An OMAAT reader shared an experience with me that he had on Qatar Airways, whereby the very loud guy seated across from him became verbally abusive, down to telling him to “shut [his] f**king mouth.” He asks for my take on this situation, so let’s get into it…
In this post:
Loud Qatar Airways passenger called out, becomes threatening
An OMAAT reader who asked to remain anonymous shared the following experience with me, about a disruptive group seated near him in Qatar Airways business class, who refused to quiet down, and even became (what I’d consider to be) pretty verbally abusive:
Upon boarding my Qsuites flight to Jakarta, I settled into to the rear cabin. I had a truly excellent crew, which I knew off the bat. Then come along six Saudis taking up the middle seats, rows 8, 9, and10 (center section). They were talking extremely loudly to the point where the FA came over to tell them to lower their voices (keep in mind it’s 2AM at this point). One minute later, they continue, and I ask them politely “I say this with respect, but it’s 2AM, do you kind please not shouting, thank you”. They replied “no problem”
All okay right? Nope. As we pushback, these people are strolling around the aisles shouting again. I’m shattered. Then they sat down. Then they got back up as we started our taxi and I flagged down the FA. FA told them to sit down. Tw0 minutes later, he’s back up and hovering around my Qsuite and I politely said “the plane is moving, do you mind sitting down and getting out of my personal space.” Now here is where it gets good.
His response: “shut your f**king mouth, you’re not the commander. Shut up now.” At this point he was standing maybe one foot away from me screaming this in my face. He kept going on and on until the cabin crew told him to sit down.
Now, I fly 150-160x per year to war zones for my job, but this was the first time in my life on plane where I felt scared. Truly scared. I talked to the purser about returning to the gate as with a full flight, and sitting across from him, I did not feel safe. At all. While they were very happy to do so, I decided against it for the sake of not delaying 351 souls onboard, even though I’m still wary sitting in this seat.
Cabin crew were amazing. Truly. The purser kept coming back and apologized profusely for their behavior even though I kept saying “it’s not your guys fault,” but she said her policy is unless it’s physical, she can’t do anything.
So I guess my question is, how on earth is any of this allowed? It’s no fault of QR crew here, but if someone verbally threatens you, they should be disembarked, no?
Purser has logged it, FA heard it, my only regret was not returning to the gate. Hearing a volatile individual screaming at me to “shut my f**king mouth” sitting next to me is beyond me. This isn’t against the crew; but these things should be taken more seriously at QR I guess.
What can we make of this uncomfortable interaction?
Yowzers, this sounds like an unpleasant situation. I’d like to address this more from a practical standpoint of how things are, rather than how things should be:
- Personally, I never engage directly with passengers if I have an issue, and always go through the crew, for exactly this reason; it shouldn’t be that way, but you never know how crazily people will respond to something, and a confined metal tube where someone is seated just feet from you isn’t the place to find out
- As great as service can be on Qatar Airways, there’s definitely a bit of a culture of fear in terms of enforcing rules, and the potential repercussions if people complain; this is one of those situations where you almost wish you were on a US airline with a no-nonsense crew
- While the claim is that the passengers in question were Saudi and this was on Qatar Airways, there’s no denying that “local” (or in this case, regional) guests generally get more respect from crews, or at least are more feared
- I have to be honest — Qatar is a place where I wouldn’t want to return to the gate and potentially have the police get involved in a dispute, given all the stories of that not ending well for foreigners, non-Arabic speakers, etc.
So this passenger did nothing wrong, and he was for sure the victim here. While I wouldn’t have made the comment directly to the passenger in the first place (not because it was unreasonable, but because I’d fear exactly this outcome), I would’ve otherwise handled this the same, and wouldn’t have tried to push for a return to the gate. I totally get how he felt uncomfortable, and it’s a shame that there was no way to be reseated, or anything along those lines.
I really feel bad for the situations Qatar Airways crews are sometimes put in, where they almost fear being punished if they enforce basic standards. As much as I dislike the lack of deescalation skills some flight attendants in the United States have, there’s something very satisfying about true jerks getting kicked off planes.
Bottom line
A Qatar Airways business class passenger asked the person seated across from him to quiet down (after being told to do so repeatedly by the crew), and that caused a hostile response, telling him to “shut [his] f**king mouth.”
Nobody should have to tolerate this kind of behavior, but some people are just extremely rude, and you ideally don’t want to find that out in a confined metal tube, before you’re about to sleep next to that person for hours.
For me, this is a reminder of why I never directly confront other passengers. And also specifically in the Gulf region, I’ll do anything to avoid conflict with someone from the region, anything that could lead to the police getting involved, etc.
How would you have handled this situation?
Guten Morgen! In more important matters: Celine Dion has a new hit song out. "Bonjour, Pardon, Merci" is oh so very good. Why Ben hasn't covered this very important occasion is beyond me.
Listen to that song then go back to yelling why DL is worse than Lufthansa. ooops Sorry this is about QR.... though i have a feeling it could end up in the DL territory. Celine Dion people!!
Unfortunately, crews not being empowered to deal with disruptive guests is a common issue at QR, you will find dozens if not hundreds of stories like this. It's one of the reasons why I avoid the airline, no matter how nice their fares may be.
If this was a US carrier.
Normal daily routine.
Alert Alert!
Level 3 threat on board.
Must divert immediately.
End up in small airport middle of India.
Crew timed out.
No immigration facilities.
Passengers deplane to a cornered off warehouse with no a/c or food.
Now rescue flight stuck in ATL because ATL is having issues.
Then paperwork in India preventing departure. More delays.
After...
If this was a US carrier.
Normal daily routine.
Alert Alert!
Level 3 threat on board.
Must divert immediately.
End up in small airport middle of India.
Crew timed out.
No immigration facilities.
Passengers deplane to a cornered off warehouse with no a/c or food.
Now rescue flight stuck in ATL because ATL is having issues.
Then paperwork in India preventing departure. More delays.
After 72 hours, finally arrived at CGK.
All this because someone said “Shut Your F**king Mouth" and the crew feel threatened.
If you go to where scum exists, you might encounter scum.
Qatar is full of the most verminous scum you can imagine. Some of them happen to come from Saudi Arabia.
If I was the purser we certainly would have returned to the gate, and offloaded the Saudis. All six of them. Can you imagine anyone doing this on a flight in the US, Australia, or Singapore? They'd have been marched off the aircraft immediately.
I guess I’m a little confused. The crew was ”very willing” to return to the gate and/or, the purser said if it wasn’t physical they couldn’t intervene?? ♂️
They were willing to return to gate if OP wanted to get off, but they weren't able to intervene with the disruptive customers.
I have had to sit across (economy or business class) to loud passengers so many times. Countless. I learned not to engage because the other guy could be peaceful or a criminal, you never know. Millions randomly fly and the chances are so even to find the wrong person that it is really not worth the risk. I made an investment and bought two different types of headphones that seal my ears perfectly and couldn’t...
I have had to sit across (economy or business class) to loud passengers so many times. Countless. I learned not to engage because the other guy could be peaceful or a criminal, you never know. Millions randomly fly and the chances are so even to find the wrong person that it is really not worth the risk. I made an investment and bought two different types of headphones that seal my ears perfectly and couldn’t bother what my fellow passengers are doing. But it the issue is not the noise and rather a different kind of disturbance then the flight staff mostly is trained to deal with any kind of situations. In conclusion, don’t engage directly ever.
This reader sounds like a snowflake. He/she was “shattered”? If this person flies to war torn countries as often as they claim, I think they’d have a little thicker skin. This reminds of the type of person, who during the pandemic would tell people to wear mask and give them “some space” whatever that meant. Plane should have gone back to the gate and the reader could have gotten off and take another flight where they felt “comfortable”. SAD
So you’re one of those people who would’ve told the passenger to “fuck his feelings,” amirite?
And vaccines are worse than the illnesses.
Good grief you people are tedious.
Tedious, for sure, and usually the most insufferable crybullies you can possibly imagine.