Southwest Airlines has updated its pre-flight announcements to urge passengers to report any unwelcome behavior observed onboard.
Effective systemwide, you’ll now hearing the following as part of the pre-flight briefing before your next Southwest flight:
“We are here for your comfort and safety. Please report any unwelcome behavior to your flight attendant. Thank you for your attention.”
Sexual assault onboard a commercial airplane may not be increasing, but more are reporting it, spiking up statistics in recent years.
This presented a unique problem for fun-loving Southwest, the airline known for light-hearted jokes and safety demonstration limericks. How can you report a serious problem onboard an airline that is so laid-back?
A Southwest spokesperson told CNN that the announcement is meant to convey that flight attendants “are an approachable, professional resource for reporting any unwelcome behaviors or conduct during a flight.” He added:
“This change reflects Southwest’s commitment to ensuring a safe and welcoming environment at all times.”
Consequences range from telling a disruptive passenger to stop to notifying law enforcement to meet the aircraft upon arrival.
While American, Delta, and United do not have this sort of specific language in their pre-flight announcements, Alaska does.
CONCLUSION
It’s a sad reflection on society that such an announcement is even needed, but it strikes me as a helpful announcement, particularly on Southwest, where humor may be misconstrued as a lack of professionalism.
image: Southwest Airlines
The only reason this is “needed,” as you ineloquently suggest, is because of over-hyped #metoo movement that is primarily lies and comprises individuals (women) who want it both ways.
I am not sure that women want it both ways.
It is more men that had it both ways for too long.
Bob, I’m not being argumentative. I’m genuinely curious as to how men have “had it both ways for too long.”
Note: Let’s look at general, average men. Not hollywood executives or even professionals with elite airline status.
Let say for example how many men takes leave to educate children or take care of newborn babies where the lady will earn less with her wage and the lady will do nothing about homework duties because only the mn will do it?
And what about when a man is selected for a position when a lady will be said to not have enough skills for the job?
And tell me how many ladies do you know that have been on leave to give birth and gain an increase in wage when coming back at work?
Why should a woman get a raise upon return from a maternity leave? What merits that?
It has nothing to do with the #metoo movement, it has to do with people losing a basic sense of personal dignity in their public behavior. We are at a point in America where people need to be told that it’s offensive to watch porn on their laptop while sitting 2 inches from a stranger. People need to be told that listening to music on a speaker in an enclosed tube with 100+ other people is inconsiderate and incredibly rude. People need to be told that is unsanitary to pick their nose and wipe their hands on the seat.
Not long ago, a basic sense dignity motivated most people to hold their public behavior to a high standard – that era is over so now we will need to have a whole bunch more rules and explanations to keep the peace. An easy way to avoid Flight Attendants confronting your behavior is by behaving in a way that minimizes your impact on those around you, it’s pretty easy really.
Heard this the other week on multiple WN flights. The FAs said it so quickly, though, that it seemed to convey to my row-mate and me that they were referencing unwelcome attention from paxto the FAs. As in “Don’t call us trolls dollies or pat our butts.” Neither of us knew what the FA was talking about. This was on multiple flights, and not just because it’s a new concept – but because it feels obtuse. Lots of quizzical looks around the cabin. I love WN because you know what you’ll get and the planes are comfortable – they just need power ports now. But they’ve created this weird culture of joviality where I personally find it incredibly misplaced – the safety briefing. And now that they’ve painted themselves with this devil-may-care “We’re a ‘cool’ airline. No rules here!” brush, the addition of this statement comes across as strange. And the FAs, so accustomed to having great latitude with the safety briefings, are glossing over this new portion and it’s already losing its intended effect – if it ever had one.
trolley dollies*
In general, I think Southwest FA’s joke around too much. Their safety announcement is too fast and has too much non-standard English making it harder for the foreign visitor.
Unwelcome behavior more commonly involves taking up too much space beyond the armrest and passing gas. However, rarely it’s much more serious, like unwanted touching.
I totally agree. I think the safety demonstration should be standardized across airlines, at least in the USA, and there’s just no need to incorporate a playful sentiment into an otherwise serious matter.
It’s just a few minutes of getting travelers to pay attention.
One way for SWA to reduce unwanted bad behavior on their flights would be to assign seats. Surely “open seating” results in some awkward situations by people who have difficult with self control.