flight attendants

TSA: OK to fly with small knives, golf clubs, other items.

Air Travel, Security, , , , ,

Zurich chocolate knife

For the first time since the 9/11 terror attacks, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will allow small knives and some previously prohibited sports equipment onto airplanes as carry-on items.

TSA_Permitted Items one

According to the TSA, passengers will be able to carry-on knives that are less than 2.36 inches long and less than one-half inch wide. Larger knives, and those with locking blades, will continue to be prohibited, as will razor blades and box cutters, guns, firearms, and the dozens of other things listed on the published list of prohibited items.

TSA_NOT Permitted KNIVES

TSA will also soon permit sports equipment such as billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks up to two golf clubs to be carried onto airplanes. Souvenir, novelty and toy baseball bats — such as wiffle-ball bats — will also be allowed.

The relaxed rules take effect April 25.

TSA_Sports items Permitted

TSA_BATS Permitted

TSA said the new regulations will allow its officers to better focus efforts on finding “higher threat items such as explosives,” and was made as part of the agency’s overall risk-based security approach.

But the Flight Attendants Union Coalition issued a statement saying they are unhappy with this move, calling it a “poor and shortsighted decision” by the TSA.

“As the last line of defense in the cabin and key aviation partners, we believe that these proposed changes will further endanger the lives of all Flight Attendants and the passengers we work so hard to keep safe and secure,” the statement said.

TSA believes the items it will now allow in airline cabins are “unlikely to result in catastrophic destruction of an aircraft,” and that policies already put in place — hardened cockpit doors, federal air marshals, crewmembers with self-defense training — reduce the likelihood of passengers breaching the cockpit.

“All TSA is doing is catching up with the rest of the world,” said Douglas R. Laird, president of aviation consulting firm Laird & Associates and former head of security for Northwest Airlines. After 9/11 the TSA “overreacted,” said Laird, and put restrictions in place “in the heat of the moment” that exceeded those in other countries.

Removing small knives and some sports equipment from the list prohibited items “will help align TSA’s list with international standards and help decrease the time spent rescreening or searching bags for these once prohibited items,” said TSA spokesperson Nico Melendez. The changes also enable officers to focus on “the greatest threats … which increase security for passengers and improves efficiency, improving the checkpoint screening experience.”

(Images courtesy TSA)

(A slightly different version of my story about the TSA’s decision to take small knives and sports equipment off the prohibited items list is on NBC News.com.)

Souvenir Sunday: Finnair flight attendants share their stories

Flight attendants, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs,

Has anything unusual or humorous happened to Finnair flight attendants?

Looks like we’ll have to get a copy of Airborne: Tales From A Thousand And One Flights, to find out.

The book is billed as “a collection of true stories written by customer service professionals of the sky” and appears to be filled with stories like this:

CRUISE – MEAL SERVICE

A passenger was upset on a leisure flight as he had asked for a window seat, but had been given one on the aisle instead. The flight was full, and nobody in his immediate vicinity was willing to change seats. I wondered what I could do to cheer him up, and decided to make him a window. I took a trash frame and taped “curtains” from kitchen roll on it. I went up to the man and said, “I’m really sorry that our service chain has let you down today. However, to make up for your loss, I do have this portable window for you. Would you like me to hold it in place, while you eat your preordered vegetarian meal?” The passenger burst out laughing, and stayed in a good mood for the rest of the flight.

Tee-hee. There are more wild and wacky stories like that in the book, which is available in English or Finnish. Proceeds of the book will be donated to the Finnish Central Association for Mental Health, which works for the prevention of mental health issues among children and adolescents.

Scarf & tie-swapping flight attendants making friends

Flight attendants, , ,

A small gesture is getting big raves from flight attendants who now work for the company created by the merger of United and Continental Airlines but who continue to fly separately—in their traditional United or Continental uniforms—while final union and contract issues are  were being worked out.

Flight attendants who came from the old Continental Airlines recently ratified a new contract, which means attendants can now negotiate a joint contract to cover the combined group of about 24,000 flight attendants – including about 9,000 U.S. flight attendants who came from Continental.

“We have to two diverse cultures with completely different work rules, wants and needs,” said Sara Keagle, a Continental flight attendant who blogs as the Flying Pinto.

The two teams will eventually be blended and issued new matching uniforms. But as a symbol of friendship and bridge-building, flight attendants from each airline have been swapping their regulation neckwear for the scarves and ties worn by the other team.

The informal program was started by Kathe Hull, a United flight attendant who was reading through messages on a flight attendant Facebook page on June 29th. “It’s sort of been like the first day of school; we’ve all been eyeing each other, wondering if we were going to be friends. I was checking in on the page and I thought that instead of just posting a comment here and there I would make a gesture to my peers at my sister airline,” Hull said.

She asked if a Continental flight attendant would be willing to trade scarves. “I wanted it to foster a friendship beyond Facebook,” said Hull, who has been a flight attendant for United since Valentine’s Day 1991.

Hull kicked off the program by putting two of her United scarves in a small plastic bag with her name, base city and a note to a potential “scarf-sister” from Continental. She left the bag in a swap box she set up in the Newark domicile, one of the briefing rooms where flight attendants check-in before their flights.

Courtesy “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarves and Ties”

 “I have no idea who got my scarves,” said Hull. But she does know that the idea has spread like wildfire.

With the help of an enthusiastic “scarf squad,” swap boxes with plastic bags of scarves, ties and some wings have been set up in domiciles all over the United States. And through a new Facebook page set up for what has been now been dubbed “The Sisterhood and Brotherhood of the Traveling Scarves and Ties,” Hull has learned that swap boxes have been set up at the airline’s bases in Guam, Narita, Japan and Frankfurt, Germany.

“It’s like pen pals meet The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” said Hull, referring to the popular young adult books and movies about a group of friends who must be apart but stay in touch by sharing a magical pair of blue jeans.

“It’s an uncertain time. Bases are opening and closing. People are shifting around,” said Hull. “This is a good way to begin feeling like a family.”

The uniforms worn by both United and Continental flight attendants are navy blue, but passengers who look closely should be able to spot the swappers, who have cleared the non-regulation accessories with United management.

Courtesy “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Scarves and Ties”

“Hull’s idea is about camaraderie and the bonding as one team,” said Sam Risoli, United Airlines senior vice president of inflight services. “It a terrific idea that’s simple, personal and very genuine. A perfect example of being positive and doing the right things.”

(My story “United, Continental flight attendants swap scarves, ties for friendship,” first appeared on NBCNEWS.com.

Travel tidbits: fired flight attendant & fresh, future airport amenities

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Today – a few tidbits from the inbox at StuckatTheAirport.com:

First up: there are some very interesting comments to my story from earlier this week about the Virgin America flight attendant who says she was fired for asking a breastfeeding passenger to cover up.

KLM is asking travelers to send in photos for consideration for the KLM 2013 wall calendar.  Upload a image from a place KLM travels to and get your friends to vote – all before June 29th.  Winning images will show up on the KLM Fan Calendar, which  you can then purchase (of course…) in the KLM webshop.  One fun item for sale in the shop: Stewardess Yourself mugs made out of the image you create with the Stewardess Yourself program.



And a couple of things to look forward to at a couple of airports:

Indianapolis International Airport (IND) announced that Airport Plazas will build a 2.5 acre, multi-function service plaza near the airport that will include pumps for gasoline and natural gas fuels, a convenience store, car wash, auto service bay (a tune-up while you’re waiting for your loved one to arrive? Great idea!), fast food restaurants and a new airport cell phone parking lot. Opening date: mid-2013.

Sound like a useful idea? Airport Plazas is currently operating, building or in negotiations to build service similar facilities at Newark (already built and operating), JFK, Ft. Myers, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Dallas/Ft. Worth.

And the Vancouver Airport Authority has announced that it is planning to develop a luxury designer outlet center near Vancouver International Airport.

The new center will open in phases, beginning in the fall of 2014, and feature European and North American luxury, designer and mainstream brands.

Travel: Does the “Pan Am” TV version reflect real life?

Air Travel, Aviation history, Entertainment, ,

If you watched the Sunday night premiere of “Pan Am,” you might be wondering if the idyllic version of 1960s air travel matches the reality of those who worked for the iconic airline.

Msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin wondered, too. So I asked two former Pan Am flight attendants to watch the show and tell me if their experiences were anything like those portrayed on-screen.


Bronwen Roberts in a 1958 Pan Am graduation photo.

Bronwen Roberts was hired at Pan Am in 1958 shortly after graduating England’s University of Leeds with a degree in French. She flew until 1989 and kept in a scrapbook the advertisement listing the 15 qualifications required of flight attendant applicants. “You had to have a pleasant personality and speaking voice, excellent health and you had to be single,” said Roberts. “Really single. Not widowed, divorced or separated.”

A weight between 110 and 135 pounds was another qualification. Roberts said the pre-flight weigh-ins and grooming inspections depicted on the show were true-to-life.

“When you checked in for a flight you’d go into the office and there’d be a grooming supervisor on duty all the time,” said Roberts. “She could say, ‘Your hair is too long’ or ‘You are overweight’ and send you home until you fixed it. Just like the TV show, you could get grounded for uniform violations.”

Helen Davey also found the on-screen grooming checks familiar. Now a psychotherapist in Los Angeles, she was hired as a Pan Am flight attendant in 1965 at age 21 and flew until 1986.


Helen Davey in an undated photo from her days as a Pan Am flight attendant.

“Yes, we had to wear girdles,” said Davey. “And if you were one minute late for a trip, they’d send you home.”

In the first episode, a child is escorted into the cockpit mid-flight to visit the pilots. Passengers are also offered ashtrays so they can smoke. Roberts and Davey both said that those in-flight activities were once very common.

“We definitely took children into the cockpit so they could sit in the pilot’s seat,” said Roberts. “And in terms of smoking, we’d have little packets of cigarettes and matches that we’d go around with.”

“Even flight attendants could smoke,” added Davey. “But when they did, they had to be sitting down.”

In the episode (spoiler alert), two of the flight attendants are shown doing work for the CIA. If this seems like the least plausible story line, Roberts and Davey both said it was realistic.

“That is definitely a true story,” said Roberts, who during her tenure heard rumors that at least one flight attendant was involved with the CIA. “At one point she just disappeared. No one knew what happened to her.”

In fact, Nancy Hult Ganis, an executive producer for the show and a former Pan Am flight attendant, told wired.com that her research turned up stories about the airline’s involvement with State Department operations on behind-the-scene missions in dangerous locations.

The TV program also shows flight attendants with plenty of time to chit-chat, and at least one crew member involved in an off-duty affair with a passenger.

“Some of those flights were quite long – 15 or 20 hours – and there were fewer people, so you could get to know them,” said Roberts. “People weren’t glued to their laptops like they are now. And some people did end up marrying passengers they met on flights.”

Roberts and Davey had only a few quibbles with the first episode. Both said their uniforms were a warmer, more subdued shade of blue than those worn by the TV actresses and that flight attendants in their day would never be allowed to have hair touching their shoulders.

But there’s one moment that Davey said was spot on. “I liked the scene when they were ready for take-off and one flight attendant says to the new hire, ‘Buckle up. Adventure calls.’ That’s how it was. We all thought we had lucked into the best job into the world.”