For those who are airline employees do you prefer not to mention it should the question of your line of work come up in conversation with a seatmate ?
If asked, I will quietly mention it but sometimes it opens up a can of worms. I love it though when someone is doing a lot of complaining about the airline or flight and goes on and on and then starts getting around to my employment in which case I "admit" to working for this airline.
They are sometimes embarrassed but I always reassure them they have every right to complain. Some of my coworkers think it is not right to mention it but why should I lie? On the other hand I have lied and mentioned a line of work I was in before I worked for the airlines - saved myself alot of whining in my ear.

I actually had quite a nice conversation with an elite member on a flight from MSP-PDX on the 4 Feb. We kept to ourselves for most of the flight until shortly before decent. I admitted I was an airline employee and was very interested in hearing his point of view in terms of service and he agreed that being an agent, whether in res or at the ATO, must be a difficult job. I do not lie when someone asks me about my occupation, why should I? I am proud of what I do.

I have a close friend who happens to work for AA (the airline I fly most). I'm interested in what she has to say about it - granted, more than I would be if she were a total stranger, but I find it interesting for its insight into the airline as well as for our own connection.

I'm delighted to discuss airline stuff with a seatmate when I know that he/she works for one, whether or not it's the one on which we happened to be flying. (One interesting flight in that regard was next to the wife and young son of our pilot.) In any case, there are usually give-aways if one notices them.

I wouldn't worry too much about whiners. Whiners happen. I've sat next to whiners on every subject under the sun. They'll find something to whine about, whether or not it's the airline you work for.

So - if you're proud of your job and your employer, as I hope you are, let it show!

Good God in Heaven, why would anyone misrepresent themself? To do so will at some level eat away at the fiber of one's own sense of self-worth. Nothing is worth that risk.

What we are is what we are and we will all be bigger, better and stronger for being open about and proud of whatever that happens to be.

Well, in the course of travel we meet PLENTY of airline employees, but of course they are acting in their roles as, er, airline employees.

My brother works for an airline. Unfortunately, it's an airline that has little useful service where I live. His "buddy pass" tickets aren't even very useful.

My experience is that very FEW of the airline empoyees I might meet either in the course of flying or chatting up on a trip or visiting on a family vacation can actually influence the management morons who make our travel so idiotically miserable.

So why worry? Intelligent flyers (like flyertalkers, hint hint) know that CSA's and FA's and Rampers and Mechanics and even Pilots don't make the really stupid decisions. Management geeks do that. And they'd never admit it to us, and they certainly wouldn't fly coach.

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"...Good God in Heaven, why would anyone misrepresent themself? To do so will at some level eat away at the fiber of one's own sense of self-worth. Nothing is worth that risk...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Very interesting Question and Answer, and I totally agree with asking the question and Punki gives an unbelievably correct answer(s). I wonder if the same Q & A applies to the one or two FTers who post/posted under various aliases and gave validations to the others comments? IMHO the same deal. Some of these are still are around posting away seemingly without any remorse. Any thoughts, anyone?

MisterNice

Misternice,

I really appreciate the way you put it.

I also have a problem with people who misrepresent themselves on the board. IMHO, if you are insistent on posting on a board, you should at least post under your registered name. Something is wrong when you have to have ANOTHER alias to hide behind.

I don't care if it was to joke or flame, it is wrong. I can tell you it really confused me as a new user... I had no idea that someone was using multiple ID's.

Of course, when I see what they post under their normal name (usually over 5,000 posts!), I can see why they may want another name to hide behind.

And I totally agree with Punki (and I find myself doing that with most of her elequent posts), misrepresentation has to reduce self-worth. No ONE should do anything to reduce their own self-worth.

William

I don't care if you work for the airline or do anything interesting. If you can carry on an interesting conversation I usually want to talk with you. It makes my flights go much faster. Some people want to talk, some don't, that's why I have a laptop, NC headphones, and reading material.

Airline employees can bring useful insites and ideas to me for future use so I love to listen.

Once, a nice gentleman was seated next to me in Delta First Class (International) and we exchanged glances, but not much else. He was very polite, and asked what I did for a living? I responded, "I sell Life Insurance - Do you have sufficent coverage for you and your loved ones? I have this 90 minute presentation that will help you decide."

You should have seen the look of shock and fear come over this guy! About 5 seconds later, I let him off the hook, and told him I was not an insurance salesman (per se.) We laughed and had a great flight, talking and fellowshiping!

We admitted, that actually I am in the life insurance business, being a Pastor!

I do like being onry sometimes. hehe

During my nonrev days, I would respond to the "work" question by describing my non-flight-operations job function and responsibilities (to use a made-up example, I'd say something like, "I work with benefits software systems on a Hewlett-Packard 9000", not "I work for XX airlines' HR/Benefits Department".

Occasionally the conversation would meander around to some airline specific issue and I'd tell my seatmate about my affiliation.

One humorous incident I recall was a flight in First when the FA took my seatmate's order, then skipped me with a subtle "I'll be back later" gesture (I immediately understood that she was taking the rev passenger orders first). My seatmate became quite upset that she had skipped over me, and was about to get up to confront her when I told him why she had skipped me - we shared a good chuckle!

Originally posted by Punki:

Good God in Heaven, why would anyone misrepresent themself?

I put myself through college working tickets and gates for an airline. I just graduated from University and left the airlines in May 2000.

There is nothing in writing, but it is understood by the non revs to keep quite about what you do. I just always got this feeling that I was not supposed to say who I worked for.

Most of the time I ended up telling my seat mate my occupation if we entered into a conversation.

Even if I didn't say I was staff I usually knew at least one flight attendant and I always knew at least a few Elites in First.

I would never hide anything but sometimes you need to feel people out.

There are more and more hotel/airlines employees on these boards. Some are helpful and welcome like Adam Burke & Co (Hilton), and the Starwood Lurkers, who both post in company time, and the various FA's who do it in their own time such as Bear96 and Basenji etc on the UA forum. And I hear anecdotally the revenue protection people from Delta have (sadly) been detected acting on board posts.

There was a 'USA Today' reporter called "Scribe" popped up asking questions last week or so, and an alleged N.Y.Times reporter on the "Paris for $27" thread, who it seems may (?) have been bogus.

It is when sneaky PR companies like ths one from Priceline.com come onto boards with company SPAM that the corporate line is being crossed IMHO:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/004086.html

------------------
~ Glen ~

[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 02-12-2001).]

Airline people, please, never hide who you are or what you do. Moreover, one of those (who I think someone hinted at here) is invaluable in communicating other perspectives which can put situations in their proper context. So often, we do not know the full facts, and often when we do we can be much more philosophical about situations that are causing us inconvenience. I only hope that you are not rewarded for your honesty by having your ears bent as a result. On a more general note, I have made some wonderful contacts and friends by a simple quirk of seat allocation.

My most interesting seat opponents ((C)QuietLion, 1999,2000,2001) have been pilots and one time a UA CS trainer (boy did I have a lot to say to HER!). I also really enjoy talking to FA's, whether working or riding.

It's fascinating to hear thing from their persepectives!!!!

In thinking about the answers above, I remembered an admonition passed on to me by management when I first started travelling on a non-rev basis for business: I was told to "be discreet" about discussing non-rev travel because "some paying customers might not like the fact you're travelling in First Class for 'nothing'".