Originally Posted by
asnovici
Why??? Where are the allocated seats for firefighters? Where are the alloocated seats for police officers? Where are the allocated seats for teachers? Would you suggest that thier contributions and sacrifices to the country and our communitis are less then soldiers' somehow? Is this a communist country and DL is a state-run airline? In USSR they DID have allocated seats for military personnel on airplanes, on Aeroflot, when it was state-run.
I agree. Where do draw the line? Which professions deserve our thanks? What about child welfare workers? Or domestic abuse hotline operators? Or clergy? Or preschool teachers? Etc.
There are lots of demanding and life-threatening jobs out there (several TV shows are devoted entirely to this topic), not just the military. While service to one's country is noble and we all support the troops, rules are rules and should be followed. Pax voluntarily providing perks to military servicemen and women is a completely acceptable way of handling this. GA could even ask u/g pax if they want to voluntarily give their seat to a military member. This would take away the "power" the GA has.
As an aside: I have a small business offering computer classes for kids and I live in a big military area (a navy base and an AF base within 20 miles of me). I advertise a 10% discount to military/police/EMS/fire, but then wonder where do I draw the line? Is it like housing loans that the gov't offers? Nurses and teachers, along with all public service and military professions get included? sigh... Nothing's easy...