Rants of a sassy stewardess: Flight attendant's blog becomes internet sensation

A: Absolutely! I'd get asked all sorts of ridiculous things. One time a woman rang her call button. I said, "Can I help you?" She said, "Are we moving?" We were at 35,000 feet. I didn't know what to say. I had never been asked that before. I put it on the website, and all these flight attendants said, "Oh my God, that's happened to me!"

Q: Judging by the state of the airline industry, I'm going to guess it got worse as time went on.

A: Absolutely. Behaviours got progressively worse. The sense of entitlement was really gross. "Get me there quicker." "I want this and this and this and this." "I'm in coach, but I want you to get me a drink every few minutes." The main thing with the entitlement - or what I feel is narcissism - is they act like there aren't 200 other people on the aircraft. It's their world. There's one flight attendant for every 50 passengers. We can't be 50 places at once.

Q: Passenger Shaming, which began as a feature on Rants of a Sassy Stew, has really taken off - no pun intended. How did that begin?

A: It was me ranting about passengers and telling stories of ridiculous behaviour. I was so careful about it. I took a few photos of bad passenger behavior and was careful not to identify people or even the airline I worked for. Then other flight attendants and crew were giving me photos too. I was getting a tonne of them. And then it was like, "Passenger shaming! Hello!"

Q: What are some of the bad behaviours you've seen that are on display on Passenger Shaming?

A: A lot of bare feet. That's my thing I can't stand. I don't get it. I don't get how it's possible that someone would take off their shoes and socks - shoes are OK; we want you to be comfy - but I don't understand how a person thinks bare feet are OK. They're not OK, period. The majority of people are great, but you run into these situations, and it's awful. Passengers clipping their nails. Drinking too much. Putting dirty diapers in seat-back pockets.

Q: Ewwww. That happened?

A: All the time. Changing your baby's diaper on a tray table that the next person is going to eat off of - it's unbelievable. People looking at porn magazines with kids around. That happened. It took three attempts, but I finally got them to put them away. One thing I like about Passenger Shaming is that you can see I'm not exaggerating. There's no exaggeration about how awful people can be in a public place. When Passenger Shaming started, I got all these photos from crew members. Almost everything I got was from crew members. Now it's 75 per cent from passengers.

Q: What does that tell you?

A: The majority of fliers are horrified by this disrespectful behaviour. They're fed up with other people's BS. They don't want to sit next to someone clipping their toenails! You'll see someone with an elbow on an armrest and a bare foot right behind them. That's disgusting! Passenger Shaming struck a chord.

Q: Any guess about why people increasingly act badly on airplanes?

A: The only thing I can think of is that they think they purchased this ticket for $US400 ($460) so they can do whatever they want. We had a joke in the industry that when you get to the airport, you check your brain with the luggage.

Q: I wonder if part of the reason is that flying has become less pleasant - more bodies crammed into planes, fewer perks like meals and an increasingly combative experience, such as the battle for overhead space.

A: I think that's part of it. And the accessibility has become greater. People who might normally drive, they can afford a plane ticket now. At this point flying is like a bus with wings. Well, maybe a little better.

Q: When did you realise Passenger Shaming was taking off?

A: I think it was September 16. I had maybe 18,000 followers on Facebook, and after Good Morning America and the Today show, it went up to like 250,000. I wrote a BuzzFeed article called 'If You Do Any of This on a Plane - Everyone Hates You.' Someone wrote an article about it, and then there was another article. And suddenly I got a text saying, "Hey - your website is on Good Morning America right now!" I have a German camera crew coming this weekend to follow me around and watch me do my thing.

Q: Have you figured out how to monetise Passenger Shaming and turn it into a job?

A: No. The best reward - this sounds cheesy, but it's true - is for people to recognise their own behaviour and change. We've had some people say, "Oh, my God - I used to do this, and I won't do it anymore!" I'm like, "Thank you! My work here is done!"

MCT