October 5th, 2006

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Travel, Web 2.0
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Kissing is Inappropriate Behavior on an Airplane

Via Todd’s Ma.gnolia stream (vine? bushel?) o’ links, here’s another story about how draconian the airlines have become in recent months:

Shortly after takeoff, Varnier nodded off, leaning his head on Tsikhiseli. A stewardess came over to their row. “The purser wants you to stop that,” she said.

“I opened my eyes and was, like, ‘Stop what?’ ” Varnier recalled the other day.

“The touching and the kissing,” the stewardess said, before walking away.

It sounds like we need to add homophobia (or at least puritanism) to the long list of sins the airlines are perpetrating these days. The title of this post is actually a quote from the American Airlines purser. Geez, I’ve done my fair share of kissing on airplanes, and the flight crew never put a stop to it.

Speaking of the gay love, I listened to an interesting (if highly technical) conversation between Leo Laporte and Ryan Norbauer of Lovetastic, a singles site for gay men looking for longterm relationships. As the site puts it, “our dating profiles are designed to elicit more self-disclosure than a guy’s sexual position preference or the size of his body parts.”

UPDATE: And speaking of personals, Steve points to LonelyBloggers.com, a site for the bloggy set to get their love on.

Comments: 7 Responses so far

Todd Sieling
October 5th, 2006
2:49 pm

I actually wrote in to American Airlines to ask them for their take on the story, and noted politely that the answer would determine whether I could fly with them again. The response was kind of sad:

We appreciate your inquiry about a recent article that appeared in The New Yorker about reported events on one of our flights. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to comment.

As the world’s largest airline, American Airlines served more than 80 million customers last year from all over the world and we are well-known for welcoming all customers. Our company has a solid reputation for fairness and equality in the workplace and marketplace. A careful review of the records for the reported incident indicates that the actions taken by our crew members were reasonable, non-discriminatory, and struck the right balance in maintaining a safe, comfortable, and respectful travel experience for all passengers onboard the aircraft.

Being a leader in diversity is challenging given our large and diverse customer base, but our commitment to welcoming all customers remains unchanged. Consistent with our leadership position, we frequently review our policies, procedures, and training to determine whether enhancements can be made to prepare employees to address a variety of social situations in a professional and respectful manner.

What’s decidedly *not* sad is that I got a few notes from people who saw this bookmark as well, and told me they had written their disapproval in. It’s great to think that simply posting a bookmark in a social system could end up in people taking action.

[Reply]

Todd Sieling
October 5th, 2006
2:49 pm

Huh - sorry about the weird line breaks - it was a copy/paste from their reply mail.

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darren
October 5th, 2006
3:24 pm

No worries, I fixed it.

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Metro
October 6th, 2006
6:46 am

The best bit of the story was the captain’s threat to divert the plane. Inconvenience a jetload of passengers ‘cos some trailer-park-refugee air waitress can’t stomach them gays a-carryin’ on? I should live so long.

On our honeymoon my wife and I clearly behaved inappropriately: the plane was diverted so that instead of Seattle-Detroit-New York-Paris we went Seattle-Amsterdam-Paris. Saved us over four hours.

Obviously, in order to be treated like humans instead of cattle all passengers should be encouraged to make out like bandits.

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Derek K. Miller
October 6th, 2006
10:18 am

It’s all okay. Holding hands is more intimate than kissing anyway these days.

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Sophie
October 15th, 2006
7:24 am

I think kissing isn’t a bad thing on a plane and i’m only 14. It’s not like there having sex or anything it’s rediculas i’ve kissed on American Airlines before. Does that mean a mum can’t kiss there little child or baby cause if not screw u?

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Sophie
October 15th, 2006
7:28 am

I was on a plane once and a woman had a blanket over her and her eyes were shut and her mouth was a crack open and she was breathing really loud and heavey it was doggy the man had his hand under the blanket he was giving her plaesure and i hestated to tell thid one Stewardest but I did it and they got in trouble at the air port I mean that’s not on that’s considered as sex!! I mean what’s actully wrong with kissing?!!!!

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