My air rage is driven by righteous anger

Andrew

Well Mrs, I'm glad I won't be travelling alongside you. In my opinion you sound like a major pain in the posterior.

Basically you seem to be saying that in the confined space of an aircraft you should be allowed to act as you please. Everyone else can go hang.

Sorry but life isn't like that. You will just have to adapt to the existence of other human beings - its a bummer I know but there's no help for it.

Oh, and regarding the cabin crew - we abolished indentured labour a while back, so I am afraid the servant class don't crawl on all fours anymore.

Tomas

I can only assume that Toby Young was in the editors seat with this article.

Oh and silly lickle Chrissy - grow up (spoilt brat), and enjoy the ride, seems like your up front more than at the back, so moaning is verboten.

Kevyn Bodman

There is but one good point in this article, the story about the 'revolt' to get off the plane.
Well done for that.

But if the plane really was halfway across the Atlantic wouldn't it have been just as efficient to fly on to the destination?

Tom Callaghan

What a very tedious woman. Hopefully she can use the money you paid her for this drivel and hire a private jet.

Mr Green

Perhaps you should consider the plane as a mode of transport rather then a gravity defying office/restaurant/hotel/gym.
When I fly I do so in order to reach a destination - ie, there is purpose in the flight. I get the feeling you have lost your purpose!

cameron

What an absolute spoilt brat. I'd kick her off the plane just out of general principle.

Courteous Carpenter

What a dreadful ill mannered person! The way to complain if things are wrong is to do it with courtesy and with a smile on your face. If you go out of your way to court trouble as this obnoxious woman appears to do on a regular basis she must realise that she is an embarrassment to other passengers and a uneccessary pain in the neck to the Cabin Staff.
Give her an ASBO!

gil

I find your poor attempt at humour i.e. Airschwitz utterly contemptible. No doubt many here will tell me to get a sens of humour. I don't care, I lost interest after reading that, you airhead.

Mark Adrian Solomon

In view of the ill-mannered hostility here, I must express support for Chrissy. In a nutshell she expresses what is wrong with whole swathes of modern Britain, not just its airlines, and the posters attacking her confirm just what a hopeless case the country has become and how ripe it is for a dictatorship. Unthinking authority figures obeying stupid rules just doing their job - yes, just like the guards at Auschwitz - can get away with murder as long as they say it is for one's safety and the ignorant sheeple that make up 90% of the population agree! It amazes me every time and just confirms how right I was to emigrate the year Tony Bliar got elected.

While there are people like Chrissy and Naomi there is still hope for us, although the majority response confirms what I already knew, that the UK is no longer a free society.

Lady Amelia

it is perfectly easy to complain about poor service or to get better service: Be polite, be firm, remember the person dealing with you is looking after a shed load of other people, some of whom might be idiots, drunk or aggressive, visibly pay attention to the safety briefing, say hello to your cabin crew as you come on board, and believe me, you can get just about anyhthing you need on any flight with any airline.

Gil

Mark Adrian 'Solomon', you aren't fooling anyone. Your use of the word 'sheeple' which is used by the far Right and far Left alike, in the context of conspiracy theories gives the game away. The fact that you are following on from CI by trivialising the Holocaust speaks volumes about you.

Mr Green

#Mark Adrian Solomon

Although I am sure that many here would agree with you in principle, I am afraid principles are often like left-wing ideologies - they only work theoretically.
We should treat our fellow humans in a way that we would like them to treat us. We can't complain about other people's bad manners in an ill-mannered and rude way - that's hypocracy.

You need to turn your points on their head and address them to the cabin crew - as it would appear they have forgotten who the customers are. But just because they have forgotten how to deal with a difficult customer doesn't mean we have to forget how to be polite.

I'm afraid Chrissy comes across as someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Samuel

Well this is the lamest article i've ever read. Nobody is as picky as u

Steve Fenton

It is idiots like this that make life so difficult for people like me who spend half their life on and off planes in premium cabins. She obviously expects to be treated as if no one else was on the plane, well if she is so unhappy with flying BA and Virgin and can afford the premium cabins then she cant be that smart as she would know for the same price you can fly in private jets and have some muppett serve you and take the abuse you obviously like to dish out

Charles

I agree with the coments of Chrissy IIey having been so badly treated by Virgin Atlantic staff in Hong Kong there is only one way to treat this company. Not fly with them.

Phil

What a truly ghastly, sad individual the author is!

It's really rather amusing that she appears to think she knows best but in reality has no clue...seatbelt checks are mandated by the authorities (such as the CAA, etc.) and part of the airline's Standard Operating Procedures. The crew are simply doing what they HAVE to do in order to declare the cabin secure for take-off/landing. The pathetic exchange quoted abbove did nothing but delay the process and, potentially, departure. Add 'selfish' to characteristics this article reveals about Ms. Iley, then.

BA Club World 'nothing on the floor around you' rule? Also mandated by the CAA for safety reasons due to the rear-facing seat layout BA have in this cabin, where objects would end up flying in someone's face which doesn't happen in conventional forward-facing seating layouts.

As with Ms. Campbell, perhaps BA could do the rest of its regular travellers a big favour and ban Ms. Iley for good lest we run the risk of being caught anywhere near her on an otherwise pleasurable, comfortable flight.

iron icarus

Chrissy - Good for you!You couldn't be more correct about airline service for which one pays good money.

The right, left, middle and spineless sheeple criticising you here obviously do not fly and it is thanks to their witless acceptance of low standards that airline service is as poor as it is.

Having good manners generally means holding one's peace in public places, thereby subjecting onself to the whims and wishes of morons who cannot think beyond their painted toenails, pay packet and perks.

No doubt, these same morons are all flying free because they work for airlines.

Ed

Well I do fly a lot. Every week, in fact. Also, unlike Ms. Iley, I belive I do an important job, one which is not vacuous like writing and interviewing celebrities, but creating real wealth for the country and for my employees.
I have flown both Virgin and BA, from Domestic to First Class on BA and from Economy to Upper Class on Virgin.
During all of this flying, I have occasionally met people who behave like Chrissy Iley but thankfully not very often. Just because I fly frequently or am in a higher class does not make me different or better, sometimes just fortunate. I know the airline rules like keeping the seat areas clear and I accept them because that it part of the Ts & Cs of flying.

I have very rarely indeed met a rude member of cabin crew on either airline. I truly believe that any rudeness tends to start from a passenger who is either stressed or believes they are better for some reason. From what I have read of Ms Iley, it must be because she is stressed by her "oh-so-worthwhile" job. She is certainly not better than anyone else.

jenny

I've never found the patronising bossiness on any other airline apart from BA and Virgin. The cabin crew behave like stern school marms and get a glint in their eye if there is any sign of disobedience or rebellion. They then swoop gleefully, with loud bossy reprimands, all totally unnecessary. A very good reason to avoidflying on these two airlines, if possible.

Jennifer

It sounds like your complaints stem from you having the kind of personality that must whine and complain whenever you don't get precisely what you want exactly when you want it. Stop being such a crybaby and stay away from my seat in the plane.

Adrian

What a dreadful woman, I sincerely hope that I never have the misfortune to be on a flight that she is on. That aside the actual content of the article is another demonstration of the British disease of sloppy journalism. Why let actual facts get in the way of a good story?

David Short

CI has a higher opinion of herself than the rest of the world. It's probably because when she's off the plane and doing her job she's sucked up to and has her every need taken care of by submissive PRs.

I've seen journos get incredibly overblown egos because of this kind of treatment, where every little whim short of wiping their bottom is taken care of. (There was one well-known PR company where it was not unknown for the female PRs to be 'extra kind' to male hacks).

After one press trip where a bunch of us had been wined, dined (though not 'extra-kinded') for an entire three days, during which we had not spent one penny, a couple of hacks I was travelling with had got so used to being like royals, they didn't want to spend $15 a head to get into the business lounge (though travelling biz class, our airline wasn't allowed in).

I did. And got free drinks and comfort, while they spent money at an uncomfortable public bar outside. (And of course I could claim my $15 as 'access to lounge to work', while they couldn't charge up their booze).

When you're on a plane, you literally are under someone else's control, so just act nice without being submissive and everything will be fine.

Even on what I consider the worst airline ever, Ryanair, where the staff seem to want to do everything to bait you and to be rude, I just switch off, buy absolutely nothing from them, and just wait for touch down.

I think CI is probably right that women (particularly bolshie hack women) get treated worse than men on planes, though.

Janet Street-Porter once complained thata, on a flight, all the men were called 'sir', but she wasn't called 'madame'.

Well, it's about respect, not gender. You either earn it, or you don't.

Lisa

I loathe flying so avoid it if possible. When I do have to fly, however, I find the following handy hints ensure good service:

1. Smile nicely and say 'good morning/evening' to the crew upon embarcation.

2. When on board, preface requests with 'Would you mind' or 'would it be possible'.

3. When the crew member wants to check that your seat belt is done up, smile and show them.

4. Say please and thank you.

The wonderful thing about these tips is that, with the exception of no. 3, they are not situation specific. They will work with waiters, cab drivers, bar staff - anyone, in fact, that is in possession of a pulse and not in a coma.

aliceathome

Good god. Please stop flying, I beg you. I am now living in dread that you're going to end up on one of my flights and make all our lives a misery.

Archie

Lady Amelia: pray do tell more!

frequent traveller - including all the routes Iley mentions

How much did they pay you to write that self centred b*****t?
Hope it wasn't a lot

Harry Singers

Well I used to fly a lot, and I loved it.

Now, I hate it - and never want to board another aircraft ever; especially a British one - because I'm ashamed at how standards have deteriorated.

I guess that many of the comments on here are from cabin or ground staff - for their tone echoes that CI is complaining about: "How dare you criticize us or assert any rights, you owe us a living. So just do as you're told and learn some manners - or we will find a way to punish you, (with impunity for us)."

[Mind you - as someone else suggests, the infection affects all so-called 'service' industries now: from banks to trains to chemists' shops (yes, I know - I just refuse to adopt the french fraseology!)].

I think the airline thing's not really about 'class' though - these crews clearly have none. It's more about power for the puffed up ego: they love swanning around in the rarified air - skimming over the captive groundlings.

Beyond the unnatural high of the cabin - all these certificate bearers really care about is being zhusshed to the free booze (perks) at the next room party, thence to a good restaurant. The allowances are probably OK, too; so they may have their shopping lists all planned if the stop is JFK, or HKG, or somewhere decent.

Well - especially for the women - it's a fairly short career. Reality will kick in, eventually.

Alex

Ill-informed, obnoxious and pretentious drivel.
I fly very frequently, in premium cabins. Sometimes sponsored by work, sometimes on my own dime. I pride myself in being a positive minded person. I was raised to be polite, tolerant and kind, especially to those less privileged. Sometimes I may even be blissfully unaware.

It appears to me you simply lack basic manners and courtesy. Why so angry?

David Short

Harry Singers, I cannot imagine the level of statistical unlikelihood that most of the critical comments are from cabin staff.

People just need to grow up and realise they are just passengers (unfortunately, everyone is called a customer), but too many people believe the airline ads and too many people have some kind of folk memory of when air travel really was for the rich and privileged in a deferential society.

So many of us were brought up in the Sixties watching TV programmes like The Saint, when there really was a jet set.

Do you expect a bus driver to bow and scrape? I've paid more for coach and train tickets in Britain than I have for European air tickets. And that includes airlines other than Easyjet and Ryanair. I've had BA return tickets to Marseilles for not much more than £100, with lunch thrown in. And you can fly as far as Nairobi and back for less than £400, with dinner, drinks and breakfast included - not much more than you'd pay for a first class return between Edinburgh and Newcastle.

If customer/passengers want to complain, let them complain about rail travel. You can pay a king's ransom and get delayed six times out of ten, treated like s**t, do not get served free meals and drinks, and little add-ons like 'free wifi' hardly ever work (you always have to have your mobile broadband stick as a back-up)

Air travel has never been cheaper or better.

Yes, business and first cost a fortune, but very, very, very few individuals pay themselve - shareholders and taxpayers foot that bill.

Whenever I've flown business class, it's been a real pleasure, particulary as someone else has paid. If you get treated badly in biz, it's highly likely to be your own fault.

I accept that it's unfair that overweight middle-aged women get treated worse than the equivalent male, but you can't blame the airlines for that. Nor can you blame gender. Younger women treat unattractive middle-aged women with as much derision as men, who are hard-wired once they are adults to resent them (cutting the apron strings effect), with the possible exception of their wives.

Also, if you have had a drink before or on a flight, as CI admits she has had, even if you are not drunk, you will lose any argument, no matter how in the right you are, and you risk being off-loaded and blacklisted.

Unfair? Yes. But that's life as it is lived at airports and on airlines now.

Finally, if you want deference, pick a non-First World airline. If you fly to Nairobi, fly Kenya Airways not BA, if Morocco, use Royal Air Maroc, SA Airways to Joburg or Cape Town, etc.

The cabin staff on airlines from second-level countries will still defer. You may feel like an old colonial, but your blood pressure might be the better for it.

donald fraser

When Lord Fraser was Minister of State at the Scottish Office covering Home Affairs and Health from 92 to 95 he smoked. Ten years later, detained in 2006 at Dundee airport and charged with disorderly conduct, it was obvious his drinking since my father’s death, was out of control.

As a child I remember our family flight very summer to Mallorca. My father, an ENT Surgeon, smoked forty-a-day. A non-filter tip cigarette brand called Senior Service. I remember with nostalgia those flights, the plumes of smoke sucked out by the air-conditioning system.

My father and his younger brother were a great team. I have the old, crumbled photograph of him with an SNP badge (cigarette in hand) as celebrated his brother’s 1979 election to parliament for the Conservatives. My father’s life was cut short by his choice to smoke.

When Barak Obama announced new controls on the tobacco industry, it dawned on the change of direction is faked. However this “legal-medical-pharmaceutical conspiracy”, a term coined by RD Laing, is now suffering theoretical over-reach. So I rejoice this modern world we have created is going to be brought to its knees by a financial crash. Only then, like my father, might I be able to enjoy my trips to Mallorca like I ought to. Chain-smoking, laughing and poisoning the hag next to me.

Whether planes, hospital waiting rooms or debating chambers, the anti-smoking gang is doomed to lose. Import these hordes of serfs from Eastern Europe to satisfy your wants in your old age. Stack up these “reds under the beds” to gilt-edge your comfort zone. But the demographic time bomb goes ticks onward. At some stage it has got to stop and the decision must be made. Do you want see smoke peacefully enjoyed inside our parliamentary debating chamber or must it be set from outside and work its way in?

Harry Singers

David Short: "I cannot imagine the level of statistical unlikelihood that most of the critical comments are from cabin staff." I'm sorry, Sir, but you misinterpret me. I said, quite differently: "I guess that many of the comments on here are from cabin or ground staff."

In light of other comments in general - I'd like to add that I haven't changed my behaviour over the years. However, I believe that airline staff have.

Is it my fault if (exhausted from driving, travel preparations, etc) I fall asleep on a packed aircraft and my feet extend a little into the aisle? Is it my fault if the steward sees fit to wake me up by slamming his trolley into my foot - 2 or 3 times?

Is it my fault if I respond to the 'white or red?' routine with my normal "White, please," - only to receive red, and total deafness as I try to attract attention to the error?

In neither case did I require subservience from the staff: in each case they could have resolved the issue in a pleasant manner. They apparently considered it beneath them to do so.

Furthermore, if their attitudes were adult - they'd realize that they could afford to be professional towards passengers with whom they're cooped up for just a few hours: because they never have to see them again. Instead - they choose to be nasty.

My examples are not the worst of my experiences in recent years - many more have contributed to the hope that I never again have to see an aeroplane or an airport.

Felicity

The comments about Air NZ are bang on the nail. Staff that are courteous yet still ensure safety rules are followed. Fantastic food.
On the rest of the article-
By the time you have travelled for 3hrs+ then queued through immigration and safety - taken your shoes, belts off, jettisoned makeup, shown your id umpteen times and had finger prints and eyeballs checked it is not surprising that the last straw is having to show your seatbelt has been done up. I know I have felt the same even if I have never vocalised it.

David Short

Even 'many' is highly unlikely. I take your point, HS, but unless not flying is no inconvenience to you, refusing to board a plane because of modern 'manners' (which are not confined to aircraft)is cutting off the proverbial nose.

I too remember not so very long ago, only ten years, when people could puff away on Tarom, the Romanian airline. I flew out my old editor to consult on a newspaper launch in Bucharest, and he had a whale of a time. Tarom business class actually has different, roomier chairs (not just a curtain moved up and down the aircraft a la BA) and you could smoke in the back row. As a chain-smoker, he loved it.

I don't smoke, but I don't mind people who do.

The best thing about biz class, of course, is the lounge....

robert

"Chrissy" Illey has been slavering over airhead so-called celebrities for so long that she seems to think she is one of this weird breed herself. Can't they lay on special sealed aircraft for her and her sort, leaving us human beings to travel on our own?

Alex K

Summary of this article in 4 lines.
1. I've met Naomi Campbell.
2. I get to fly business / first class a lot.
3. Rules shouldn't apply to me and I can be as rude as I like. I know Naomi Campbell FFS!
4. Free tickets on Air New Zealand please!

Harry Singers

DS: Ah well - one thing I do like is the smoking ban. Not that it matters when they cram you next to people who are coughing and spluttering the latest virus over everybody. That's one of the things that happened on my last flight: never had such a severe respiratory infection as I caught then.

So - though I consider true good manners to stem from consideration of others - it's not just 'bad form' that ruins the flying experience. It's the discomfort, inconvenience, and even damage, that results from boorishness.

On reflection, though - I would point out to CI that the seat belt thing really is about law and safety. Everything and everybody has to be battened down for take-off, landing, and turbulence. The potential of loose objects for turning into projectiles is far greater that in cars, for example; and cabin staff are required to check that everything's OK in the cabin before reporting to the Captain: "All Secure Aft." Only then does he proceed as necessary. So we all need to comply, on that. An intelligent and professional crewmember would have got that across without further antagonizing a difficult passenger.

I actually just remembered about the time when I thought my seatbelt was (as usual) loosely fastened. Then we went through clear air turbulence: the lurch lifted me clean out of my seat... and only the overhead rack batted me back down!

Nonentity

Who's Naomi Campbell?

No - don't bother to tell me - I don't want to know.

A. MacAulay

If I wrote to "Dear Mary" and asked her how to avoid vapid, vain, fatuous, shallow, narcissistic bores on aeroplanes, would Mary say that sitting next to the likes of Chrissy Isley is just bad luck and must be borne with when one travels with the public at large, but if one does not wish to hear about the shameful exploits of her and her ilk, then don't read the Spectator?

Intelectual? Conservative? Champagne? This isn't even Spumante.

David Short

A MacAulay, you need to understand CI's background/connection. She 'wrote' in forgettable supplements introduced during the vulgarisation of the Sunday Times under Andrew Neil, who is now the boss of The Spectator.

Plus ca change...

Ray Taylor

I'm an Aussie of English descent, and I would expect the staff of any airline to behave like the Air New Zealand staff. Maybe that is because I am used to Asian airlines whose staff are polite and civil without being obseqious.

I comply with reasonable regulations when travelling on aircraft, but treat the overly officious as they deserve. Here staff ask, "May I check your seat belt, Sir?", and because they are civil, not officious, you allow it.

Louise

In addition to BA and Virgin, add BMI. They codeshare with a ME airline and I flew from Heathrow on BMI and back with their partner airline. I am quiet, polite, slender, middle aged and I am also partially sighted and need a wheelchair when travelling alone internationally through airports. My treatment on board BMI by cabin staff when I reminded them of my need for the wheelchair to be at the gate was appalling. I had pre-booked it, confirmed it, re-confirmed it on check-in and again on boarding. The flight attendants and the purser were very rude (well WE weren't infomed etc wern't sure they could find one, I would have to wait- all said rather aggressively making me feel very embarrassed ) . I apologised and was met with lots of tutting and sighing -also same reaction when requesting a second very small glass of water-the only thing I drink.The food was bad, and I am not a fussy eater. On return journey with ME airline, the cabin crew carried my bag ,allowed me to keep it near me, were friendly and kind, wheelchair and assistant assigned to me to carry and help with papers, and the food was delicious. Sorry but this is a problem with UK airlines. I avoid them when possible. I have to agree with CI.

Pamela Haslam

I am a "trolley dolly" of 19 years experience with a major airline, and also a weekly reader of The Spectator. This article is a poorly written rant and I am much cheered to read the comments here. If The Spectator would like many much more interesting examples of human interaction eight miles up - I can supply them. My writing talents though are minimal so perhaps the delightful Mr. Rod Liddle would be keen to chat?

Timothy Graystone

One does get the feeling that the journo has over-egged her cake and asked for some of this.... but I agree that I would never fly Bloody Awful or Vergin' (on service sometimes) again. Ever Ever Ever. Their service and attitude are appalling.

Paul Hughes

Pathetic.

JJ

Just came across this article. Your use of the term Airschwitz is very far from being witty, it's disgusting.

Apart from that, pretty tedious article, but i kept reading because i like articles about consumer experiences, and was curious to see where this bizarrely tedious account was going to go.

John

I do not find it at all surprising that even the most professional of airline staff will react badly to this terrible, terrible person. I too fly transatlantic on business very often, and would applaud any staff that had this woman removed at the start of a flight.

Peter

What a dreadful woman!

One second to remove her jacket to allow her seat belt to be seen - a normal and legal requirement - would have avoided this useless confrontation. But then, she loves confrontation - it draws attention to her unremarkable persona and thereby gives her the importance she desperately craves, for a few minutes, at least. How sad.

If her self-esteem requires that everyone has to suck up to her every whim, she is in serious need of a good psychiatrist.

I would gladly pay NOT to be seated anywhere near her.