Stereotype Passengers?

Today I did a turn to Salt Lake City and then a leg to Los Angeles...where I am now for the night. My hotel room overlooks a couple runways at LAX, and I've spent the afternoon in an easy chair looking out the window, watching planes take off and land. I didn't have the energy for much else!!!

I had to leave our cabin in Breckenridge at 3AM to drive to DIA - I wasn't sure how long it'd take me, so I left fairly early...and now I'm exhausted! We have an early van tomorrow - so it'll be bedtime for me fairly soon. But first, a few thoughts.

The more I fly, the more I see that different destinations have specific types of passengers on the flights...today's Los Angeles passengers kept up the stereotype of being fairly needy. I say that, because:

1. As the "C" flight attendant (in the middle of the cabin), I was the MC for an exciting game of "Seating Shuffle!" Families came on board with boarding passes seating them in middle seats, and of course, they all wanted to sit together. Then the married couple, who you'd think would enjoy a break from each other for 2 hours and 5 minutes, wanted their seats shuffled so that they could sit next to each other and look adoringly into each other's eyes. I think I satisfied all the contestants, and those that shuffled for me were awarded with free TV.

2. There were lots of "Call Button Ringers" on today's flight. And if they didn't ring their bell, they tugged at my jacket, called out "Susan!" and sometimes waved their hands. They wanted "mixed drinks" - not the alcoholic versions...but instead two soft drinks mixed in one cup. They wanted to know how to buckle in a car seat that had no straps to hold the child in. They wanted pillows and blankets. They wanted to give me trash as I was serving drinks. They wanted drinks when I was collecting trash. They wanted me to identify the body of water that we just flew over. It was an interesting flight.

3. The seat belt sign doesn't apply to them. We had a rash of passengers that just couldn't hold it. One was a little girl who was taken to the lav during the flight by her Mom, but she freaked out and wouldn't go. Then when we landed early and were waiting for our gate to open up, the little girl just had to go! So Mom and daughter got up, while we were on an active taxiway - they saw another passenger do it, so they did it too! We had to call the CPT and let him know. They returned to their seats, and then right as the CPT started moving the plane, the Mom with the little girl got up AGAIN. So we had to call the CPT and he had to stop the plane. We made an announcement, and this time it wasn't as nice...I think this Mom should investigate using Pull-ups when taking her daughter on a plane.

But...even though a lot of weirdness happened on the plane, it made the time go by quickly! So, I'd like to thank my LAX passengers for keeping me amused!