"So do you fly right back to London now?"

[Air_Stewardess]

As cabin crew for a long haul carrier we can fly up to 13 hours and without fail on disembarkation I am asked "so do you guys fly right back to London now?" As if we are somehow robots who do a 26 hour + duty day. Even after a 7 hour flight I am asked this.

It's not sucky behaviour but for me it reinforces the idea that some passengers don't think we are real people!

It's the same when we meet passengers downroute in hotels. We are very lucky as crew to stay in four and five star hotels. Comments like "oh you stay HERE" as usual as if we are somehow expected to sleep on the airplane! Yes we get free luxury hotel accommodation as part of our employment package but a lot of the time downroute will be spent asleep. It's not like we can just go home to our own beds every night!

[Trixie]

Um, it's not exactly like a crosstown bus route that will just turn around and start over. And I don't know why people's inability to understand things amaze me yet it does. Every time.

[Casino Jockey]

my uncle gets the same all the time - he flys from australia to the USA (14 hours min) all the time as a pilot.

[Marmalady]

Reminds me of the cruise passengers who ask if the crew sleep on board the ship too....

[bainsidhe]

And woe to you if a SC recognizes you outside of work.

I once got stuck overnight in Chicago due to bad weather, along with many other passengers. We were cold. We were grumpy. And all of us were trying to rush the shuttle van when it arrived, even though half the group would need to wait for the next van. Amongst us was a flight attendant, who was patiently waiting for the shuttle to arrive. Because she had only a small carry-on, she managed to get on the shuttle while others were trying to shove past each other and load their massive carry-ons into the back. One SC discovered he wouldn't be riding to the hotel in the packed van, and he started yelling at the FA to get off and that employees needed to wait their turn and put customers first. The FA wisely ignored him, while he raged on about how dare she blah blah blah.

[Aethian]

I admit I asked that before because I thought attendants and pilots heading to a hotel was just in the movies. Thankfully the attendant who answered got a kick out of the question. Since on that one day she would be in five different cities.

[fireheart]

Reminds me of the cruise passengers who ask if the crew sleep on board the ship too....

My parents heard this one!

The ship actually did a "Top 10 stupid questions" thing onboard! Mum couldn't remember all of them, but the other two she remembered were:

"How do I know which photo is mine?" (taken of the guest)
"Do these stairs go up?" (pointing to the stairs in question)

[Skittles88]

I work in a hotel and I always work the pm shift (3-11). I constantly comments from guests that they'll see me in the morning at like 6pm! I know some hotels do 12 hour shifts, but most desk shifts are 8. People just have no concept of time... There's no way I am working from 3pm to 7am!
What's worse is when people get confused at why I won't be in on the breakfast shift... Like apparently I'm a robot and can work every hour.