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Cynthetiq · 07-17-2007, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xepherys

I'm not sure I understand some people who seem to be against the mom. Anyone care to answer these?

1) The plane had not even taken off yet. Why are some people making it sound as if they had been enduring the child's jabbering for ages?

2) What gives ANYONE the right to suggest a person take medication other than a professional, let along suggest someone give their child something. While children's benedryl may be a common placater, who is to say the child doesn't have some adverse reaction, or is taking other meds that would conflict? Hell, the airline should be lucky the mom wasn't like, "Oh, really? Give me some" *flight attendant offers her bottle* *child dies on flight*

WTF?

I'll take the first question.

The flight was delayed for 11 hours. I have to get to the airport at least 1 hour before the flight, and sometimes I am there 2 hours because TSA sometimes takes forever to process of busy days. So sitting in the gate area, everyone was around everyone for at least 11 hours quite possibly easy to even say 13 at the absolute longest if people were there 2 hours before the flight. Again, it isn't like they showed up and got on the plane. So 11 hours of listening to this child squirm and say "Bye Bye Plane," or whatever he was doing. Again, I say watch the video of the child on Good Morning America, since the mother states that he is as fussy as he "now" as he was that day. Well the whole time he's fidgeting and moving about. 11 hours.

Here's another guess of mine, some poeple have stated in the interview that they were willing to just keep going and not turn around. A good possibilty that they are benevolent child lovers, but also the possiblity that they were just "sucking it up" because they wanted to go home and didn't want another single minute delay after enduring an 11 hour delay to get onto a 1 hour flight.

For flight attendant, I don't know if many know this but most flight attendants aren't salaried, they are also not paid hourly either. They are paid in block time. So this means that the flight attendant didn't get paid for those 11 hours standing at the gate waiting. I'd probably be just as annoyed as the passangers on the trip knowing I've been someplace for 1/2 a day for a routine 1 hour flight and only getting paid for that 1 hour.

Quote:

Budget Travel Online: Block time

Passengers always take out their frustrations about delays on the crew, claiming we must be thrilled to receive overtime pay. But 99 percent of flight attendants are paid only for "block time"--from when a plane pushes back from the gate until it opens its doors at the arrival city. When there are delays, flight attendants can work a 13-hour day yet receive only seven hours' pay.

Quote:

Calculating Flight attendant salaries

As a flight attendant, you won't be paid this hourly rate for every hour that you work. The time you spend commuting to the airport, sleeping in hotel rooms, standing around the airport between flights, and assisting passengers during boarding and deplaning is essentially unpaid labor.

Most airlines only pay you from the time an aircraft pushes back from the gate to the time it arrives at the gate of its destination. This is commonly referred to as flight time, block time, or hard time. The major exception to this is meal expenses. Most airlines pay a nominal hourly rate to cover meal expenses. Hotel lodging is paid for by the airline.

Technically, flight attendants are paid based on accrued pay time, which includes block time plus any excess claim time. Claim time is time paid in excess of block time. For example, if you were required to deadhead to another city during a trip, you would not work the flight (and would not earn block time), but would be entitled to additional deadhead time. This additional time would be reflected in your pay time.

Instead of flight time-based pay, certain airlines compensate flight attendants based on the number of accrued monthly flight miles. Others pay flat salaries regardless of the hours (or miles) flown. These compensation methods are unique, but you should nevertheless be aware of them.