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?
The whole shoe thing is a silly nonsense - but for the purpose of this argument, I doubt a FAM or anyone else for that matter, would have any advance notice if a knowledable person is about to denote a bomb - Richard Reid was a lunatic who was not conducting an organized operation - no one is realistically going to pull out a match and light a fuse on their shoe, unless they are a character in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. I would certainly not rely on the TSA or the FAM program for our airport security needs, which was the point I was trying to make. Yet, that seems to be 99% of the government's focus
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.
For the purpse of this thread, I am not debating whether or not FAMs should be on board, I am only debating whether or not an offduty FAM should be upgraded ahead of a paying customer.
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 never saw the pay scale...sounds like you did. Perhaps you can share it with us? Maybe I would agree with you - then again, if the pay is too low, logic tells me the program administrators might have some difficulty recruiting and retaining quality candidates. Which seems to be the case so far, based on various news accounts of FAMs holding passengers hostage, threatening to shoot over a parking space, or leaving guns in the lavs.
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.
I don't see having a FAM onboard as a 'perk'. If they are mandated to be there, it is not my decision...I feel no safer with them there, nor less safe with their absence. FAMs will not prevent an airplane from blowing up. Bombs have almost always been detonated from the cargo hold - given the lack of screening conducted on cargo, I see that as an exponentially higher risk than the absense of a FAM in the cabin.
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.
Everyone is entitled to the benefits which the airlines have created and made available to us. If AA has created special benefits for military customers, that is great - they are entitled to them. If the airline wants to make a rule that states a FAM, offduty or not, is entitled to a FC seat, that is their choice - the seat belongs to the airline, not me. This thread was about an agent who violated a policy. No where in any of my posts did I ever claim to be better than anyone, so I think that was abit out of line.
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.