Flying America in unfriendly skies

[question everything]

Flying America in unfriendly skies

May 16, 2006

The sophisti-yokels are at the gates, C-13 and C-24 to be exact.

The other day, on a flight over the Midwest, a sophisti-yokel – one of those smooth young alpha dogs with semi-expensive suits and implanted iPod ear-buds. Like sophisti-yokels everywhere, he exuded a sense of entitlement, assumed superiority and apparently his mama never taught him manners. Reaching forward, he jammed the used tissue into the seat pouch in front of him. “Stewardess,” he barked before takeoff. “I need a Bloody Mary.” The flight attendant walked past, eyeing him sideways. He yanked out another tissue, honked into it, and stuffed it into the pouch. Throughout the two-hour flight, he honked and stuffed, until the pouch bulged. It probably never occurred to him that someone else would have to clean up his mess.

(snip)

Then we still have the traditional yokel-yokels, such as the long-haired young guy in dirty jeans and construction boots, who, on another flight, lit up a cigarette in the jet's bathroom, returned to his seat where he sipped from a whiskey bottle. He was immediately sniffed out by a flight attendant. She confronted him; he denied that he had been smoking; she saw his whiskey bottle and demanded it, along with his cigarette lighter. He gave them up without a fight. “We'll need to report your behavior, and you'll be met at the gate, unless ...” she said, her voice trailing off. For the rest of the flight he acted sheepish and ashamed. Later, no security officers waited for him, and to his credit, he thanked the flight attendant on the way out. The boy had manners.

The airlines are 21st century America. Even as they jam as many people as possible onto every flight (open seats are a memory) they operate with fewer employees. In 2005, passenger complaints were on the rise; carriers were more likely to run behind schedule, lose baggage or bump passengers than during the previous year, according to a recently released Airline Quality Rating survey. Yet, as jet fuel prices inflated, major carriers have already increased fares five times this year. Various carriers now charge $2 for a pillow and a blanket, $3 to check luggage curbside, $3 to $5 for a sub-junk food snack, $24 to sit in the Economy Plus section (5 extra inches of legroom) or an extra $15 for seats in exit rows and forward aisle seats – including the one that the aforementioned sophisti-yokel had chosen. Airbus has proposed a new approach for short hops: standing-room-only passengers, strapped to an upright panel.

(snip)

Let's hear it for flight attendants. Yesterday, The New York Times reported that Southwest Airlines flight attendants, the few who signed on early and have stuck by their company and its profit-sharing program, have become multimillionaires. Beyond logic, they continue to push carts and hand out drinks and put up with yokels of every class – or lack of class. Based on the overbooked stress you see these days, even these men and women are underpaid.

(snip)


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060516/news_lz1e16louv.html

[Puglover]

1. 27 years ago I was estatic when I was hired by a major

airline. Today I make the same money I was making in 1985 and it's like working for a bus company. Kudos to the Southwest flight attendants. I truly wonder how the industry is going to last paying shit to it's employees and expecting them to deal with safty issues and the demands of customer service.

[MadHound]

2. This is another reason that I don't fly unless I absolutely have to

Packed into a plane like sardines, being charged entirely too much, being nickled and dimed to death for every little perk, having to put up with worse service coming at a higher price, no thank you, I think I'll take a car, motorcycle, train, even a horse and cart. I was getting fed up with the airline industry before 911, and now, unless I'm going overseas, I won't be taking a commercial flight ever again. If I wanted to be treated like a cow, I'll go to the Chicago Stock Yards, it's cheaper.