Ahh, wish I could be in your position of not having to deal with government enforcement agencies. I don’t work with the FAA, but do work with other government enforcement agencies (OSHA, MSHA, etc). As assine as it seems, many times when a company puts into effect a “more strignent policy” than what is required under law, the company is required to uphold that policy as if it were law.

I’ve had direct experience with exactly that under MSHA along with some other agencies. Companies can be heavily fined for just violating their own “policy” that does not violate any laws. Understandable, not really. I’ve always kind of seen it as a way to hit companies with fines that normally wouldn’t be hit under law since they are going above and beyond the legal regulations.

I was wondering whether it was the carrier or a paranoid relatively novice FA. The more senior FAs on UA mainline have never raised it.

My opinion is that it is a personal problem when any human being doesn’t handle a less than desirable situation in a mature adult manner.

+100

@Eric, I have to say I work for an airline that generally doesn’t have an issue of FA abuse. Of course I have seen FAs handle situations differently than I would but where is the line drawn? Passengers who feel they have been wronged have the option to speak with the lead FA, if they don’t find satisfaction from that then they need to contact the airline after their flight. Would I ever watch a FA outright abuse a passenger and not do anything about it? Of course not.

I have been a FA for 17 years and my experiences with passengers and fellow FAs is mostly positive. I would say the score is even on how many passengers I’ve seen “abuse” FAs verses how many FAs I’ve seen “abuse” passengers. My opinion is that it is a personal problem when any human being doesn’t handle a less than desirable situation in a mature adult manner.

I wouldn’t be surprised if one day I pick up the newspaper and read about a passenger who finally snapped and completely kicked the crap out of an FA before the pax was able to be restrained. There have definitely been flights on which I’ve sensed the entire plane rooting for one of the passengers to just go nuts and give a certain FA what he/she deserves. Not great for pax safety, and definitely breaking umpteen laws, but the perverse giddy satisfaction of seeing someone put an abusive FA in his/her place might be worth it.

Of course, we’d never see that person again once Homeland Security got their hands on him…

You see this level of discontent in the comments of many of Chris’ stories – people compromising their morals to say emphatically that it’s OK to steal from an airline if you can get away with it, that passengers should proactively open the emergency doors if they’ve sat on the tarmac too long, that if one ever discovered their neighbor was an airline telephone customer service rep that they’d burn down their neighbor’s house, etc.

The TSA and the airlines may think they’re protecting the public with their gestapo policies, but all it’s going to do is make videoconferencing, trains, buses, and staycations that much more popular. And that means less money for airlines. Frankly, I’d like to see them all go out of business so that we’d be forced to create a new business and service model from scratch – one that actually works and doesn’t piss off everyone.

I had my windbreaker stuffed in the seat pocket, and I got a visit from the seatback police!

Actually, I sort-of understand, as I was seated in an exit row.

But, I do have a problem with people putting things like laptops in the seatback pocket. I’ve been on flights where turbulence has caused the laptop to pop right up out of the pocket. On the occasions I have witnessed, the laptop just kind of popped out onto its owner’s lap, but I could imagine a little bigger bump could send a laptop flying at someone’s head.

Last time I put my laptop in a seatback pocket, it popped up, out, landed on the floor, then it spent the time between 0 and 10,000 feet sliding back and forth about three rows up and back under the seats. That will be the last time I do that!

What this means to all of us is that we really do need to just accept ALL instructions from flight attendants, even if they are inconsistent with what we’ve experienced on other airlines.

I want to also thank you, Sara, for not getting defensive about the comments in here discussing flight attendant abuses of power. You are correct that the vast majority of flight attendants are like you – doing their job professionally, to the best of their ability. Sadly, we all know that there are those that fall into that 1%. And the current system allows them to exploit that character defect, at our expense, and leaves us with no recourse.

We really can all get along on an aircraft. But it requires effort on EVERYONE’S part – the flight attendants need to perform with the utmost of respect and professionalism, recognizing that air travel today is one of the most unpleasant, uncomfortable, and undignified experiences many of us face in our lives. Passengers need to be respectful of the crew, and accepting of the indignities and discomforts involved in air travel. If those two basic rules of civility are practiced by everyone, we will all get where we need to go with a minimum of hostilities.