Disagreements between passengers and flight attendants can take many forms. Although the details of the current incident differ greatly from the following story, I think there are some interesting points made in the accounts of this incident involving internationally-renowned opera soprano Jessye Norman about ten years ago on the old TWA. Editorial opinions were those of the original author - the only changes I have made are to insert a few paragraph breaks:
This thread on famous attitudes in everyday situations reminds me of an
article a friend passed along to me from a New York law newspaper.
Apparently about a year ago, Ms. Jessye Norman was late for a direct
flight from New York to St. Louis. She had bought herself two first class
tickets and the airline placed her on the next available flight, which had
a stopover in Ohio. The irate Madame Norman boarded the plane and tried
to use her seat back telephone to inform her host in St. Louis that she
would be late, but found that the phone did not work. She then informed
the flight attendant that he would have to use the cockpit radio to
contact St. Louis and inform them of her predicament. The attendant
informed Ms. Norman that the cockpit radio was not used for such matters,
she suggested that it should in this matter, and the attendant left to see
what he could do about the issue. The attendant passed by a few minutes
later and Ms. Norman asked if he had radioed St. Louis for her. The
attendant said no, Norman got angry, and the attendant said he would
return when she had calmed down to which Norman replied "don't bother."
This is where teh story gets interesting: The attendant then
returned to Ms. Norman's seat without solicitation or provocation and
hissed that she would be more appropriately accomodated by a Greyhound bus
for her travels. Ms. Norman responded by calling the attendant a "silly
fool" or a "stupid fool" (the trial record is unclear on this matter) and
there was no contact between the two until the plane landed in Ohio.
In Ohio, Ms. Norman deplaned to use the telephone and call St.
Louis herself and the flight attendant informed the pilot that Ms. Norman
should not be allowed to reboard the plane. However, the cockpit crew
changed and no one noticed Ms. Norman retake her seat. Upon finding her
again on the plane, the attendant informed the pilot that he would not
work that flight so long as Ms. Norman remained on the plane. The pilot
tried unsuccessfully to find a replacement for the attendant, and, given
the storm brewing to the West, needing to find a rapid resolution to the
problem, asked Madame Norman to apologize to the attendant for her
behavior.
In an event which should be certified by the Catholic church as a
miracle, Jessye Norman met the flight attendant in the airplane entryway
and apologized for her rudeness. However, the attendant did not deem her
apology sincere, and insisted that she would not be on the plane. Given
the bad weather and the absence of any other available attendants to meet
FAA regulations for flight staffing, the pilot had no choice but to leave
Ms. Jessye Norman at the gate.
The issue was reported because Ms. Norman then filed a lawsuit
against TWA, the pilot, and the flight attendant for claims including
discrimination and emotional distress. Her claims were dismissed and she
was awarded only a refund on the purchase price of her ticket.
The story is amazing first for the audacity of an opera singer
demanding use of the cockpit radio to call her chauffeur, but then for the
flight attendant's grossly unprofessional behavior. Although he did what
almost anyone who has ever been employed in customer service dreams of, I
personally thought that the man should have been fired for his behavior.