Headline: Woman thrown off a US Airways flight for taking a picture of the rude flight attendant's name tag. Synopsis: According to the article, the passenger took the photo of the name tag so she could remember the Flight Attendant's name. The Flight Attendant in question asked the passenger to delete the photo. Passenger refused. Flight Attendant informed Captain, and Passenger was removed as a flight risk. The article only tells the passenger's side of the story. There was no information about what the flight attendant did that was rude enough to need her information. There was also no information about the flight attendant's actions.MY TAKE:
Even if the flight attendant was extremely rude, the passenger didn't need a picture. She just needed her flight information. She knew she was flying from Philadelphia to Miami. The airline can look up her name & reservation and then figure out who was flying on the flight. Sure they might not have the specific name- but they can inquire to each flight attendant what happened.
We weren't there and this article doesn't describe what actually happened to set it all off. I can only imagine the possibilities. I've had many passengers irritated that our overhead bins are full and they have to check bags. They've asked for my name. I gave it to them. They ask for anything more than my first name I politely inform them that we are not allowed to give last names or employee numbers, but the flight information and our first names will be enough. I then ask, what our crew can do to solve the problem. They are usually fine by the the time we get to our destination.
Do I think the flight attendant should have asked her to delete the photo? No. If it was of her name tag. If the photo was of her crew badge. Absolutely. Our crew badges have personal information on them, that I personally would not want to be stored on someone's camera or computer. Or reproduced. I don't need a facebook stalker. I don't want my photo out there on the internet either. At my airline- our badges cannot be visible to our passengers though.
Was this passenger a flight risk? or was the flight attendant just on a power trip? I guess we'd have to hear from the flight attendant and/or witnesses. Without knowing the whole story though- lets put this one in the pile of "He Said. She Said. Truth is" and learn from it. Nexttt.
I just found a blog when I was looking for a new Id holder lol. It's a huge safety issue and the pax should have deleted the picture. I'm an FA btw. What's not to say the pax is a terrorist or associated with a terrorist group and will take the photo and reproduce a crew ID with it. She/they will have access to all kinds of secured areas. Maybe that was the whole plan, to go on flights and take pics of crew id's anything is possible they (terrorists) will try anything these days.
ReplyDeleteI never have my Id visible inflight. I always tuck it into my vest. I do it because my picture is horrible and because it really gets in the way when you are trying to do things like serve or when you are bending down and the pax don't need to see it anyway.
Interesting Flying B and the other comment as well. I often just let my crew id hang lose as there is not a very good spot to put it and I keep my medical access key on it, but now I will be thinking twice about it as people can get a lot of info off of that. Thanks for making me think!
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