mvoight

I believe that falls under #9 with the blocking carts

Evan!

I took #9 to mean when the cart is in the aisle thus blocking passengers from making their way to the lavs.

My point is, and I hope sluggo knows I'm playing with him, is that it could be perceived by FAs that pax always want to use the lav at the most inopportune times. When really it could be that he remembers the times it interfered with his work but not the times it did not. If pax do all approach at time #9 couldn't one of the other 14 times listed coincide?

sluggoaafa

Pilots would fall in any position, but in my scenario, #9 would be along with pilots needing to use the lav. Remember, they have to coordinate with the FAs to go, so carts blocking aisle/lav would be the case for Pilots needing their time....Pax do not have to call and coordinate to use the lav(well, not with me at least...)

I actually had one pilot that as soon as we took off and we were above sterile cockpit, he had to go and couldn't wait for their usual time-frame sometime later in-flight

Buster CT1K

Wow. I just heard about this today and I am flabbergasted! The real heroes of this story are the other passengers who stood up for the wronged PE passenger and inconvenienced themselves to stand up for him.

This FA should be fired. If AA kept her on, and she did something else mentally unstable that injured a passenger, for instance, AA's liabilities would be enormous.

ceverett

At this point, the bad guys already know what current security protocol is for opening the cockpit door, and I'm guessing they figured it out less than 90 days after it was instituted, probably by doing something as simple as ceaselessly polling friends and relatives who fly regularly.

Sort of like the Taliban/Al Qaeda eavesdropping on the unencrypted data feed from Predator drones, which they have probably been doing for the last 2 years.

Despite years of experience indicating that the opposition is smart and well informed, we still design security protocols that assume the bad guys are a bunch of idiots, which is precisely the best way to get our asses kicked.
Bunch of Westmorelands.

skylady

Are you suggesting a more militaristic approach to airline security? I would love to see my young men in uniform, with their deferential attitudes, asking me to remove my belt.

billgrates3

Actually the funny part is that I know exactly when Sluggo is gonna bring out the cart, so I use the facilities first!


... but i gotta say i'm stayin' away from that damn OJ from now on just to be safe!

skylady

You will always be safe with apple juice.

mkjr

thankfully with my child with me these days, i have my trusty video camera pretty much at all times...one time when i was getting some very odd behaviour from a employee of a company i was having issues with, i had my spouce start recording.....it was remarkable to see what changed when you have a perfect witness....too bad someone did not have their cell phone cam recording.

BA5211A

I always wear a mac & Wellies when I ask for OJ in BA Club World.

codex57

With no skin to either airline, I thought the move was hilarious. So, ^^^ to Delta.

I notice that too. Very funny. Always makes my flight when I see that. Yes, I'm easily amused.

FlyMeToTheLooneyBin

Maybe they would have acted differently if you held up a cell phone pretending like you were recording. People behave differently when they think they are being filmed.

emma dog

I think you're right... makes me think of a James Bond villain and the Austin Powers spoofs. Let's make an impossibly complicated gadget (protocol) then expect that everything will work out right (never does) and then we demand 100% success (fugghedaboudit) to ensure the hero (villain terrorists) don't get away (and do something horrible).

sluggoaafa

Just watch the series Airline with Southwest pax, you'll see how differently they behave!

PDX-PLT

No, we designed the kabuki theater of security protocols so as to reassure nervous-nelly infrequent flyer tourists that the gov't is "on top of things", so they'll continue to hop on the plane to go see Aunt Tilly. At least we're not still engaging in the idiocy of stationing National Guard troops at security check points; remember those?

Frequent flyers know that the salient factor is that, forevermore, the bad guys no longer have the element of surprise and can no longer count on complacency and passivity on the part of the victims. What with increased gov't pre-board screening, PAX who will try to rip them to shreds, and flight deck crews who are prepared to depressurize the cabin and fly closer to the performance envelop of the aircraft (i.e., play Top Gun), the old hijack scenarios are very unlikely. No matter what gets done with the drink cart.

BTW, I have gotten out of my seat when the cart was in block mode, while sitting in F: and walked to the back of the plane to use the Y lav. I didn't get tackled or arrested. The cart was in place for a full 20 minutes on my wristwatch, mainly so that the FO could flirt with one of the female FA's (I was in row 3 in an MD-80 and could hear what was going on). I threw the other FC FA (a guy) something of a dirty look when I got up, and he shrugged and mumbled something to the effect of "they're the boss".