Bose or Shure
 

Oh please...I have also worked in an office and not everyone is so considerate. We are society of "all about me, even when it is not, it is all about me" and anyone who disputes this is living in another world.

Ed Shultz on his radio program talked about his flight from MSP-SFO last night where the offending party was a passenger! You are travelling on a public mode of transportation, if you want "complete" quiet, buy into fractional flying or better yet, charter a plane all to yourself.

Oh how I can't wait for the day when SQ owns an American carrier and shows us how it is done. Perhaps we can also have some of the public floggings that their society condones. That's IT...let's have new inflight entertainment and flog the offender, whether crew or customer!

I think you had the same crew as I did EWR - LAS on 11/23
 

while this was a day flight, it was 7:15 departure from EWR on the Friday of Thanksgiving. Most people were comatose. Not the crew who spent 99% of the flight in the jumpseat across from Row 8 or in the galley. This wasn't a case of talking it was shrieking and laughing and...just a lack of common courtesy. I was pleasantly surprised that the crew from LAS - EWR on 11/25 was near silent.

I agree I would politely ask the FA to lower their voices just as I would ask another passenger to lower theirs if it were bothering me..@:-)

The point that seems to be missed here is that people aren't always considerate of their coworkers, but it should be a different story for their customers. Where I work things can be pretty informal, and sometimes annoying when it is just us. When a customer is in the area professionalism and courtesy is demanded.

I would suggest that OP should have 3 or 4 double whiskeys. ;) ;) ;) (Flying SQ F I would suggest Krug but we are in the US after all.)

It makes falling in sleep much more convenient.

One time, I was in Y on aisle seat and my two seatmates chatted up a storm. Heard everything about their family, work, etc. When we reached 10K feet I put on my Shure headphones. I guess this made them realize they were yakking too much and hardly spoke to each other after that!

Maybe if I was trying to sleep in the cockpit I would agree with this. However, on a red-eye, your workspace is a place where your customers are sleeping. Therefore, you need to be quiet.

Here's a little analogy. I work backstage. So when you come to see a show or a concert, you're in my workspace, my office. If me and Bob from the Props Department starting talking in the middle of a show you were watching, it might be a problem.

If you choose to work in an environment where your customers are sleeping, you need to cater to your customers, and not yourselves, and BE QUIET.

For those of you that think this is too much to ask of a company, I suggest your lowered expectations of customer service are a sad commentary on the state of American business.

David

While I agree cabin noise while trying to sleep is unpleasant, I would argue that being seated next to a "talker" is worse.

Since I began to travel in the front of the plane whenever possible, this has been less of an issue, but it still happens.

I am generally a very polite and sociable person but I detest the barrage of questions that tends to ensue after the "and what do you do for a living?" so I try to be really classy... put on headphones, open a book (if still on the ground), close my eyes. Recently in NW in F (see, it's sorta relevant to this thread :)) the gentleman who sat next to me did not respond to any of my tactics.

The questions just kept coming, and coming. I tried to answer shortly (but with a smile) so as not to encourage further dialogue - even making a bit of a production of taking my earphones off each time he spoke to me. Nothing worked! Perhaps sensing my frustration he said "sorry to ask so many questions, but I just need to know these things about people!" Wow.

Finally, the FA (wonderful, wonderful lady whom I sent a letter about) looked like she sensed my frustration and came over to chat this man up. He apparently found the FA's life story to be more interesting than mine and left me alone for the rest of the flight.

I had the chatty FA's in BF about two years back on HNL-IAH. Chattered away at top-volume for the entire overnight flight. I had earplugs, but could still hear some even in Row 1.

dgilman,
I know, I know, it's all about YOU, right?! YOU must be very ignorant if YOU think that a plane will be quiet 100% of the time, even during a red eye. If it's not the FAs, it is the guy snoring next to you, a crying baby, a mother screaming at her kid, others talking, need I go on? I know YOU may not believe it, but most FAs are polite people who do want to help you have a great experience. The majority of the time, FAs are quiet throughout a red-eye...we don't want YOU to wake up because some of YOU become very needy and that interrupts our union break. ;) However, every once in a while we may get carried away. (I am sure YOU have never done this) Use UncleBuck's advice and politely ask the FAs to turn it down a notch. YOU should also invest in a pair of noise canceling headsets if YOU are not going to charter your own plane as suggested by CO757.

And NO, our job is not to be quiet. In fact, my job is not to kiss your A$$ either. It is to save your A$$ if need be. Yes I will be polite to you, and I will serve you, and even say yes ma'am/sir. I enjoy being pleasant to passengers and and I want them to have a memorable experience. But remember, FAs are not on the plane for service. Your lovely FAs can deliver your child, fight a fire your laptop started, and evacuate a plane in under 90 seconds. :D Need I say more?

Yes, but I will take care of that for you.

Not that the majority of people on this thread will care, at least not by their attitudes exhibited here, but sometimes we are assigned very tough schedules. That red-eye flight that you are trying to sleep on might be immediately following an IAH-West Coast run after minimum crew rest at the Marriot Hotel @ IAH where we were unable to sleep during the afternoon due to noise at the pool, etc. You may say "well don't put such trips on your schedule", but as a reserve flight attendant, many of us have no choice and I have several friends who have been quick-called (two hours notice) to show up to EWR for a 4:30 am checkin for a 5:30am flight to IAH, have 8-10 hours of scheduled rest at the Marriott which is sometimes damn near impossible without the use of sleeping pills, then to work a 3 hour IAH-West Coast leg immediately followed by a red-eye back to EWR. I have tried being amicable here, I have tried being courteous and respectful and offered a reasonable explanation and an apology as well as suggestions on what to do, but after the continuous selfish, rude, and sarcastic replies, here's how I really feel- You are paying less for your red-eye seats (generally, I know there are exceptions, yes). You are on a flight in which the flight attendants are required to be alert at all times, not for your comfort but for your safety, which after a schedule like the one I just gave you that is very realistic and very common can be quite difficult to do if we are expected to be completely silent. My job isn't to be quiet so you can sleep. My job is 1) to provide safety and save lives, and 2) to provide service. This cannot be done without staying awake, and that cannot be done without keeping ourselves alert, which, sorry for the inconvenience, involves chatting with our co-workers. That's great that sbm doesn't talk when their co-worker is on a conference call, and dgilman its impressive that you work backstage, but your analogy sucks as you talking would have no impact on the attendees' experience as your conversation would be easily masked by the sound system. Again, I'm sorry that our conversations can keep you awake sometimes, I have already acknowledged that we really don't realize how loud we are with the engine noise, and especially with the galley being located next to the door (it's considerably louder), but none of you seem to give a rat's ..., so I am completely at a loss of words at what to say. The point is, we are talking to keep ourselves alert to save your ... if something happens. So if we wake you up, I apologize. You can politely ask us to quiet down, or you can either 1) say nothing at all and deal with it, or 2) ask us not-so-politely, which will lead to 1) you being referred to as the ....... or ..... in 1B for the duration of the flight and 2) us doing absolutely nothing to lower our volume just to piss you off even more.

We can make your flight the most pleasant in the sky (well, in comparison to American carriers, haha), or the worst. The choice is yours.

While I in no way condone rude treatment of flight attendants by passengers, retaliation against rude passengers is not the answer. And, if you raised the volume at which you spoke just to irritate the rude passenger, you would irritate the non-rude passengers as well.

NOT SO.

I was on the UA red-eye LAX-EWR last night,(the only non-stop UA flys to EWR). We left the gate on time 10:40pm but werent airborne for another 1/2 hr. I was thristy so I force myself to stay up till the bev service came thru.

Well the lights were All out in the cabin and the 2 FAs had small flashlights that had a blueish color (I guess since its dimmer then the reg light), this way they didnt distrub those who wanted to or were already sleeping. Dont know its a UA thing or just a TON of Common Sense on behalf of the 2 FAs, it should be an industry thing.

( 1st time on UA , CO wanted $160 more and next weeks trip to HNL gets me requal for Plat. Now after these 2 fligts , Ive got to decide if I should be moving my Biz over to UA)

see... it happens on Air Canada too...
 

"we don't want YOU to wake up because some of YOU become very needy and that interrupts our union break. "...
:rolleyes:

I've taken a few redeye's during the years. They were "invented" so that business travelers could work a complete day on the west coast, eat dinner and then travel east and arrive in time to work another full day. I think the CO FA's do a very good job of service and try not to make too much noise so as not to annoy the pax. That said, let's remember we are in an airplane, not a private, quiet place to sleep. Other posters have said a few drinks, earplugs with or without music, white noise, etc. help dramatically drown out cabin noise. I agree. I believe it is incumbent upon the traveler to prepare for a noisy environment the best way possible and make the best out of it. I can't imagine what you would have done if a sick and crying baby was across the aisle from you.