[Neha Gupta Kapoor]

Recently in India, IndiGo Airlines offloaded a passenger alleging he used the word “hijack”. The passenger said he only complained about mosquitoes in the aircraft. Two years ago a man was offloaded from a Southwest Airlines flight was saying “Inshallah”. Do you think airlines are being too sensitive/intolerant?

[FDOS_UK]

Given that over 3.3 billion people travel by year annually (http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2013-12-30-01.aspx) and you quote two examples over a period of two years, e.g. 2/6,600,000,000 cases, to ask a question to try to establish a general principle, I would say that is one of the most idiotic questions I have ever read on here.

Any answer based on your ‘data’ can be no more than blind prejudice.

[canucklad]

Hi Neha & FDOS

I’m actually surprised there’s not more reported evidence of these incidents !!

In Scotland there is a saying……” Don’t get your knickers in a twist”

As a regular traveller , the people who I observe twisting their own knickers to a point of high pitched octave whines are those personnel who have an Everest high opinion of their own self-worth…….Including on a (Un)reasonably regular basis

Check-In staff insisting that cabin bags are tagged with useless under the seat labels
Surly Security officers nit picking on the quality of how transparent a clear bag is to what’s a shoe and what’s a sandal
Gate staff demanding hand luggage for the hold
Cabin Crew getting uppity at the minutest request above the norm
And I could go on, and on, and on, and on…….

In most cases , the common denominator is an individual, not being too sensitive , rather not sensitive enough.
The people on the receiving end of ,all of the above , invariably are the elderly, the plainly inexperienced traveller or have some other type of vulnerability.

Rarely do I see experienced middle aged traveller getting trapped into negative interactions. And I’m surmising that’s because we have learnt coping strategies to navigate a travelling experience that’s become so bad it would drive most people to drink……Which is another subject altogether !!!

[capetonianm]

I think the original posting is a wind-up.

Regardless of that, my answer to the question would be NO.

[LuganoPirate]

I think it’s a serious question, and not sure what it means, but he’s shown as a Keymaster, so perhaps BT staff?

He quotes two incidents, but I can think offhand of at least 10 more and how many go unreported? Isn’t there even a posting somewhere where one of the regular posters was threatened with being offloaded because he wanted something or other and was complaining?

I’m not sure if it’s the airlines being sensitive or the cabin personnel using their authority who are being overly sensitive. However as Canucklad says, there is far worse from the check in desk to security to gate staff who certainly abuse the fact they are wearing a uniform.

[handbag]

Anyone know what a Keymaster is?

[Flightlevel]

Such events take place in all walks of life and transport incidents are most common, personally have problems with Virgin trains.
Put a person in a uniform and sometimes they think they are corporals in the army, like an historical character – don’t mention the nationality!

[capetonianm]

personally have problems with Virgin trains.

Me too. A few years ago the train I was booked on from Preston to Euston broke down somewhere near Penrith so I took the next one. I was told by the ticket inspector (heaven knows what pompous title they give themselves) that I was travelling ‘without a valid travel authority’ and would have to pay for a new ticket and penalty fare. See you in court, was my answer.

Then there was the time I was on a train and spotted a friend on board, so went and sat with him. Mr TI comes along and tells me I’m travelling in the wrong class, and I was. My ticket was First and I’d chosen to sit in Second. He told me my ticket was invalid for the class of travel and I could be fined!

Where do they get these imbeciles from. It reminds me of the joke about the Rabbi, the tax inspector, and the circumcisions.

[PeterCoultas]

At the risk of seeing something non-PC, please capetonianm, tell us the joke….

[capetonianm]

Seeing as you asked :

At the end of the tax year, the Tax Office sent an inspector to audit the books of a synagogue. While he was checking the books he turned to the Rabbi and said: “I notice you buy a lot of candles. What do you do with the candle drippings?” “Good question”, noted the Rabbi. “We save them up and send them back to the candle makers, and every now and then they send us a free box of candles.”

“Oh”, replied the auditor, somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer.

But on he went, in his obnoxious way: “What about all these biscuit purchases? What do you do with the crumbs?” “Ah, yes”, replied the Rabbi, realising that the inspector was trying to trap him with an unanswerable question. “We collect them and send them back to the manufacturers, and every now and then they send a free box of holy biscuits.”

“I see!” replied the auditor, thinking hard about how he could fluster the know-it-all Rabbi. “Well, Rabbi”, he went on, “What do you do with all the leftover foreskins from the circumcisions you perform?”

“Here, too, we do not waste”, answered the Rabbi. “What we do is save up all the foreskins and send them to the Tax Office, and about once a year they send us a complete prick.”

[PeterCoultas]

Many thanks and a very nice story….

[LuganoPirate]

Nice one Capetonian.

[LuganoPirate]

Just received this joke, but it actually makes a very good point:

I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, ‘Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?’
To which I replied, ‘If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?’ He smiled knowingly and nodded, ‘That’s why we ask.’
Happened in Birmingham , Ala.

[CathayLoyalist2]

It´s not just airlines it is society, where people in general seem to be so easily offended on trivial issues because the PC brigade pander to them. Common sense is rarely commonly applied. I have found, as I think we all have, however strongly you feel to rebuff a complete jerk aggressively, smile sweetly and count to ten!

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=862116]however strongly you feel to rebuff a complete jerk aggressively, smile sweetly and count to ten![/quote]

Fully agree with you cathyLoyalist.

[Author]

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