It is unfortunate that it takes a frustrated and abused employee with courage to expose what most in the airline and service industry have known and dealt with for years.
Customers can be downright rude and nasty to employees with no consequences.
Often companies like Jet Blue encourage this type of treatment because they will normally reward a customer's bad behavior.
In light of this incident (publicity) Jet Blue announced it is giving all passengers on board the flight a $100 “Reward”.
Why?
This incident on Jet Blue Flight 1052 from Pittsburgh to New York’s JFK and daily occurrences of similar issues could be avoided if companies like Jet Blue had the courage to support their employees and not let them be treated with disrespect from their customers.
This issue may have not even escalated to the point it did if the Captain of the flight became involved. He or she would have had the authority to have the passengers removed.
The Captain is ultimately responsible for who flies on the airplane and he or she should always take into consideration other crew members when making that decision.
Any passenger that is disrespectful to an employee and will not comply with safety instructions (which is required by law) should be removed from the flight. Why should Flight Attendant Slater or any other employee doing their job be treated with disrespect by a rude customer?
While I cannot condone Mr. Slater's actions in possibly violating airport security rules or airline policy I still consider him a hero. It is ridiculous to see the criminalization of his actions. I know of others that I have violated airport security procedures and the worst outcome has been suspension of airport security privileges.
I hope those “investigating” this incident will have the courage to do the right thing and let Mr Slater go on with his life.
There are real criminals that the Queen’s New York District Attorney should spend taxpayer’s money prosecuting instead of an employee fed up from years of customer abuse.
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