What, you don't have a big electronic "I AM AN EXP DYKWIA?" sign on your head when you board?
Clearly, then, you must be doing it wrong.
Guess I need one of those plastic "I AM A DORK" ID and ticket holders to put around my neck to hold the EXP card.
Are you talking about in the days before locked cockpit doors? I'm trying to imagine how they would do that nowadays. Really I can't remember any crew ever doing this even back in the old days.
I fly a lot and have so for a number of years and I can never remember that happening.
Hmmm... on a flight last fall ATL-PRG, we took a 10 minute delay at the gate for MX to one of the J cabin seats. The captain came around, stopped at each seat, told us he was glad we were flying with them, showed us the route of flight plotted on a Jepp North Atlantic chart, and asked if we had any questions. It was the *personal* element that we don't see very often.
And about 50% of the time I'll get the cabin crew coming around F or J to thank us. Not so in steerage. Once upon a time (years ago), I would regularly be given at the end of a flight a bottle of wine or tin of caviar as a top-tier elite. Between the TSA's stupid liquid rules and the financial fortunes of airlines, that hasn't happened since about 2002.
I get stopped all the time. You are actually walking from first to coach and back or just lapping in your assigned cabin?
I can walk around the cabin I am in, but 1st is not a large cabin. In the 747-400 is is not a very good place to walk either. I will often stand by the exit door and stretch my legs. They seem to be ok doing that.
Must just be you. I've not had a problem walking from my seat around the plane - from F or J into steerage. It is a bit of an issue on international flights if you're in steerage and want to go to the front - TSA has something to do with that. Domestically, sometimes you'll get a scowl, and infrequently they'll turn folks around.
On my 744 flight back from NRT this summer there was no issue walking around or climbing the stairs. I did have a J ticket, though.
It should bear mentioning that 90% of my travel is on AA, and I've yet to see this issue; that said I do lots of 3 hour MD80's *or* 10 hour 777 runs.
The 757 is a PITA no matter which way you slice it. I've never had the "go back to coach" bathroom issue, but I wonder if it is the crews you deal with? I have more issues with LGA and ORD based crews than the DFW based crews.
I've never had a problem going from the front cabin into the back on AA or DL. On one memorable flight, we had to make a potty-stop at ORD - we launched from IAD with a known defective lav up front and somewhere over Indiana the decision was made to go to ORD to have it replaced (something about running out of blue water if we didn't stop...). We were instructed to go in back if we needed to go (on a 738 - which has less lavs than a 75).
That said, it's infrequent that I see FAs turn people around who need to go, and they're much more accomodating if the aisle is blocked. Internationally, there's some stupid TSA rule - but that rule basically is enforced as "don't go up front if you're seated in the back".
I fly AA & DL/NW primarily, sometimes WN, B6 and VX domestically and sometimes KL, AF, BA, OK, and a couple of others internationally.
