Travel Writer Booted Off United Flight for Taking Picture of His Seat | Hacker News Reader

Travel Writer Booted Off United Flight for Taking Picture of His Seat

upgrd.com

48 pointsrosser23 comments

>"I want you to understand why I was taking pictures. I hope you didn't think I was a terrorist. Here is my business card [offering her one]. I write about United Airlines on an almost-daily basis and the folks at United in Chicago are even aware of my blog."

(emphasis added)

Reacting to a command given by a flight attendant with anything along the lines of "Whoa, sorry. I hope you don't think I'm a terrorist," is a terrible decision. Even if you're not, saying it will immediately make them wonder if you are.

Don't think of a pink elephant. How's that mental image of a pink elephant looking?

Terrorist. Bomb. Threat. 9/11. These are things you don't go saying on airplanes, these days, unless you're expecting some sort of discomfort from anyone within earshot. This is especially true for someone in charge of ensuring the safety of people aboard the flight.

I don't think the traveler would have been removed from the plane if they would have just complied and not mentioned such a charged word.

I mean, this is the problem right here. You're claiming that because a plane ran into a building 12 years ago, it actually makes sense for an American citizen to kick another American citizen off a plane while lying about it. How about we get back to being rational sensible human beings who understand context and can have a thought process beyond "If I hear the word terrorist, that person is a terrorist and I need to call homeland security" /roboticthinking

I get that it is a bad idea to say terrorist on a plane, but if after 12 years, we still are unable to understand context here, people should be getting fired, especially if they need to lie to justify their bizarre, made up fears.

>You're claiming that because a plane ran into a building 12 years ago, it actually makes sense for an American citizen to kick another American citizen off a plane while lying about it.

No, I'm not. I'm claiming that there are words that shouldn't be said on a plane anymore. A building exploding didn't do that. Decisions from organizations and individuals created the catalyst for that change. But, that's a completely different discussion.

It's common knowledge whether it's okay or not. I agree: we as a society, should strive to be more open and accepting about using words. But, unfortunately, we're not all there yet.

The title is sensationalist and misleading. The photo taking clearly wasn't the problem because the author wasn't removed from the plane after taking the photo, they were removed after they said something they shouldn't have.

"Travel Author Irritated After Being Kicked Off a Plane for Claiming 'Not a Terrorist'" is hardly a story, is it?

"The title is sensationalist and misleading. The photo taking clearly wasn't the problem because the author wasn't removed from the plane after taking the photo"

"Captain: Sir, you are not flying on this flight.

Me: Can you tell me why?

Captain: My FA tells me she told you to stop taking pictures and you continued to take pictures."

I mean, sure, this could be the lie theyre using to cover up the real reason. But when we're two liars deep in the process, its kind of hard to figure out what the truth is. I get that they could have been lying, but calling this sensationalist is infinitely more ridiculous. They told him he was kicked off a plane for taking pictures, he made that his headline, you said he was being sensationalist. How does all that logic connect?

"they were removed after they said something they shouldn't have."

This is my whole point. The fact that we will literally throw someone off a plane if the word terrorist is said, regardless of the context, is absolutely deplorable. Why shouldn't he have done that? Because he should have assumed he was speaking to a liar who has no ability to understand context? I don't want to have to assume this is the case when i talk to other americans, so maybe we can stop with this bullshit?

Except that, according to the author, he was accused of refusing to stop taking pictures. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it seems reasonable for him to critise the airline based on their words, even if he suspects their words are not truthful.

Not even just according to the author. According to the official reason the airline gave him. I can certainly understand why one might suspect this isn't the real reason, but calling the guy sensationalist for repeating EXACTLY what he was told is pretty insane imo.

While I agree that it is in your best interest to not say "terrorist", it's absurd that by uttering the word you could be kicked off a flight. People need to use some common sense. What happens if I accidentally use the word "bomb" when talking about how I did on my last test? Am I off the plane too?

This has got to stop. Maybe every passenger should walk on the plane saying, "Hello, I'm not a terrorist". Of course if you are, feel free to disclose that fact as well.

>"Hello, I'm not a terrorist"

I'm afraid that under no circumstances would this be a good idea. It reminds me of the phrase

"John F. Kennedy was not a homosexual"

from Chip Morningstar's essay How To Deconstruct Almost Anything [1]. To present an example of deconstruction Morningstar deconstructs the phrase thus:

"It is not generally claimed that John F. Kennedy was a homosexual. Since it is not an issue, why would anyone choose to explicitly declare that he was not a homosexual unless they wanted to make it an issue? Clearly, the reader is left with a question, a lingering doubt which had not previously been there. If the text had instead simply asked, "Was John F. Kennedy a homosexual?", the reader would simply answer, "No." and forget the matter. If it had simply declared, "John F. Kennedy was a homosexual.", it would have left the reader begging for further justification or argument to support the proposition. Phrasing it as a negative declaration, however, introduces the question in the reader's mind, exploiting society's homophobia to attack the reputation of the fallen President. What's more, the form makes it appear as if there is ongoing debate, further legitimizing the reader's entertainment of the question. Thus the text can be read as questioning the very assertion that it is making."

Shift the above text to the present tense and replace "John F. Kennedy" with "the passenger" and "homosexual" with "terrorist" as needed.

[1] http://www.fudco.com/chip/deconstr.html

Airports and airplanes have become pure fascist territory where we must act, look, and speak in a scared, deferential way to authority. It should be every American's worst nightmare. But instead we get pragmatic arguments about why we should comply. This is how we lose our freedoms. Fuck that.

Not the issue though right? It about the FA telling a lie. She could have said "you know what, I don't feel safe after he uttered that word, I want him off" but she made up a lie.

I dare speculate she made up lies like that before, and they worked and the stories didn't end up on NBC. But not this time.

The fact that we got attacked by a few Saudi nationals 12 years ago makes one American lie to another American because shes scared an American passenger on their plane is a terrorist because he said the word terrorist. Is it really debatable whether we did exactly what the terrorists hoped we would do at this point? I don't want to say they won, because its not a game and no one wins, but they certainly accomplished some objectives here if this is the way people are allowed to act.

Or in this case apparently it turns flying attendants into power tripping liars.

Yes, an 'ally' attacked. Now lets make life miserable for all the well behaved allies and our citizens as well.

Same article 16 hours and 200+ comments ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5256051

I give this blog post Autism/10

Flight attendant's perspective was that she is routinely telling passengers to quit with the happy snaps, as required by company policy. Flight attendant is tired and very busy with getting the plane together for takeoff. The photo guy from before is suddenly angrily motioning her over and saying a bunch of crazy shit about not being a terrorist, and trying to make her take/keep his business card. flight attendant freaks out and runs to her boss.

Crew boss sees really freaked out flight attendant and assumes the passenger needs to go. Once that decision is made, crazy travel guy probably doesn't have any hope of reversing it.

The real issue is that the guy grossly messed up his interaction with the flight attendant and paid the price for it. If you misbehave on a flight you're gonna get kicked off - yes, airlines have a duty to have fair rules for customers to follow. But passengers have a duty to act relatively normally in their standard human interactions with staff.

Trying to air one's grievances with an airline's cabin policies with a flight attendant is ridiculous anyway, hence my rating out of 10.

This sounds dubious. It's obviously one sided which is OK, but what exactly is the motivation of a flight attendant to flat out lie about continuing to take pictures. And why wait to do it while continuing to service other passengers.

Even if the travel writer had done something horrible this is going to give United a big black mark. I guess he'll record his future interactions with cabin steward/stewardess'.

I'm just curious who already had a good feeling about United. I mean, I fly Delta/United/America when I have to, but I've been pretty annoyed by all 3 for years.

I don't really see anything changing from this article.

I'm reasonably happy with United out of the big airlines. They almost always have seats with extra leg room, and they have a hub at the airport that's 10 minutes from my house.

I mean, they're still an airline, and I've had problems, but overall they haven't been bad to me.

You poked the bear and, because you're white and rich, you got growled at instead of bitten. Pardon me if I do not feel sympathy for this "elite status" privileged whine.

Social change (without revolution) doesn't come until enough of the already empowered embrace it. So it may seem trivial to those of us that have seen far worse, but the alternative is for the white and rich to never hear about the problems that have affected one of their own. Since most people only recognize a problem when they are personally at risk, this sort of "whine" is a necessary part of the process.

How pleasantly presumptuous of you.

Without any information from the airline hostess, captain or company this paints a very one sided and incomplete picture. The authors account might be accurate however I'm inclined to think that it may have more to do with the fact that he uttered the word 'terrorist' rather than any of his other actions.

I mean most seasoned travellers, let alone someone in the industry, should know by now that when you're in an airport you jump through all the hoops regardless of how stupid they may appear simply because airports and airlines hold power over you. For better or worse free speech does not exist in this environment and I wonder whether the author should have just apoligised and swallowed his pride rather than try to make a point or even apologise. Some times you just need to bite your tongue.

Edit: I'm curious about why people disagree with me.

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