An interesting situation happened on my 6 am flight to MIA this morning. As I was knocked out in dreamland (along with more than half the flight), I was rudely awakened by the sound of a loud, complaining passenger who was angry that she was not offered a beverage “just because she was sleeping”.
She then demanded that the flight attendant come back with the cart and serve her a drink like “they’re supposed to do”. Are you kidding me? Aside from the passenger’s excessive rudeness and condescending behavior, I think the bigger problem is that this passenger actually believes that it’s a flight attendant’s responsibility to make sure you’re awake during beverage service.
I don’t know about anyone else, but when I have flight at the a$%-crack of dawn, the last thing I want to do is to be woken up for a glass of OJ. More importantly, I’ve always appreciated when the flight crew is mindful of sleeping passengers by making sure the beverage service is as quiet and non-disruptive as possible, especially with early-morning or red-eye flights.
What’s your take on this situation? Have you seen this happen before on a flight? Please share your stories and experiences.
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Looks like there’s a pretty clear consensus so far!
Are people insane? If you want beverage service, stay awake for it!
What if you really wanted to SLEEP and the flight attendant woke you up to offer you a beverage? You’d probably be pissed.
If you really want to be woken up, stick a note somewhere highly visible saying “Please wake for drink / meal service.” It’s not their job, and they have no idea how you will react when woken. Personally, I’ve been known to throw an elbow when woken suddenly.
I wouldn’t expect to be woken up for beverage service, but I do get a little disappointed when I accidentally nod off and wake up to find that the beverage cart has passed me by already. I certainly wouldn’t make a scene out of it like that lady did though!
I’ve always thought that if I WANTED to be awoken, I would tell them and then maybe put a post-it note on my call button so they remember to wake me.
I was awoken on AA for dinner service. Was really pissed off. The geriatric FA’s should know better. On Cathay, they leave a little note offering your meal at a later time. Perfect if you ask me.
In fact, for their sake, I hope they do not wake me up.
I do think it’s the FA’s responsibility to get me a drink if I’ve rung the call button and asked politely for it. Too many times I’ve been in this situation where I’ve nodded off, but want a glass of water after waking; rung the call button just to either not been attended to what so ever, or being forgotten about after asking.
Are FA’s reading materials really that interesting? Or they must be very busy. Just not wanting to repeat myself.
I’ve always found that if I go back and ask them for a drink if I accidentally slept through the beverage service, they very kindly give me one.
What bugs the crap out of me is when I now and then get upgraded to first class and the flight attendants actually wake me up near the end of the flight SIMPLY to shake my hand and thank me for flying first class! Come on!!
The worst thing that can happen is getting awakened for a beverage (on a domestic North American service).
If I’m asleep definitely don’t wake me up for drinks. Can’t believe that lady. Someone needs to throw a drink of her head.
What about something bigger, like a meal on a ten hour flight from, say, New York to Paris?
I agree that it is not the flight attendants responsibility, but it would be an opportunity for the airline to provide better service for the customer, if there was a way for them to know, ahead of time, who to wake and who to not disturb.