If you want to ban beer on a flight, you better start evaluating who the alkies are, and strap them down. Besides that, last flight I was on they were charging 5 bucks for a beer (a WARM BEER) and the f*****g male stewardess cut me off. I wasn’t even drunk, or beginning to get drunk. I think he was just tired of me coming back there ever half hour to ask for another one. That said, my solution to air rage would be this. Have each airline that has been bailed out by the federal government issue a formal thanks to all of us. Secondly, have them realize that because of their customers they are in business, and that we aren’t their customers just because they are in business. Ultimately, we pay them, and they work for us. We don’t pay them so we can be treated like scumbags. Third, take some seats out of the plane, and add more planes to each route to compensate. I understand the reason to go into business is to make money.

I understand that making more money is a good thing, but you’re not going to make any money when nobody is happy with the service you are providing. You’d have to sell it to them at a loss just to get any business at all. Fourth, one price for one ticket. This “evolving” ticket price is complete and pure bullshit, especially in an industry notorious for double booking and overbooking flights. Overbooking and double booking should be obsolete by now with the technology that we have nowadays. DON’T DO IT. In fact, I’ve recently heard a rumor that airlines are going to be charging extra for such luxuries as aisle seats, placement in the airplane, boarding privileges and other things, which I couldn’t begin to fathom. Isn’t it bad enough they charge for food, or crappy headphones (that for three times in a row now, only one channel worked in the armrest connection….) to watch an edited movie that we the customer are privileged enough to have the captain come in screaming into our ears “…there’s the grand canyon, you could see it if it weren’t cloudy.”

I understand that with rising fuel prices the airlines are feeling the crunch. But who isn’t? We’re all making less money now, because of the rising gas prices, and inflation in general. If I have to pay 600-1000$ to fly somewhere, is giving me a sandwich and a bag of chips, or an aisle seat really going to hurt your business or cause you to lose money?
Lastly, it’s understood that being a stewardess probably isn’t the most fun job and lately they’ve been given some wide ranging powers to kick people off the plane or just generally make things rough for them when they get off of one. But don’t treat people like bad children. You’re a waitress. You are there to make sure that people have something to drink, snacks, and generally help people feel comfortable on your airplane.

If someone is seriously looking to reduce air rage, let’s look at other things instead of scapegoating alcohol like has been done many times before. If people can sit in first class and get free alcohol and air rage hasn’t been a problem, then why is it that alcohol you HAVE TO BUY is a problem in the business/coach section. I’d bet dollars to shots “IT’S THE ENVIRONMENT, STUPID!”

As a personal note to this, I once had lost a copy of my itinerary before a return flight, and I called the airline to find out what my flight number was, and how I could check in even though I had lost it. They told me that I would have to pay 150$ to get my boarding pass and get on the plane, since they would have to print out another itinerary (that *ahem* I had printed out for free myself at home when I bought the tickets). Now, what really burned me about this, is we had just bailed out a bunch of airlines, they knew what flight and times I was supposed to be on, and positive photo identification has to be made at check in and security… They had all the information and logically all I should have had to do was show up at the counter and show them my ID and things should have worked out. Nope. Not in that industry. Especially not when you’re 3000 miles from home. Luckily I eventually found my itinerary, but that’s a complete ripoff.

Sorry. Had to let it out. I’m going to be leaving on an airplane for Hawaii in a few hours and reading this just made me want to bitch slap whoever wrote it. Especially since not everyone who’s had air rage has been drunk. In fact, in the cases he cites, it’s not even declared if alcohol was a factor, so to ban alcohol to combat air rage, when alcohol isn’t even a factor, is about as logical as landing the airplane without any landing gear.

Hahaha… Thanks. I started commenting on digg.com, and once I got going I couldn’t stop. THen figured I should maybe post it here too for the author to get a read of. Sorry for using the F word. When trying to make a serious point I try not to swear. I’m just passionate about the money that is spent vs. the quality of the service received when it comes to air travel. As an average sized person, I was finding it painful and claustrophobic to travel from Cincinati to Phoenix last October, with only about 2 inches from my knees to the seat in front of me, and it’s only getting worse it seems like. Alcohol isn’t the problem. It might be a catalyst, but it’s not the only possible catalyst. Sleep in an airport all night sometime then get on an airplane where you can barely move your toes, then tell me that alcohol is the problem.

Ahh… a friend from across the pond. Well, come on over here sometime and travel our “friendly skys” and you’ll understand how I could rant on and on about the horrible state of the airlines and “air hospitality” in this country, especially after the united states federal government bailed out the entire industry after their decline back in 01-02. I too often feel like a cattle being herded into a plane, and chances are if you’ve ever been on a flight with me, I’m the one making the cow sounds down the jetway and into the plane. These people are lucky to still be in business. We do still have trains and boats.
In all seriousness though, do avoid Northwest Airlines in the united states (I think they may be partnered with British Airways or KLM). I flew them last october (as I said earlier) and it was probably the most horrible experience I’ve ever had. Packed plane, no leg room at all, rude attendants, bad terminals, etc…

Apologies for the bitch slappin too, but I seriously disagree that alcohol is a major factor in “air rage” (I hate that term… what ever happened to “flipping out”?). one thing I’ve learned in different aspects of dealing with alcohol is that it creates a situation of “emotion over intellect” instead of the usual “intellect over emotion.”

So while, I can see how one might say “it’s the alcohol that did it,” first we need to look at what caused such a person (drunk in this case) to cross that line and become so angry/frustrated/aggrivated that they would “rage” against the service crew or fellow passengers. From everything i’ve ever experienced most people when they start drinking, especially in a social environment, are usually friendly, jovial, and outgoing unless provoked. I think that upgrading and respecting us as people would go a long way to improving profits for the airlines and eliminating a term like “air rage” from our collective vocabulary.
Also, as an aside, I think air travel would be a hell of a lot more fun if more people were drunk and treated it like a traveling mini party, instead of what I see as the “hell before heaven” syndrome.

Maybe that’s just me though.

I fly internationally quite a bit, but the only time I’ve really ahd a problem was on a US doestic flight where we boarded the plane and then were told we wouldn’t betaking off for a few hours because of delays.

We were all pretty mad that they made us board the plan just to sit there, especially since there was no AC and the plan started getting quite hot. One guy gave the male flight attendants a hard time because he wanted to use his cell phone to let some people know we’d been delayed a few hours and they wouldn’t let him. In the end it was not a big deal I suppose.