A note of apology to the helpful, dedicated flight attendants out there

by Jeffrey White on

Yesterday I posted about a disabled, wheelchair-bound woman whose husband was forced to carry her onto a Ryanair flight after the flight crew refused to help her when her Ambulift device failed to show up.

I began that post with this: “Everybody knows that flight crew members these days won’t help you lift a bag into the overhead compartment, even if you are a 90-year-old woman.”

While the overall post, rightly, is generating a lot of discussion and a degree of outrage and indignation, some readers, also rightly, feel my broad generalization of flight attendants in this sentence was off the mark. Reading it now, I agree.

I am not circling the wagon here — I feel that many flight attendants won’t help you these days to the degree they used to, say, 10 years ago. As one attendant, “Ann,” puts it: “Bottom line, you pack it, you stow it. If you can’t stow it, then check it.”

But another reader, flight attendant “Alexis,” has a point: “Not all flight attendants are uncaring and lazy.”

I have seen flight attendants refuse to help with bags on maybe a half dozen different U.S. airlines in recent years, all citing either union or company policies. Usually they find a passenger nearby to help. My 90-year-old lady reference was based on an experience from a NY-Denver flight a few years back when I saw, maybe four rows up, a woman easily in her 80s, and maybe a good deal older, struggle to get her small roller into the overhead compartment. She asked a passing male flight attendant, who was rather large, for help and he said, “I’m sorry, but I am not allowed to.” A man in the woman’s row quickly jumped up to help.

As in any job, there are lazy, malingering flight attendants. But I know there are many dedicated and hard working ones as well.

But my using a rather limited brush of personal experience to paint an entire group was wrong and I apologize for the overstatement.

Ryanair: Man forced to carry his wheelchair-bound wife onto plane after flight crew refuses to help

by Jeffrey White on

Everybody knows that flight crew members these days won’t help you lift a bag into the overhead compartment, even if you are a 90-year-old woman. Still, one wonders whether there wasn’t something Ryanair could have figured out to do in the following case.

A British man recently was forced to carry his disabled wife on board a Ryanair flight departing Luton, England for France after the airline’s flight crew refused to help, citing company safety and health regulations, according to the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper.

The Ambulift device required by 54-year-old Jo Heath, who is bound to a wheelchair, never showed up at Luton for her flight, despite the fact that Heath had told Ryanair she needed it when she booked her ticket.

The flight crew said it was Ryanair policy to leave behind passengers who could not board themselves, the Mail said.

The next flight left in three days, so Heath’s husband decided to throw her over his shoulder and climb the stairs to the plane himself.

She told the newspaper: “It was quite a dangerous thing for Paul to attempt. If he had slipped over or dropped me God knows who would have helped us out.

“I was scared and very embarrassed by it and you could see other passengers were starting to get a bit ratty. I had done everything I needed to for Ryanair to get me on the plane.”

The couple said the airline’s actions were a violation of the UK’s Disability and Discrimination Act.

Ryanair did apologize to the couple, and said it was company policy for the flight crew not to lift passengers up stairs because of health and safety concerns.

The couple did receive a voucher from Ryanair good for about $200.

It’s easy to bash Ryanair on this one. Fine. Sometimes company regulations should be overlooked.

But what about this: Were there any good Samaritans on board the plane that day who could have lent a helping hand? Appears not. They were busy getting “ratty.”

Ryanair’s CEO says new airline will give free oral sex

by Grant Martin on

Ryanair has been flirting around with the idea of starting a new transatlantic airline ever since the Open Skies Agreement took effect earlier this year. They have yet to make an official announcement or reveal any details, but that isn’t preventing them from stoking the media a little bit.

If you’ve ever seen any of Ryanair’s marketing, you know what I’m talking about. Last year they launched a “Girls of Ryanair” calendar showing off some of their flight attendants’ better features, and perennially launch raunchy advertising campaigns to reel in the European cash.

Their CEO, Michael O’Leary, is no more modest. In a recent German press conference, reporters asked about the new airline and O’Leary replied saying that “in business class it’ll be beds and blowjobs.”

The funniest part about the whole scene was that the German translator didn’t have a word for “blowjobs”, so got stumped up. You can see his reply and the entire conversation below:

Ryanair freezes executive salaries in response to high oil prices

by Anna Brones on

The popular European budget airline is preparing for tough times. High oil prices and a weak UK economy are threatening Ryanair’s overall income; Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary says that in the next year, net-profit could in fact fall by 50%.

But O’Leary doesn’t want to see high oil prices translated into increases of airline fares. “I think our fares will be flat and that will be a good result I think,” O’Leary said. To keep those fares flat, he plans on freezing the salaries of 36 senior managers of Ryanair for a period of a year. This, along with an increase in baggage and credit card fees, is expected to save the airline 400 million euros over the next 12 months.

All of this is mostly because up until now, Ryanair has enjoyed hedging contracts of oil at around $68 a barrel. Those contracts run out April 1, 2008 meaning that Ryanair’s fuel costs will only go up; every $1 increase in oil above $65 accounts for 14 million euros in annual costs.

Yet even in a dreary looking economy, Ryanair is still managing to add a few more flights. In May 2008, passengers will be able to enjoy the first domestic routes in France (Paris to Marseille) and Germany (Frankfurt to Berlin).

Spain’s government-run Women’s Institute calls Ryanair calendar sexist

by Justin Glow on

Remember the Ryanair calendar featuring female flight attendants dressed in bikinis while leaning against heavy machinery in provocative angles? Spain’s government-run Women’s Institute is calling the move sexist, saying, “[i]f there had been men in the calendar, I’m sure there would have been no controversy.”

Further, the organization claims the calendar “represent the stewardesses as sexual objects” and “reinforce discriminatory stereotypes.” Didn’t we stop calling them stewardesses in favor of the less-discriminatory term “flight attendants?”

It sounds to me that the Women’s Institution of Spain is fighting for the rights of male flight attendants, rather than protecting the dignity of the females. So what do you think, does the Women’s Institution have a leg to stand on?

Obligatory photos (click to enlarge):


You make the call!