Can you believe this [No XL PJs in F]

[TonyHancock]

Semantics aside - (and no offense to fellow AFF's), but I understand the Pain-in-the-cough-Academic comment.

IMHO - Academics, many of whom take up a significant portion of premium seats on airlines, represent more of the obnoxious DYKWIA crowd than any other profession I'm yet to meet.

And I say that from the qualified opinion of having a few high-ranking academics in my family.

Believe me - there have been times (in some pretty fancy places in the world) where I have cringed at the attitude/demands being placed on silly things (or at least trivial to me).

I've seen many a young employee on the verge of tears due to being on the receiving end of no fault of their own.

Incidentally - they never seem to be flying (or staying) on their own dime either......

I'll stop now - at the risk of not only running off topic, but restarting the top 10 debates in AFF history that are safely dormant.

(oh I forgot about Anytime Access ).


Disclaimer:

No offense to any real doctors out there. Or fake ones, or PhDs, or DYKWIAs!!

Actual evidence please. I'm up for this. (The former MrsH being a Dr.)

 

[Canny man]

Actual evidence please. I'm up for this. (The former MrsH being a Dr.)

I'll bite.
Trans-tasman a couple of months ago. Lady academic next to me on her way to a conference. Talked all the way through the safety demo (to the point that the FA asked her to be quiet). The real drama was over breakfast. She had ordered a special meal. This was duly delivered. She then saw the regular breakfast and asked for it instead. The FA politely informed her that there weren't any spare and that she had got what she ordered. This wasn't good enough, and she launched into a rant, was postively rude and threw all the DYKWIA lines 'I fly all the time and......' 'this doesn't happen with airline X' .
She then turned the rant on me looking for sympathy, and wouldn't shut up. I put on my headphones to give the hint, only to be tapped on the arm 5 mins later as she wanted to carry on moaning.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

I'll bite.
Trans-tasman a couple of months ago. Lady academic next to me on her way to a conference. Talked all the way through the safety demo (to the point that the FA asked her to be quiet). The real drama was over breakfast. She had ordered a special meal. This was duly delivered. She then saw the regular breakfast and asked for it instead. The FA politely informed her that there weren't any spare and that she had got what she ordered. This wasn't good enough, and she launched into a rant, was postively rude and threw all the DYKWIA lines 'I fly all the time and......' 'this doesn't happen with airline X' .
She then turned the rant on me looking for sympathy, and wouldn't shut up. I put on my headphones to give the hint, only to be tapped on the arm 5 mins later as she wanted to carry on moaning.

Is that when you turned to her and said - Grow up! (or worse?)

 

[amaroo]

Is that when you turned to her and said - Grow up! (or worse?)

A few choice lines in latin would have been beautiful:!:

 

[Canny man]

I politely informed her that she would be better off complaining to QF than me and that I was at a 'really good bit' in my book.
This worked.
Had she tried again I would have been less polite.

She did try and start up again as we left the plane. Thank goodness for the sanctuary of the gents.

 

[dfcatch]

Actual evidence please. I'm up for this. (The former MrsH being a Dr.)

Which bit do you want Tony?

1/ The popular view that many people have in differentiating Academic Doctors from Medical Doctors?

(I have both in my family, in my friends circle, and SWMBO is studying for a PhD).

2/ The fact that many premium seats are taken by Academics flying on university/corporate/government/sponsored dime, jetting of to conferences, gabfests, lectures, speeches..... Staying in premium hotels.

3/ The regular sighted occurrence of such Academics having a higher than normal expectation of service (perhaps fairly - this is an affliction suffered by all DYKWIAs - including you and I).

4/ The hissy fits thrown on innocent FAs, waitresses, front desk staff etc because there are no PJs, the perfect table overlooking San Francisco bay is not acceptable, why can't we have that table over there (clearly reserved, for more people than required by our party, and a worse view - but "why can't we have that one"), my room is not a suite, I know I didn't book one, and I know you're full, but I'm a Dr!!

Etc etc.......



I never claimed every Academic was like this - just that many are and I have personal experience witnessing it.

 

[spudseamus]

I politely informed her that she would be better off complaining to QF than me and that I was at a 'really good bit' in my book.
This worked.
Had she tried again I would have been less polite.

She did try and start up again as we left the plane. Thank goodness for the sanctuary of the gents.

Sounds like she had the physical attributes to actually follow you into the gents!!!! #GRIN#

 

[oz_mark]

I rise in support of juddles. And the two pax. We are only getting one side of the story and from a very limited range of sources. Pyjamas may have just been one factor. Or possibly not even involved at all.

The sole source of information seems to have been the pilot's announcement, which can hardly be seen to be professional, aimed more at entertainment than information. Qantas management is probably giving the poor bloke a serve right now for not choosingless inflammatory phrasing.

If you are going to question the story, and wonder if it is one-sided, then it seems to me that in the interests of fairness, that you should also question whether the captain made such an announcement.

 

[anat0l]

If you ever had to deal with some Academics, some can be a pain in the cough.

Semantics aside - (and no offense to fellow AFF's), but I understand the Pain-in-the-cough-Academic comment.

IMHO - Academics, many of whom take up a significant portion of premium seats on airlines, represent more of the obnoxious DYKWIA crowd than any other profession I'm yet to meet.

And I say that from the qualified opinion of having a few high-ranking academics in my family.

Believe me - there have been times (in some pretty fancy places in the world) where I have cringed at the attitude/demands being placed on silly things (or at least trivial to me).

O/T

Oi! I resemble those remarks!

(Me = finishing PhD thesis and starting a postdoctoral research contract in a couple of months)

 

[Skyring]

If you are going to question the story, and wonder if it is one-sided, then it seems to me that in the interests of fairness, that you should also question whether the captain made such an announcement.

I dunno about fairness, but I've spent enough time tracking down urban myths to go looking for the source of news stories, and there only seems to be one input on this one. Perhaps two, if you count the follow-up with photo of Dr XL, who didn't have anything much to add.

 

[straitman]

O/T

Oi! I resemble those remarks!

(Me = finishing PhD thesis and starting a postdoctoral research contract in a couple of months)

Case complete then.

Nothing more needs to be said :!:

 

[JohnK]

Personally I don't know if it's his first time in F. If it was your first time in F, would you really care about the fecking PJ's?

Is anyone allowed to answer this question or just those who think they know everything about travel?

I still do not get this obsession with pyjamas? Elite group? Cult following? If pyjamas are the only things you can wear on a flight to feel comfortable there is seriously something wrong....

 

[spudseamus]

If you are going to question the story, and wonder if it is one-sided, then it seems to me that in the interests of fairness, that you should also question whether the captain made such an announcement.

I believe the pax told the flight crew to "please tell the other passengers why this has happened "

 

[ashleyn]

Case complete then.

Nothing more needs to be said :!:

Not a chance, this one is going to drag on and on, it already has.

 

[dfcatch]

O/T

Oi! I resemble those remarks!

(Me = finishing PhD thesis and starting a postdoctoral research contract in a couple of months)

But Anat0l - you are only a wannabe-DYKWIA!!

And I have found you to be nothing short of polite and courteous

You have a long way to go to resemble the remarks!!

 

[AVC]

Quite often it's the passengers who pay the least who demand/complain the most.

If I get a free upgrade to F, or better still a free F flight, you won't hear a peep from me!

 

[cove]

I have been trying hard to fit into the category of paying Ozbeachbabe's figure for travel in First. As a result I have remained courteous and friendly hoping no-one blows the whistle on points travel at its best.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

1 other point which hasn't been discussed much either is; if there was a delay upon landing, what if people miss connections. Sure, QF made up for it in the air this time, but what about other times? Who picks up the tab then?

Or, missing a SYD-LAX-xx_ connection and having to wait, say, 4 hours for the next flight because someone didn't want J PJ's.

The airline would have to pick up the tab if they had to overnight people if there were no remaining flights that day to move people to assuming those pax had the connecting flights in the same booking. If people had flights with other airlines booked separately which they noshowed for as a result of the inbound flight running late they might have to purchase a new ticket.
.

But even if we accept the story at face value, we've pretty much all been there. Long day with all the stress of finishing up a trip, hassling with the hotel/tour/taxis/security etc. Late in the evening, all you want to do is get some kip on that long boring night flight home. And then the staff tells you that you have to sleep in your clothes.

The comfortable bed is what you've paid for - or spent a tonne of points on.

The did get a comfortable bed. The fact that they didn't fit into the pyjamas that were provided to them and their fellow first class passengers is not the fault of the airline. If they can't get comfortable in their own clothes in a fully flat bed complete with quilt and pillows they've got a problem.

I'd still like to know what pyjamas they got on MEL/LAX flight. If they got First Class PJ's in XL on the way over did they not keep them? I guess it would be too much to expect them to have packed them in their carry on luggage on the return flight.

The offloadees would have been able to use priority checkin queues/priority security line/F Lounge in LAX not to mention once onboard having the best seats in the house to look forward to so they should be the least likely of people to experience any problems in the lead up to the flight. If they did have issues they were probably self inflicted as a DYKWIA attitude never goes down well with TSA.

It's quite likely that some of the 332 economy passengers on that flight could also have had a long day & experienced hassles with hotels/tours/taxis/security yet they didn't act like the world revolved around them. Welcome to the real world - it's called life.

 

[drron]

But they didn't even need to sleep in their own clothes-they were offered J pyjamas.

 

[jamesatfish]

I'd still like to know what pyjamas they got on MEL/LAX flight. If they got First Class PJ's in XL on the way over did they not keep them? I guess it would be too much to expect them to have packed them in their carry on luggage on the return flight.

I'm not going to comment on the bigger issue, but if these travellers are anything like myself the PJs would have been left behind along the way.

I usually travel with carry-on luggage only, and deliberately don't pack PJs knowing I'll pick up a set on my first international flight. I keep them for however long I'm staying in one location, then leave them behind before my next flight (where I'll get another set) so they don't need to be carried around the world for no reason.

My wife prefers to wear the airline PJs in flight but leaves them on board as she doesn't like wearing them at home.

If these pax knew they were going to get a new set of PJs with every flight then I can understand why they wouldn't be carting around the sets they collected from previous flights.