Regular Delta Passenger Working the Snack Cart
Oct 30, 2007, 8:30 pm
#46
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Nov 2, 2007, 10:23 am
#47
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Atlanta, GA, USA
Posts: 331
On one of my first trips after I got out of law school, one of the senior partners (a very fun guy in any setting) and I were travelling from Atlanta to New York. He had scored us upgrades to first and they boarded us, but we got held on the ground long enough that our crew went over their time limits and had to leave. They called in replacements, but for a while we were sitting on a pretty full plane basically unsupervised (the gate agent would come down and give us updates every few minutes).
After about 30 minutes of this (now a total hold of almost 3 hours), the senior partner decides he wants a drink. He gets up and starts making a drink, then has the bright idea of serving the rest of first class. He finds an apron, puts it on, and starts taking orders. Everyone's having a pretty good time by now, and he's back into coach now delivering a round, when the replacement crew walks through the door. The pilot looks around and starts to get p.o.'d that someone is serving drinks - he walks back to my partner, taps him on the shoulder and says, "Sir, who are you and what are you doing?" to which my partner replies, with a completely straight face. "my name is XXXX YYYYYY and I'm serving drinks. You look like a pilot, so why don't you get up there and fly us to New York?", at which point the entire front of the plane erupts in applause!
After about 30 minutes of this (now a total hold of almost 3 hours), the senior partner decides he wants a drink. He gets up and starts making a drink, then has the bright idea of serving the rest of first class. He finds an apron, puts it on, and starts taking orders. Everyone's having a pretty good time by now, and he's back into coach now delivering a round, when the replacement crew walks through the door. The pilot looks around and starts to get p.o.'d that someone is serving drinks - he walks back to my partner, taps him on the shoulder and says, "Sir, who are you and what are you doing?" to which my partner replies, with a completely straight face. "my name is XXXX YYYYYY and I'm serving drinks. You look like a pilot, so why don't you get up there and fly us to New York?", at which point the entire front of the plane erupts in applause!
Nov 2, 2007, 12:19 pm
#48
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: lax
Posts: 3,888
Unless this is an urban legend, sounds like a serious FAR viloation.
Nov 2, 2007, 1:33 pm
#49
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 11,377
I doubt there was any harm done.
I'm not disturbed by the drink service, though I am amazed that the airline would have left an aircraft full of passengers without a crew or other airline employees on board.
I'm not disturbed by the drink service, though I am amazed that the airline would have left an aircraft full of passengers without a crew or other airline employees on board.
Nov 2, 2007, 1:58 pm
#50
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: DL Platinum, Marriott Platinum, Hilton Silver, Hertz 5 Star Gold
Posts: 287
Been there, done that, sort of.
I've participated in something similar. I was going ATL/LGA one night in FC, and it just came out in a conversation with the FA that this was the Captain's last flight.
For whatever reason, LGA facilities were not going to support a washdown that night and the Captain was a little disappointed. So, the FA and I decided that we would take one of the cotton placemats/tablecloths/thingies (probably 2'x3' ??) and anyone on board that wanted to sign it for the Captain could. We got a Sharpie, drew the Delta "widget" in the middle with the date, flight number and tail number - and I got up to stroll the entire airplane.
Since I started in FC, people aft could see me and were curious, but word was spreading to the back. I'm, pleased to say that probably 80% of the pax wanted to sign it, and one little girl even drew a picture and signed her name.
But the constant question was "do you work for Delta", and the more I insisted I did not, the more absolutely convinced they were that I did. So, who knows who anyone is on a given flight? I did everything but get out my IBM AmEx card, and the majority were still convinced I was a DL employee.
By the way, after landing, everyone was congratulating the Captain, but I stayed in my seat and when everyone was off, the cabin crew and I presented the placemat to the Captain. He was genuinely overwhelmed, and even ran out to catch the FO on the jetway and brought him back onboard to show him.
I hope the pax on that flight know how special they were to the Captain. He was going to have it framed and hung in his den.
For whatever reason, LGA facilities were not going to support a washdown that night and the Captain was a little disappointed. So, the FA and I decided that we would take one of the cotton placemats/tablecloths/thingies (probably 2'x3' ??) and anyone on board that wanted to sign it for the Captain could. We got a Sharpie, drew the Delta "widget" in the middle with the date, flight number and tail number - and I got up to stroll the entire airplane.
Since I started in FC, people aft could see me and were curious, but word was spreading to the back. I'm, pleased to say that probably 80% of the pax wanted to sign it, and one little girl even drew a picture and signed her name.
But the constant question was "do you work for Delta", and the more I insisted I did not, the more absolutely convinced they were that I did. So, who knows who anyone is on a given flight? I did everything but get out my IBM AmEx card, and the majority were still convinced I was a DL employee.
By the way, after landing, everyone was congratulating the Captain, but I stayed in my seat and when everyone was off, the cabin crew and I presented the placemat to the Captain. He was genuinely overwhelmed, and even ran out to catch the FO on the jetway and brought him back onboard to show him.
I hope the pax on that flight know how special they were to the Captain. He was going to have it framed and hung in his den.
Nov 2, 2007, 3:09 pm
#51
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Jul 11, 2008, 2:19 pm
#53
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 115
Roflmao!
I say this all the time when I come across someone who thinks they know it all.....under my breath walking away from whoever the genius is ...usually in a smart-aleck kind of way! Glad someone else thinks that Holiday Inn has great marketing!
Jul 11, 2008, 3:21 pm
#54
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Kingdom of the Sun
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I doubt you will find any mention of snack service in the FARs. So long as all related regs are complied with (like not doing so if the seat belt sign in on), the FAA wouldn't give a hoot.
I've never done anything like that in an aircraft but once, at a very nice French restaurant I did the tableside preparation of a couple of Steak Dianes. When the adjacent table noticed, having also ordered the SD, they asked how the steaks were and got rave reviews from our table ... they requested I do theirs, too! (which I gladly did).
Jul 12, 2008, 12:06 am
#55
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 179
Wirelessly posted (bb: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)
Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happenn...
Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happenn...
Jul 12, 2008, 7:19 am
#56
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 179
Wirelessly posted (bb: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)
Did somebody say buzzkill?
Originally Posted by skylady
Unless this is an urban legend, sounds like a serious FAR viloation.
Jul 12, 2008, 10:58 am
#57
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Jul 12, 2008, 6:20 pm
#58
Join Date: Dec 2007
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I was on a WN flight earlier this month when a uniformed deadheading pilot was doing part of the beverage service. It seemed a little odd, so I asked him whether he was moonlighting. He said he was bored (it was a 4 hour flight), and it gave him something to do. I can't really imagine this happening on any legacy carrier.
Jul 12, 2008, 7:47 pm
#59
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Austin, TX
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I've never been advised of this rule and have flown non-rev a fair number of times, not as an employee however.
I doubt you will find any mention of snack service in the FARs. So long as all related regs are complied with (like not doing so if the seat belt sign in on), the FAA wouldn't give a hoot.
I doubt you will find any mention of snack service in the FARs. So long as all related regs are complied with (like not doing so if the seat belt sign in on), the FAA wouldn't give a hoot.
Jul 12, 2008, 8:39 pm
#60
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Posts: 1,857
I have to agree. Flight crew are there primarily for safety, and in the event of an emergency, and even in the normal course of a flight, I am going to feel most comfortable taking instructions from and interacting with a uniformed crew member, or at least a crew member with some sort of identification on.
I traveled recently internationally on NW (one of only a handful of times flying on an American carrier overseas) and one of the FAs was dressed in slacks, with a white shirt (no tie) and a black vest fleece. He looked very much like an average passenger as he wore nothing identifying him as an airline employee. I was really surprised. You would never see anything like that on BA, the airline I normally fly internationally.
I traveled recently internationally on NW (one of only a handful of times flying on an American carrier overseas) and one of the FAs was dressed in slacks, with a white shirt (no tie) and a black vest fleece. He looked very much like an average passenger as he wore nothing identifying him as an airline employee. I was really surprised. You would never see anything like that on BA, the airline I normally fly internationally.
Maybe we should all just not worry about everything and let it go? LOL!