Worst flight of my life!

There's nothing more humiliating than being spoken to like a child as an adult. And that's exactly what I experienced on my flight yesterday morning. My flight experience was already very bad by the time I got on the aircraft (more on that below), but my encounter with that flight attendant was the final straw.

I got on the aircraft with a small/size appropriate suitcase. When I got in, I told the first flight attendant I saw that I didn't think I would be able to lift my suitcase to store it in the overhead compartment and she suggested that I should leave it there (at the back of the aircraft where she is) and I would get it outside somewhere when the aircraft lands e.g. next to the stairs outside the plane. She patiently explained this, but I've never left my luggage at the back of the aircraft and did not know you could do this or how it worked, so when she said I could try to store it in the overhead compartment, I chose to try and figured I would ask for help.

When I got to my seat, I waved to another flight attendant, who was standing in the aisle in the middle of the aircraft, to get her attention. She came to me and I asked her if she could help me lift my bag into the compartment. The look on her face! She looked at me like I asked her to lick the bottom of my shoe! She gave me an "I'm not your servant" look and told me they aren't allowed to help passengers store their luggage because they (the flight attendants) could get hurt. OKAY. Fine. I just figured I could take it to the back then, like that other flight attendant said. Flight attendant number 2 also said I should take it to the back. But it doesn't end there. She told me to wait (like she was about to help me get my suitcase to the back), and then went to check on people a few rows in front. After a while, I figured out that I couldn't sit with it because I have a window seat and the people sitting next to me will arrive soon. So, I stood up to take it to the back and she walked back to where I was and told me to keep my suitcase out of the aisle (which I was already trying my best to do. It was only peeking out a little because I was waiting to pass through and go to the back). Then she asked me what I packed in my suitcase at least three times with the smuggest look a person could have on their face. Huh??? What do you mean what did I pack? I’ve never had a flight attendant ask me what I packed. She made it sound like I packed a whole bunch of bricks in my suitcase, which I obviously didn't! (She didn't even touch it, by the way. It could have been empty, and she wouldn't even have known). When I told her I packed some clothes she condescendingly said something along the lines of "are your clothes so heavy that you can't lift your suitcase?" with that same smug look on her face. And this is happening in front of the passengers around us.

At this point I was probably visibly agitated because she stopped me from going to the back and asked me if I would go through the row of people boarding the plane. WHAT OTHER CHOICE DID I HAVE? That's when she pressed a bell to signal to her colleague at the back. Why didn't she do this the first time? What was she expecting? That I block the seats of the people sitting next to me with my small suitcase, then they block the aisle, then she comes and asks me more condescending questions? Most average height people's knees touch the seat in front of them when they are seated. So where exactly was I supposed to go if the space between my knees and the seat in front of me is so small? Was I supposed to put the suitcase on top of my head?

I know for certain that if I were a different race or older, she would have been much more helpful and a LOT less condescending. And if I were a man she wouldn't have had that smug look on her face when she asked me, over and over, what I packed in my suitcase. Never! I'm not going to accept trash service from your people because I'm short and soft spoken! It's unprofessional to speak to people like you are speaking to your chommie. I think she's unconsciously biased and that's why she felt comfortable enough to ask me what I packed with that look on her face (And why did she ask me that if she didn’t even try to help store it in the compartment? What was the point of that question if she thought I should take it to the back? To humiliate me?). Had I been anyone else (a taller anyone else maybe), she wouldn't have asked me that and she might've been a bit more helpful. Her tone and attitude made it seem like she thought I was lazy and how dare I ask her to do something as risky and dangerous as storing a suitcase in the overhead compartment.

The crazier thing is that I explicitly told her that the suitcase may just have been heavy for me and not for her because I'm short and have always struggled with lifting my bag into the compartment/taking it out of the compartment. Always! Irrespective of its weight. I usually have to ask other passengers to help me, and 8/10 times they do it with ease because they are taller than I am. This time I decided to ask the flight attendant because I didn't want to bother other passengers and thought the flight attendant would be helpful. The joke is on me! She was not helpful at all! And even if there was nothing she could do, she didn't have to speak to me like I'm a child. Did she assume I was younger than I am? But why would that warrant not being treated kindly? What else did she assume about me that made her speak to me like that?

And NO this was NOT my first flight! She asked me that too, also condescendingly. And then people wonder why passengers/customers are not nice to them. It's because they meet people who treat them like that flight attendant! (Why did she even ask me that? SO WHAT if it’s my first flight? Again, was she trying to humiliate me?)

And by the way, I've been on many Flysafair flights. I have seen flight attendants store passengers' luggage in the overhead compartment, and I've seen them move bags from one compartment to another. This one wouldn't even touch my suitcase to confirm that it was indeed too heavy for her.

ALL THIS TO SAY: Some people deal with disabling autoimmune diseases that affect their joints and strength, and people wouldn't even know just from looking at them. And some disabilities aren’t visible. And you can be fine one day, and not the next. I suggest you say something to your staff about that. I suggest you encourage them to be kind to ALL people, because they really don't know us, and they don't know what we are/aren't dealing with. As for that flight attendant… if you care about your brand you’ll send her to some type of training asap.

Secondly, my flight experience was already ruined before this incident because of Flysafair's "Priority Boarding" system. My flight departed at Chief David Stuurman International Airport and there were several other flights departing at once. Chief David Stuurman International Airport is already a small airport. But then Flysafair has a this "Priority Boarding", two queues system that is SO confusing to passengers. I was standing in a queue for almost twenty minutes before someone came around and checked our boarding passes and told us we should go to a different queue. I've seen that so many times. People stand in a queue only to be told to go to the end of another queue. That isn't nice, especially if you have been waiting for a while and in the middle of a queue, now suddenly you have to go be the last person again in a long queue, meaning you are one of the last couple of people to board the aircraft even though you were there early enough not to be. This system is even more confusing when the airport you’re departing from is crowded (like OR Tambo). Surely there must be some other way to run this system without making an already stressful experience even more stressful and complicated. Lastly, I used to fly with British Airways (I left Flysafair for British Airways in 2019), and I remember I used to be able to check in two bags and have one hand luggage bag with me in the aircraft, and I didn’t have to buy a special ticket for that. AND there was a good meal included! British Airways was phenomenal! Their staff was also very professional. I had to return to Flysafair when British Airways stopped offering domestic flights and I had stopped traveling anyway. I’ve been using Flysafair again recently. But now I feel like I have to start shopping for a new airline again. I WILL be jumping ship again the very moment I find a better airline. Good luck to you with having people like that being the face of Flysafair!