New Book: "Plane Insanity"
 

Amuzing book written by a flight attendent. Sure, there are other similar books out there, but I think this one is superior!

The "Mile High Club" from former MGM Grand Air stewardess Diana Benson would be a good read.

Just finished plane insanity, its a good read for the gym. Basically, its all of his columns from salon.com. You can save lots of cash and just read it online.

lala

You may want to catch up with this discussion as well:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/002498.html

I saw him at a reading in Berkeley a couple of weeks ago. Its funny how he is forbidden from speaking of for whom he flies, but its obvious from speaking of routes and aircraft types, etc. In any event, I found him mildly amusing - I didn't see how much the book cost, but my sense is that it will be a good paperback read eventually.

I've always been fond of the library. Amazing place, they will order a book if they don't have it.

I'm reading this at the moment - good but not great !
Seems that the book "Perfect Attendants ....." is a better read - I've read the excerpts on www.perfectattendantsbook.com and i've laughed out loud a lot more - will buy that one as well & can compare.

I just finished this over the weekend and it was good, but I wouldn't highly recommend anybody running out to buy it. It's an OK read, but there are many parts of it that make you wonder if it's not half fiction, little things that just don't happen (for example at one part he devotes a chapter to how he screwed up when he was taking the boarding passes and let somebody on who shouldn't have been on that flight, which isn't something I have ever seen flight attendants doing)

Flight attendants for certain airlines have taken the BPs in the past, and I have had to pull back to the gate to let someone off who suddenly realized, during taxi, she wasn't supposed to be on that plane... at which time that old song "By the Time I get to Phoenix, my plane will be Late" began playing in my head.

I have to say that the perfectattendant website is very nice. It has a fresh and modern look. Thanks for the link.

AA and DL always had a FA standing at the jetway door taking BP's. Only recently have they not done this - and when there is an extra on board I believe they still do this.

The pilots in Russia sample story at www.perfectattendantsbook.com is a classic urban legand. It is very similar to the second example in the explanation of this legends to be found at:

http://www.snopes.com/spoons/legends/bug-rug.htm

While I am sure that many of the stories in the book are quite humorous, don't expect them to be necessarily true.

TW used to do this as well...at least they did when i was doing the STL-PDX run.

Sex and Absurdity in the Not-Always-Friendly Skies

ELLIOTT HESTER'S new book has gone into a second printing, and that's probably a good sign.

It suggests that we are starting to come out of it. Though the commercial aviation system remains under the tightest security measures ever, and new warnings keep coming about terrorist threats, the book's success shows that we can at least laugh again about the fundamentally miserable, and altogether unnatural, experience of traveling by air.

The book is "Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet," published Jan. 14 by St. Martin's Press.

"It was originally supposed to be released Oct. 3," said Mr. Hester, who has been a flight attendant since 1985. But early October was no time to be promoting a book that has chapter titles like "Payback for a Condescending Jerk," "Pass the Defibrillator, Please," and "Lechery at 30,000 Feet." So it was delayed for three months, till things calmed down.

Another terrorist attack would, of course, revoke this immediately, but now, deep in the winter of 2002, there is a sense, especially among business travelers and other frequent fliers, that flying is starting to return to normal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/13/business/13TRAV.html

I read Plain Insanity last Saturday while on a mileage run. I thought it was a pretty hilarious way to pass the time. Every flight attendant who saw it said they wished they had kept notes over the years and written their own book. Each thought they would have had plenty of material.

I heard Hester on a radio interview and thought he was quite charming.

EASTBAY1K: would you please give us your guess as to which airline? I'd say American, but I am not confident that I am correct. And the book did cost a hefty $23.95.