of the stress caused by that job, my intestines decided to stop functioning. I spent the day in the hospital, and then they gave me a note saying that I didn’t have to work for the next two days. I told [Boss]’s boss about it — since I hated talking to [Boss] — when I went back to work three days later.

I came in around 4:00 am. We had five people total to load all luggage, load the water, and push out five planes in a little over an hour — already an incredible amount of work for so few people. We had our morning work meeting to discuss how f***ed we were, and then [Boss] asked me into his office.

Boss: “Your attendance is unacceptable.”

Me: *Dumbfounded* “What do you mean?”

Boss: “You’ve been late a couple of times, and now missing the past three days…”

Me: “[Boss], I have the note from the hospital. According to work policy, that shouldn’t affect my attendance.”

Boss: “I don’t care what work policy says. I’m going to fire you.”

Again, I cited work policy since we were “protected” by a union.

Me: “[Boss], you have to give me an attendance warning before you’re allowed to fire me for attendance. This is the first time I’m hearing about attendance, so you can’t fire me right now.”

Boss: “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to give you a warning right now, and when I get back from vacation next week, you’re going to be fired. Now go back to work. My decision is final.”

I told my coworkers what had happened. Then, I decided, “All right, well, if next week he’s firing me, I’ll just leave now.” Even though their day was about to be f***ed since now four people were working five planes, my coworkers all said, “F*** this place. Get out of here!” So, I left and went to get breakfast.

As I was enjoying my meal, [Boss] called me. I happily ignored him. He called three more times and then texted me, asking where I was.

Me: “You fired me. Why would I keep working for you?”

No response. I tried to soak in the sight of [Boss] running between planes like a chicken with his head cut off. I don’t imagine that any plane took off on time that morning.

I got a call from Human Resources, the union representative, and the general manager, who was [Boss]’s boss. They all said [Boss] was wrong and asked me if I could come back to work it out, but quitting felt so good, and I felt such a weight lifted off my shoulders thinking about not working there anymore, I never went back.

This part isn’t so satisfying; it’s more a testament to this airline’s complete lack of ethics. [Boss] got in really big trouble later. One coworker had a shoulder injury and had a note, and he told [Boss] several times that he couldn’t do super heavy labor. [Boss] sent him to the bag room by himself anyway. Imagine having to lift 300 to 700 fifty- to seventy-pound bags over your head per hour, all while running between the bag carts and the belt. Needless to say, the guy tore his shoulder and had to get surgery on it.

They still didn’t fire [Boss]. Instead, they “promoted” him to manage the workers who did ticketing and no manual labor. As far as I know, [Boss] still works for the airline. My coworker still cannot move the way he used to two years later.