Has an airline lied to you before?

Question

I saw some pundits on TV today talking about airline service. One of the complaints was that passengers are lied to. I have been accused of lying, as a pilot. I told the passengers that we had a maintenance issue, and when they fix it, we would be on our way. That was true, to the best of my knowledge. However, my company at that time was also working on getting another aircraft in case the fix wasn't timely. So, we were told to deplane them, and while getting off, a man accused me of lying. I looked up lie in Websters, and it said "an untrue statement made with intent to deceive." I had no such intent, and the only way he could have determined that was if he was able to read my mind.

Do people actually know what a lie is? Are airlines doing their best at informing passenger, and people just think they are being lied to? For you to actually know someone lied, you have to prove that they knew what they were saying was false. How would you do this? What do you think? Thanks in advance for all the thoughtful answers.

Answer 1

I have never had a pilot lie to me.  The crew are usually open about things unless they are just too tired and cant' respond anymore.

I do believe that airlines sometimes lie about certain delays and cancelations so that they can blame something out of their control, most likely to avoid having to pay for hotels if they cancel a flight and you need to spent the night.

Answer 2

Yes, I've been lied to, and here's how I knew. I was sitting in the gate area listening to tower tadio traffic for at least 30 minutes (it was years ago, so it may have been even longer) before the scheduled arrival of the incoming flight (that was the aircraft and, it turns out, flight crew as well) for my outbound flight.

I heard the clearance for the incoming flight to land, just as I had heard clearances for the who period prior. The flight was about 20 minutes late arrving, which made my outbound flight late boarding and then late departing. I didn't think a whole lot about it (big deal, 15-20 minutes) UNTIL they lied to me about it.

The lie was that in apologizing for the late departure they blamed it on the late arrival (true) and went on to blame the late arrival on a change of active runways during their approach which required them to start over in the pattern. There had been no change in active runway, but they didn't expect anyone to know that!

If you're playing square with the passengers, don't worry if some of them don't believe you. Some of them don't believe that the Earth is actually round, either! (But f you're a lying son of a whatever then you should worry about that.)

Answer 3

"Lie" seems too strong a word in your case.  Clearly the passenger who accused you of lying was distressed about the situation and you were the closest person to which he could vent.  As a career flight attendant (25 yrs.) I understand your frustration with the (often limited)company info you receive.  I think passengers are more and more frustrated because they are only given sporadic information about delays, cancellations, a/c swaps, etc.  The nature of the business is that many of the decisions about what will happen in any given situation are made without our (flight crew) input and are subject to change at a moment's notice and without warning.  You know how frustrating it is that YOU can't get answers, surely you can then appreciate how the customer feels.  Add to this the general distrust of airlines these days and you're left with a combustible situation.  So, did you actually lie to this passenger?  No.  But did you tell them the whole truth?  No.  But, by the time you relayed the information about the delay/swap/mx issue the passengers had already formed an opinion about whether you were providing enough accurate information.  My suggestion would be to start building a rapport with your passengers MUCH earlier.  From your initial greeting you need to gain their confindence and trust. Use your PA's to establish yourself.  If they don't hear from you until you announce a delay it's too late.  Be proactive. If you know something tell them.  If you don't, then let them know you don't but that you'll try and find out. And please make frequent announcements. You're the ONLY hope for information on that plane. You're flight attendants and passengers are relying on you to provide whatever information you have.  You have the radio.  Use it.  And pass along what you know. Maybe, just maybe then, even in the event of an off-schedule operation the passengers will understand that you are on their side and working to make sure their travel experience with your airline actually means something and that you value their business.  No guarantees but it's worth a shot.