Originally Posted by bocastephen
Incorrect. Most doors are reinforced with kevlar.
OK then, my bad.
You're kidding, right? No offense, but please tell me how a FAM will prevent someone from blowing up their shoe...
Oh, I don't know... by tackling them...maybe... perhaps?
I don't know about you... but I've made it through a couple times without my shoes being checked, and it only takes one time...
Would you really rely on TSA for all of our airport security needs?
No offense to the FAMs themselves, but please tell me the last time a FAM risked his or her life for anything.
I also don't remember the last time I saw a lifeguard save someone, nor a bank security guard do anything but stand there, nor an FA assist passengers out of a crashed plane. I guess they don't do crap either. 
It's like insurance... you pay for it, hoping to never have to use it.
How do you know their pay is 'crappy'?
Because the last time I looked at an FAM's pay scale, I said, "Wow, that's crappy." It's especially crappy considering they're doing a hazardous job (though according to you they're essentially useless), and that when they're on duty they spend a good 12-16 hours straight flying in a metal tube (with no real guarantee of a return flight to their home airport) because of a thankless job.
I dont have a problem giving a perk, however, no perk should be given at the expense of a paying customer.
What about the perk the customer gets for having the FAM onboard? People don't pay more money to fly on El Al for the food or the smiling faces... they pay for the guaranteed security presence, double-reinforced cockpit doors, rigorous screening process, and an armored personnel carrier to escort the plane to the runway, so they don't get their flying be-hinds blown out of the sky or flown to who-knows-where.
If an agent pre-emptively upgrades a FAM, or any other non-entitled person, ahead of an entitled customer, that is wrong:
I don't know about you (well, I guess I do), but I think an FAM is very-much entitled. Perhaps AA should do away with the fare sale and AC access specially for the military... they're not entitled, are they? Of course not, because you're better than them.
Anyway as federal employees, dont FAMs need approval before accepting a gift-with-value? A free first class upgrade certainly has value and should be declared and documented.
Has value to you... to the government, it's just another seat on a plane (which really, it is). Using your logic, the FAM would have to sit in the middle seat of row 99 all the time... because, of course, aisle seats, window seats, bulkhead seats, exit row seats, seats according to FEBO, seats in lucky row number 7, etc., all have value. Hell, why even give the FAM a seat at all? He can just hang on.