Alec Baldwin Tossed by American Airlines

[HSKR]

Wonder if we will get an airline skit the next time he hosts SNL?

[VA Husker Fan]

@canttakeit - so you can use it when you're taxiing after a landing, but not taxiing to take off? That is weird. I suppose, guessing, that they need more instruction from the tower taxiing toward takeoff?

 

 

@NUance - those 800 MHz phones are an older model, I believe. According to Wikipedia US standard is now 1900 MHz, presumably so we can fry our brains even more efficiently.

 

 

That is correct. I dont think the phones are the issue at that point. I think its to keep distractions away so you will pay attention to the safety info, and to have them shut down before you are on the runway, I agree you should not be using them when the safety stuff is being done. In the US you can make calls once you land, although overseas, and some overseas carriers like KLM, do not allow you to make calls until the doors are open, but that is changing as well...

Another reason for this is probably that when you are taxiing out you are on your way to flying. At some point soon the attendants will have to sit and they need time to do all of the safety checks, including phone checks, before then. The plane can't get to the runway and THEN have people start turning off their phones. Sometimes you sit in line, sometimes the plane taxis out and immediately takes off. At best its an inconvenience to have the plane wait until they are off, at worst its a safety issue as there may be a window of takeoffs and landings you are narrowing, and what if they spot a phone still on as the plane is taking off?

 

I'm not going to guess what happened here, but I recall hearing about some recorded phone conversations where Baldwin totally lit into his ex and I think even his daughter, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was a total ass on the plane.

 

When you've landed and are taxiing in, you're heading towards a stop, and there's no risk of not getting people's phones turned off on time.

[HSKR]

I suggest everyone here that agrees with Alex to all try the same thing on your next flight in support of him.

[Cactusboy]

 

 

Hmmm... Maybe southwest is different, I normally fly Delta. I have always been told to shut down all electronics upon door closing, I figured it was to remove distractions so you can listen to the safety announcements...

 

He was told to shut his phone down, ignored that, then got up and loudly went into the lav, so loud the the flight crew heard him, and was swearing to the crew. If someone (anyone) gets up a locks themselves in a lav, and behaves in such a manner, when the plane is ready to go your gone IMO. The plane hadnt pushed back yet so booting him was, more than likely, quick and easy. I guess I side with the crew on this, they have an arrogant passenger who will not obey commands from the crew, he is now delaying the flight because playing some word game on his phone is more important than leaving, sorry Sir your gone....

 

I'm sure you see this kind of stuff a lot as well, it really gets my goat when i see the amount of crap flight crews have to put up with. I saw a dude verbally attack an attendant, because he thought her tone was wrong. All she did was ask if he could put one of his carry on's under the seat, and she ended up having to swallow her pride and apologize.. I've seen parents let their kids go nuts (this was a 15+ hour flight to Dubai) and when people complained the parents say "I cant control my kids" Nice real nice... Almost every international flight I take, I see spoiled little sh!ts behaving so badly it makes my head spin....

 

As for the shade thing, I have been asked to put it up on landing, and on long flights, I have been asked to put it down to keep the cabin dark, so people can sleep/watch movies etc., also I've been asked to put it back down once we arrived, to keep the sun out and the cabin cool, this normally happened when I lived in warmer climates...

 

I hear ya on the flights I gotta go to Israel and back yet this year (again)...

 

Upon deeper reflection I guess I might be over sensitive to it... Although this class act used to be a co-worker of mine, so I think you might understand why...

 

http://consumerist.c...lines-7757.html

 

Alec Baldwin was a co-worker of yours?

 

Actually we are just going off of what each side says...we don't really know exactly what happened...what's being exaggerated...what any context may be etc. THere are likely scenarios that could make either side look bad in this.

 

I don't think I've ever seen a flight attendant treated poorly. Maybe SW passengers are more polite? Only once have I had a flight attendant be somewhat rude to me...but I gave her the benefit of the doubt, let it slide and considered she could have just had a very long and bad day.

[Hingle McCringleberry]

 

 

Hmmm... Maybe southwest is different, I normally fly Delta. I have always been told to shut down all electronics upon door closing, I figured it was to remove distractions so you can listen to the safety announcements...

 

He was told to shut his phone down, ignored that, then got up and loudly went into the lav, so loud the the flight crew heard him, and was swearing to the crew. If someone (anyone) gets up a locks themselves in a lav, and behaves in such a manner, when the plane is ready to go your gone IMO. The plane hadnt pushed back yet so booting him was, more than likely, quick and easy. I guess I side with the crew on this, they have an arrogant passenger who will not obey commands from the crew, he is now delaying the flight because playing some word game on his phone is more important than leaving, sorry Sir your gone....

 

I'm sure you see this kind of stuff a lot as well, it really gets my goat when i see the amount of crap flight crews have to put up with. I saw a dude verbally attack an attendant, because he thought her tone was wrong. All she did was ask if he could put one of his carry on's under the seat, and she ended up having to swallow her pride and apologize.. I've seen parents let their kids go nuts (this was a 15+ hour flight to Dubai) and when people complained the parents say "I cant control my kids" Nice real nice... Almost every international flight I take, I see spoiled little sh!ts behaving so badly it makes my head spin....

 

As for the shade thing, I have been asked to put it up on landing, and on long flights, I have been asked to put it down to keep the cabin dark, so people can sleep/watch movies etc., also I've been asked to put it back down once we arrived, to keep the sun out and the cabin cool, this normally happened when I lived in warmer climates...

 

I hear ya on the flights I gotta go to Israel and back yet this year (again)...

 

Upon deeper reflection I guess I might be over sensitive to it... Although this class act used to be a co-worker of mine, so I think you might understand why...

 

http://consumerist.c...lines-7757.html

 

Alec Baldwin was a co-worker of yours?

 

Actually we are just going off of what each side says...we don't really know exactly what happened...what's being exaggerated...what any context may be etc. THere are likely scenarios that could make either side look bad in this.

 

I don't think I've ever seen a flight attendant treated poorly. Maybe SW passengers are more polite? Only once have I had a flight attendant be somewhat rude to me...but I gave her the benefit of the doubt, let it slide and considered she could have just had a very long and bad day.

 

 

HA... No the guy in the link used to work with me...

[Cactusboy]

I was wrong...SW does tell you to turn off your electronic devices after they close the door and before taxing for take off. I guess I was just thinking it was later because I always put my phone on vibrate and ignore the first request.

[Hingle McCringleberry]

I was wrong...SW does tell you to turn off your electronic devices after they close the door and before taxing for take off. I guess I was just thinking it was later because I always put my phone on vibrate and ignore the first request.

 

 

No worries, a lot of people do that, and, when caught, most do not respond like AB.... Hope your flight was smooth, and non-eventful...

[Cactusboy]

I was wrong...SW does tell you to turn off your electronic devices after they close the door and before taxing for take off. I guess I was just thinking it was later because I always put my phone on vibrate and ignore the first request.

 

 

No worries, a lot of people do that, and, when caught, most do not respond like AB.... Hope your flight was smooth, and non-eventful...

 

 

I'd like to know how it really went down. I can see AB being an ass...but I can also see flight attendants being asses too. I heard he wrote about it on the Huffington Post...I'll go search for it.

[Cactusboy]

That didn't take long... What stands out to me..and what I was wondering about...was that the plan sat still for 15 min or more after the doors closed. I too would be pissed if I couldn't text on my phone at that time if others were allowed to. I wonder why no one was able to get all recorded on video from their phone.

 

 

 

First off, I would like to apologize to the other passengers onboard the American Airlines flight that I was thrown off of yesterday. It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my "issue" with a certain flight attendant.

 

 

I suppose a part of my frustration lay with the fact that I had flown American for over 20 years and was brand loyal, in the extreme. The ticketing agents and Admiral's Club staff have always been nothing but abundantly helpful to me, as I have flown hundreds of thousands of miles with the one carrier.

 

My confusion began when the flight, already a half hour behind schedule, boarded, the door closed, and we proceeded to sit at the gate for another fifteen minutes. I then did what I have nearly always done and that was to pull out my phone to complete any other messaging I had to do before take off. In nearly all other instances, the flight attendants seemed to be unbothered by and said nothing about such activity, by me or anyone else, until we actually were pulling away from the gate.

 

In this case, while other people were still manipulating their own phones, this one employee singled me out to put my phone away. Afterward, we still sat at the gate. I pulled out my phone again, while others did the same. Again, I was singled out by this woman in the most unpleasant of tones. I guess the fact that this woman, who had decided to make some example of me, while everyone else was left undisturbed, did get the better of me.

 

However, I have learned a valuable lesson. Airlines in the US are struggling with fuel costs, labor costs, bankruptcies, you name it. It's no secret that the level of service on US carriers has deteriorated to a point that would make Howard Hughes red-faced. Filthy planes, barely edible meals, cuts in jet service to less-traveled locations. One of the big changes, in my time, is in the increase of the post-9/11, paramilitary bearing of much of the air travel business. September 11th was a horrific day in the airline industry, yet in the wake of that event, I believe carriers and airports have used that as an excuse to make the air travel experience as inelegant as possible.

 

Most of the flight attendants I have ever encountered still have some remnant of the old idea of service. Add to that the notion that in this day and age, many people have a lot of important work to do, by phone, and would like to do so till the last possible minute. But there are many now who walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands and they have made flying a Greyhound bus experience.

 

The lesson I've learned is to keep my phone off when the 1950's gym teacher is on duty. That was my fault there, even though this trip was quite a bit different from so many others. But it is sad, I think, that you've got to fly overseas today in order to bring back what has been thrown overboard by US carriers in terms of common sense, style, and service.

Again, my apology to my fellow travelers.

 

 

http://www.huffingto..._b_1135201.html

[Cactusboy]

and...

 

 

 

An Addendum to My Flying Lesson

 

Posted: 12/ 8/11 11:50 AM ET

 

People posting here pose the question, "Why do I believe I need to be treated differently from other passengers?"

 

My answer is "I don't." So, why was everyone else on that flight using a phone and I was the only one hectored about that? Twice.

Sometimes one can be treated differently in a not-so-cuddly way. Take my word for it.

 

Three things I think are worth mentioning here. One is that American Airlines' "source", a Mr. Weiss, is a liar. I never talked on the phone. Two, American keeps changing their story. Hey, I get that they have to back their employee. But I never yelled at or used inappropriate language to ANYONE on that plane. American's need to dirty me up is pro forma, but transparent. And three, if American was so concerned about my behavior, why did they seat me on the next flight and fly me home to New York at 3PM?

 

Today, the New York Post features a cover story on me deactivating my Twitter account (social media being a tad less exciting to me just now). Really? The cover of the paper? About that?

 

Then again, this is the paper owned by that phone-tapping, sociopathic NewsCorp. The company that both British and US courts should immediately strip of all of their broadcast licenses and force them out of the news business.

The front page of a New York newspaper. Over something like that. The New York Post. The worst newspaper in the history of journalism. No doubt about that now.

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin/american-airlines-new-york-post_b_1136761.html

[Hingle McCringleberry]

That didn't take long... What stands out to me..and what I was wondering about...was that the plan sat still for 15 min or more after the doors closed. I too would be pissed if I couldn't text on my phone at that time if others were allowed to. I wonder why no one was able to get all recorded on video from their phone.

 

 

 

First off, I would like to apologize to the other passengers onboard the American Airlines flight that I was thrown off of yesterday. It was never my intention to inconvenience anyone with my "issue" with a certain flight attendant.

 

 

I suppose a part of my frustration lay with the fact that I had flown American for over 20 years and was brand loyal, in the extreme. The ticketing agents and Admiral's Club staff have always been nothing but abundantly helpful to me, as I have flown hundreds of thousands of miles with the one carrier.

 

My confusion began when the flight, already a half hour behind schedule, boarded, the door closed, and we proceeded to sit at the gate for another fifteen minutes. I then did what I have nearly always done and that was to pull out my phone to complete any other messaging I had to do before take off. In nearly all other instances, the flight attendants seemed to be unbothered by and said nothing about such activity, by me or anyone else, until we actually were pulling away from the gate.

 

In this case, while other people were still manipulating their own phones, this one employee singled me out to put my phone away. Afterward, we still sat at the gate. I pulled out my phone again, while others did the same. Again, I was singled out by this woman in the most unpleasant of tones. I guess the fact that this woman, who had decided to make some example of me, while everyone else was left undisturbed, did get the better of me.

 

However, I have learned a valuable lesson. Airlines in the US are struggling with fuel costs, labor costs, bankruptcies, you name it. It's no secret that the level of service on US carriers has deteriorated to a point that would make Howard Hughes red-faced. Filthy planes, barely edible meals, cuts in jet service to less-traveled locations. One of the big changes, in my time, is in the increase of the post-9/11, paramilitary bearing of much of the air travel business. September 11th was a horrific day in the airline industry, yet in the wake of that event, I believe carriers and airports have used that as an excuse to make the air travel experience as inelegant as possible.

 

Most of the flight attendants I have ever encountered still have some remnant of the old idea of service. Add to that the notion that in this day and age, many people have a lot of important work to do, by phone, and would like to do so till the last possible minute. But there are many now who walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands and they have made flying a Greyhound bus experience.

 

The lesson I've learned is to keep my phone off when the 1950's gym teacher is on duty. That was my fault there, even though this trip was quite a bit different from so many others. But it is sad, I think, that you've got to fly overseas today in order to bring back what has been thrown overboard by US carriers in terms of common sense, style, and service.

Again, my apology to my fellow travelers.

 

 

http://www.huffingto..._b_1135201.html

 

 

In the end this just makes him look more like a jerk, IMO. Ohh Boo-hoo, I was singled out, really, you have proof of that? He calls the guy a liar saying I never talked on the phone, last I heard (and this may of changed) they said he was playing a game.

 

US based airlines suck.. So you were fiercely brand loyal to a company you thought was awful (not to mention the entire US industry) all along..

 

Paramilitary airline travel... Holy crap is he for real!... Flying (for me at least) has gotten back to pre 9-11 style, yes I get annoyed, but most of the time its due to rookie fliers who dont know, or just cant understand security/taxi out/taxi in procedures, cant or wont control their kids... I have been on flights with KLM, where folks just get up to leave the pane, and it hasn't stopped yet, would like to see the lawsuit if someone did that on a US based plane then hurt themselves (but it not my fault, how would I know not to get up when the plane is moving)...

 

Lastly AB, you still broke the law, you got caught, you behaved like the D-Bag we know you are, and now your butt hurt... Just go back to hosting Saturday Night Live, because the rest of your carrier is circling to toilet...

[Cactusboy]

You just look like you have a chip on your shoulder..w/ all the assumptions your making. and last I knew his career was going great...winning awards even.