What does a therapist, a lawyer and a retired travel agent have in common with a 30 Rock actor and frequent guest host of SNL? They were all escorted off their flights for speaking inappropriately or disrespectfully or maybe just plain speaking to a beleaguered flight attendant who was having a very bad day. In Palm Beach, the semantic scuffle started over an AirTran attendant’s baggage handling skills; and according to Alec Baldwin in LA, the American attendant “…reamed me out 4 playing WORDS WITH FRIENDS!” It was all over his refusal to turn off his electronic device aka cell phone. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” Shakespeare.
Because I am a devout word nerd, I play Words with Friends. This is the one and only online game I do play and it is just with the Bride. We like it because we can play around her hectic schedule without time constraints. Bob, otoh, loves to play Suduko by himself on his iPad, in the travel magazine or wherever he can find a puzzle. We were both sitting on a US Air flight out of Charlotte, NC recently when the attendant announced that passengers should turn off their electronic devices. My cell was off and stowed away but I kept reading on my Kindle, thinking that because it was not connected by wifi at the time it would not interfere with avionics…wrong. Well actually pilot Bob said it wouldn’t, but I listened to the attendant when she specifically told me to “Turn It Off!” We had a very nice exchange actually – and this was after experiencing a rough pat down at the security gate.
What’s the take away? We have no rights people when we buy a commercial airline ticket. We agree to be mauled, xrayed and treated like cattle, “You, that line, you wait over here….” But I would like to propose that airline attendants receive specialized training in social skills, in anger management, in plain old fashioned courtesy. In fact we may all benefit from reading a book my psychologist brother Jim told me about, “Crucial Conversations.”
“Learn how to keep your cool and get the results you want when emotions flare. When stakes are high, opinions vary…” Start with your heart, oh and Happy Holidays. No I’m not ready for Christmas just in case you thought of asking….
MountainMornings 