"Thanks for not being drunk..."

[AMRCostUnit]

Finished a 4 day with a BNA-MIA early morning go. The Captain bolted for his commuter flight so I hung out and said goodbye to the pax. As a couple were getting their stuff from the front closet on thier way out, they said to me, in a loud voice, "Thanks for not being drunk!"

I just stared at them and got madder by the second. When everyone was off I went out into the terminal and found the man waiting for his wife who was in the bathroom. I waited until they walked down the terminal. They were a party of four. When they came up to me they said "hey there is our pilot" with a big smile. They had no clue.

I let them have it. Told them:

Comments like that are highly inappropriate.

Comments like that can put my job at risk.

Comments like that are an insult to a professional pilot.

Don't ever do it again.


I probably said a few more things but that I all I can remember. I was professional but very intense. They were like a deer in the headlights. After the third bullet they began to apologize. The F/A thought they might have been non-revs but I was too angry to go into how a non-rev should know better. Non-rev or not, they got the point.

I am tired of subsidizing the flying of stupid people. I will not take this abuse and I encourage all of you on this board not to either. Pass it on.

Unit
Quite Sober, Quite Angry

 

[CoolHands]

Good for you AMR! I don't fly for an airline but thanks for standing up for all professional pilots.

Fly Safe

 

[AlbieF15]

...I had the very same conversation with a nasty cargo pallet just last week...

AMR--you were right to be offended. I understand more and more why the former U, UAL, DAL, and AA guys at FedEx seem so happy.

 

[Oakum_Boy]

Americans are generally pretty retarded. I am sick of the budget people causing problems too...

 

[Beechman]

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago. Me and the CA were walking into the hotel around 11:45pm and a fellow came in behind us and said "I hope I don't hear about you guys being drunk and going to court." I was dumbfounded at his remark, left speechless. I'm not the type of guy who has quick comebacks so I just shruged it off. But gee wiz what's the deal with these people?

 

[NEWSOUTH]

Had a TSA agent comment that I was taking a "sobriety test"....after I pulled a 270 turn to get behind the ticket counter in AVL. That was a dangerous comment.

 

[CA1900]

I had a similar experience a few weeks ago. Me and the CA were walking into the hotel around 11:45pm and a fellow came in behind us and said "I hope I don't hear about you guys being drunk and going to court." I was dumbfounded at his remark, left speechless. I'm not the type of guy who has quick comebacks so I just shruged it off.

Unbelievable.

Heck, I'm off-duty at the hotel. I think my response would have been, "No, you're going to hear about me going to court for beating the living s**t out of you for insulting my integrity."


...

Then I'd go change and have a beer in the hotel bar.

 

[dash8driver]

"ok.. i hope i dont hear about you getting caught giving blowjobs in the public bathrooms again."






.

 

[I.P. Freley]

Americans are generally pretty retarded.

The most retarded passenger comment I ever heard was from a German fella after I'd been forced to do an air-return due to an A/C malfunction. Admittedly it was hard to explain to the pax why we had to return to our originating airport after flying 2/3 of the way to the destination, but the problem in question couldn't be fixed where we were going and we'd end up with a stranded crew and a stranded airplane until the following afternoon.

I explained it in detail to the passengers in flight and then again on the ground, but naturally we all ended up on the same train going back to the main terminal. Everyone was seriously ticked off, and rightly so, but the German guy just wouldn't let it drop... Kept making faces at me (like I'd personally broken the airplane) and questioning me over and over again, like the answer to his repeated and nearly identical questions would change.

After I told him for the FIFTH time that I'd conferred via radio with my MX control and dispatcher and I was basically told to return to our departure airport, he said:

"Following orders! Hmmph! Ya, just like NUREMBURG! Hmmph!"

...and rolled his eyes.

At that point I seriously considered sinking my teeth into the fleshy skin on his cheek.

 

[BSkin]

I am tired of subsidizing the flying of stupid people. I will not take this abuse and I encourage all of you on this board not to either. Pass it on.

Unit
Quite Sober, Quite Angry

I wholeheartedly agree. The abuse will continue until it's more expensive to fly somewhere, then drive!