Flight attendants can’t seem to win

I am not in any way connected with the airline industry, yet feel I must defend the maligned cabin attendants.

Stephen Krueger says that an adult should be able to decide whether to eat or to sleep on an aircraft [“Don’t Handle Adults With Kid Gloves,” Letters, Oct. 23]. I submit that, when asleep, one is incapable of making any such choice.

On a recent flight to Beijing, a gentleman two rows in front of me was asleep when a meal was served. The attendant asked his seatmate whether to wake him. The seatmate, who apparently was not traveling with the man, shrugged his shoulders.

Upon waking, long after the meal had been served and the trays cleared, the man lashed out at the poor attendant for not waking him.

The attendants can’t win. Let’s be reasonable and adult about these matters. The attendants are there to serve us, not to be our servants.

FRANK J. BAUMANN

Pasadena