TV Show "Airline"

"colin." wrote in message
...


When was the one about Monarch on, and what channel? I've flown EasyJet
(it
was ****) and Monarch (it was also ****) and also South West (even
****tier
still) and I'd have watched that, for sure =/

It was on a year or two ago, if memory serves, on ITV, the same as Airline.
However it'll probably pop up on the likes of ITV2 again before long.

The one featuring Monarch was entitled Holiday Airline.

Mark Hewitt wrote:
The original TV show did concentrate on easyJet!

Sorry. I had tried to compare it against "Airport" which tended to show a more
subdued/professional atmosphere of international travel at Heathrow.

One has to accept one's country's population as it is. And every country has a
proportion of its population that doesn't behave as first class snob
passengers. (Except perhaps New Zealand where everyone is so shy that they all
look like well behaved quiet people :-)

In poorer countries, only the rich, educated, well cultured people travel. But
in the USA, travel is affordable to all but the poorest classes. So a USA
airport would tend to provide a better portrait of the USA population.

The problem with a show such as Airline is that they will not focus on the
well behaved passengers and will instead only show the "special" cases that
may improve ratings. So this may give a false idea that all passengers
travelling on Southwest are a bunch of drunken fat idiots with bad case of
body odour. I was however quite surprised to see parents trying to bring a
baby on a plane without any ID for the baby. In many countries, you need lots
more documentation when you are traveling with a child (to prevent child abduction).


When you look at the flight that went to Vegas (which focused on the 3 FAs),
the passengers seemed to be quite OK. The type of entertainment during the
flight may not have been aimed at passengers with high IQ ratings, but one
learns to adapt to a crowd. The entertainment may be "simple", but it may just
be the thing to take a busy exec's mind off his problems and relax some. He
can return to his more sophisticated entertainment and friends as soon as he
is back in his natural habitat.

And sometimes, keeping some contact with the "masses" is very important if
your employer sells products/services to the masses. If you refuse such
contacts and prefer to isolate yourself in cigar smoking rooms with only
poeple of similar tastes, you then lose touch with a large segment of the population.

Interestingly, I think that the "COS" passenger on the first show was quite
well behaved, even though his weight/size was the big issue.


With only the first 2 shows, I find that Southwest provides a most interesting
ecosystem of passengers worth observing.

"please sir, you'll have to...err....freshen up a bit first"

bwwwuuuuahahahahahahahaha

In article k.net,
"Gregory Morrow" wrote:

Jeffrey Hacker wrote:

I just watched the first two installments of "Airline," the A&E knockoff
of
the British TV show "Airport." Yecch! If I didn't despise the flying bus
that is Southwest,already, this would certainly cure any doubts.



It wasn't WN or it's staff that I was appalled by (the staff actually seemed
to be doing a great job, "considering"), but I was awestruck by how stupid,
fat, and slobbering the general run of pax were. And it wasn't just the
drunks and the smelly guy - it was the entitlement moo who couldn't provide
proof that her brat was under two years old who was the *worst*.

I'm surprised the majority of these pax were not arrested at the gate, let
alone emplaned.

For those of us that missed the shows, are they going to be replayed?

"Gregory Morrow" wrote in message
hlink.net...

Jeffrey Hacker wrote:

I just watched the first two installments of "Airline," the A&E knockoff
of
the British TV show "Airport." Yecch! If I didn't despise the flying
bus
that is Southwest,already, this would certainly cure any doubts.



It wasn't WN or it's staff that I was appalled by (the staff actually
seemed
to be doing a great job, "considering"), but I was awestruck by how
stupid,
fat, and slobbering the general run of pax were. And it wasn't just the
drunks and the smelly guy - it was the entitlement moo who couldn't
provide
proof that her brat was under two years old who was the *worst*.

I'm surprised the majority of these pax were not arrested at the gate, let
alone emplaned.

I think the worst was the first woman who was picking up an unaccompanied
minor. When the res agent wouldn't break the rules for her, she decided
that it was because of racism!



--
Best
Greg

My wife and I really enjoyed the new A & E program, "Airline". It certainly
took a great deal of corporate courage for Southwest to allow themselves to be
the focus of the series.

We both agree that while it portrays the American traveller in a somewhat
unfavorable light, especially the couple who couldn't provide proof of age for
their youngster...they were both unnecessarily unpleasant people (to put it
mildly), it is a realistic and fair portrayal of what it's like to travel in
America. The producers neither sugar-coated the reality of it, nor cast the
airline in an overly unfavorable light. We are both anxious to watch the rest
of the series in the coming weeks.

Yes, in America, we do have unruly drunks, uncooperative and unruly parents
flying with small children, heavy-set people, and people who have either have a
serious and unmanageable hygiene problem, or simply don't care about how they
smell to others.

But in each instance, these travellers were handled, in our opinion, in a
professional manner by Southwest employees.

I've been treated far more unpleasantly by employees at other airlines, and I
wasn't drunk, late, stinky, or travelling with kids at any time. As pleasant
as I try to be while waiting in long lines and lugging baggage through what
seems to be an endless maze of humanity, there have been several ocassions
where I've treated in an abrupt or rude manner by an airline ticket agent who
obviously doesn't like working or dealing with the public.

Whatever they're teaching the staff at Southwest should be a model for airlines
everywhere. It looks like a fun place to work, whether you're a flight
attendant, pilot, or customer service representative.

I think it would be interesting to dedicate an episode or two to what goes on
behind the scenes. For example, what's a typical day like for a mechanic, or a
dispatcher, or what happens at Southwest's headquarters, in the boardroom?

All in all, we think it's a good program.

"nobody" wrote in message
...
Jeffrey Hacker wrote:
I just watched the first two installments of "Airline," the A&E knockoff of
the British TV show "Airport." Yecch! If I didn't despise the flying bus
that is Southwest,already, this would certainly cure any doubts.


I saw it as a good advertisement for Southwest because the WN staff were well
portrayed. As well I saw it as a good caricature of the leasure american
public. I suspect that if the original programme had focused on Ryanair or
Easyjet, it may have had similar if not worse stories.

And it was pretty much exactly what I had expected.

What I am unsure about however is how much of it was staged and how much was
real. How much did the drunken couple get paid in order to agree to be shown
in such a state on USA television ?

The original series (many of them) were/are about EasyJet and the programme is
called "Airline" in the UK. The US series sounds just the same as the British
one - a few human interest stories but mainly passengers from Hell demanding
their rights!

JohnT

Mark Hewitt wrote:

"nobody" wrote in message
...
Jeffrey Hacker wrote:
I just watched the first two installments of "Airline," the A&E
knockoff
of
the British TV show "Airport." Yecch!

It isn't a knockoff of British TV show "Airport". It's a knockoff of
British
TV show "Airline".


I saw it as a good advertisement for Southwest because the WN staff were
well
portrayed. As well I saw it as a good caricature of the leasure american
public. I suspect that if the original programme had focused on Ryanair
or
Easyjet, it may have had similar if not worse stories.

The original TV show did concentrate on easyJet!


Lol...it's *hopeless* Mark...you are responding here to the addle - pated JF
Mezei (using his alias )....

--
Best
Greg

Admittedly the first time I watched it I thought the staff could handle
things better, but if this is what they're dealing with every single
day... I wouldn't work for a budget airline!

I dare say that the percentage of bad pax and bad airline employees is the
same for a budget or a full service airline.

We had a female ticket agent screw us over big time on Continental in
Cleveland last August....finally we ignored her and found the day manager,
who happened to be checking the ticket counter at the time, and he corrected
our situation quite amiably. We held our tongue about the pms victim until
we got home and then wrote to inform Continental of the damage this person
was doing to their reputation and service.

Dave wrote:
mildly), it is a realistic and fair portrayal of what it's like to travel in
America. The producers neither sugar-coated the reality of it, nor cast the
airline in an overly unfavorable light.

I think that the producers have a built-in motivation to cast the airline in a
favourable light. If not, the contract won't be renewed. I think that WN
staff were well portrayed. Of course, it isn't as if the cameras were hidden,
so one has to acknowledge that behaviour on both pax and staff was affected by
presence of cameras.

And in terms of portrayal of passengers, I think that it provides a very
"biased" view of the "problem" passengers without balancing it with snippets
showing good passengers. But it is to be entertainment and they will show the
problem pax because that is more entertaining.

People don't complain because we never see Jack Bauer go to the toilet or eat
during those 24 hours, and Jack Bauer doesn't openly think "gee, it is
approaching the top of an hour, something really bad is about to happen".

The problem with "reality" TV is that it pretends to show reality. But it is a
very slanted and often staged reality. Ever noticed how on "Survivor", they
never discuss toilet facilities or toilet paper ? That probably means that
they have portable toilets in sufficient quantity for not only the 8 or so
castmembers, but also the filming crew, sufficient enough that it doesn't
cause conflicts.

I think that one has to wonder about the types of agreements the producers
sign with the passengers. Do they catch them as they enter the airport ? One
would think so. If I were in the situation of the couple with the kid with no
ID, I'd probably go to the camera man and tell him to stop filming me or else.
So the fact that the couple never complained about the camera probably means
that they had agreed to be filmed, and I'd venture that perhaps they had
agreed that they kid wouldn't have any ID.

On the other side, the big fat guy who had been there forever probably behaved
in a much more civil way because he knew he was being filmed. If the smelly
guy was for real, he must have felt terrible being filmed while in such a low state.

Yes, in America, we do have unruly drunks, uncooperative and unruly parents
flying with small children, heavy-set people,

They exist everywhere. But perhaps not so visible or not so frequent. Perhaps
this is a "temporary" situtation because low cost flying is reasonably recent
in many USA cities, so you have a lot of newbies who don't know what to
expect. (and all the changes in security is making it even more difficult for
newbies to know what to expect).

and people who have either have a
serious and unmanageable hygiene problem, or simply don't care about how they
smell to others.

I reserve judgement for that story. That program gave absolutely no background
on why the guy was smelly.

Whatever they're teaching the staff at Southwest should be a model for airlines
everywhere. It looks like a fun place to work, whether you're a flight
attendant, pilot, or customer service representative.

Great PR for Southwest. And probably will be used to teach WN employees how to
behave when confronted with problem passengers.