Don’t handle adults with kid gloves

AIRLINES treat adults like children. At the time decreed by an airline to be feeding time, everyone has to eat, or, at least, be asked about willingness to eat. That often means waking a passenger. An adult is capable of choosing between eating or sleeping. The choice to sleep is the choice not to eat. An airline should not awaken a passenger for an insubstantial reason.

When food or drink is offered, a passenger who declines will be asked, “Are you sure?” That’s treating a passenger like a child who needs to be coaxed into giving the “right” answer.

Flight attendants seem to touch passengers, because children need touching to direct their attention and for reassurance. An adult does not. No element of the service industry, whether hotel or taxi or restaurant or bar, allows employees to touch patrons or passengers. An airline should treat its passengers with comparable respect.

STEPHEN KRUEGER

Koror, Palau