Disgraceful DYKWIA behaviour

[ashleyn]

There have been many threads and posts about aspects of this one, I apologise for that but this warrants it's own discussion, IMHO.

This afternoon, Sydney to Per in Y I was sat next to a guy who after the obligatory chat, was a high flying lawyer. He was WP (saw his Q tag on the carry on, one thread down). Throughout the flight, about every hour, he turned on his phone (doubt it was ever off) and read and responded to emails and listened to voice mails. During descent, same thing and the FA told him to turn it off which he ignored. At this point I said to him "that should be off" to which I got the response (not exact words but close) "I have 1.5m FF points, I can do what I like".

Without wishing to open up the debate about the effect phones may or may not have on navigation systems, what should one do when confronted by this situation (these have been done in depth before), do members feel this sort of behaviour should be punished and if so how ? Flight ban for a month, fine ? Confiscate phone during the flight ?

 

[RWJ777]

There have been many threads and posts about aspects of this one, I apologise for that but this warrants it's own discussion, IMHO.

This afternoon, Sydney to Per in Y I was sat next to a guy who after the obligatory chat, was a high flying lawyer. He was WP (saw his Q tag on the carry on, one thread down). Throughout the flight, about every hour, he turned on his phone (doubt it was ever off) and read and responded to emails and listened to voice mails. During descent, same thing and the FA told him to turn it off which he ignored. At this point I said to him "that should be off" to which I got the response (not exact words but close) "I have 1.5m FF points, I can do what I like".

Without wishing to open up the debate about the effect phones may or may not have on navigation systems, what should one do when confronted by this situation (these have been done in depth before), do members feel this sort of behaviour should be punished and if so how ? Flight ban for a month, fine ? Confiscate phone during the flight ?

How ironic, I sat next to a guy from Perth last night (in J) who was doing much the same thing on his iPad but more discretely. I could see the Telstra 3G symbol at the top of the page trying to connect to the network and then dip out and then try again. I didn't say anything because I thought that on the balance of probabilities that there must have bee another 2 or 3 people on that flight who had simply forgotten to turn their phones off (or, as happened to me once, I accidentally pressed the button back on and discovered it on). But the point remains that it's wilful disobedience and incredibly selfish.

Had the FA known that he had continued to ignore her / his directions, and had he continued to refused to follow them including on escalation to the first officer in attendance, he could have been charged under the Aviation legislation for failing to abide by a lawful direction.

How shocking though and what arrogance. It must have been very uncomfortable being so close to him in Y.

 

[k3nnis]

You should of told him QF points are worth nothing

There have been many threads and posts about aspects of this one, I apologise for that but this warrants it's own discussion, IMHO.

This afternoon, Sydney to Per in Y I was sat next to a guy who after the obligatory chat, was a high flying lawyer. He was WP (saw his Q tag on the carry on, one thread down). Throughout the flight, about every hour, he turned on his phone (doubt it was ever off) and read and responded to emails and listened to voice mails. During descent, same thing and the FA told him to turn it off which he ignored. At this point I said to him "that should be off" to which I got the response (not exact words but close) "I have 1.5m FF points, I can do what I like".

Without wishing to open up the debate about the effect phones may or may not have on navigation systems, what should one do when confronted by this situation (these have been done in depth before), do members feel this sort of behaviour should be punished and if so how ? Flight ban for a month, fine ? Confiscate phone during the flight ?

 

[JohnK]

Not really good enough behaviour from some who has 1.5million QFF points. They should know better. Not really different to the idiots who sit in the first row of economy and talk through the safety demonstration.

Clearly the world revolves around these type of people.

Is it possible to read and respond to emails in flght?

 

[Must...Fly!]

"I have 1.5m FF points, I can do what I like".

My response would be something alone the lines of "that's nice, there are about 200 other people on here and an aircraft worth a lot more than your lawyer behind that would like that to be off"

hahaha "I have 1.5m ff points" rofl, some people really are beneath the common man.

 

[anat0l]

Grab the device off him, turn it off yourself and shove it somewhere where he can't get at it. Personally I'd be very tempted to actually throw it hard on the floor. (With 1.5M QFF he could easily buy a new one )


1.5 million points and can do whatever he wants? Perhaps he should go to the FF store and see if he can buy some manners. I highly doubt even he can do that.


Assuming your recount of his character is as accurate as you portray it, frankly that's ghastly rude behaviour irrespective of whichever airline he was flying. How society can tolerate coughs like that is beyond belief.


The social media solution, of course, is that you know his seat number, flight number and date. We could put that on the social media waves with name-and-shame, and send it around the universe a couple of times


I should congratulate you for keeping relatively calm. Had he said that to me, I think I would have well and truly lost my temper.

 

[MadFairlane]

I would've told him my 3million points trumps his paltry 1.5 and he should turn his iThingy off

 

[cove]

What you describe is a little less than what happened to Mrscove and a girlfriend travelling back to PER in J.
Several bikies travelling on the same plane were heading to a particular boxing event and for a lot of the journey each of them did phone calls, drank like fish and were a bit threatening in behaviour.
I am glad the girls did not try to upset these chaps in any way as they were big and able to do whatever they wanted.
There are times when doing nothing may seem wrong but the alternatives can be way too risky.
Lawyers should know better. Nice behaviour doesn't cost anything.

 

[moa999]

read and responded to emails

Seen it many a time and had a number of bosses who do this. There are at least three zones SYD-PER where you get service and a few SYD-MEL.
Works particularly well on Blackberries as they are effectively compressed text only so you don't need much of a connection to pull and push emails.

and listened to voice mails.

Wow.. never seen this, thought the signal would skip to much.

During descent, same thing and the FA told him to turn it off which he ignored. ?

Pretty common, but disgraceful given this is the most dangerous part of flight.

 

[amaroo]

I would've told him my 3million points trumps his paltry 1.5 and he should turn his iThingy off

Reminds of that tale of Kerry Packer in a casino.....I'll toss you for it!

Who knows if it was true - great story & punch line.

 

[Stephen65]

Idiot. Also: he can't be too high flying if he's stuck down the back in Y.

 

[Simo]

Idiot. Also: he can't be too high flying if he's stuck down the back in Y.

You stole my line.

Did he tell you he was a high flying lawyer, so he probably isn't really that good at all.

 

[JohnPhelan]

"If you were actually important to Qantas, you'd be in Business. But I'm going to report you, so hopefully you'll be in police custody after we land."

 

[ash.1111]

One time I was paxing and on landing someone decided to pull out their phone and start reading their messages. A tap on the shoulder (no words spoken) managed to get them to put their phone away!

 

[mella2007]

He wasn't a lawyer. He's prob a Bronze. I'd tell him to peddle on over with those million points and buy himself a toaster

 

[Paddy55]

Guess for him combination of 1.5m points + being lawyer = pronounced "d*ckheadism"... Not curable i'm afraid

Others with same attributes don't necessarily acquire "d*ckheadism", but he's missing the "decent bloke" gene

 

[pauly7]

High flying lawyer - such a thing? I thought most lived in gutters

(no offence to any saintly AFF lawyers of course)

 

[drron]

Why prosecute a lawyer-
Mother of man bashed by former NRL player says her son 'is not the same boy anymore' | The Courier-Mail

Watchdog bares teeth in battle to discipline dodgy lawyers

Bankruptcy: case of how many tricks you know

Lawyer can't recall stealing artworks

So I would use one of my favourite lines-But I AM LIFETIME PLATINUM SO TURN IT OFF.Just wouldn't disclose it is on AA.

 

[medhead]

So many good lines around the 1.5 mil points. Besides those mentioned you could go down the path of "Get those by credit card spend? Because if you flew more than once a year you'd know to turn that phone off". But probably the best would be to report him to the FA and say that you were concerned about your safety. Maybe that's a bit dramatic to push that button, but I'd expect that once another passenger felt "threatened" by their behaviour it would prompt a step up in corrective action.

Guess for him combination of 1.5m points + being lawyer = pronounced "d*ckheadism"... Not curable i'm afraid

Others with same attributes don't necessarily acquire "d*ckheadism", but he's missing the "decent bloke" gene

A good dose of lead will cure this malady.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

This highlights an important fact.... Telstra NextG does work at 35,000 feet.