6P&E

Oh no, not a committee... they'll probably turn the dead horse into a white elephant.

homeboy4

It seems as though you are skirting the issue. Suppose the FAs are sensitive to the time of day and suppose they get what they feel is a good response. But in spite of that, what if someone -- maybe you, maybe not you -- wishes they would shut up. What's WN to do?

Should WN take a survey? What is they did and it turned out 55% felt the policy should remain, 35% hated it and 10% had no opinion. THEN would you be okay with it? If not, on what should they base their decision?

FluffyBunnyFuFu

Hmmm, I wish I knew...can you pm one of the Mods around here? I thought thread titles can only be edited by the OP or an Admin but I'm not sure. Anyway, no biggie. I'm surprised that this thread has gotten and still provokes so much attention lately. You opened Pandora's box here.

Orwaid

DontCallMeShirley - So if I understand you correctly all of the topics being discussed on Flyertalk should not be brought up, because after all, in the grand scheme of things, they are not important?

I was taught by my mother and father, and I taught my kids, to not try to force one's views onto another. But at the same time, do not let other people force their agenda onto oneself either.

So, to answer your question, if my child was the FA I had, I would be upset and would tell them. And if my child was the FA that told off-color jokes (as was mentioned by another poster), I would be mortified.

I don't make moans or sighs or any other gutteral noises if there are irrops. I recognize that such things do occur and are a regular part or traveling.

And I have repeatedly said that a joke or two is fine. But when it goes on and on and on, at the crack of dawn and no one is responding, they are pleasing themselves at the passenger's expense.

And I am an optimist. A pessimist would would just take it because they think there is no alternative. An optimist knows that things can and will get better, and will do what it takes to make things better.

homeboy4 -- I am not skirting the issue at all. I and many others on this thread feel that sometimes the joketelling by FAs becomes excessive. Why can't WN just tell FA's to limit the non-safety remarks to one or two jokes? In my case, I expected one or two. But when it became 4,5,6 ... it was almost like the FA wanted the safety briefing to last as long as it took to get to the active runway.

But to take your postulated numbers, if WN senior mangagement knew that 1/3of passengers thought there was excessive joketelling on their flights and that it was negatively impacting their choosing WN for air travel, they would do something about it.

And yes FluffyBunnyFuFu, I seemed to have opened Pandora's box here. But over 4K views in one week should tell people that this is a serious topic with serious ramifications, even if one does not agree with how I handled it.

AAsuper80

^^^

JackieChiles

I have viewed this thread several times since you started it--and now replied twice--not because it's a serious topic with serious ramifications, but because I'm stunned by the pride you seem to take in having made some obnoxious, witless remark in response to a few harmless jokes. The fact that you count thread views either as some sort of validation of your obnoxious behavior or as a barometer of this issue's importance is remarkable.

Once in a blue moon, usually when in a bad mood, I've been annoyed by a flight attendant with an overly-colorful demeanor. More frequently, however, I'm annoyed by pretentious, thin-skinned passengers who can't resist the temptation of calling attention to themselves. I'll take the former over the latter any day--that's what this thread is about.

homeboy4

Let me try my point a different way. You expected one or two jokes but you got six and you were displeased. So suppose WN limits the jokes to two. That's the new rule. Now you are satisifed, but some people complain that they don't even want to hear one. Aren't those people's feeling about the matter just as important as yours? If so, should WN then change the rule again to zero jokes? And suppose they do. Zero jokes. Now they get mail that WN is more and more becoming just like the legacy carriers that are boring and un-hip. What then?

I think that most of this thread has been either a debate between pro-joke joke and anti-joke folks OR folks taking issue with your behavior. I'm looking at at through a different lens. For purposes of this message, I'm not taking a position on whether there should be zero jokes, two, six or ten. But I am assuming that among WN customers there are some people who prefer zero jokes, then there is you who prefer (or tolerate) two jokes, others who prefer six and still others who prefer ten and also like the singing. Given this reality who is WN supposed to satisfy? Just you and the slice of customers that you represent? If not, which slice?

pinniped

Actually, no, the topic of whether or not flight attendants tell jokes does not have "ramifications."

Some boards here have threads with titles like "the most insignificant possible thing to complain about." Flight attendants telling jokes, or flight attendants failing to tell jokes when you were hoping for a giggle, would fall into that category. Somewhere above "My hotel room's alarm clock was set wrong" and below "I can't believe they consider a <insert little car here> a mid-sized car."

And yes, those threads generate thousands and thousands of views... I don't believe anyone has studied the correlation between view count and OP intelligence.

texashoser

GottaLuvCruising

+1

Hayden

FWIW, I liked the OP's joke. If we don't have gallows humor, what do we have? It's too bad that it wasn't made by the FA.

At the same time, perhaps I don't represent the typical flyer. I and a friend were once seated in the back row flying QF LAX-SYD. While the plane was still gated at LAX, we had a discussion about the likelihood of being immolated during a crash by virtue of being aft of the fuel tanks, and so not having to worry too much about escaping from the plane. We were enjoying the discussion until the person seated in the 2nd-to-last row turned to us with a worried look and concern that the plane was going to crash. We reassured her it was quite safe and switched topics.

homeboy4

The same gallows humor joke told by a FA would be heard differently than if told by a passenger. Context.

Orwaid

Homeboy4, you bring up an interesting question.

My answer is that WN should seek to maximize passenger utility whenever possible, especially with regard to service operations that have little or no fixed and/or marginal cost.

As to how I would "slice" it, there is possibly overall negative utility from NO joke telling. So, I would start with 1 or 2 before take off and maybe another one on landing if the FA desired. That way, the projoke crowd would get substantial positive utility and the antijoke crowd would have lesser negative utility, but still positive overall.

As for my flight, there was not just 5 or 6 jokes. There were 5 or 6 jokes in the first 5 minutes after the door closed at 6:00AM. Somehow I do not think the FA was trying to maximize overall passenger utility

yoyash

Southwest FAs are spending more time coming up with stupid jokes than being serious about their duties. They profile people also. I was asked if I undertstand English when I was seating in exit raw. I was born in Japan but living in US forover 35 years. And yes, I am an US citizen. The guy sitting next me was born in Japan and his mother is Japanese and father is Italian, and he does not look like Japanese so he was not asked the same question. Other people could have been tourists from Europe who could not understnad English... but FA never bother to ask them a question. Well..... FA should spend more time stdying the proper procedures and about their duties than joking around... and cleaning sunroof....

homeboy4

Seems like this comment deserves it's own thread rather than being cobbled onto this one about jokes.

I almost always sit in the exit row and have heard this question asked from time to time. In fact, one time the FA asked the question of one person who nodded her head or said "yes" -- I don't remember which -- but it wasn't clear to the FA (or to me, for that matter) that the woman really understood English. So the FA asked again, and even though she got a second affirmative, spoke with her for just a bit to make sure she had facility with the language.

I have also witnessed FAs question people a little more closely who seem too old and fraigle or too heavy to manage the door procedure. For instance, paraphrasing, "It weighs 50 pounds. Can you handle that?" speaking directly to one older person. Once there was someone sitting in the exit row who looked very young. The FA confirmed that the person was old enough to sit there.

In all of these instances, it appeared to me that the FA was trying to ascertain if the eight of us could handle the physical and communication requirements of the job. To do that, in certain instances, FAs did indeed "profile" us. To me such profiling, in these instances, was entirely reasonable and appropriate.