United Airlines popcorn controversy: What sayeth the Dis?

[bcla]

What's WHIP?

Walks/hits per inning pitched. Equivalent to a pitcher’s on base for opposing hitters, but on a per inning basis.

 

[GAN]

Missed my point. Plenty have stated that there are no brooms and pans to clean up. Many have stated that there isn't time in the flight turnaround to clean the plane. "We're talking about a "mess" that would have taken all of 30-seconds to clean up with a dustpan and brush...."

You are correct, mom can't leave the plane and find a broom and pan. Apparently neither can the FA because the FA has other tasks to do, assumingly unpaid at that since others have stated that the FA only gets paid once the doors close.

I have stated that mom should have prevented it in the first place by paying attention to her animals.

Seems kind of harsh labeling the children "animals" for spilling popcorn on the floor. You know why Disney doesn't sell gum? Because they don't want "animals" leaving it on the pavement. Sounds familiar.....

 

[mrodgers]

Seems kind of harsh labeling the children "animals" for spilling popcorn on the floor. You know why Disney doesn't sell gum? Because they don't want "animals" leaving it on the pavement. Sounds familiar.....

Children don't know any better. It's the parents' job to teach them to know better. If the parents aren't teaching the children to know better, they are teaching their children to be animals. Everything in this speaks that she is teaching her kids to be animals.

Like I said, I would have rectified it with the first piece of popcorn to fall as I didn't want my kids to end up being animals.

 

[fly girl]

Agree...I only fly 2-3 times a year for vacations where I'm heading out of the country. And while there seems to be a decent amount of time between flights....enough to run a vacuum or sweeper over the floor, they're missing a lot. It's not usual at all to see some small bits of garbage on the floor, or in the front seat pocket.

Typically you have several hours spanned between international flights. They will get throughly cleaned. However, delays happen (weather, mechanical, etc.) Everyone: all airline employees, catering, and cabin service cleaning crews must exit for customs. Some flights, it takes hours for that aircraft to clear customs. If that is the case, the cleaning won't be as good as the norm.

Actually, it isn't that easy. They need you off the plane so the pilots can do what they need to do to close out the flight(sorry not a pilot). And not sure how often you've travelled recently but getting on the floor when you've finally gotten to the gate would be pretty difficult as people can't wait to get out of their seats and grab their carry-ons to prepare for the race down the aisle....

Pilots shutting everything down is minimal. It will take longer for the flight attendants. We have to be onboard per FAA. Pilots can say adios and leave, which they will do if their next flight is soon or if they are done and going home. But technically, they are supposed to stay and say buh bye with me at the boading door.

Missed my point. Plenty have stated that there are no brooms and pans to clean up. Many have stated that there isn't time in the flight turnaround to clean the plane. "We're talking about a "mess" that would have taken all of 30-seconds to clean up with a dustpan and brush...."

You are correct, mom can't leave the plane and find a broom and pan. Apparently neither can the FA because the FA has other tasks to do, assumingly unpaid at that since others have stated that the FA only gets paid once the doors close.

I have stated that mom should have prevented it in the first place by paying attention to her animals.

Flight attendants cannot leave the plane until everyone is off. If they do, they will be personally fined. And yes, unpaid. Once that door opens ... off the clock.

Quick tidbit, FAA fines the flight attendants personally for certain infractions, not the airline. That big bloated bag you want to put in my closet can cost me $1200 of my own earnings. That is why we are so particular about the closet.

I have differing opinions on leaving stuff behind. I’ll do fast food where I do try to clean up after myself, but I might find an available table where I see crumbs. But then I see employees with towels and disinfectant to clean tables. I’ve spilled my coffee and even had a time when fries got spilled all over the floor (long story, but it was someone with me who got angry and left) where the manager saw it, got employees to clean it up, and even got me a replacement.

At a certain it’s probably best for a business to cut its losses. If I had something like an exploding bag of chips (it happens) I probably wouldn’t clean up every last bit on a plane. But I would alert the crew to it.

Yeah, that real vacuum? Never happening in the day. Only if the plane is sitting overnight. Ain't nobody got time for that in the middle of the day with 50 minute turn time to get a 757 deplaned and boarded. Good times, good times.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Typically you have several hours spanned between international flights. They will get throughly cleaned. However, delays happen (weather, mechanical, etc.) Everyone: all airline employees, catering, and cabin service cleaning crews must exit for customs. Some flights, it takes hours for that aircraft to clear customs. If that is the case, the cleaning won't be as good as the norm.


Pilots shutting everything down is minimal. It will take longer for the flight attendants. We have to be onboard per FAA. Pilots can say adios and leave, which they will do if their next flight is soon or if they are done and going home. But technically, they are supposed to stay and say buh bye with me at the boading door.


Flight attendants cannot leave the plane until everyone is off. If they do, they will be personally fined. And yes, unpaid. Once that door opens ... off the clock.

Quick tidbit, FAA fines the flight attendants personally for certain infractions, not the airline. That big bloated bag you want to put in my closet can cost me $1200 of my own earnings. That is why we are so particular about the closet.


Yeah, that real vacuum? Never happening in the day. Only if the plane is sitting overnight. Ain't nobody got time for that in the middle of the day with 50 minute turn time to get a 757 deplaned and boarded. Good times, good times.

Thanks for the comments fly girl. For the record….I don’t complain to anyone on a flight…ever. Only once when the man’s seat in front of me was broken and he was literally in my lap when he reclined. Even then…I had to send my husband to complain because I was trapped I’m just happy to be going somewhere…because when I’m on a flight, I’m going on vacation. Hawaii for our 25th Anniversary is up next, departing two weeks from tomorrow .

 

[bcla]

Yeah, that real vacuum? Never happening in the day. Only if the plane is sitting overnight. Ain't nobody got time for that in the middle of the day with 50 minute turn time to get a 757 deplaned and boarded. Good times, good times.

I get that going through with a shop vac probably isn't happening with a quick turnaround, but if there's no accounting for spills with something like a handheld vacuum, then that's something that should have been thought of before.

 

[WEDcryoHEAD]

Always clean up after yourself and your children. The reason Disney and Busch Gardens are so clean is because a large majority of the clientele are responsible for themselves and their families and clean up after themselves. Visit a Six Flags and compare.

I always hate to see people leave a bunch of trash behind and say they have people who are paid to clean it up.

 

[Pink Partridge]

I am looking at the picture of the popcorn mess. So these two little girls are sitting by themselves. Hopefully their mother was in eye shot of them. And when that first kernel fell, she should have leaned over from where she was and picked it up. By the time the tenth piece of popcorn hit the ground, she should have take the popcorn away from the children and explained they were being too messy and they could have it once they got off the plane.

Why wasn't this mother watching her children? Or was she sitting there watching this all go down?

When I read online news headlines that say this is a "debate", it makes me laugh.

99% of the people out these agree that you pick up after your own child. Nobody is debating. This entitled family has actually brought people together in agreement These people are jerks. And then to play the "But she is pregnant" card

 

[Pink Partridge]

Flight attendants cannot leave the plane until everyone is off. If they do, they will be personally fined. And yes, unpaid. Once that door opens ... off the clock.

I know how to fix that quickly. Every flight attendant should call off work until they are paid for the time that they work. I give it 2 days of grounded flights. Absolutely pathetic not to pay flight attendants once the doors open.

 

[bcla]

Always clean up after yourself and your children. The reason Disney and Busch Gardens are so clean is because a large majority of the clientele are responsible for themselves and their families and clean up after themselves. Visit a Six Flags and compare.

I always hate to see people leave a bunch of trash behind and say they have people who are paid to clean it up.

I've been to Six Flags parks and saw lots of custodial staff. I've never seen a mess that wasn't cleaned up reasonably quickly.

At Disneyland I see roving custodial staff with brooms and those pickup boxes. Once I even spilled a can of soda. Right in front of someone who looked like a senior CM, back when outside food was technically against the rules (although security saw my mini soft sided cooler and didn't stop me). She took one look at it and said don't worry and she directed someone to clean it up. I've seen CMs with scrapers to remove gum. I've yet to see anyone deliberately throw stuff on the ground (like peanut shells at a baseball game). I never went in thinking that we could be slobs, but when something did happen, there was never an expectation that CMs would demand that we clean up.

 

[loves to dive]

First we really don't know what happened, Dad tweeted about it, wife probably told him something along the lines of they made me clean up.

Second if my kid was dropping popcorn I would take it away from him and make him clean it up. And yes, I used to make him clean up his messes in public places as well as home. As far as it's better to let him keep it then have a screaming kid on the airplane, would not happen. If my kid even thought about throwing a fit in public (and yes I even knew when he was thinking about doing something wrong) a trip to the bathroom for a discussion would have happened. Sorry, there is never a place your kid should be rude.

Third I agree with other's, pregnancy is not a disability. Hate to sound like an old person but I worked up until 2 weeks before my son was born and was out in our garden picking peas when pregnant.

 

[GAN]

Why wasn't this mother watching her children? Or was she sitting there watching this all go down?

She obviously was in the middle of one of those trashy romance novels.....

 

[WEDcryoHEAD]

"Pregnancy is not a disability" I like that.

I wish I'd have thought of that when my wife was pregnant and dinner was late. LOL

 

[jo-jo]

I know how to fix that quickly. Every flight attendant should call off work until they are paid for the time that they work. I give it 2 days of grounded flights. Absolutely pathetic not to pay flight attendants once the doors open.

Could this wait a few weeks until we are back from Disney????

But yes that’s crazy. I always thought they had so many hours, Work from 10 to 8 , whatever, Not 8:53-10:23 and then 10 59-11:47, etc.

 

[Moliphino]

I've been to Six Flags parks and saw lots of custodial staff. I've never seen a mess that wasn't cleaned up reasonably quickly.

At Disneyland I see roving custodial staff with brooms and those pickup boxes. Once I even spilled a can of soda. Right in front of someone who looked like a senior CM, back when outside food was technically against the rules (although security saw my mini soft sided cooler and didn't stop me). She took one look at it and said don't worry and she directed someone to clean it up. I've seen CMs with scrapers to remove gum. I've yet to see anyone deliberately throw stuff on the ground (like peanut shells at a baseball game). I never went in thinking that we could be slobs, but when something did happen, there was never an expectation that CMs would demand that we clean up.

There are some places and times when cleaning it yourself doesn't make sense. Like when my puppy piddled at the vet's office I had absolutely no way to clean that up, but they had a mop in a nearby closet ready to go. Most people don't walk around with the tools needed to clean up a fluid spill.

 

[sam_gordon]

Always clean up after yourself and your children. The reason Disney and Busch Gardens are so clean is because a large majority of the clientele are responsible for themselves and their families and clean up after themselves. Visit a Six Flags and compare.

I always hate to see people leave a bunch of trash behind and say they have people who are paid to clean it up.

Sorry, the clientele that goes to theme parks are pretty much the same. The reason Disney and Busch Gardens are "clean" is because they hire enough workers to clean up the trash.

I am looking at the picture of the popcorn mess. So these two little girls are sitting by themselves. Hopefully their mother was in eye shot of them.

The picture was provided by the husband. Which means it came from the wife, which means she was sitting across the aisle from the two kids. I have no problem with that, especially assuming the seating was 2x2. How else do you do it?

 

[dizneegirl]

I've cleaned up messes on tables/floors/etc from children that weren't even mine when out with them. I've also had them help clean it up. And I've stopped them from making big messes in the first place. If for some reason I couldn't clean it up, I'd be very apologetic about it, and ask very nicely for help.

I've cleaned up a bathroom stall after my young niece made a complete mess of it.

I'd be mortified to leave a mess anywhere that came from me or someone I'm with. It's not society's job to clean up after me as an individual.

We're the people you see picking up the noodle we dropped on the ground while eating festival food at Epcot, or popcorn at Magic Kingdom, or whatever, and throwing it away so other people don't step on it, and the critters don't eat it. We clean up any mess we might have made on the table we're using. It's just polite.

 

[bcla]

There are some places and times when cleaning it yourself doesn't make sense. Like when my puppy piddled at the vet's office I had absolutely no way to clean that up, but they had a mop in a nearby closet ready to go. Most people don't walk around with the tools needed to clean up a fluid spill.

I know there can be basic expectations, such as places where there are trays and places for the customer to self-bus. But then again I've seen it where some customers might just leave the tray at the table and I'm hard pressed to remember any cases where an employee got upset that someone didn't clear the table.

In any customer service business they're figuring that there might be varying levels of mess and be prepared to deal with that. Someone mentioned what happens if a passenger loses their lunch. Sometimes it's just a cost of doing business.

 

[Pink Partridge]

The picture was provided by the husband. Which means it came from the wife, which means she was sitting across the aisle from the two kids. I have no problem with that, especially assuming the seating was 2x2. How else do you do it?

So if she is sitting across the aisle, she should be watching her children. Especially the 2 year old who is eating something that is a choking hazard.

She watched all of that popcorn fall to the floor and didn't intervene? Lazy parenting. And then for her husband to post it like she was the victim? Lol. He did not get the response he thought he would.

Quite frankly, I would have flown coach and sat in the middle of my two young children.

 

[Lilsia]

We've raised three kids. I don't remember ANY time leaving a mess on the floor, much less a "blast zone", much less it being "normal". Also, you mention you tipped handsomely because of the mess you make. THAT'S how you made amends. You realized you were asking the staff to go above and beyond and compensated with them. Somehow I doubt people are tipping the FA when they leave a mess. I don't think they can accept tips.

Common sense says the mom was across the aisle (based on the picture). That would make it extremely difficult to kick popcorn to the rear. I also wonder how the popcorn got behind the seat. But zooming in on the picture, I think I see kernels in the junction of the seat cushion and seat back (under the kid). So I wonder if the spill was actually in the seat and the kid (because she doesn't want to sit in it) brushed it under the armrest and some fell behind. *IF* that's what happened, I really side with the airline. The mom should have had the kid clean up the kernels while they were in the seat, not just brush them onto the floor.

The mom was only across the aisle to take the picture. I don't think that she was sitting there. Who sits that far away from their 2 year old. If she did, then wow, that is even worse parenting than making a mess.