Browsing Tag: funny

If you haven’t caught this video yet, it is a must see. Every airline has a few maxi-pads on board and one creative flight attendant, Heather Poole, came up with 20 interesting ways you can use one.

I talked to Poole about her inspirations for making this video. She told me that she has heard stories of her co-workers using maxi-pads to stop a passenger’s bleeding, for shoe padding and for soaking up condensation. Hearing these stories made her think, “man, we’re a pretty clever group of flight attendants. I should write something about this.” And that she did.

She started with the first ten and some of the crew asked what she was up to. When she told them about her plan, they kicked things into high gear, game up with 20 great ideas, broke out the ‘ol flip video camera and got to work! Not only is the video awesome entertainment, it can also bee seen as an educational video. Poole told me that people have emailed her saying they’ve put some of the ideas into action.

“Another person mentioned that one day at work an office coworker started bleeding, he thought of my video, and ran to the ladies room for a maxi pad! I saved the day,” Poole told me.  She also had a passenger recently who was upset that red fuzz from the airline blanket got on her white shirt and she had and important meeting. Poole handled it like a pro, “I smiled, entered the lav, and said, ‘I have got an idea.’ It worked. The passenger was thrilled.”

I was curious how many maxi-pads were destroyed in the making of the video. Amazingly only three. Two for mopping the floor, and one for everything else. Now that is resourceful!

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You can catch Heather:
* On her blog Another Flight Attendant Writing
* On Galley Gossip on Gadling.com
* On Twitter

EasyJet Airline, Airbus A319-111, landing at Edinburgh 21st April 2009

EasyJet Airline, Airbus A319-111, landing at Edinburgh 21st April 2009

Believe it or not, British budget airline EasyJet has been asked on more than one occasion if they could marry people at 30,000 feet. They always had to say “no,” but they wanted to say “yes.” EasyJet wanted their pilots to be able to officiate weddings during flight. If sea captains can, why not pilots?

The Borough Council told EasyJet “no” but they would be happy to let people marry at the airport.

The idea sounds pretty cool, but I wonder how annoying it would be for frequent flyers who can no longer take naps because EasyJet keeps hosting weddings on their flights.

Source: Bedford Today Image: Gerry Hill
Dang, I wish all airline lavatories looked this good. This is on Emirates A380

Dang, I wish all airline lavatories looked this good. This is on Emirates A380

A 43 year-old man had a bathroom emergency on a Delta Airlines flight on March 28th that landed him in jail. The passenger, Joao Correa, had a meal earlier that day that didn’t agree with him and by the time he was ready to take action, the food services cart was blocking his way to the back lavatory. He decided to try the facilities up front in Business Class when a flight attendant reminded him he had an economy ticket and needed to return to his seat. When he explained the situation, he was advised to wait a bit and the cart would be moved.

The cart wasn’t moved and Correa was in trouble, so he returned to the front of the plane to plead his case. Correa says he then grabbed the woman’s arm to stabilize himself, though she contends he was twisting her arm. Either way, the flight attendant told the pilot of the situation since Correa wouldn’t return to his seat, and the pilot allowed the troubled man to use the First Class restroom.

The incident landed Correa in jail for 2 days. He currently doesn’t face any charges, and admits he could have handled the situation a bit better.

I know the rules governing the airline class system are there for a reason, however I think in occasions like this, the rules can be twisted. I wonder how this scenario would play out in a one bathroom system that Ryanair is proposing?

Source: AJC Image: TelstarLogistics
Ryanair Boeing 737-800 in March 2005 showing off the airline's first winglets

Ryanair Boeing 737-800 in March 2005 showing off the airline's first winglets

Normally one has to take whatever Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary says with a grain of salt. He says a lot of crazy things, most likely to get a few news stories written about him. When he first started talking about charging passengers to use the bathroom, I thought it was another crazy publicity stunt, but…

Ryanair plans to add credit card readers to the bathrooms in their Boeing 737-800 jets and even remove two of the three bathrooms to provide more seats. O’Leary is quoted as saying, “We are flying aircraft on an average flight time of one hour around Europe.” Is it crazy for this to start making a little sense to me now? I mean, some people ride buses and trains without bathrooms for longer than an hour on a daily basis. 

The airline plans to charge about $1.50 for each bathroom usage and no word on emergency situations for people without credit cards. They plan to have the new system in place within 2 years.

Source: NYT Image: jordi757