Slog
News & ArtsThursday, January 26, 2012
Transportation Alaska Airlines Finally Kills God
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 8:43 AM
Alaska Airlines, America's seventh-largest carrier in terms of passenger traffic, said on Wednesday that it would end a decades-old tradition of handing out prayer cards with its in-flight meals.Amen. Also, God has nothing to do with anything.The prayer cards, which the Seattle-based airline began offering in the 1970s after an executive spotted them on another airline, were intended to serve as a marketing strategy and to put passengers at ease, a spokeswoman said.
The airline sent an e-mail to its frequent flyers on Wednesday explaining the change, which takes effect February 1.
"This difficult decision was not made lightly. We believe it's the right thing to do in order to respect the diverse religious beliefs and cultural attitudes of all our customers and employees," Alaska Air Group Chairman and CEO Bill Ayer and Alaska Airlines President Brad Tilden wrote to customers.
"Religious beliefs are deeply personal and sharing them with others is an individual choice."
3
Alaska still serves meals?
Those cards were so milquetoast. Just an inspirational picture and a non-offensive Bible quote. Hardly worth the bother, really.
Those cards were so milquetoast. Just an inspirational picture and a non-offensive Bible quote. Hardly worth the bother, really.
4
@3
agreed! I'm far more offended that they insist on debit/credit only payments if you want a meal or a drink on the flight. just because you think your flight attendants are stealing from you doesn't mean I have to pay for every goddamn transaction with a card.
agreed! I'm far more offended that they insist on debit/credit only payments if you want a meal or a drink on the flight. just because you think your flight attendants are stealing from you doesn't mean I have to pay for every goddamn transaction with a card.
7
When I flew Alaska twice last week, I prayed many times for my fucking flight to leave on time. My prayers were denied six fucking times. You know what I pray for in particular? For you assholes to not leave the scheduled boarding time up on the motherfucking board until it passes, THEN changing it, when you knew two motherfucking hours ago that the goddamn shitballing greasehole of an aircraft didn't even leave the cockgobbling rape shit pissing ground in the cuntripping shitwipe of a city it was fucking departing from!
Grrr. You knew. You wouldn't tell us.
Grrr. You knew. You wouldn't tell us.
8
Good but... Fuck "diverse religious beliefs". A better statement would've cited "no religious beliefs".
10
The one time meals were served on a flight I was on I don't recall ever seeing the cards. Dang, I now wish I had seen one just because I'll never see it again.
12
@7, tell us how you really feel.
Like most here, I'm more flabbergasted that there's a domestic airline out there that actually still serves meals at all. I can't really imagine that someone would be upset over these prayer cards though. That sounds like the same sort of panties-in-a-twist hysteria that some Christians work themselves into over being wished "Happy Holidays." Good wishes are good wishes, no matter how they're expressed, after all.
My guess is that some executive saw the opportunity to shave another $0.002 of the cost of providing a meal and will now put himself in for a million dollar bonus as a result.
Like most here, I'm more flabbergasted that there's a domestic airline out there that actually still serves meals at all. I can't really imagine that someone would be upset over these prayer cards though. That sounds like the same sort of panties-in-a-twist hysteria that some Christians work themselves into over being wished "Happy Holidays." Good wishes are good wishes, no matter how they're expressed, after all.
My guess is that some executive saw the opportunity to shave another $0.002 of the cost of providing a meal and will now put himself in for a million dollar bonus as a result.
13
@7 - "cockgobbling" just made my day. makes me think of gay turkeys, all struttin' around in fabulous finery. gobble gobble.
17
Based on the headline, I'm going to wait for the graphic novel of this post. Could you all invent some software that turns every Slog post into a graphic novel?
@7 Perhaps God's customer service skills were already in question and when management saw his poor response to your requests they had to "let him go." Calm yourself by gazing on the wonder of Larry King's Cavalia.*
*This comment has been in no way sponsored by Cavalia or Larry King, but by mentioning them I hope to skew metrics toward Cavalia ads instead of potential fascist leader ads. If everyone mentions unicorns would we get unicorn ads?
@7 Perhaps God's customer service skills were already in question and when management saw his poor response to your requests they had to "let him go." Calm yourself by gazing on the wonder of Larry King's Cavalia.*
*This comment has been in no way sponsored by Cavalia or Larry King, but by mentioning them I hope to skew metrics toward Cavalia ads instead of potential fascist leader ads. If everyone mentions unicorns would we get unicorn ads?
18
I fly Alaska almost exclusively and over the holidays I got an upgrade to first class flying back from Denver. I got one of those prayer cards with breakfast and was a little surprised cause I had never seen it the two other times I flew first class and got a meal.
I wrote to Alaska about the card when I got home, wondering if it was just Christian Bible verses. I got a response back telling me they get a lot of favorable comments about the prayer cards over the years, but they appreciate the diversity of their employees and passengers and they'd forward my comment to the Catering Department.
I can't imagine one comment would have created this reaction, so there must have been more people like me writing in than they let on.
I wrote to Alaska about the card when I got home, wondering if it was just Christian Bible verses. I got a response back telling me they get a lot of favorable comments about the prayer cards over the years, but they appreciate the diversity of their employees and passengers and they'd forward my comment to the Catering Department.
I can't imagine one comment would have created this reaction, so there must have been more people like me writing in than they let on.
19
I've flown Alaska Airlines probably at least 50 times in my young life (parent works for them) and I can't remember ever seeing one of these anyway. Still good news though.
20
I remember the old days, back before the invention of dirt, when every flight over an hour or so had a meal service, and Alaska used to stick one of those stupid damned cards in with every meal. It was my policy to always leave the damn thing on the seat. If you need to pray on an airplane, perhaps they should be paying the mechanics better.
22
I fly Alaska a lot (they are usually cheapest for where I go) and I only remember getting a prayer card once. It was kind of offensive to me that they would hand out religious propaganda so I'm glad they're not doing that any more.
24
I hated those things; made me feel gross to be on their plane. I would always just put them in the barf bags so some lucky soul could put them to good use.
25
Goddamn it. I fly on them all the time and never got one. I feel my ability to have shared Seattle outrage has been infringed upon. Something must be done. Perhaps an online petition to form an exploratory committee that could submit a draft proposal to study it?
26
GOD IS NO LONGER GOING TO HOLD THE PLANE UP WITH HIS SIX-FINGERED HANDS. ALL ALASKA FLIGHTS ARE GONNA PLUNGE TO THE EARTH!
27
@5: You probably got one every time. They're usually tucked away with the napkin. I've always found them annoying. Felt too much like flying Air Wingnut Grandpa, where you get a tract at the door telling you how those computers you think so much of are tools of Satan.
The meals in question are not the free meals of yore ... just the usual stuff for sale on any airline anymore.
The meals in question are not the free meals of yore ... just the usual stuff for sale on any airline anymore.
28
@18: I saw lots of them, and they were usually (exclusively?) from the Book of Psalms, which is from what Christians call the Old Testament. So basically, Judeo-Christian poetry. Too bad they didn't continue them as cards with expressions of gratitude, expanding the oeuvre to include other faith traditions and secular sources.
32
I would be uncomfortable getting a prayer card from my airline. Not because I'd be offended by them foisting their religion on me, though that would bother me too, but because I don't want to feel like they need me to pray for a safe flight. I want to depend on a good pilot, not on a fictional sky man, to keep me safe.
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