By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Editor
A story caught my eye the other day about terms flight crews use to hide certain things that they feel are best keep from passengers. This could be a medical condition of a passenger or some other internal issue.
One, tho, was a term this publication stated had to do with a term they use to describe certain passengers. The article was in a major publication but still, in this age of questional journalism and a crowded blog space in which certain stories are published to create views, I did not trust it. So I went to a better source: an actual flight attendant. And she said it’s not true.
Forbes, once a publication not to be taken lightly, published a story stating that air crews use the word mermaid to describe a type of passenger. According to the article, a mermaid is a “passive-aggresssive nickname for a passenger who spreads themselves out over several seats to stop other passengers from sitting in thier row.” It goes on to state it is “particularly common on emptier flights where there are most seats to be claimed.”
My flight attendant friend, who has worked for a major US airline for several years (at least 10), said “I’ve never heard of that in my life. No, that’s not a common saying.”
Take that Forbes!
And heck, what’s wrong with spreading out if nobody is next to you? I do it all the time and I’ve seen others do the same. I have even taken up the entire middle row when it’s empty to lay down and sleep on a long flight. Once, on a KLM flight from LAX to Amsterdam, I even laid on the floor in the middle row section, sleeping soundly while my friends tried in vain to get a little rest in their seats.
In each case the flight attendants may have had a term for me – cool dude comes to mind – but it likely wasn’t mermaid.
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