Self-confessed 'bag Nazis' are the pits

hiro

cheer up rod. it's a good story.

Norman

I have some sympathy with the guy. Yes, you shouldn't take the job (or should quit) if obnoixous passengers swearing at you and hitting you around the head with bags annoys you but the guy snapped, give him a break.

It is annoying when you get told not to get your bags when the plane is obviously stationary but then so is a lot of H&S and we put up with it. If I started swearing and hitting people every time H&S annoyed me I'd never be out of jail.

As a passenger, after one day of flying my blood is boiling with people elbowing past you, scrambling to be first to their bags as though it's an Olympic sport, knocking your family out of the way to get to the front of the plane after landing, etc.

I couldn't do his job for all the tea in China.

Tim Hall

Ouch!
Thousands of people (I'm one) working in one industry smeared in just one short paragraph! You can and should do better than this rather embarrassing rant.
For the record, there are a majority of crew and other airline staff who do not behave as described above They go to work, do a good job quietly and then go home. Steven Slater's behaviour was unacceptable: So was that of the passenger immediately involved. This is a small story about a very silly man and an unpleasant passenger. We can learn nothing from it except how to fill up column inches with trivia.
When you see a bandwagon beginning to roll, it's often a good idea to look for ways to get off, rather than to reach for the accelerator.

timac

I think that's a bit harsh.

I've flown well over 250 times (I'm only 26) and have never, ever had a problem with cabin crew. Check in staff are another matter. But it's in their job description to squeeze money out of us, after all.

Anyone have any anecdotes of poor cabin crew experiences? Rod?

1A

They are very nice when your in the Concorde Lounge and sitting in 1A.

anne allan

Yup, that's why I avoid flying like the plague. Why should I hand over my hard earned dosh to be treated like a mentally subnormal sheep, albeit one armed with a lethal tube of hand cream?
But, having sat near these self centred numpties who wave their blasted luggage around like a Salvation Army banner, I do have some sympathy for Steven Slater.

rod liddle

what is wrong with you people? Look at the smirking idiot! Haven't you come across him on every flight you've taken? Kill him!!!!!!

Maria

I can't work out what he was arrested for.

Nicholas Hallam

I'm with you Rod. Showing patience to annoying (paying) members of the public is about the only skill needed by flight attendants. Someone needs to tell them we do not share their own view of their importance.

smell the glove

I'm with Mr. Rod on this one.There's One on every flight, mincing up and down the plane. I think trolley Darren is the right term. No sense of humor. I only said I had a bomb in me satchel. Night in Walton. Bastards.

Black Rod

Kill him? Really, Rod? Pick on someone your own size, why don't you? With all that's wrong with our country and the world, the best you can do is to pick on a male trolley dolly with a short fuse? Aim higher, old son. There are more worthy targets out there....

Tim Hall

He was arrested because when he left the aircraft he abandoned his passengers and endangered both them and other people on the ground when he deployed the slide. Both are absolutely unforgivable sins for those who work in a safety role.

Rod - The point is not whether his smirk is unattractive or not (it is) but that you're choosing to tar everybody else with the same brush. You'll find you can play much better when the toys stay in the cot, but, hey! They're you're toys, so It's up to you.

Robert Taggart

With our feet firmly on the ground, well, a Virgin on the ridiculous train !
Agreed. The standards of staff manners now be worse than they were under 'good old BR' ! wow, that takes some doing !
Still, at least we can 'drink' (G+T) while we are driven !... to distraction !!
As for flying... could not say. No, not afraid, just poor !

Raffles

I am with Rod on this one. It justifies many of my stereotypes rather nicely. It also chimes with what Fergus P posted recently about not liking the electorate. Lets face it, the average Joe Public is a charmless berk. I have met a few charming Trolley Dollies mind but thats another story and definitely not one that dear old Steven would be much interested in.

rod liddle

"Kill him" was a joke, Black Rod, mate. I don't want him killed.

But I want the smirk wiped off his silly face.

Richard of Moscow

I feel sorry for trolly dollies. Most of them have been fine to me, but they're like footy referees - I only really remember the crap ones, especially the muppets on British Airways and Air France flights, but they're both crap airlines in general.

But I can't believe people are making a hero of that flouncing great ponce at JFK airport. If he can't handle a bit of aggression without wanting to run away and go home, then he should be in the UK police, or the French or US military.

Tim Hall

I'm gonna retire and do the dignified silence thing. I figure that for once, Rod has more egg on his face than I do, and further comment from me can only reverse that situation - I'll just enjoy the moment :)

jonnyjackhammer

Rod. I'm with you - but have you taken in the photo of the "cop" cuffing and strapping him into the chair. Perhaps I'm prejudiced but does this not suggest something about the NYPD too? I think we could lock a lot of people up on the basis of appearance! Anyone with a bull terrier. Anyone with bling. Anyone with excess piercings. And it would save a lot of money too - particularly if we dispense with all those incompetent, pompous and left wing briefs and expensive jury trials. Come to think about it - I'm not very keen on my next door neighbour.

Craig Strachan

The Mail says fifty police officers turned up to arrest him? FIFTY?

Gay rage is evidently a potent and scary thing.

JB

Very definitely with Rod here. I fly for work far too often and the staff are all foul, from the moment you enter the car park of the departure airport.

Give him a kicking, Rod. And if he DID open the emergency door then he should have been shot dead as a terrorist immediately. Anybody else would have been.

Eurostar and boats for me from now on.

Peter Gordon

Well Rod, it all depends which 'news' source provides the real story. It may be the case that the person being admonished had placed something in the locker which then fell on the stewards head. Then there is the 'human interest' element: the poor bloke had just lost one parent (died) and the other is at deaths door.

The passenger allegedly swore at him and he may have HIV. All in all the whole thing was a mess

Whilst I agree that the steward class often forget who is there for whose benefit, let's not lose sight of the fact that passengers can be an even bigger pain.

Pot Head

According to The Times, when Bob Ayling was CEO of British Airways he never eat the food on the plane because the cabin crew gobbed in it.

Arty Bee

The last time I flew to Portugal one of the airport heavies meticulously examined my copy of Brecht’s poems, and asked why it was written in a foreign language: and why was I not reading English…. When, after further offensive and stupid question about my reading matter, he started riffling through the India-paper pages of the book, bending some of them in the process, I told him to be careful, as the contents were really ‘explosive’. So he threatened to have me arrested.

After that another bloke searched me with all the fervour of a paedophilic tourist in some far Eastern country examining a boy. When I made it clear to him he was not there to give my private parts the once over, however much he fancied me, and if he continued, he would get my knee in his teeth, there was trouble again.

As you say, they are there, these blokes and blokesses, to gratify their own will to power (Oh, dear, a quote from another German), and we are expected to grin and bear it.

Verity

Pot Head 10:09 - Bob Ayling was not operating on all cylinders if he ever flew BA even though he was the CEO and flew free.

I have it down as the world's worst airline since Pan Am bit the tarmac.

Leon Vestey

This is only - or perhaps especially- true on British flights. Manchester airport is their training camp I think.

Dixon

I see what you mean about "gay"...or in fact more resembling a cross-eyed Thunderbirds puppet...drives a Jeep Wangler does he...but to be frank, if you are worried about those who might "... (literally in some cases) bugger the public,... " maybe you should address the patently floral officer with the earing and pansy tattoos performing his arrest.

Dixon

I only ever knew one air hostess personally. She was absolutely lovely. Came as a shock to discover her one day going out of her house in a British Airways uniform!

Dixon

On the other hand the passenger who couldnt wait sounds like a teabag as well.

Ollandia

The ultimate in thick, vindictive security staff have to be the ones at Gatwick. I shall never fly from there again.They let through several Osama bin Laden look-alikes but stopped me (an English woman in her seventies) for a thorough and intrusive search - and they enjoyed every second of my embarrassment and the fact the flight had to be held up for me.

AndyinBrum

Rod, if you're going to pick on people about photo's taken of them, shouldnt you change your profile pic to one taken this decade?

GaryO

I hate passengers more than the stewards. I particularly want to kick those that couldn't wait for the plane to taxi and start taking their stuff from the overhead lockers crowding all over your head.

Cabin staff has to put up with some vile passengers (and their equally odious kids)who treat them like they were their servants, bring me this and get me that. If a passenger called me a M*****F****r, I'd break a bottle of beer on his head.

Steven Slater is a hero.

Pot Head

Verity "I have it down as the world's worst airline since Pan Am bit the tarmac."

Depends where you can afford to sit, luv !

Noma Lity

For many a year, being a regular flier, I have called them 'guards' as this seem to be their functions in these happy air travel days

DougS

He was really just concerned about safety - highly dangerous to stand up and remove your bag from the overhead locker - no problem if you want to deploy the escape chute though!

As to Rod's suggestions on how he should be dealt with, I'd describe them as cruel...but fair.

HampsteadOwl

The "bag nazis" these days are down at Tescos and Sainsburys. They used to be called checkout girls and they look at you as if you have made an indecent suggestion should you dare to ask for a plastic receptacle to carry home your groceries. I know that I should really walk home with the baked beans balanced on my head and pour orange juice directly into my trouser pockets - or better still do the planet a favour and just give up eating - but somehow old habits.

Baron

spot on Rod, and the guy does look revolting, and the way of his disposal feels too gentle to me.

vintage55

Rod, a little unfair on people trying to do a pretty horrible job. With the democratisation of air travel, the experience is now on a par with boarding a bus full of chavs, there are still flyers who pose and preen as if they're an extra in an Imperial Airways advert.
It's also yet another 'profession' where the straightjacket of elf 'n safety has corroded and dehumanised the relationship between customer and server.
As an example, I have decided not to renew membership of my local gym after last night they put one of those yellow A-boards out by the swimming pool warning users 'Caution - Wet Floor'. The limit for infantile and insulting edicts to grown adults has no boundaries any more.

CharlieRay15

Whereas in the country from which the original Nazis came you can actually talk to the police normally without being subjected to a patronising, supercilious attitude. Arty Bee is right - read Brecht, someone who knew a lot about both travel and Nazis...

Keb Bishop

Although he seems like a bit of a prat, and deserved to be arrested for stealing teh beers and abusing the chute, I am considerably more shocked by Liddle's being unable to spell the word "trolley".

Stephanie Tohill

I applaud him. The passenger sounds like an a*se, the plane is still taxi-ing, you stay in your seat. When told to sit down you don't respond with calling the air steward a mother f*cker. Fantastic way to quit your job...

Maria

Tim Hall, thanks for the reply. I am just surprised it was an arrestable offence. Dereliction of duty, yes though I fear this is hardly uncommon. But what law did he break? It seems harsh in the current indulgent climate. Is it part of the possibly justifiable hysteria about planes aand flying?

Richard of Moscow

I thought both trolly and trolley were considered acceptable, like realise and realize, or Czar, Tzar and Tsar.

Verity

Pothead - No, it doesn't, luv.

Pot Head

Verity, well you obviously don't turn left then, do you, dear!

WB

Two personal air travel experiences where Slater might have been an asset

1 a woman in full Islamic veil praying in the aisle on takeoff Heathrow - Riyadh and who wouldn't be dissuaded and on the contrary was joined by a couple of others in an act of friendly sodality while well-meaning onlookers enquired of cabin staff whether the runway faced roughly East or not

2 an entire cabin of peacable nomadic looking folk who set about brewing tea on little petrol stoves they set down in the aisle after take-off Cairo - Luxor

not to mention

3 the huge solid teak planks obviously weighing tonnes and tonnes laid all the way down the passenger aisle Siem Riep - Phnom Penh which the pilot explained carefully over the intercom might make the take-off a bit sluggish and mean we would have to fly below the clouds all the way back ...

but right why are they all queer like Hollywood stars apparently and even stranger why aren't there any theories out there explaining this strange and surely unnatural state of affairs?

Lungfish

He looks like he has jumbo landing gear taxying up his runway.

Old Flashy

I don't know if I'm with you or not on this one, Rod. On the one hand (pointing to the emergency exit on my right), there is the fact that I detest mostly everything about the airline industry since the Muslims made it all too frustrating for everyone and on the other hand (pointing to the emergency exit on my left), there's the fact he stole a beer before sliding down the shute which in my book is a comedy classic (judging from his photo, that comedy classic must be Gimme Gimme Gimme).

Verity

Pothead - No speakee your lingo, sweet thang ... Try English next time.

Eddie

By the looks of him he could easily get a new job presenting children's TV or prattling camp drivel on a chat show. The BBC has probably made him a six figure offer already...

S Arse

Have to say this is my subject, I might not know as much as some of this blogs contributors about global warming or immigration or any of the other important issues of the day, and it may be that I don’t know as much as Dixon about anything at all... who could. But air travel, now that’s my specialist topic! I am subjected to it almost constantly for my working life.
Travelling on aeroplanes used to be an almost pleasant experience, one could roll up at the airport, present a voucher to the nice lady on the check in desk, saunter through to the exec lounge and at the agreed time mosey down to ones allotted seat to be greeted by a pretty and smiling trolley dolly with glass of champers in hand.
But now, I have to get to the airport aeons in advance of the flights departure, be put through a comedy routine about who packed my bags a by a security practitioner who seems to be devoid of any sense of the ridiculous, next I have to perform the check-in task myself by way of some touch screen nonsense, and then...join a huge queue where the check-in used to be to get my bags on the flight.
Then on to the security proper, this more tedious than any other tedious thing in life. Huge queue meandering back and forth eventually depositing me in front of another security professional who depending on the time of month (both genders) will require you to put your bag in the box/on the conveyor, remove computer from bag/leave computer in bag, take off shoes/leave on shoes, take off watch belt glasses coins in pocket blah blah blah...their colleagues busy strip searching someones poor granny while completely ignoring the religious nutter with semtex in his undies... because profiling is a nasty racist practice only proposed by Nazis.
No time now to relax in the lounge, straight onto the pre flight random search perpetrated by another set of security monkeys who themselves appear to fit the profile of security risk far more than me or my fellow search victims would seem to.
Now eventually onto the plane only to be confronted by some slap faced harridan or her epicene co-worker barking out instructions about where you cannot stow your carry on bags, the glass of champagne disappointingly replaced by a plastic cup filled with Lambrini. Thus has Life massively deteriorated for the frequent traveller during the past thirty years.
Just a quick word for some of the Asian airlines which have not yet succumbed to the western practice of employing the socially inept, menopausal and just plain inappropriate as “flight attendants”, it can still be less of a strain to fly with Singapore Airlines for instance, and the Arab airlines try hard though I won’t normally use them on principal.

Don Birnam

Verity darling,

Despite the fact that a sizeable percentage of BA's fleet/flight are, arguably, old enough to belong in an aviation museum Pot Head thinks BA is great because he has pots of money and he always flies first class!

John Steadman

No, Richard of Moscow, I don't think trolly/trolley is quite the same as Tsar/Tzar/Czar at all - no foreign term to confuse the issue.
But surely this trolly/trolley thing is just a bit of a cheap shot anyhow, n'est-ce pas... ne c'est pas....... bugger...

David Ossitt

GaryO

“Steven Slater is a hero.”

Gary you devalue the English language, a hero is a man distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, and strength.

Likewise a heroine is a woman a woman who has performed heroic deeds.

Whilst Steven Slater is merely an overdramatising mincing tart.

Charles

Verity,

You must have had a bad experience once that has made you so bitter about BA.

I've flown BA, Lufty, SAS, Air France, Cathy, Air China, United, American Eagle, and American in the last 6 months. BA was clearly the best and (surprisingly) Cathy the least pleasant

digbydolben

Are you sure that all of you aren't Americans? Frankly, I don't think I've ever seen such bare-faced, obnoxious queer-bashing on one British thread before.

And you're all wrong; the guy is married, with a WIFE (a female one). I'd sack him, but, here in America, if he heard the people sacking him attacking him in this manner, he'd get his job back pretty promptly.

revolution

The picture of this guy said it all before we had the story?
Right again Rod.

Richard of Moscow

Digbydolben, "And you're all wrong; the guy is married, with a WIFE (a female one)."

Tony Blair is married, and he is often described as mincing great ponce / pansy / poodle, (once even by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London,) because he is an effeminate drama queen, like this (male) trolley dolly. I don't think it's all queer-bashing, just mincing-little-nazi-bashing.

Paul Carlin

Entirely with you on this one, Rod. Except for the wee lass on Flybe yesterday, though...

Air travel isn't anything to write home about now. It's a bus journey, with as many seats squeezed into a fuselage as possible and as much profit made on the drinks tray as feasible.

Arrival at Heathrow from an international flight is also a surreal experience - the immigration staff seem to have been recruited wholesale on the streets of Islamabad, while announcements are all made in an unintelligible Polish or Latvian accent.

Amanda

I just want to say that I love the comments on this thread: they're so entertaining.

People complain that Rod's taken that position or that Rod's said this thing or not said the other thing -- but as long as he creates a nice hopping blog like this, I say he's doing his job!

GIDEON from South Africa

The male counterpart to a trolly dolly is called a Coffee Moffie (ie=y in English) in South Africa. Moffie is Afrikaans for a queer.

Tim Hall

Impressive! You've managed to insult Gays, Pakistanis, Tony Blair, Americans, Muslims, Security Staff & Cabin Crew in one thread. Some of you should step back and take a long, hard look at yourselves - Depressing stuff!

stephen maybery

Give a Brit a regulation to enforce or a uniform to wear and what do you get? the perfect facsimile of a bleeding Nazi that's what.

Paul T Horgan

I think 'stomping' is a mild description for activating the escape chute and walking across the flight apron.

It transcends the description 'hissy fit'. Perhaps the epithet 'chutey storm' may be more appropriate.

Unless someone else has a better version.

He sounds like a prat and the passengers are probably best off without him, but then again, did you read this article on the This is Money site?

"Being an air stewardess sent me off my trolley" http://ow.ly/2usfW

Richard

If airline crew did their jobs as badly as journalists then people would die. They have nothing to do with the security precautions you will see (of course they have security training I am not going to detail in a public forum). In fact they are far more annoyed with the overt security measures, those you suffer that are irritating, pointless and only to reassure the public despite being irrelevant to the security of the flight. They suffer them every day, often worse than passengers as some security staff are jealous and petty.

So before commenting on how others do their job, please get the facts right; that is part of a journalist's job, and its neglect is a far more common fault in journalists than any lack in professionalism among crew.

daustins

In America a woman on a Delta flight mentioned to a stewardess that she thought she smelt alcohol on the pilot's breath. She swears that she didn't shout down the house but Delta bounced her anyway, and the plane took off as usual.

I've seen passengers get booted by angry feminists stewardesses with utterly bogus claims of having touched them.

But those are isolated incidents. Most of the time the crew is pretty nice.