An American Airlines flight attendant was captured on video appearing to sleep during an afternoon flight from Cozumel, Mexico to Dallas. While the siesta was not allowed, the passenger’s decision to shame the flight attendant on Twitter may cost him his job. Was this grievance handled correctly?
Angry Business Class Passenger Captures American Airlines Flight Attendant On Video Snoozing On Flight To Dallas
Let me preface this story by saying that I approach it tenderly, because we have but a few seconds of video and a complaint from a passenger. On the one hand it is a bit sad that the passenger chose to video the flight attendant appearing to sleep instead of pushing the call button or getting up to summon him (and it is possible the passenger did try this first, but I doubt the FA would sleep through that…).
On the other hand, this video has now widely circulated on social media and was covered by View From The Wing yesterday. At this point, the cat is out of the bag and an investigation is likely already underway regardless of my story on this matter. It also merits mentioning that the flight attendant really had no business (if you’ll pardon the pun) sleeping when he should have been serving business class passengers.
@AmericanAir We we’re on business class, Cozumel to Dallas today. All we wanted was a couple of drinks and the flight attendant decided to sleep instead. #Cozumel #SouthwestAirlines #UnitedStates #wffa #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/TxLEkrJ3D9
— javier montoya (@trumpswig24) July 1, 2022
For the avoidance of doubt, I asked the ever-knowledgeable AA insider JonNYC about this and he confirmed:
A fireable offense, even with all the union nonsense.
But, I -do- think call-button and/or a walk-by with an “excuse me” might have been a good intermediate measure, personally– I know I would have.
But, I’d say this FA is potentially in very serious trouble.
— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) July 11, 2022
And his concerns mirror my own, which is why I wanted to discuss it today.
Yes, the flight attendant messed up. Yes, U.S. flight attendants frequently remind us they are primarily here for our safety and this is just rank hypocrisy if the flight attendant was napping on the job. And yes, business class passengers should expect that a flight attendant monitor the cabin checking for beverage refills during the flight…that’s part of why people pay extra for the privilege of sitting up front.
But why not get up and tap the guy on the shoulder? Because we are not just talking about the guy getting a scolding: he may well lose his job. His own livelihood may about to be turned upside down.
And that’s where I find myself questioning the passenger’s action in recording the flight attendant instead of trying to help him. After all, he is a fellow human.
It’s really not as simple as saying the passenger was justified or the passenger was unjustified. Regardless of his motives I don’t think we can simply condemn the passenger, even if I would have handled it differently (and frankly you might be surprised how many juicy clickbait incidents over the years have gone unreported because I did not wish to get crew members in trouble). I think American Airlines has an interest in knowing that one of its flight attendants is sleeping on the job.
Regardless of the summer of misery, flight attendants have had to endure at American Airlines (and I know it has not been easy), sleeping on the job is simply not okay. Extended work schedules, delayed hotel availability, and the same rate of delays and cancellations passengers have experienced does take its toll. But for the safety of passengers onboard and the integrity of the airline, if flight attendants are exhausted, they should call in sick.
CONCLUSION
While passengers have dedicated crew rest areas and designated break times on longer flights, this is not the case on shorter flights, like the journey from Cozumel to Dallas which is under three hours.
I do feel bad for the flight attendant, but if he was sleeping, it seems to me he must be held accountable. Even so, I’d think twice about doing the same thing the passenger did…in fact, I have witnessed something similar and done nothing…on more than one occasion. And I’m thinking about that this morning too…and whether I did the right thing by letting the flight attendant sleep…
How would you have handed this incident as passenger?
This FA has likely been picking up countless extra shifts to keep planes flying.
Javier was probably picked on in high school and is a former hall monitor. Likely the president of his neighborhood association ratting out those who have grass higher than 3.2″. What a punk.
You ‘feel sorry for the flight attendant’ but continue the propagation of this non-story by posting and article with a sensational headline and spreading it further throughout the interwebs. You don’t feel sorry for him at all–you are exploiting him for readers.
Once upon a time, most airline bloggers were relevant and shared insider secrets, trip reviews, and great insight. Now, like yourself…they target airlines and employees with unauthorized (and possibly illegal) videos, rumors, speculation and sensationalism.
Not sure who is worse..you or Leff.
I would like to clarify that if the flight attendant call sick , he or she gets penalized by points and after a certain number of points you are terminated. So it is not that simple to just call sick. They have to endure it cause they are afraid of losing their job, consequently they are over worked and exhausted . Please do a research and realize that on reserve month, the company use and abuse its employees
My thought, pu**y could have stood up and said something.
That would be the mature thing to do.
Fellow human? You must be joking? I’m a long haul crew member and all pax think is let’s get on them. Hmm well we may be human but off course our beloved fellow passengers or aka creatures wouldn’t see that. They forget that we are also pretty much the same. We have been on our feet longer haven’t been sitting down and believe it or not actually have lives. What’s sad here is the humanity of it all. People have forgotten what it’s like to actually ask for something or perhaps just see another person for what they are. A HUMAN A PERSON. sadly it’s becoming all the more common. To the one who took the video I’m sure you proud. May you prosper always if this is how you believe we as humans should be. To my fellow colleague, not sure what may have happened or how your rota works nor how your day to day life may be or whatever it is that sadly caught you off guard. May the angels and your companies management see you as a person who just has slipped up and as such take action accordingly to assist you and better see to you. To the Twitter person… Hey congratulations whoever you are. May you too prosper and oh… By the way it will come round…. Not today not tomorrow but it surely will and when it does .. hell hath no fury
Not surprising on my evening CLT – YYZ AA flight in business class. The FA dimmed the lights, helped herself to a can of ginger-ale, put on her ear phones and sat across the aisle.
Yup, I filed a complaint.
Sorry, but the best way for an FA to avoid being recorded sleeping while on duty is not to sleep while on duty.
Perhaps the FA should lose his job.
What a horrible thing to say!
I bet you wouldn’t like anyone saying “Ryan should loose his job”.
Think before you write.
Maybe his religion dictates napping on the job. Give this man a religious exemption!
I get that FAs are tired these days with understaffed planes and taking on extra shifts, but US carrier FAs have been very lax and inattentive across all of my flights with UA, DL, AS, and AA the past few months. Service is just one or two drinks and maybe a meal (if your flight is long enough). Whereas in full carrier European Business on KLM, AF, and others I’ve flown so far, the FAs there are facing the same issues, but manage to do 5-6 drink services and a cold meal even on an hour hop with a smile.
Point is, I understand what’s going on and I’m a sympathetic, but across the pond, they’re facing the same situation but they’re not using the same issues as an excuse to slack off.
Also, US FAs claim to only be their for a passenger’s safety, but I never knew that sleeping on the job is being considerate for peoples’ safety.
European carriers are coming through the cabin doing drink service 5-6 times on a hour flight? LOL!!!!
I’ve flown on BA, LH, LX, AF, KL, and IB and I can tell you I’ve never had a single European flight attendant come through the cabin 5-6 times offering drinks on a hour flight.
My colleagues and I have been flying with AF/KL in J a lot the past few months and from what we’ve been seeing, our glasses have never been empty.
Your luck must be atrocious then.
You can tell that a lot of people on the comments don’t fly Euro J on a weekly basis. They just talk about that one time they flew it and how “terrible” it was.
This doesn’t even make sense. Let’s brake down a 1 hr flight; takes about 10 minutes to reach 10,000 ft when, if not bumpy, a FA can get up, 3 minutes to set up and start asking pax for drinks, initial descent comes at 25 before landing which indicates that automatically cabin service needs to be discontinued. That leaves the FA with only 20 minutes for actually serving an average of 12-20 pax. How in the world and with what time are you getting 5 drinks??? The math doesn’t add up
FAs for AF Hop or KLM Cityhopper don’t sit down once we’re in the air and keep going back and forth the aisle. It’s okay to be ignorant, but don’t do it so publicly on a travel forum like this. It makes yourself look bad.
I fly them week in and week out for my job, so I can say that I kinda know what I’m talking about.
Also so you know difference between US airlines and foreign airlines they are actually staffed accordingly unlike the US. And people don’t realize that Flight Attendants are understaffed and overworked to a point of exhaustion and being burned out. As well as depression all having to work long hours and minimum rest not including the delays and cancellations that may arise due to irregular operations. All I’m saying is have sympathy and understanding what someone is going through and the circumstances. Now I’m not agreeing that he should have fell asleep but sometimes we’re tired too and it can be hard not to fall asleep
5-6 drink services?! Not even on a 10 hour flight is that done. Please don’t exaggerate in comparison to other airlines. At the end of the day, this FA was exhausted and while he shouldn’t have been sleeping – there’s a bigger picture to look at. Airlines are understaffed and therefore FAs are being flown into their off days as well as picking up extra trips so YOU can make it to your destination.
Hey Karen, people were talking about this on travel forums and me and my colleagues can attest to this I flew with AF and KL in Euro Biz the past few months about 60 times and that’s a fair sample size and this has happened to me all times. I did not have status beforehand and was a newbie. My most common routing was LCY-AMS or LCY-CDG that is less than an hour. Just because you had one crappy experience does not warrant you to say that others’ experiences were fake, Karen.
Also, reread the original comment. Antjuan said he sympathizes with FAs but not in instances like this when they fall asleep on the job or disappear for 95% of the flight to talk with other FAs/go on their phones and ignore passengers, which was the case here. So sorry for your ignorance.
This doesn’t even make sense. Let’s brake down a 1 hr flight; takes about 10 minutes to reach 10,000 ft when, if not bumpy, a FA can get up, 3 minutes to set up and start asking pax for drinks, initial descent comes at 25 before landing which indicates that automatically cabin service needs to be discontinued. That leaves the FA with only 20 minutes for actually serving an average of 12-20 pax. How in the world and with what time are you getting 5 drinks??? The math doesn’t add up
As a person who’s not part of this convo, I thought it’s hilarious, sad, and despicable that you’re clearly using the same person but changing the name to make it look like people are on your side. Your “Erika” comment is same thing word-for-word. Nice try in trying to act like this isn’t the norm because you don’t fly Euro J.
Your “logic” also is different from what people experience because I know that AF/KLM can be a crapshoot on certain routes, but on routes that are more business heavy in my experience, these FAs do not sit down during a short hop and make sure that pax in J have their glasses never empty.
Some people go out of their way to be pricks and ‘Javier Montoya’ is a major league lowlife. You don’t have to be such a spoiled diva as to take to twitter to shame someone and cost them their job like that. As you said, there were many other ways that this could have been handled. As for the FA, yes he’s in big trouble. But I’m sure there was a reason that he’s dozing off there. We’re all human and we all make mistakes.
Now, because of an entitled diva named Javier Montoya, this guy may well have lost his livelihood. Well done. >:(
Why shouldn’t he lose his job over this?
He may well lose his job over this, despite there being no context provided (i.e. how long was he dozing?). And why did Javier the Dive decide to be such an a-hole and tweet it out to the airline? Those are better questions.
No, those are not bigger questions. Nothing Javier did endangered the lives of the passengers. It doesn’t matter how long the FA was sleeping anyway. The FA endangered the passengers while being asleep. Javier did not. It really is as simple as that.
This is exactly why I’ve proclaimed that we now live in a “World of Anti-Social Media’. I can speak from experience – after working many a 14 hour duty day – that sometimes it just happens when you’re that exhausted. Yes, it’s a no-no. However, maybe a little empathy here could go a long way.
Poetic justice is the passengers next flight being cancelled due to understaffing.
This person could have been resting their head and looking down and out of the window or or closing their eyes thinking of their grocery list or a thousand other things than actually sleeping. A one second clip of someone with their eyes closed does not = asleep. It’s a shame people are so awful these days and assume the worst. Maybe FA was asleep maybe not but to get someone fired on a one second shot of them with their eyes closed??? Was there a much longer clip of this that I missed?
Obviously if there is a longer clip and the FA was actually asleep that is a hazard (who cares about drinks, if something went wrong waking up from being asleep is not the kind of alert I want my FA to be in an emergency).
Or he could have been….asleep. Sorry it’s not the passengers job to tap him on the shoulder, walk by or say excuse me. So he can be a royal d!cl the rest of the flight. No these poor excuse FAs who sleep on the job deserve to be terminate. Shame away.
Also, on AA they’re unionized. They’re not working 14 hour days. Travel being back doesn’t equal working like a dog. That’s why they cancel flights left and right.
Bless your heart, even pilots are getting worked 14 hr days. Union or no union a 14-15 hour day is not an uncommon working day for crew members. They are seeing this long days more and more lately. Why do you think pilots are picketing and the ones that are not, are expressing their concerns of fatigue on news channels and social media
Blessing not required for this athiest. Last I checked, we aren’t talking about pilots. We’re talking about FAs. And they are not working 14 hour days. They are unionized and yes absolutely a 14 hour day is uncommon.
Stay in your lane. The EU isn’t the US.
Fellow AA FA here, they do work us 14hrs, sometimes even 16. Inform yourself before you speak on a subject that you know nothing about. Have a nice day
From across the pond, while masks remained mandatory on flights in the US long after they were ditched in Europe we heard many, many stories of crew showing no tolerance whatever of people taking masks off even for a moment and arrests and off-loads and the likes. These stories seemed to feature on AA more than the rest put together.
What goes around, comes around and I suspect on the part of some passengers, there is now zero tolerance of crew not doing their jobs so perhaps they should brush up their ideas and start jumping!
You are trying to equate two issues that have nothing to do with the other. Try again.
Obviously what I wrote was way, way too complicated for you to understand.
Let’s hope other passenger attendants learn something from this after he gets fired.
Wish Javier and others who do this would have people at their place of employment, assuming they have a job, watching and recording their every move. What an ass.
If Javier has a job that affects public safety, then yes, he should be monitored all the time.
Bottom line, if the FA was asleep it is a fireable offense and Javier did us all a service by bringing it to AA”s attention.
They ridiculously harassed and berated thousands of passengers over the past two and a half years with their newly-minted mask police duties. They made air travel absolutely miserable. They didn’t cut anyone a “break”……and in turn they don’t deserve one either. Fire his ass. Maybe Walmart will let him sleep on the job.
Oh please. If wearing a mask made you that miserable I shudder to think how long you would last in a war.
Um yeah….those are similar things. Don’t drink too much on your next layover princess or you might be the star of the next falling asleep video.
Nope. Not the same thing at all.
And I can smell the billy goat on your breath from all the way here.
Some ass clowns are still wearing masks. It’s like 10% but I’m sure you are in that group Aaron. You are the guy no one wants stuck next to in first class, playing on your laptop the entire flight, thinking to world will end if you aren’t up to date.
Honestly I feel for you, but worse for your kids. As for your wife, she is doing just fine.
Wearing masks doesn’t make one an ass clown. It just meant that when there was a pandemic going on, they were unselfish responsible members of society, something you will clearly never be.
Not sure why people who still wear masks triggers you. Maybe you need a cookie and a sage space?
Actually when in first class I tend to eat and sleep. If I occasionally work, then that’s my right. I’m not keeping score of who does and doesn’t wear a mask, unlike others on here…
Not married and no kids, I’m a gay man in a long term relationship, which should please a homophobe like you 🙂
The airlines and the employees did not implement those rules. The government did and airlines HAD to follow them if they wanted to keep operating. Airline employees were just as fed up and miserable about the whole mask mandate as the pax. It was a happy day in the airline industry when that mandate was lifted.
Mate you seem to have a very personal vendetta against flight attendants that comes out more in each of your replies all over this comment section. I can’t help but wonder with all your talk about masks if you were one of those that stood up and have a speech to everyone about your rights and were yourself removed. Or did you date one? Are you a member of management? Very curious what your deal is and how many disturbances you have caused, yourself.
Flight attendants are there for our safety? LOL!!!! Tell me another funny joke. They are there to play boss and feel entitled to harass customers at their own discretion. Some are very professional but the majority is not. Time to recycle the crowd.
I’ve never felt harrased by a flight attendant.. maybe I’m just not a professional victim looking for something to be outraged about
Me neither but I have witnessed many times and you can see how many people have been escorted out planes because a FA wanted to do it for reasons that made absolutely no sense.
He needs something to complain about, I guess?
The snowflake here is you not me. You are the one that live to comment on my posts. Keep with that great practice.
Lol considering bow every little thing sets you off, its obvious who the real anowflake is.
I think that the passengers on USAIR 1549 might have a slightly different opinion. Yes, Sully ditched and saved everyone from crashing but who operated the emergency exits and SAFELY evacuated all the passengers? Yeah, the flight attendants who are trained to deal with these type of emergencies.
Including the one who opened the aft door and almost sank the airplane quicker?…. you know the one who blamed it on a pax…..the same on who was too afraid to put her uniform on for the talk show circuit. Whatever dude.
All in all…I’m sick and tired of excuses, from everyone. Sleep on the job, even if it’s a brief nap, and you should pay the price. The airline industry is at an all time low for service. This isn’t the time to take advantage of your position. Just like every other job out there…people are watching. Do the right thing, or pay the price. I’m sick and tired of paying a premium for 1st class tickets (yes, I buy them…I’m not wheeling and dealing my miles for upgrades) and getting 3rd rate food and service. Something’s gotta change!
The angry pax could have gently woke him to make sure he was sleeping and not having a stroke or other medical emergency. Not all emergencies are visible or violent. Poor guy will get the boot.. or hopefully offered a ground position. If Managers are sympathetic.
I’d rather he just get the boot. Despite the list of excuses you make for his dereliction of his “important” safety duties, he’s unfit to carryout those duties and therefore unfit to be a flight attendant. BUH BYE.
Stories like this are always useful for us to ask ourselves what we would have done. As for “tapping him on the shoulder,” I can just imagine doing that and having the guy get really angry at me for touching him, for entering his personal space. I guess we all react to previous situations we have had, and I once came upon a person at work, from his rear, who was thinking hard about something, and he didn’t know I was approaching. I spoke to him, he jumped, completely surprised, and he had an instant reaction of anger toward me. I’ve never forgotten it, and I make sure to avoid similar situations at all cost.
Your comment is very valuable and a point I had not considered.
Did anybody check to see if he was ok? Flight Attendants are not robots. He could have been experiencing a medical issue.
Exactly. Sleeping beauty awakes then calls the captain and accuses YOU of interfering with a flight crew. (actually, interfering with sleepy time)
LOL!!! Exactly, anything to kick passengers off the plane.
That’s precisely what would happen. Also, cue the accusations of “abuse” and “alcoholic drinks being a danger”.
In normal times I would say that a FA is a human and maybe it was just to relax for few seconds.
But in nowadays that the flight attendants are all striking, and the passengers are the ones that have to deal with it, I don’t have any sympathy to any FA.
If they don’t understand our issues, they should be punished for anything.
The flight attendants are not “striking”, some airline PILOTS are picketing. Delta pilots have been picketing lately and fatigue has been the main reason, some flight attendants showed up for support. No active flight attendant group of any airline picketing or on strike
“But why not get up and tap the guy on the shoulder?”
Because empathy is a two way street, and nowadays airlines regularly charge upwards of 5 figures per ticket for a diminished J product.
God forbid passenger’s expectations increase in lockstep with the pricing of the product. “Don’t fall asleep on the job” isn’t exactly a high bar to clear.
Javier seems to be a Trump/MAGA fan from his Twitter posts. I guess that’s why he hash tagged FOX News?
I really don’t get the US approach to people management. These things happen, and often it’s a combination of reasons- there may be fatigue, undiagnosed sleep apnoea etc. By all means investigate the incident, but why would you rush to dismiss an employee with an otherwise good track record and replace them with an unknown quantity? They can just issue them with a warning and move on.
A “good track record”…..when’s the last time you flew on a US carrier?
It has been a few years, to be fair- I use the UA lounge at LHR sometimes, but I haven’t even been to the USA for nearly a decade now.
But surely individual frontline employees aren’t responsible for the mess, at worst they are just part of a customer-unfriendly culture that permeates the airline; so they cannot be disciplined for that.
I can assure you that the service on US air carriers has deteriorated to levels previously unseen. Employees are bolder than ever, their hatred of the very people who make it possible for them to earn a paycheck is clearer than ever. A once respectable job is now filled with losers, deadbeats and people drunk with the narrow authority they’re granted.
I’m conflicted about this.
AA is well known to have some of the most apathetic FAs in the sky.
But also we don’t know if this FA has been overworked trying to keep AA from totally melting down (a futile effort) and a lil Twitter bastard decided to social media this guy
I don’t care either way. If he’s too fragile for the job or its “demands” then he can work elsewhere.
Yea AA needs to hire more bad asses like you
I normally fly in first class. In my experience on all airlines (both domestic and international) flight attendants (working up front) do not work more than 50% of the time during the flight. Maybe Delta flight attendants average 60%.
I suspect like many others, I want to ‘both sides’ this incident. Of course, the FA shouldn’t be sleeping on the job and should face the consequences. Besides the safety issues, passengers pay a lot of money to fly business, sadly for increasingly haphazard service, so I appreciate the customer’s frustration, even anger.
But there is something horribly snitchy and invasive about posting a photo of someone failing in their workplace on social media. We’ve quickly turned public spaces into the coliseum, every embittered nobody with a cell phone looking to whip the mob into an angry frenzy, often just out of boredom. The right thing to do is take a photo and send it to the airline, not try pump up your likes on social media. We don’t know this guy’s story out of context. Maybe he’s hungover, maybe he’s a terrible FA, or maybe he’s overworked, or maybe he’s been stressed about a sick spouse and losing sleep. Everyone stumbles, or can appear to stumble. In a digital vigilante culture, we are all at risk of being humiliated with no recourse. I don’t want to live in that kind of society.
These are the same people who threw entire families off of airplanes mid-trip because their autistic 8 year old couldn’t keep the mask on to the diabolical flight attendants ghoulish satisfaction……Or how about the 27 month old?……no no no….they’re over 2 years old…..off the plane you go. Or the elderly person who didn’t replace their mask within .6 seconds of taking a bite of whatever garbage they were able to find at the single open airport restaurant. ZERO sympathy for flight attendants. They’ve declared war on passengers. Karma’s a bitch. They better hope I don’t catch them doing something worthy of a photo because I can guarantee you, they’ll be famous pretty quickly…..and hopefully unemployment shortly thereafter.
You’re a real piece of work.
We had a pandemic, and masks were helpful to getting it under control.
None of those circumstances I just mention made ANY difference any you know it. Going 66 in a 65 is still illegal and MUST ticketed right?
CHRIS seems to be pro-plague.
Big talk for a keybord troll lol
OMG
It’s not like the FA got a pillow and blanket, put on a sleep mask and checked out for the duration ! He fell asleep while strapped in and sitting bolt upright. Yes indeed lets just kick him off the plane in midair. Interesting how everyone is channeling any and all bad flight experiences towards this one scapegoat.
One brief video does mot a case for dismissal make (and if it does I hope every AA FA stages a sickout/slow down).
A meeting with his supervisor to discuss public image as well as making good use of your rest period is all that’s required here.
Oh, and a warning to the passenger that unauthorized video recording may cost him his frequent flyer account.
They’ve been staging a sickout/slowdown for the last 2.5 years.
Channeling to ONE “scapegoat”…..lol, no. They’re ALL bad….This clowns behavior speaks for ALL of them. AA should file for bankruptcy, break the contract with these losers and cut flying by 25% immediately. Start by laying off 10% of flight attendants then increase that number as necessary, then fix the airline.
Then they should install ejector seats on the jumpseats and give you the control so when they step out of line you can shoot them into space. Then AA should add a couple letters and rename the airline MAGA. Then fire everyone that doesn’t pledge allegiance to the Trump flag. And then… And then….
I’ll settle for just firing the ones who are bad at their jobs and sleep on duty.
Your other ridiculously triggered, angry little man comments aside, what sickout/slowdown do you believe airline employees have been staging for 2.5 years? Are you referring to the pandemic? Do you believe that was started by the airlines, just as you believe the airlines invented mask wearing? You are wildly misinformed if not completely delusional.
The video is so short, has anyone confirmed that it wasn’t just a slow blink? Besides is no one else taken aback by Javier’s scabby leg on display at the bulkhead? Maybe the FA was just averting his eyes.
Also an LOL to Javi hash tagging southwest airlines– what’s that about?
This video is only 5 seconds; not long enough to conclude the FA us sleeping. Why is it not longer to verify the allegation? Maybe because his eyes opened after a short prayer “God give me strength to deal with this drunk asshole asking for yet another drink.” Perhaps the video was edited down by an irate, over the limit passenger because he was refused more alcohol.
This is what fatigue looks like. When will we hold airlines accountable for running their employees ragged. Long duty days that are barely legal, lack of mental health care, and minimum layovers. This passenger doesn’t deserve any applause.
Then fire them all and hire younger, more energetic and enthusiastic people.
The younger new flight attendants are quitting on the spot after 2 months of working barely legal trips that the airlines are making them fly, adding more flights and hours to their days, working them into their days off etc etc. They are dropping by the dozens like flies because they can’t handle it. No human can. Pilots and flight attendants are exhausted. The ones with more experience have at least gone through other tough times and stay hanging to the hope that it will get better.
Good grief. There are thousands of commercial flights every day in the US. These flight attendants are also the “same people” who got millions of people to their destinations safely during a pandemic. As much as I complain about service standards, to claim “karma is a bitch” and call for someone to lose their job about a 2 second video is frankly unhinged. Approach travel with an inflated sense of entitlement and you’ll feel like everyone has “declared war” on you. Doesn’t make it true.
They didn’t “get” me anywhere. The plane flies just fine without them onboard snoozing.
Lol I’d like to see you get anywhere without the FAA required amount of flight attendants onboard. The plane won’t be flying “just fine” without them there. I’m assuming you’re going to start flying private now since all you’re doing is bashing them. I’d like to see you work one trip as an FA. You’re more sour than the FAs you’re stereotyping.
Do flight attendants FLY the airplane? No. They don’t. Oh….they’re “required” by the FAA. Yes I know the 50 installed seats rule. Ashtrays are required in the lavs too. If its missing the airplane can’t go. It’s a rule. Now, do you think the engines somehow know the ashtray is missing and won’t start? Will the airplane somehow fall out of aerodynamic limitations and not make it into the air? No. Just like your “we’re required” nonsense. Your coworker was ASLEEP and therefore unable to perform the everso import “safety” duties…..people could have DIED. In fact its almost like he already murdered the whole planeload of passengers because he wasn’t capable of constant vigilance. If this were during your beloved mask era, the whole plane would have caught corona and grandma would have died because YOUR COWORKER was in lala land instead of prancing up and down the aisle chastising parents of autistic children about mask use. You can all drop dead. Whats needed here is to finally allow foreign airlines to compete domestically…..the US4 (including DL) would be broke in a week and you’ll be back at the Wendy’s drive-thru trying to upsell me a frosty for a dollar more…..if you could manage to stay awake that is.
Lol who hurt you? A flight attendant must’ve broken your heart. Or you were probably rejected from the job countless of times. Why so much hatred towards them? It’s kinda weird. And yeah, I stand by what I said. Try taking a commercial flight without them onboard. Even though the “engine will start” doesn’t mean the plane will take off without them lol. Please fly private if you hate them so much. No one will want to deal with a pax like you. You got issues dude.
Also, do you work for the FAA? What makes you more qualified to determine whether flight attendants are needed or not? God forbid you ever have a medical situation onboard, or a fire onboard, or an emergency evacuation, then who will you be looking to to help you out? How do you know this FA was even sleeping, he could’ve been resting his eyes for just a few seconds. It wouldn’t be the first time someone lied about something to try to get something for free.
CHRIS, you state that flight attendants are lying about being there for your safety, but also that people could’ve died because this man had his eyes closed. Which one is it? You also mention that they’re needless on the aircraft. In that same vein, since airplanes fly mostly automatically, should we get rid of all pilots too? Anyone else you don’t like that we can fire for you?
Can I ask what it is that you do for a living? Maybe you could be replaced too. I think a rabid animal scratching at a keyboard could take over for you in the mean time.
Go ahead and try to take a flight without them then. You have NO CLUE just how much they do.
I see how much they don’t do VERY frequently. We all do.
Let me clue you all in about this “we’re only here for your safety” BS…..if there’s a real problem with an airplane flying 600 mph at 30,000 feet there’s not a damn thing in the world any FA is gonna do about it except to remind you to place your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye.
Yeah I just wasn’t going to say my 2 cents but you comment made me laugh. I think there’s a lot more to the story which is why the video is so short. The FA may be talked to to explain his side. He could get a suspension but not fired because they are short staffed and really stretched thin as it is. Im speaking from a former shop steward in the health insurance industry.
Working at 30,000ft in an enclosed aluminum tube doesn’t give you much privacy. Give the guy a break.
So it’s a 4 second video. For all we know,the FA may have closed his eyes for 10 seconds, I wouldn’t even consider it a “power nap”. I still haven’t met a road warrior business class traveler who would try to get someone in trouble for something this petty. Not cool and not necessary. I certainly hope that the FA gets a simple reprimand and doesn’t lose his job. And to the guy who took the 4 second video, this song is for you “A B C D E F U and your mom!”
Couldn’t agree with you more!! Very well said.
The video shows him for like 2 seconds. Maybe he had a migraine and just closed his eyes for a few seconds. If he was taking a nap wouldn’t the passenger have recorded him a little longer? Also, passengers frequently film non-working crew on the jumpseats and accuse them of being lazy. How do we even know this flight attendant was working the flight? With flights as full as they are lately many flights have non-working crew sitting in the jumpseats.
Why shouldn’t he lose his job? He should be alert throughout the flight. Spewing nonsense about “security and safety” (whereas FAs are just glorified waitresses – although waitresses usually work harder than FAs on US airlines) and then falling asleep? Kick him out. Doesn’t matter if it was 2 seconds, 20 seconds or 2 minutes.
Please show us on the doll where a flight attendant hurt you.
Some of these folks commenting are really angry individuals. I wonder if their heart was broken by a flight attendant. Ooof
Oh go back to reddit. You must be one of those “Do I have to tell the airline about my DUI”……or “Will they my rescind my CJO when they see my 575 credit score?” How about all you clowns running drugs through KCM? Get real.
I would be very cautious giving an FA even a light tap to wake them. In this crazy age it is not unrealistic to expect an assault or battery charge for touching an FA.
I don’t understand, a person sits down on a long day to rest their swollen feet for a minute and falls asleep for perhaps a few seconds, a very natural human thing to do, and they should lose their career of decades and livelihood, and have so start over somewhere? He’s not guarding the president, he’s serving drinks for three hours. All of these people that get angry when flight attendants take a second to eat, drink a ginger ale, breathe, where is your humanity? Oh, you refuse to have any because they *checks notes* made you wear masks on a plane? A government directive that many didn’t enjoy enforcing? What are some of these comments? Payback for a non existent sickout that’s been going on for 2.5 years? Are some of you people completely divorced from reality? So the guy sat down and fell asleep for a second, he’s a goddamn human. What would you like him to do, hover over you for 5 hours and smell your fart so you don’t run out of diet coke to stuff down your fat gullet? Seriously, calm down.
The viewpoint would be quite a lot different if they didn’t remind us that “they’re primarily for our safety” and claim that “call buttons should only be made in case of an emergency”. As it stands they want to have the best of both worlds – they’re here for our safety when they don’t wanna provide service and they’re “goddamn humans” when they fall asleep doing a safety related job.
Are you certain the viewpoint would be “quite a lot different” under any other circumstances? How many flight attendants, out of tens of thousands, have you heard profess something like you’re saying? Do you think that this man, having closed his eyes, most likely involuntarily, for a few seconds that we know of, would not have jumped to his safety related duties if needed? Is it possible you’ve let a bad experience with one person dictate the way you feel about thousands other in their profession? This feels exactly like how people treat retail employees. And, judging by the phrases and wording many of these commenters use, these same commenters would normally rally against “cancel culture,” but jump at the chance to yell “end their career!” at anyone they disagree with. What’s the saying, there’s nothing middle class Americans love more than seeing other middle class Americans fail? The fact is, they’re “goddamn humans” whether you hold a grudge against them or not.
That’s conjecture – you’re basing your whole opinion about me on few words and you’re creating fake scenarios about how I would treat retail sector employees and what is my view on the so called “cancel culture”. Projecting much?
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Yeah, I do doubt his abilities to perform safety related duties if he was sleeping and yes, I do doubt he would spring into action like a young lamb in a meadow. How many? Too many, and only onboard US carriers. The fact is: either they are safety professionals who should be alert ALL the time – not “all the time except a few seconds” (though I doubt it was a few seconds, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to capture it in a clip, unless the traveler had their phone pointed at them all the time, which would have likely resulted in him getting expelled) – throughout the flight and perform their other duties in the meantime or they are basically glorified waiters who use the “safety” shield whenever it’s convenient for them and sleep on their “safety related job”.
I have absolutely no problem with other carriers’ employees falling asleep – why? Because I know they perform their duties in a timely and polite manner, without crying about “being there for your safety”.
I don’t think that you have any idea what you’re talking about, Grzegorz, and so there’s not much point in arguing. Want to talk about made-up scenarios? How about the scenario you and another commenter completely fabricated farther up in which sometime tapping the guy on the shoulder to wake him up would be attacked, reported, and “[accused] of “abuse” and “alcoholic drinks being a danger,” whatever tf that could possibly mean. Stop thinking the world revolves around you for just a moment and you might see that I mean there is a pervasive attitude of entitlement Americans have toward fellow workers in America, retail, hospitality, or otherwise, and it’s on display here in many of these comments. And your self importance wouldn’t “fly” on those European carriers (whose employees you wouldn’t mind sleeping, what??). You wouldn’t have been able to cry about the masks over there. Heck, they won’t even let you have a bag in the exit row. Let’s face it, you took the rage bait and ran with it. I’d love to witness you at work though, you seem like quite a hypocrite.
Well, you’d be surprised but I am still wearing a mask. Have been for 2.5 years. And, as for “self-importance” on European carriers? Well, guess what – I am European and leave in Europe. So, I believe, I have quite a bit more experience with European airlines than you do. And yeah, they do allow you to have bags in exit rows – just put them in the overhead locker. As any reasonable person would do anyway.
I do agree, Americans have skewed perceptions of proper behaviour towards other employees, yeah. I do agree that most of them try to “one up” each other in being a bull towards those who have the misfortune of serving them at this point, because they take out their own frustrations. Americans are a very frustrated nation, in general.
However, it is not mutually exclusive with saying that flight attendants working for US airlines are almost universally considered to be some of the worst in the industry, going on power trips (again – not about masks) and doing their jobs as if they are holding a competition on “how to be as impolite as possible”. Therefore, we can and we should hold them to higher standards if they are so concerned about safety and wanna be treated as “being there primarily for our safety”.
Why wouldn’t I care about European FAs falling asleep – although I have never witnessed it? Well, once again – they do not advertise themselves as being there primarily for our safety, they do not treat themselves as wannabe vigilantes. Therefore, they clearly cannot be treated the same way as American “safety professionals”.
As for the “made up scenarios” – how many cases of FAs overreacting have we seen in past years, even on this very blog (what, with Matthew being thrown out for taking pictures)? Too many. It is entirely possible that if someone even touched they guy, they would have very severe consequences.
Coming back to this particular situation – wouldn’t you say that it is entirely plausible that the call button was used multiple times (and ignored as is traditional on vast majority of flights within the US)? No reasonable person would do such a thing without trying all their options beforehand. This would point out to two things: US airlines have a major problem with providing proper service by not having crews who are reactive enough and the fact that he was likely sleeping for longer than those few seconds.
If you wanna see me at work, go ahead – visit our office, we’d love to take your case. Unfortunately, we do not work on contingency fees but I am sure we can work something out.
Well I’m glad we agree on something, at least. The average American consumer can be, well, quite irritating, and even more so lately. (See here: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/pandemic-american-shoppers-nightmare/619650/) That, coupled with the frustrations of the past “2.5 years,” the seemingly endless struggle for basic rights like enough time to eat or poop between their flights, years of battling bankruptcies, lost pensions, etc. it is no wonder some of them are unhappy at work. US airlines certainly know how to treat both their customers and employees pretty poorly. I’m not even defending all airline workers. I’ve had a few of my own experiences, including an extremely grumpy older woman on a business class ticket to NRT. But following your logic, I must have quite a bit more experience with US airlines than you do, and I’ve had many good or even great ones. So, I think that the point I was trying to make was that, yours and others’ views expressed in the comments that they should all be given no mercy for acting a certain way that each and every one of them must act, is nothing but ridiculous. There are tens of thousands of flight crew doing their job well and out of your view every day, that your generalization and rush to have one fired is nonsense, just like all of the flight crews working for many different companies in your big country of Europe likely don’t have the same attitudes.
Of course, any situation that you create in your head could be “entirely plausible.” I have never myself had a call bell go ignored on a flight of mine, but your personal negative experience must be extrapolated to all other situations, because your world revolves around you. I’d hardly call anything written by an airline blogger, begging for views, “the norm.” And in fact this one assures a commenter that their made up scenario is a valuable addition to the conversation.
You know, I tend to have this idea of parts of Europe as this utopia for workers’ rights with less class divide, and it may be true in some countries compared to ours. The US is indeed experiencing some growing, or perhaps collapsing, pains. But I do want to thank you for reminding me that no place in the world is without its own insufferable citizens. Oh, actually just a couple of days ago I witnessed a grumpy European man become irate with a flight attendant when she asked him to sit his seat up for takeoff, was it you?
Clearly unacceptable from a safety standpoint. Someone should be punished for this.
The question is, *who* should be punished? If the underlying issue is that AA is over-working their FAs, then the answer is clear: issue the airline a massive fine, rather than punishing the worker.
Also, do you work for the FAA? What makes you more qualified to determine whether flight attendants are needed or not? God forbid you ever have a medical situation onboard, or a fire onboard, or an emergency evacuation, then who will you be looking to to help you out? How do you know this FA was even sleeping, he could’ve been resting his eyes for just a few seconds. It wouldn’t be the first time someone lied about something to try to get something for free.
Flight attendants know quite well that sleeping on duty is not allowed, therefore; I feel as there is more to the story than the passenger disclosed with this short video. Plus he was “sleeping “ standing? That is very strange.
Remember, there is always two sides to every story.
Wow they have 30 business class passengers on a b737? Where did they put them beyond the 16 seats?
They don’t have 30 J seats.
I think a lot of pax would sympathize with overworked and tired FAs IF FAs would stop flaunting the “we are here ONLY for your safety” crap and “don’t you dare request something”. If FAs treated pax like human beings (instead of walking luggage), then this sort of recording would either not happen or be universally condemned. It’s a two way street IMHO.
I didn’t read one comment wondering if the flight attendant was ok, or having a medical episode. Did anyone check/ ask if he was okay? Flight Attendants are human. Not robots. Did anyone alert the other Flight Attendants to check on their Flying partner? Lots of hateful people full of anger on this thread. Smh
Javier is a pendejo for posting the video. But whatever the reason for napping, it’s clearly against every Us airline’s policy to sleep during a flight. And the FA can be terminated.
Fuck unions. They need to pick the battles more carefully!
Am I the only one who could not possibly determine the FA was asleep in the split second the video actually showed him? This whole situation is ridiculous! A 5 second video of which only 1 second showing the FA doesn’t prove he was sleeping.
The passenger was an idiot! Can’t he see the FA was just praying?? Geez!!
I am a flight attendant and got word that my grandmother died while I was working. My airline deadheaded me home (not working), but was in uniform on the jumpseat. I had a passenger tell me I was the laziest flight attendant that he had ever seen. This is what we deal with. We have no idea of the situation in you photo. Leave people alone.
You should have changed and sat in a passenger seat then. When you wear your uniform, you are a representative of the company. You know this. Mr. Sleepy should be fired.
Thanks for your uninformed advice. Often the jumpseat is the only seat available and we need to be in uniform for security reasons. next..
Your company could have arranged for you to not have to take the j/s if it was such an emergency situation. In fact, you may have been a security risk or a barrier to an evacuation given your emotional state.
What is this world coming to? Being a retire FA, give me a break. This job is hard enough on the body, long days, short nights, I should of been fired years ago! It’s not like the company is going to say, sorry you had a weather delay and had no hotel room, new rules find your own, they aren’t worried is you had a 14 hour duty day and 6 hours sleep. What has happened to public human kindness, it’s all about what you can get on your camera and how many likes you can get. Is this the working FA or someone jump seating it home? Can’t believe how many people say he should lose his job, WHAT? Wonder if there is 1 person on here who hasn’t zoned out at work before? A tap on the shoulder and a funny ‘ Sorry to wake you but I am a lush can I get another of my entitled drinks I am a AAdvantage frequent flyer” Shame on you behind the camera, petty!
You get what you give in this world. You and your coworkers have enthusiastically terrorized us for the last 2 years. You don’t deserve any consideration.