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Galley Gossip: Why ring the flight attendant call light when you can send a tweet - and get results!
Recently I wrote a post, Flight attendant pet peeve #6 - the run around, about running the flight attendant ragged in flight. Now I wasn't complaining about passengers who use their call lights. Not at all. It's there for a reason. But there is a difference, a very big difference, between having needs and being needy. If you push the button once (or twice), I'd say you have a few needs you'd like to be met. That's fine. But If you're using it fifteen times on a three hour flight, you're a bit needy. And that's not so fine.
Speaking of having your needs met, this morning I read an interesting article about the power of Twitter in flight. By the way, did you know that I'm on twitter? Of course you may have heard that Oprah's on twitter. Maybe even you're on twitter. We're all on twitter. If you're not on twitter, perhaps it's time to change that. Why? I'll let James A Martin of PC World explain...
Believe it or not, this scenario actually occurred aboard a Virgin America flight, according to Porter Gale, the airline's vice president of marketing. Gale relayed the incident at a recent Twitter conference in San Francisco. (Virgin America's entire fleet is equipped with wi-if networking, which is how the passenger was able to tweet about the missing meal.)
Now I can't imagine the above scenario happening on board one of my flights, but I'm sure the flight attendant who was notified by the captain that 3B had been skipped couldn't believe it was happening on her flight either. Why this passenger didn't ring the call light, I don't know. Then again, why ring the call light when you can just tweet about it! Tweeting is all the rage right now, especially at 30,000 feet.
A month ago I happened to be at home enjoying a day off, when I logged onto twitter and read a post from Johnny Jet about being on a particular flight, which just so happened to be the flight I normally work from New York to Los Angeles. Quickly I logged onto the flight service website and looked up the crew.
I tweeted back, 'If you're sitting in business class on the left hand side of the aircraft you're in good hands. Your flight attendant is a super stew."
Johnny Jet responded, "You're right. Kristen says hi."
A few weeks later I ran into Kristen who asked, "How did you know that passenger on my flight?"
"I don't really know him," I told her. "I mean I do follow his tweets and he did send me a laviator shot (pictured) but I don't know him-know him! Even though I feel like I do."
"That's crazy that you were emailing him while we were in the air," she laughed.
Not really. Not anymore. Which is why twitter is so amazing.
"Do you tweet in the air?" a twitterer recently asked me.
"Only when I'm commuting to work. Never while I'm at work - working. Otherwise, I wouldn't be working, would I?" I responded back.
"Do you ever get recognized by passengers in flight from your blog?" someone else tweeted.
"Never!" I typed back. There are a few coworkers who know that I write Galley Gossip, but I've never been confronted by a passenger. Though, I must admit, that would be kind of nice.
Photos courtesy of Svacher (computer) and Johnny Jet (Laviator shot)
You can find Gadling on Twitter, as well as the most of the Gadling Team: Mike Barish, Kraig Becker, Catherine Bodry, Alison Brick, Scott Carmichael, Justin Glow, Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Hotfelder, Tom Johansmeyer, Jeremy Kressmann, Heather Poole, Jamie Rhein, Annie Scott, Karen Walrond, Kent Wien, Brenda Yun.
Filed under: Business, Airlines, Galley Gossip
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Randall Shirley Jun 26th 2009 10:49AM
Fascinating wee story about you and Johnny Jet, Heather. I've been tweeting for a long time, and have rarely found anything so personal comes out of it. Like you, I have a lot of followers (well, I'm only 600+), and I follow about 300.
My question is this: with so much useless and mindless yammer tweeting by, how on earth do you spot something from J. Jet unless he sent it as a direct message?
I've largely given up on following the main stream of Twitter, and just don't "get it." Nonetheless, I keep tweeting.
Cheers.
Heather Poole Jun 27th 2009 12:21PM
As far as mindless yammering going on, perhaps you're not following the right people? I follow all aviation employees, travel writers, inspirational writers, and people who just put a smile on my face. Johnny Jet did not send me a direct message. I just got lucky when I logged on and saw him tweeting from the airplane, and even luckier that he happened to flying on the airline I work for, on a flight that I usually work with a crew that I actually knew! I couldn't believe it myself.
Paul Jun 26th 2009 11:57AM
I'm going to start booking flights on AA just so I might run in to you or Kent one of these days. :) You do work for AA right?
frank96 Jun 28th 2009 9:34AM
Paul,
Most airline companies have rules about discussing your employment online. As you can tell from F/A responses here, no one says who they work for, with good reason. Disciplinary action.
Me?....I'm actually a "lounge singer" from LAS. ::::evil grin::::
Lilly Crandal Jun 26th 2009 6:42PM
Pretty creepy stuff commenting about flight attendants on a tweet board. Yep that is what I want my pilot doing, receiving messages about food and tweets instead of using all his professional skills to fly me safely.
Heather Poole Jun 27th 2009 12:21PM
Creepy or cool? It's hard to decide.
Chaz Jun 28th 2009 6:33PM
For crying outloud,letting the Pilot do his job and the attendants sounds like a Union problem. Ya feel me?
mj Jun 29th 2009 8:49AM
I really don't think I want my pilot "tweeting". I'd think he has more important things to do
CAC Jun 30th 2009 11:04AM
Ok, so I thought we weren't supposed to be online in the air????
PG Jul 1st 2009 11:43PM
Twitter should send you some love for this story. It's a great story that tangibly demonstrates the power of tweeting (I'm not sure I'm a Twitter kind of lad, but I appreciate that many people enjoy it). Cheers.
ann Jul 2nd 2009 12:37PM
the pilot should be fired. there are rules for flight attendants and pilots that the faa have made very clear on this kind of thing. also the passengers are not allowed to use cell phones or two way paging during flight. this includes internet services and texting.
Stef Jul 2nd 2009 2:59PM
If I read this post correctly someone on the ground saw the tweet and contacted the pilot. I'm assuming this was by the proper means. Airlines are starting to provide wi-fi so that you can have internet access while in the air.
ann Jul 2nd 2009 4:54PM
i doubt anyone on the ground did this. why would ground personel be twittering? most airlines have not got wi-fi yet.
rolf Jul 13th 2009 5:35PM
Ann, obviously you did not read the entire article...
"Someone from the airline sees your tweet and sends a message to the pilot. The pilot tells a flight attendant that the passenger in seat 3B (or whatever) hasn't been served and is tweeting about it. And within a few minutes, your meal arrives.
Believe it or not, this scenario actually occurred aboard a Virgin America flight, according to Porter Gale, the airline's vice president of marketing. Gale relayed the incident at a recent Twitter conference in San Francisco. (Virgin America's entire fleet is equipped with wi-if networking, which is how the passenger was able to tweet about the missing meal.)"
Leesa Jul 16th 2009 4:34AM
Okay, people let me make this easy for you to follow.... So, that you see that the Pilots and the Flight Attendants are busy working and NOT tweeting,,,
1.) Passenger in 3B tweets (thanks to wifi inflight) that they were skipped AND did not get a meal.
2.) Someone in Marketing (on the ground) at Virgin is a follower of this tweeter, see's the tweet.
3.) Marketing Rep then contacts the company. The company (Virgin) then sends a message to the cockpit (pilots) over the system that the aircraft normally gets info from the ground to the cockpit. Can be some type of computer readout system, with a printer or they could use a simpler system such as sending a radio message.
4.) The pilots see or hear the message that is sent to them, they in turn contact the flight attendants working in the section of the plane that 3B is seated in.
5.) Amazing... the Passenger who tweeted that is seated in 3B NOW gets a meal. THINKING.... It would have been so much FASTER to JUST to hit the call light...
Okay... hopefully now you'll see the Pilots and the Flight Attendants are NOT tweeting... Just the passengers!