Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Flight attendant fired for blog pics

This is topic Flight attendant fired for blog pics in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=003674

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 11-03-2004, 07:22 AM:

A flight attendant for Delta who wrote an anonymous weblog has been fired for posting pictures of herself, in uniform, on her site. BBC Online coverage of the story can be found here (background info plus a quote from a Delta spokesman).

They're mad - those photos are the best advert Delta could ever have (with the possible exception of the pizza), and for free as well! No complaints here if Northwest offers her a job sometime between now and next Tuesday, though...

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 11-03-2004, 09:49 AM:

After looking ath the pics, I can see why Delta reserves the right to be upset about the photo's. She was, most liekly,on duty at the time the pics were taken. This amounts to an abuse of company time, as well as company assets (the plane, the uniform). It would have been one thing had she taken 'normal' pictures rather than the 'seductive' or 'alluring' ones she choose to take.

I think Delta may have gone overboard by releasing her from duty when a stern warning/reprimand should have been given...

What do YOU think about this?

Posted by Chris Medley (Member # 2145) on 11-03-2004, 10:08 AM:

I agree...this is great free publicity for the struggling airline. Maybe the firing was a grab for free publicity in itself

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 11-03-2004, 01:25 PM:

quote: Her website
IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE PRESS, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT QUEENOFSKY @ GMAIL.COM AND I WILL FORWARD YOU MY PR FIRM'S CONTACT INFO. [Her capitals, not mine]

PR firm, eh? Looks like they can both play the publicity game. [Roll Eyes]

Jason's point taken - if some feminist humour bypass patients decided to start kicking off about it I suppose not everyone would respond as positively to the photos as I did. And by posing in the uniform and in the cabin of a Delta aircraft she did publicly identify the company, presumably without their consent. But even so, if I'd been in Delta's PR department I'd have stuck those photos (though again, probably not the pizza one!) on every advertising billboard I could afford to!

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 11-03-2004, 03:41 PM:

Not that it matters much. Most airline industry people now think that Delta will be but a memory a year from now. DAL is on the edge of liquidation. USAir is also not expected to survive more than a year. All of the big six legacy carriers (AAL, UAL, DAL, NWA, CAL, USA) are in various levels of deep doo doo financially. They will be a hot topic next semester in my AV220 Air Transportation class.

Over half the ASMs (Available Seat Miles) offered for US domestic air travel are under some threat of disappearing during the next couple of years. Congress is concerned enough that they are reviewing the laws which in some cases require surviving air carriers to honor tickets issued by defunct ones. Looks like the US air transport industry is due for another contraction.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-03-2004, 06:12 PM:

What's the problem? If you're bankrupt you can (with the judge's approval) tear up leases on surplus aircraft and gates and rewrite labor contracts. So get lean and offer competitive fares. People aren't flying less, are they? SWA seems to be packing them in.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 11-03-2004, 06:32 PM:

I side with the airline.

IF she was not wearing a "company" uniform, I think it would have been OK. That uniform is part of the company's trade mark and personna and as such implies they condone her actions.

While not as radical, it would be much the same as a pic of the candy girl/guy posting a pic of them screwing on the candy counter. The theatre would be "upset"... as well as the customers that bought food off of that counter. [Eek!]

BTW: I personally do like it... Ummm both ideas. [Wink]

>>> Phil

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-03-2004, 07:00 PM:

The pics could've been a lot worse. I'd have reprimanded her and that's it. As it is, she'll get a ton more publicity this way.

If you REALLY want to laugh and/or get sick, check out the "Naked Air" link on her site.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 11-03-2004, 07:20 PM:

Eh...full nudity tends to be boring. Besides what if Phil turned up on that flight? It's not like you can just run for the exit. [Eek!]

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 11-03-2004, 08:40 PM:

The Coot on a full frontal nudity flight? [Eek!]

"We're gonna need bigger sick bags." [puke]

The main issue with the legacy six is pensions. They all have huge pension loads. Repudiating those will be nasty, though it will eventually happen one way or the other, more than likely by a pennies on the dollar settlement order from some bankruptcy judge.

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 11-03-2004, 08:49 PM:

quote: Paul Mayer
The Coot on a full frontal nudity flight?

"IF" that were to happen... yous would have something REALLY BIG to talk about! [beer]

quote: Steve Kraus
It's not like you can just run for the exit.

Don't forget your parachute... [Wink]

>>> Phil

Posted by Ethan Harper (Member # 472) on 11-03-2004, 09:49 PM:

quote:
"IF" that were to happen... yous would have something REALLY BIG to talk about!

Like what, the size of the new Airplane seats? Or the size of the engine? Or or, I know the size of my biceps.

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 11-04-2004, 10:12 AM:

I found the pictures quite harmless. There's nothing obscene about it, just harmless fun. But certainly it was not the most clever thing to put the pics on the web.
As for doing this on company time: How long could it take to snap four or five pictures? Assuming she did the job she was paid for correctly, firing her definitely shows a lack of humour.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 11-04-2004, 12:05 PM:

Of course one could argue that those pix weren't taken on company time. It looks to me like the pix were snapped during a stop (any pax in the background in any of those pix?). If so, then the cabin attendents are "off the clock", even if they're "on the property."

Flight and cabin crews only get paid while the aircraft is in the air, even though lots of work has to be done while the airplane is on the ground. Because of such work rules, duty days tend to be quite long in the airline industry--in order to get eight hours of pay one typically puts in a 10 to 14 hour duty day. My flying days at Scenic were right in line with this--about an 11 hour day for eight hours pay (thanks to our short 40 minute turnarounds).

To me those pix are harmless, but still it was not the smartest thing to do, posting on the web like that. DAL management is very very conservative about the company's public image--their reaction to this sort of thing would be very predictable.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 11-04-2004, 02:32 PM:

I did notice one thing on her sight she says she was singled out and not some male coworkers who had done the same thing that could be come a discrimination case then

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 01-27-2006, 04:16 AM:

It has been 448 days since the last post.

Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 01-27-2006, 04:16 AM:

sorry to dredge up an old topic ... but apparently this flight attendant is going to publish a book of her blog.

from her site (same link as Leo's above)

quote:
A novel in blog format, Diary of a Dysfunctional Flight Attendant: The Queen of Sky Blog brings the internet phenomenon of blogging to the traditional publishing world. In the process, a new and exciting genre is born—a genre that allows everyone (even the technologically challenged) to experience the addictive voyeurism of this hip new medium.

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 01-27-2006, 11:39 AM:

Well, if the London escort Belle de Jour can get her blog published, then why not a fired flight attendent...?

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-27-2006, 12:14 PM:

The best way to understand what a company expects of you when you wear your uniform: Think of it as the U. S. flag. This is true of airlines, branches of the service, truck lines, etc. You are perceived as a "representative" of that company in all ways when you are wearing the "identifier;" the uniform. Louis