OK, to be fair, male FA's can get nasty too. But this story is about a certain female.

I was on HP from SNA to LAS today. As we were pulling away from the gate, our FA gave the usual safety announcement. A guy a few rows back was talking to his seat partner. The FA was going "AHEM!" in a loud voice, but he kept talking. She stopped her safety annoucement and asked him to be quiet. He kind of waved her away and kept talking. Big Mistake! Back we went to the gate and the sheriff hauled the guy off the plane. He will have to pay the gate fee and deal with whatever federal charges he gets and we were all late to LAS.

Worse, we had to listen to a loud high-pitched lecture about how the FA didn't go to school for 8 weeks to learn safety for nothing. We also heard about how crazy LAS passengers are and how she has been pinched and slapped too many times and she isn't going to take it any longer.

Yes the guy was wrong to talk during the safety announcement and he was really wrong for not deferring to the FA, but his punishment doesn't deserve the crime. And I didn't deserve to be late and have to listen to a lecture from an agitated FA.

I've been worried about this ever since I heard about the zero-tolerance towards air-rage. The FA's have way too much power to crucify someone for pissing them off. I'm sure that 90 percent of the offenders deserve their punishment, but there is no recourse against PMS (male or female).

Maybe she was upset about the loss of America's Worst codeshare partner, TWA.

I can appreciate that the FA may have been unpleasant -- but -- I would've loved to have seen them haul that guy off the plane.

Cretins who yak all through the safety announcements are a major pet peeve of mine -- especially those who do it ostentatiously, as if they have to demonstrate how used they are to air travel. You just know that in the chance of a real emergency they'd be the first to freak out, too. I bet the FA on your flight had seen it 100 times before and decided to do something about it -- and I bet every other pax on your flight pipes down from now on during taxi. And I say that FA rocks, PMS or no PMS.

I always thought it would be a fun practical joke to organize all the passengers on a plane so when the safety announcements are being made, not only is everyone paying attention, but they all all furiously taking notes. And then raising hands and asking questions like "In the event of a water landing, I should use what as floatation device?".

I would do this except it would be too hard, and I'm sure I would wind up in jail.

I wanna be on Opus" flight! Imagine 150 pax leaping up, donning those lifejackets and pulling those red inflateable tabs and blowing on the whistles all at once.

CNN would run that one if someone camcordered it!

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~ Glen ~

Right on. For every instance of real air rage that flight attendants have to deal with and may get hurt in, there are so many more examples of them acting like power freaks in response to rudeness.

But what other punishment is there? How are you going to teach someone that the safety announcements are important? Is there anyone here who thinks that safety isn't important?

Yes, the punishment was a bit severe, but what other choice did the FA have besides doing nothing to really punish the offender? Not give them any peanuts during the flight?

I gotta agree with Beckles on this one, stimpy. That FA has my sympathy and my support. I've been delayed on flights for so many different reasons (as has everyone else) that I wouldn't mind if for once the delay resulted in some jerk who refuses to listen to the FA being hauled off the plane.

Safety announcements may be important to leisure travellers who travel once or twice per year but to the regular traveller they are just a routine like buckling up before the take off. Most of us here probably know by heart the whole pre take-off saftey thing and could do the demonstrations ourselves if we really had to.

Taking a guy off the flight just because he wouldn't shut up during the lecture? Geeeeeee... there is a difference between having a conversation and air rage... This is not primary school after all where students have to shut up when teacher speaks. If this is allowed to go on then what's next? We won't be allowed to read papers and magazines when a FA talks?

dup

[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 01-09-2001).]

Spider: Yeah, the guy talking may have known the safety speech inside out. The problem though is that the person next to him may not have known it, but couldn't hear it because of the guy's talking.




[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 01-09-2001).]

ON a recent Skywest aka UX flight from ONT-LAX, the woman who sat in 9B had the look of someone who didn't travel lots. FA went through cabin asking those in exit rows if they were willing and able to assist in the event of an emergency. Woman looked startled and said "Let me study the material first and tell you." At that point the fa looked startled, but I think was also pleased that someone took it so seriously. Woman then read the briefing card and in a couple of minutes signaled to the fa her ok. I appreciated the woman's candor and willingess to take it seriously.

To me it would depend on how loud and how brazenly the individual talked. If he was chatting in a low volume with his seatmate than that's his right. If he made it difficult for others around him to hear the safety announcement he should have gotten the boot.

Personally it was bad judgement on that guy's part to anger the flight attendant.. even if the punishment is a bit severe why annoy those folks on purpose??

How about the FA just stating, "If you do not stop & listen, sir, we will be forced to return to the gate and have you removed at your financial expense and also the expense of the time of all the other pax with whom you will not likely be very popular!! May I proceed? Thank you!"

A little warning would be nice!

I don't understand those who talk, read newspapers (eclipsing the view of the FA), or do anything else to disrupt others from hearing the announcements. It's simply rude.

Does this punnishment fit the crime? No. Am I glad it happened. Yes.