Flight Attendant Friday: Keep Your Fingers Off the Call Button

Q.  I know that Flight Attendants hate it when passengers ring the call button.  But is there a time when it’s okay to use it?  It’s there, after all.

A.  Yeah, the ringing call button can really be an annoyance to us, and it’s for a couple of reasons.

Most important of all, however, is that if you have an emergency, use it.  Do not hesitate!

That said, there are differing opinions about what constitutes an emergency.

During certain phases of flight, specifically the take off and landing sequence, emergency should be interpreted very strictly.  This is a time when we are buckled into our jump seats, for our own safety, and getting up to answer a call button can be dangerous.

At any time, if you are ill, see someone around you who may need first aid assistance, see someone being harmed or threatened with harm, overhear threats or intimidation, see something that could threaten the safety of the flight, or have an emergency situation – reach up or over and push the call button.  We want you to use it, even if the situation plays out to not be the crisis you may have believed it was.  Better safe than sorry.

For less dire circumstances, use the call button when you need something, but be mindful of what else is going on around you. 

Keep reading, and see how you’d answer the following questions:

• You see the Flight Attendants rushing about with first aid items, paging for a doctor or nurse, and see another passenger collapsed at the floor.  You’re wondering what time the flight is going to get in.  Do you ring the call button?
• The plane is climbing up to cruise altitude, and your child is already a little bored with the flight.  All of a sudden he notices all the buttons overhead.  There’s a button that turns the light on and off and he plays with that for awhile.  After that he reaches for the call button.  Do you intercept him, or let him play with it?
• Beverages have just been served at your row, and the Flight Attendants have moved the cart ahead to serve the next row.  You’ve downed your glass of water, don’t want to hold the glass any more, and want it taken away.  Do you ring the call button.
• The Flight Attendants have finished the food and beverages cart(s), and have just made an announcement that they are going to pick up some trash, and re-stock supplies and will then be out with additional beverages.  You want a refill on your coffee.  Do you ring the call button?

All of the above have happened, and all have been an annoyance.  Simply put, there are much fewer of “us” than there are of ""you."  If we’re busy with other duties and/or assisting other passengers, we really need you to wait your turn.  That may sound like we don’t care about customer service, but it’s quite the opposite.  We want to get to things as quickly as possible, but constant interruptions for call buttons just slows the process down.

Use the call button, but use it wisely.

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