I think an important question not considered here is whether a line exists between acceptable accessories to wear versus making a political statement that offends passengers. I think if a pilot came on the PA and said something like, "Welcome to American Airlines flight 943 with service to Buffalo. We hope you had a wonderful holiday and hope Trump wins the Presidency this year." would be considered inappropriate. At the same time, I think it is worth noting that other airlines have fired crew for wearing flags in uniform,
Air Canada fired one pilot over this tweet for instance:
With respect that's a very naive view.
Countless threads on here of people trying to contact Qantas for urgent issues unsucessfully. This will likely go to an overseas inbox and a generic response will be sent.
Everybody knows you need to go public to get any response out of a big corporation. It used to be @'ing them on Twitter would name and shame them into action, but now even that doesn't work these days. Whether it's right or wrong, an article on news au will get a response within 24 hours.
I think the moment a crew member violates policy be it safety or operating procedures it needs to be documented. Yes it may embarrass the cabin crew but you cannot have a safe and respectable cabin if the rules are not followed. In this case, the pin thing, I'd argue that's relatively minor. But if you saw a crew member for instance, beating a passenger or forcing a disabled passenger to drag themselves off the plane (this by the
way happened in Canada), then attention needs to be called.
A written report by the passenger would not be enough since it misses a lot of context the airlines need to know. For instance, if it is a safety issue they may want to know the particulars of what unfolded.
Didn’t read anything in that article saying that the FA was unable to speak that country’s national language… Wonder if the furious community leader bothered to ask?
Does Palestine have a national language? And if it does would it be the appropriate flag for the language? For instance, if their national language was English, the Palestine flag would not be helpful for customers, whereas a UK flag (where everyone knows the language is English) would be.
The FA in question has gone public indicating she will “fight against“ the pax who made the complaint should her career be jeopardised. The pax has identified himself and done media interviews.
I reckon the passenger would be protected by things like free speech and whistleblower laws. Some may argue Australia doesn't have a guaranteed right to free speech like other countries (i.e. USA). I would make the argument that it has never been tested to the fullest extent in court. Remember, even if the High Court of Australia ruled on such a matter, they aren't the final say on legal matters since it can go up to further tribunals internationally given free speech is largely recognized as a universal human right.
I’m not sure which flag is used for Arabic (guessing UAE given EK relationship ) but for Spanish it’s the flag of Spain regardless of whether they come from Spain or Latin America. A FA can’t just wear a Nicaraguan flag because they speak Spanish.
There are many people I know from Latin America who would object to the Spanish flag being used to represent
their Spanish (as an aside a past time of my relatives when they were in the US was reading packaging that had instructions in Mexican Spanish and goofing on how the expressions didn't make any sense for someone from South America).
I would assume staff wrong is worse than a pax wrong.
Particularly if it is safety related!
Given the media attention already, QF would be very unwise to take action against the pax. Especially because that act only occurred because of the staff act.
What action could Qantas take in this case? Ban them from all future flights? Agreed that the media storm there would be furious, and I wonder too whether such a decision could actually be held up, particularly if it penalizes passengers for invoking rights they have.
Yea, I saw that in the news article and I understand that the pax was offended, given what's been happening with Israel & Palestine ... but my thought process is, yes, they are offended and they called it out .. but does it have to be called out in the or via news? Could there have been a different way this issue could have been handled ... again, there is no right or wrong answers and chances are I'm very off in my comment, but everyone does things that might offend/anger/irritate the next person ... but taking everything to a news outlet, is that the best way?
This is the 21st century, mate! Anything that could potentially offend someone has to be called out. Any opportunity to have a thoughtful discussion has been ruled irrelevant by the social media overlords.
Depending on your political views you may have been offended... but intimidated? By an FA on a Qantas flight? That's a bit precious.
Certainly not by a FA on a Qantas flight. But I reckon some people have been intimidated by QF the company, from ghost flights to bundle of rights there is much to be afraid of when flying QF.
Its no different than painting the plane with YES or pride stripes, or if the guy next to you is wearing a Collingwood shirt or a Holden hat. You might not agree with it but you are not in any Danger from it.
There is nothing political by painting pride stripes on the side of the plane. You are merely stating something that is now law in the country. Just as it wouldn't be seen as political for Qantas to have a plane painted in livery that says, if you drink, don't drive (with a Mothers Against Drunk Driving logo on the tail). I will, however, state that some people may be offended by the Qantas Retro liveries only to find out that they cannot smoke on the plane (something which you most certainly were allowed to do when the original QF flights were flying).
-RooFlyer88
....and here's me in trouble trying to understand the hotel receptionist in NZ 
