Interesting Reading: Where Being Impolite Does Not Pay ...

[JGalanos]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25588076/

 

A VIP first-class female passenger stormed onboard and threw her full-length fur coat at the flight attendant at the door and shouted, “Do something with this!” The flight attendant who, because she was too close to her retirement for any disciplinary action to be taken, walked to the jetway door, tossed the coat on to the tarmac, and exclaimed to the other flight attendant “Well, I did something with it like she said.”

 

[cbernard92]

maybe she could have kept it, that would be doing something with it! haha

[Worker 11811]

Even though the writer is a flight attendant and has probably seen a lot of action, the story seems more like hearsay and urban legend than fact.

 

Details seem to be glossed over and much of the writing seems to have been "smoothed over" to make it more readable. Although I don't doubt that anything like that actually happened, I am suspicious that this might be a F.O.A.F. story. ("Friend of a Friend")

 

If somebody tossed your coat onto the tarmac, wouldn't you be livid?

If the owner of the coat was as much of an asshole as she was made out to be in the story, don't you think she would use every ounce of her energy to make as much of a stink as possible? I imagine that the woman in question would do everything she can to get that flight attendant in trouble, regardless of her retirement status.

 

At the very least, I think the writer has left out and/or glossed over many of the details.

 

It would have been difficult, if not impossible to simply walk to the door and throw the coat out. The door to the jetway isn't readily accessible from the attendant's position. The attendant would have had to walk upstream against traffic.

 

I think the writer is taking advantage of a perceived prejudice against fur. To the average reader, the story is funnier because it is a FUR coat. Would it have been as funny if it was a Louis Vuitton cashmere coat that got thrown out? A run-of-the-mill fur coat costs $2,000 to $3,000. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. But a current design Louis Vuitton cashmere coat STARTS in the $3,000 range and goes up from there! In terms of sheer dollar amount, a Louis Vuitton on the tarmac is FAR worse than most fur coats! No. A fur coat is, somehow, "more evil" and the average reader might think that it "deserves" to be thrown out.

 

If you were the personnel manager of a large airline, what would YOU do if you heard of a flight attendant doing such a thing? What would you do if you heard that the attendant did it because she thought she was "untouchable" because she was going to retire? You'd figure out some way to punish that attendant. Wouldn't you?

If you were the union steward and the personnel manager brought this matter to your attention, would you back up an attendant who committed such an act of WILLFUL misconduct? No. Your answer would probably be, "Broom the bitch!"

 

I don't think the story is a complete lie. I'm sure it COULD HAVE happened.

I just reserve the right to wave the "bullshit flag."

[JGalanos]

I just reserve the right to wave the "bullshit flag."

 

Worker,

 

I think perhaps you should consider joining Skeptics Anonymous.

[frugalfurguy]

Worker! You just saved me from believing a mortal error!

 

Maybe we could spiff that up a little bit. Let's say the flight attendant was also secretly an aeronautics genius. She knew that on this jetliner there was an airlock. So she carefully and demurely folded the coat and put it in the overhead rack at the passenger's seat. During the flight, she made sure the passenger got plenty of booze. When the passenger staggered off to the bathroom, she slipped out the coat (winking at all the seatmates who by now were thoroughly disgusted by their tight fellow passenger's insults) from its place, took it to the airlock and ejected it.

 

Worker meanwhile in his unbelief was out walking through the snow. A $103,330 sable swing coat fell on his head. Where being skeptical maybe DOES pay!

 

I suppose you could simplify it. The irate and arrogant passenger flings her fur at the attendant with the do-something ... line. Attendant says, "You bet!" Walks back to a john, wadding up the coat ... you get my drift.

 

So maybe she got early retirement. Story really doesn't say whether anybody tried to discipline her.