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Alec Baldwin: Others Were Using Phones, But I Was "Singled Out" By Mean Flight Attendant
By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 7, 2011
Modified Dec 7, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Dec 7, 2011
Modified Dec 7, 2011
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December 6, 2011 is a day that Alec Baldwin will never forget. After being kicked off an American Airlines flight from LAX to JFK—and delaying things for the other travelers—Baldwin deactivated his Twitter account and allowed gleeful tabloids and American Airlines to explain that he basically had a tantrum over being asked to stop using his phone. But don't worry: Baldwin has used his soapbox at the Huffington Post to give his side of the story.
Baldwin apologizes to the other passengers, but wants to make something clear: The plane was already delayed!
My confusion began when the flight, already a half hour behind schedule, boarded, the door closed, and we proceeded to sit at the gate for another fifteen minutes. I then did what I have nearly always done and that was to pull out my phone to complete any other messaging I had to do before take off. In nearly all other instances, the flight attendants seemed to be unbothered by and said nothing about such activity, by me or anyone else, until we actually were pulling away from the gate.
In this case, while other people were still manipulating their own phones, this one employee singled me out to put my phone away. Afterward, we still sat at the gate. I pulled out my phone again, while others did the same. Again, I was singled out by this woman in the most unpleasant of tones. I guess the fact that this woman, who had decided to make some example of me, while everyone else was left undisturbed, did get the better of me.
However, I have learned a valuable lesson. Airlines in the US are struggling with fuel costs, labor costs, bankruptcies, you name it. It's no secret that the level of service on US carriers has deteriorated to a point that would make Howard Hughes red-faced. Filthy planes, barely edible meals, cuts in jet service to less-traveled locations. One of the big changes, in my time, is in the increase of the post-9/11, paramilitary bearing of much of the air travel business. September 11th was a horrific day in the airline industry, yet in the wake of that event, I believe carriers and airports have used that as an excuse to make the air travel experience as inelegant as possible.
He always says that he's had some great service from American Airlines over the year, "Most of the flight attendants I have ever encountered still have some remnant of the old idea of service. Add to that the notion that in this day and age, many people have a lot of important work to do, by phone, and would like to do so till the last possible minute. But there are many now who walk the aisles of an airplane with a whistle around their neck and a clipboard in their hands and they have made flying a Greyhound bus experience."
Tagged
alec baldwin
american airlines
bad behavior
celebrity
cellphone
tantrum
words with friends
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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