Pima
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2007
- Messages
- 13,900
According to the parents and some others (airline attendants, coach class customers) the pilot did indeed say it was a Gold Star family, but my assumption is most passengers do not know what a Gold Star family is. I would think @ 95% of pilots are retired military officer, and so for them they know what a Gold Star family is, but on the flip side I would say 95% of fliers are not military on any given flight and do not know what that is.
I am going to take a jump here and believe they did boo, according to reports it was boos, but because they heard Gold Star and without knowing what that was they assumed it was like their loyalty program...i.e. when you board certain airlines, they call them different things, such as Platinum members, I believe American calls them Sapphire and Ruby (airline colors). Thus, for those in 1st class may have assumed it was a level of loyalty.
If you fly frequently, depending on the plane, you basically have @100-150 in coach and maybe 18 in 1st class. Nobody in coach boo'd, just 1st class. You would think that from a numbers aspect of time being valuable or needing to make a connection, it is those sitting in row 35 getting nervous about connecting more than Mr. seat 4A in 1st class.
I have been on a plane with a Gold Star family escorting their father's body home. The plane was on time, but we had only 25 mins layover. Our choice to have such a small window. We had to pay extra for our seats (1st row behind 1st class). The pilot announced the same thing...we have a Gold Star family on board, please allow them to exit the aircraft 1st. The difference in our situation was everybody could put 2 +2 together, because the pilot said in that sentence....as they are escorting the family members body home. If you still didn't get it....you saw out your window a flag draped casket come out of the luggage hold and got it at that moment while you saw an honor guard take charge of the casket and while you filed out of the plane you saw every person look out the window to see the family on the tarmac.
Again, I get time is valuable. It was just as valuable 10, 20, 30 or 40 yrs ago too. The difference is impo what I stated earlier, passengers are just rude now. Flying 20 yrs ago to fly between London and JFK was about 800 a person, now you can fly for almost 1/2 of that price, trust me I know, lived in the UK and as young military family of 3, flying home to the states was @1 month salary, now it would be 1 weeks paycheck as an O2/O3. If I wanted to get away this weekend to visit Napa to buy wine it would cost me @400 round trip from the DC area....cheap. cheap. cheap if you really think about it from a dollar cost aspect compared to 20 yrs ago. Yet, my time is still as valuable as it was 20 yrs ago. So than what has changed? Simple, airlines got cheap, and customers now think they matter more (special snowflakes) than the other 200 people on the aircraft instead of realizing how cheap it is to fly and you are just cattle in a flying tin tube.
I am just saying that I think, we, as a society need to take a hard look at how we respect others. This idea that blame is being somewhat placed at the feet of the pilot for not explaining it well enough says alot. Where is the respect for the pilot also? Think about it. You all climb on board and for several hours you believe they have at least enough intelligence to do a job that you can't, and place your lives in their hands to get you there safely, but what? Now, when he/she request you to remain in your seats for this family, all of the sudden they have no common sense? That as a passenger you no longer respect their decision, because OMG you had to sit in your seat for 2 extra minutes!
~ Think about it. The aircrew knew what seat that family was sitting in. I bet my beloved Myrtle that the aircrew knew exactly which overhead luggage bin their luggage was in and was there immediately pulling it out. Thus, even if they were in row 35 out of 36, the luggage was out within a minute and all it took was for them to walk up an empty aisle those 50 feet....what another 30 seconds. Grand total 2 mins. in a worse case scenario.
Just me, but am I missing something here? Their time is valuable and they paid a lot more money to have those big comfy seats with real food, where God willing they all got to kiss their kid that day, yesterday and tomorrow, while this family sat in coach with a tiny bag of peanuts/pretzels or cookies and will never kiss their child again. I am pretty sure if they were offered the option of waiting an extra 2 mins and kissing their kid while flying in the big comfy seats over the reality of what they were facing they would take the extra 2 mins of waiting.
I get it...everybody has limited time, everybody's time matters. I guess as a wife that had a husband who served 21 yrs(Desert Shield, ONW, OSW, OIF) and now a Mom of a C130J AF pilot, I feel it differently. To me, those in 1st class maybe just said Goodbye to their family for a few days or weeks, maybe they are excited to say hello to family, but they never placed into their minds...this was for this family the last hello and goodbye to their son.
I am going to take a jump here and believe they did boo, according to reports it was boos, but because they heard Gold Star and without knowing what that was they assumed it was like their loyalty program...i.e. when you board certain airlines, they call them different things, such as Platinum members, I believe American calls them Sapphire and Ruby (airline colors). Thus, for those in 1st class may have assumed it was a level of loyalty.
If you fly frequently, depending on the plane, you basically have @100-150 in coach and maybe 18 in 1st class. Nobody in coach boo'd, just 1st class. You would think that from a numbers aspect of time being valuable or needing to make a connection, it is those sitting in row 35 getting nervous about connecting more than Mr. seat 4A in 1st class.
I have been on a plane with a Gold Star family escorting their father's body home. The plane was on time, but we had only 25 mins layover. Our choice to have such a small window. We had to pay extra for our seats (1st row behind 1st class). The pilot announced the same thing...we have a Gold Star family on board, please allow them to exit the aircraft 1st. The difference in our situation was everybody could put 2 +2 together, because the pilot said in that sentence....as they are escorting the family members body home. If you still didn't get it....you saw out your window a flag draped casket come out of the luggage hold and got it at that moment while you saw an honor guard take charge of the casket and while you filed out of the plane you saw every person look out the window to see the family on the tarmac.
Again, I get time is valuable. It was just as valuable 10, 20, 30 or 40 yrs ago too. The difference is impo what I stated earlier, passengers are just rude now. Flying 20 yrs ago to fly between London and JFK was about 800 a person, now you can fly for almost 1/2 of that price, trust me I know, lived in the UK and as young military family of 3, flying home to the states was @1 month salary, now it would be 1 weeks paycheck as an O2/O3. If I wanted to get away this weekend to visit Napa to buy wine it would cost me @400 round trip from the DC area....cheap. cheap. cheap if you really think about it from a dollar cost aspect compared to 20 yrs ago. Yet, my time is still as valuable as it was 20 yrs ago. So than what has changed? Simple, airlines got cheap, and customers now think they matter more (special snowflakes) than the other 200 people on the aircraft instead of realizing how cheap it is to fly and you are just cattle in a flying tin tube.
I am just saying that I think, we, as a society need to take a hard look at how we respect others. This idea that blame is being somewhat placed at the feet of the pilot for not explaining it well enough says alot. Where is the respect for the pilot also? Think about it. You all climb on board and for several hours you believe they have at least enough intelligence to do a job that you can't, and place your lives in their hands to get you there safely, but what? Now, when he/she request you to remain in your seats for this family, all of the sudden they have no common sense? That as a passenger you no longer respect their decision, because OMG you had to sit in your seat for 2 extra minutes!
~ Think about it. The aircrew knew what seat that family was sitting in. I bet my beloved Myrtle that the aircrew knew exactly which overhead luggage bin their luggage was in and was there immediately pulling it out. Thus, even if they were in row 35 out of 36, the luggage was out within a minute and all it took was for them to walk up an empty aisle those 50 feet....what another 30 seconds. Grand total 2 mins. in a worse case scenario.
Just me, but am I missing something here? Their time is valuable and they paid a lot more money to have those big comfy seats with real food, where God willing they all got to kiss their kid that day, yesterday and tomorrow, while this family sat in coach with a tiny bag of peanuts/pretzels or cookies and will never kiss their child again. I am pretty sure if they were offered the option of waiting an extra 2 mins and kissing their kid while flying in the big comfy seats over the reality of what they were facing they would take the extra 2 mins of waiting.
I get it...everybody has limited time, everybody's time matters. I guess as a wife that had a husband who served 21 yrs(Desert Shield, ONW, OSW, OIF) and now a Mom of a C130J AF pilot, I feel it differently. To me, those in 1st class maybe just said Goodbye to their family for a few days or weeks, maybe they are excited to say hello to family, but they never placed into their minds...this was for this family the last hello and goodbye to their son.
