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Buddapan -> RE: To The Fatty Running On The Track This Afternoon: I Really Hope You Read This. (3/22/2014 6:49:18 AM)
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I have worked for Continental Airlines for 29 years and theirs not much I haven't seen or heard about. During the 50's a ticket to fly from LAX to JFK would cost you between $1500 and $2000. In those days they didn't have but one class, the seats were plush, food great and the amenities were numerous. As flying became the transportation of choice people started demanding cheap prices so a DC-8 or B-707 which back then normally seated 80 to 100 passengers now needed to have 200 seats to just cover costs. People demanded safer aircraft, so aircraft become expensive to purchase and own. Example, a five dollar relay you can buy at any parts store, that same relay will cost you two hundred dollars for an aircraft just because it is required to have FAA/PMA stamped on it. The list goes on and on but we won't go into it.
An airport is the only place in the world that you can watch an intelligent grown human being walk through the doors and turn into sniveling whining two year old. I've seen people with steamer trunks trying to carry them onboard just so they don't have to go to baggage claim to pick them up. We did an internal study to find out what our actions were that caused us to lose or misroute luggage. We found we lost/misrouted very few bags that were checked at the ticket counter, the problem occured when people tried to carry on a bag the size of pickup and it had to be checked at the gate. At this time of the loading process, time is down to the wire and those bags sometime wind up being left at the gate.
There was a time when the typical customer dressed fairly well, but comfortable when they flew. I've seen 300lb men get on that gave everyone crack attack when they bent over or stretched, and the same size women with stretch pants no underware and the whole front crotch area wet. I've had to referee instances where people who should have bought two seats get into arguments because that persons seat mates wouldn't let them raise the arms on the seat because they didn't fit. I've seen parents board with a whole brood that was totally out of control and caused problems the entire flight. They're upset because their kids are acting out and upset that everyone around them are pissed, but can't seem to clue in on the fact that the kids are acting no different on this flight than they do at home. If kids aren't taught disipline at home then they're not going to be disiplined in public.
I'm very lucky though because my office is up on the flight deck and I keep my door closed and locked. My hats off to the people back in the cabin and at the gate and ticket counters because those people have a lot of patience.
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