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There's a bizarre, perhaps "only in the skies," story in this New Yorker's Talk of the Town. During aan American Airlines filght from Paris' Charles de Gaulle to JFK Airport, a gay couple was asked to stop kissing/touching by a stewardess. The stewardess claimed that the purser wanted George Tsikhiseli and Stephan Varnier to stop "the touching and the kissing." The couple was shocked, as were neighboring passengers and fellow New Yorkers. Tsikhiseli and Varnier, joined by the passengers sitting behind them and who heard the exchange, Ralph Jackson and David Leisner, asked the purser, who then said she didn't make any such request.
The purser asked the men to describe what they’d been doing, and she acknowledged that their behavior had not been inappropriate. Tsikhiseli then asked if the stewardess would have made the request if the kissers had been a man and a woman. Suddenly, Leisner said, the purser “became very rigid.” Contradicting what she’d told them before, she stiffly said, “Kissing is inappropriate behavior on an airplane.” She then said that she was busy with the meal service and promised to come back.Then the captain told Tsikheisli that they had to stop their "arguing" and threatened to divert the plane if they didn't. Using plane diversions as a bargaining chip with questioning passengers - good one. American Airlines spokesperson told the New Yorker's Lauren Collins that kissing, whether straight or gay, might not be comfortable to passengers, though an American Airlines customer service rep said kissing was allowed.Half an hour later, the purser returned, this time saying that some passengers had complained about Tsikhiseli and Varnier’s behavior earlier. The men asked more questions. Who had complained? (She couldn’t say.) Could they have the stewardess’s name, or employee number? (No.) Would the purser arrange for an American Airlines representative to meet them upon landing at J.F.K.? (Not possible.) Finally, the purser said that if they didn’t drop the matter the flight would be diverted. After that, Leisner said, “everyone shut up for a while.”
You know, say what you will about seeing PDAs on the plane, but once they clamp down on affection, next thing you know, crying babies or achy passengers complaining about their feet will be why your flight from Europe was landed in Iceland, not back here. And we much prefer some affection than people screaming into their phones right before and after take-off. Those, "Hey, whatcha doin'? I'm on a plane!" calls are outta control!
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Wow, yet another good reason to stop flying on that horrible Airline...
Once, on a flight from Heathrow to JFK, one of our fellow passengers was drunk and touching himself, um, actually more rubbing himself vigorously. We were toally creeped out. I thought the flight attendant would cut him off from the beverage cart, but she actually did the opposite. In a risky move she brought him a big ol' drink and he soon passed out. We were all very grateful.
So, kissing? Doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Then again, is it a big deal to just stop and deal with your complaints from the safety of your home computer?
I say it is impossible to know who is right or wrong unless you were there. If the couple was just sharing an affectionate peck, then the airline is totally in the wrong. If the couple was having a full-on make-out session, then gay or straight, they were in the wrong, and the airline had every right to ask them to stop.
I'm guessing, sadly, the purser is not a member of the "mile high club"
A. It's flight attendant not stewardess and according to my mother who is one, this sh*t happens all the time. B. people are weirded out by gays, especially gays who enjoy PDAs. It's a fact of life, sadly.
At least most people joing the Mile High Club by doing it in the bathroom where you don't see them and hopefully won't hear them.
Like the breastfeeding last week, PDAs (hetero or homo) are just something I don't want to see. It doesn't make me a prude. It means I don't like trying to pretend it's not going on five feet from me.
exclaricire, IMO, threatening to divert the plane when they merely want to speak to someone in Authority was way out of line. Me, I'm dying to know what the airline would have told the FBI!
FBI: "What's the Emergency?"
Pilot: "Um, we had to guys kissing..."
FBI: " On a flight from Paris and you think that's an Emergency?!?"
What the hell is a "purser"?
Perhaps the stewardess saw their snakes.
thoe guys are a couple of pussies. i would have kept on arguing and or kissing and called their bluff. no way they would divert the flight because of two dudes kissing. can you imagine what horrible publicity that would have been for the airline?
often when i am not sure to use a or an, i also use aan just like you jen! wow we's are special ones!
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?purser
this happens all the time. flight attendents always ask the people to stop if it seems to get a bit "out of hand"... i can see why these guys would make a fuss, but its really not because they were gay.
also.. asking the attendent who made the complaint?? are you kidding me?
Hmmm...kissing is inappropriate? I guess my girlfriend jerking me under one of those raspy wool blankets is a big no-no, eh?
Annouyed (#5):
I find it hilarious, the people who use "PC" terminology usually do not know that it was the Republican answer to thrwart the real issues.
I'm willing to bet your not Republican. Good luck with your blind support.
just another great reason to not like the french...
Who's to say that American's flight crew was French?
Anyway, not like I needed another reason to not fly American Airlines.
You people better stop complaining or I'll have to divert this message board to Finland where you'll all be subject to a cavity-search before proceeding.
I can't believe that they threatned to divert the plane. How ridiuclous. I am affectionate and kissy towards my boyfriend everytime that we fly (and we fly very often). I've never been asked to stop, but then we're not gay...
I'm glad these guys made a fuss.
Wouldn't a same-sex couple have an easier time ducking into the bathroom? I mean, it's not easy getting in there in the first place... so to speak...
I pay good money to fly. The last thing I want myself or my children to be exposed to is people making out -- gay, lesbian or hetero -- and then be forced to sit through an 8 hour flight where kissing escalates to touching, escalates to God knows what else...
There's a time and place for everything.
well I find hetero snogging in excess just as revolting as gay snogging in excess....I think everyone over reacted. I don't know that they were being discriminated against, the for or against the discrimination part would be hard to prove....I think a bit of kissing here or there is fine, when it becomes sexual sort of kissing? that might be disrpespectful to everyone around you....
I'm not a fan of any PDA period, but I'd be more likely to yell "get a room," and laugh, especially if I was seated next to them. You really have to wonder about people who are so offended by gays...and breastfeeding, for that matter!
What's worse is when you do your damndest to book your aisle seat online (or get to the airport early if you can't do it beforehand), and you are seated around a family. Then, they start talking "around" your head with exaggerated gestures, so you look like an asshole if you don't offer to switch seats. This happened to me last week, and I put my earbuds in as if I was listening to music before the flight. The guy and his brother next to me asked the flight attendant if the other aisle seat was taken (his wife and kid were seated in the middle and window), and she replied that the flight was full, but maybe he could ask one of us. Needless to say, I pretended not to hear.
And for the record, my airline source says that senior citizens are the worst Mile High Club offenders!
I once flew American (never will again) and the woman in the seat next to me (no room between seats either) was nursing a child, who constantly puked on me, or screamed or shit his pants. She also had a two year old who's diaper needed changing often also. As if seeing the little bugger's junk was not enough (poor kid, no toy there), she said something about him being sick and shoved a rectal thermometer up his butt, causing him to pee all over me and her.
When I complained to American's flight crew, they said I had no right to complain and that the woman was allowed to do what she wanted. The flight attendant (bi*ch) actually laughed in my face and told me that being pissed on by children was perfectly normal and in fact, hilarious.
I said I didn't care what the woman did as long as she kept it, and her children's bodily fluids, to herself. Cost me $30 bucks to get my suit cleaned.
Gimmee a couple fags making out anyday. Beats nasty breastfeeding, sick, pissing, screaming kids.
Also, what up with threatning to divert the plane? That's just nuts. I can see the FAA and Homeland Security reports now: "Captain diverted aircraft after learning there were openly gay men on-board who asked to see an airline representative. Fags are threat to national security." What an a**hole! Sure, if they making out too much, ask them to tone it down a bit, as long as the heterosexual college couple three rows down gets the same message, and grandma and grandpa get the same message, fine. But, threatning to divert because somebody is angry that they were asked to stop kissing? Freaking stupid and way heavy handed by the airline.
What's next? Anti-exposure of skin in public movement? Gee, I thought we got rid of the Taliban. Guess they all work for American Airlines now.