Appologize if its a repost...musicians denied boarding

When I was at Cape, I had a passenger buy a ticket for his cello, filling up the 9th seat, which displaced the FO I was flying with. The joke from then on was that we should have put a headset and epaulets on the cello case.

True story.
 
ChasenSFO said:
Like I said in the original post, if I'm a revenue pax in a ninja turtle t-shirt, and I paid as much as the dude in the 3-piece suit, and I'm being polite and respectful, I deserve the same treatment from the cabin and/or flight crew(who are paid to deal with people as required). Period.
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Look, you can think that it should be that way all you want, but you need a dose of reality. I'd treat you with respect just because I know you, but if I didn't know you and just saw some dude in the outfit you describe, I'd consider you an overgrown kid, and no, you wouldn't get the same deference as the guy in the three piece suit. If you want to be treated like the guy in the three piece suit, then wear a three piece suit.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Look, you can think that it should be that way all you want, but you need a dose of reality. I'd treat you with respect just because I know you, but if I didn't know you and just saw some dude in the outfit you describe, I'd consider you an overgrown kid, and no, you wouldn't get the same deference as the guy in the three piece suit. If you want to be treated like the guy in the three piece suit, then wear a three piece suit.
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That is pretty much what I was getting at in my original post. I have definitely learned from observations over the years that the way you present yourself through your appearance, speech (tone and diction), body language, etc. will very much influence the way people treat you in every facet of life.
 
Back in my Pinnacle days, I got stuck in Lexington for four days during an ice storm. Scheduling made us go to the airport every morning insisting our flight would depart despite the fact that there was absolutely no way the airport would be open. Well on the morning of the first day, we were sitting around in a room behind the ticket counter and our full load of passengers was trying to get rebooked. Everybody was pretty calm still since the weather was bad enough that they weren't expecting to leave either. I quickly got bored and decided I would walk around out front and talk to the people in line.

We knew that we had a country band booked (Ashton Shepherd if anyone cares) and they were getting a good amount of attention from the reps and the pax, but I ended up starting a conversation with a passenger holding a violin case. I recognized his name as soon as he said it and I can assure you that this was one violin that I would have absolutely made sure was in the cabin. I have no idea if he had bought an extra ticket, but I'd doubt it with the size of a violin case. Given the weather forecast, I advised him to rent a car and drive north to rebook out of a completely different airport. He did so and sadly, I never asked to see the violin. Passenger's name was Joshua Bell and he was flying with what I can only assume to be his $4 million Stradivarius.

Four days later, @kellwolf was brought in from Memphis to take the plane out with me. My captain had bailed on his own dime with scheduling's consent.

First link is Joshua Bell playing in a DC metro station. The Washington Post had him do it as what is best described as a social experiment.



Second link is the Story of his violin, "A Fiddle Found." It had been stolen and was unaccounted for for the next 50 years.

http://www.joshuabell.com/story-his-violin
 
SrFnFly227 said:
Back in my Pinnacle days, I got stuck in Lexington for four days during an ice storm. Scheduling made us go to the airport every morning insisting our flight would depart despite the fact that there was absolutely no way the airport would be open. Well on the morning of the first day, we were sitting around in a room behind the ticket counter and our full load of passengers was trying to get rebooked. Everybody was pretty calm still since the weather was bad enough that they weren't expecting to leave either. I quickly got bored and decided I would walk around out front and talk to the people in line.

We knew that we had a country band booked (Ashton Shepherd if anyone cares) and they were getting a good amount of attention from the reps and the pax, but I ended up starting a conversation with a passenger holding a violin case. I recognized his name as soon as he said it and I can assure you that this was one violin that I would have absolutely made sure was in the cabin. I have no idea if he had bought an extra ticket, but I'd doubt it with the size of a violin case. Given the weather forecast, I advised him to rent a car and drive north to rebook out of a completely different airport. He did so and sadly, I never asked to see the violin. Passenger's name was Joshua Bell and he was flying with what I can only assume to be his $4 million Stradivarius.

Four days later, @kellwolf was brought in from Memphis to take the plane out with me. My captain had bailed on his own dime with scheduling's consent.

First link is Joshua Bell playing in a DC metro station. The Washington Post had him do it as what is best described as a social experiment.



Second link is the Story of his violin, "A Fiddle Found." It had been stolen and was unaccounted for for the next 50 years.

http://www.joshuabell.com/story-his-violin
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That video reminded me of the sleeping scenes in "Paranormal Activity". Every time the video slowed down again, I expected someone to mysteriously sleep walk or get dragged by an invisible force out of the metro station.

In all seriousness, though, that guy is obviously a bad ass and I wish I had an ounce of his musical ability.
 
guywhoflies said:
That video reminded me of the sleeping scenes in "Paranormal Activity". Every time the video slowed down again, I expected someone to mysteriously sleep walk or get dragged by an invisible force out of the metro station.

In all seriousness, though, that guy is obviously a bad ass and I wish I had an ounce of his musical ability.
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Never seen PA so I can't comment there. He is definitely an amazing musician. He was also exceptionally nice. While everyone else was in line, he was simply standing off to the side. He never once tried to get the agent's attention or play up who he was. If I hadn't introduced myself and offered to help, I think he would have been happy to wait till the line died down and then try to get help. Definitely gave me a lot of respect for him outside of simply his talent.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Look, you can think that it should be that way all you want, but you need a dose of reality. I'd treat you with respect just because I know you, but if I didn't know you and just saw some dude in the outfit you describe, I'd consider you an overgrown kid, and no, you wouldn't get the same deference as the guy in the three piece suit. If you want to be treated like the guy in the three piece suit, then wear a three piece suit.
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I recommend not doing business in the bay area.

Frankly, I think people in suits look hilarious. Uniforms, not so much. I respect (most) uniforms. But suits? I'm immediately waiting to be sleazed... and usually I'm not disappointed. Business suit, in my experience, is code for "I don't actually know anything about anything, but I really hope you think I'm important."

But hey, what do I know? I'm just a dumb 135 pilot. ^.^

~Fox
 
I love how successful our unorganized plan to turn every thread into a suit thread has been.

Nothing like a flawlessly designed and tailored suit. Navy, pinstripe, gre(a)y, black, kahkis, white, seersucker, wool, cotton.
 
CaptBill said:
Just so everybody knows, I'm flying a two day trip starting later tonight. If you show up on any one of my flights, I will find a place for your violin, priceless crystal vase or that big glass picture you have of your Grandma holding you on the porchswing when you were a baby. Just tell the gate agent that the captain said he would make it work. See ya on the plane!
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Having spent 8 years on the little (and almost as little) RJ, 5+ of which were spent as a captain trying to be accommodating of all types of oddball luggage, I can say with some authority, what you speak of isn't always possible. The plane just isn't big enough and just doesn't have enough stowage space to fit everything that has to go inside 100% of the time. How you convey that information to passengers is what makes or breaks your a captain cred.
 
Nothing, well almost nothing, ever works out 100 % of the time. But, you can try 100% of the time. Bob, your point, particularly your last sentence, is well taken.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Look, you can think that it should be that way all you want, but you need a dose of reality. I'd treat you with respect just because I know you, but if I didn't know you and just saw some dude in the outfit you describe, I'd consider you an overgrown kid, and no, you wouldn't get the same deference as the guy in the three piece suit. If you want to be treated like the guy in the three piece suit, then wear a three piece suit.
Click to expand...
guywhoflies said:
That is pretty much what I was getting at in my original post. I have definitely learned from observations over the years that the way you present yourself through your appearance, speech (tone and diction), body language, etc. will very much influence the way people treat you in every facet of life.
Click to expand...
I get what you guys are saying, I don't disagree that people will judge me by how I'm dressed. However(and like @Acrofox was getting at, maybe it's because I'm from San Francisco where it's normal for important people to be young and dressed like a typical kid), I've never felt awkward being the most under-dressed person in a group/meeting. I feel that I still easily earn people's respect with my ideas, ambition, and work ethic despite my laid-back appearance. Accordingly, people earn my respect with their words and actions, not their appearance. Some of the biggest d-bags I've ever met looked sharp as a tack, and some of the brightest most enlightening people I've ever spoken with looked like hippies. If I had tuned people down because of how they looked on the surface, I would have missed out on a lot of wisdom thus far in life.

Again, I know what the social norm is, but I think people are too judgmental too quickly very often.
 
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