Rating: 
Summary: A thoroughly enjoyable read--on the ground or in the air!
Review: This is a funny, funny look at the modern world of air travel. I honestly can't remember a book that made me laugh out loud as much as this one did. It's not necessarily the zany behavior of passengers and crew that makes Plane Insanity so appealing, however. What makes it work is the author's use of language. Hester has a unique voice that makes you want to keep turning pages. Consider this from page forty-five: "Back in the mid-1980s, when DC-10s roamed the air space between New York and Puerto Rico, when I was new with the airline, when the world lay before me like a virgin wearing nothing but a wicked grin, I worked, on occasion, the most dreaded of all flights: the infamous San Juan Special." The guy is a great storyteller and a wonderful writer. My only complaint is his occasional overuse of similie. A tiny misstep in an otherwise terrific book.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat Disappointing
Review: I was looking forward to this book but felt somewhat disappointed. Three overall impressions are left with this reader. 1) People can be real pigs. 2) The airlines are ... organizations interested solely in profit. 3) Airline employees, especially flight attendants, are only human. I'm not saying that all of these things can't be true. I did get a certain holier-than-thou satisfaction from the disgusting tales of bestial passenger behavior. As a frequent flyer I've seen my share of high altitude attitude. However, as often as not it's the surly, condescending flight attendants who spur things on. This is especially true of US carriers. Give me a foreign airline any day. At least if they're saying rude things about us I don't know what's being said! Certain parts of Hester's book smack of revenge. Getting back at cheapskate, overbearing pilots (just because they don't agree on political issues doesn't mean he has to refer to all of them as gun-toting bubbas), smirking veteran flight attendants (clicking false teeth and layers of make-up?) and strict airline anti-drug use policies isn't the best motivation for writing a book. After a urinalysis he breathes a sigh of relief. During ten years in the military I never sweated a drug test because I didn't use drugs! Are we to assume Mr. Hester uses illegal drugs? Most of my fellow reviewers found "Plane Insanity" hilarious. My reaction, on the contrary, was disgust at the behavior of the flying public. Is this what we've come to? Acting like hogs crammed into a tight pen? Unfortunately, that seems to be the case. I also found fault with some of the author's prose. Bad analogies abound. "Blowing like brush on the Siberian plain." "The minutes hung in the air like Goodyear blimps." Sorry, but the descriptions seem forced. I think the best use of the book would be to place it strategically on your tray table, making sure your flight attendant sees that you understand what they're going through. Maybe you'll get an extra packet of peanuts!
Rating:
Summary: plane insanity
Review: The author recounts numerous episodes that occurred during his flight attendant career. While many of these stories are entertaining they seem to be told in an "I'm above this stuff/ chip on the shoulder way." The book seems to lack the self deprecating and clever humor that would have improved the tales and added some sorely missing grace from the book. Mr. Hester doesn't seem like the type of flight attendant that I would have liked to have in the cabin with me on a long flight.
Rating: 
Summary: United, obviously.
Review: While the author does not name the airline he worked for its a safe bet that such a 3rd rate carrier out of Chicago would have to be you-know-who. Some of the stories are very funny and some are "Dave Barry" funny--which is to say, almost funny. The author does come off as a bit mean spirited.
Rating:
Summary: A good book if you know the author
Review: When I'm out with a friend and he tells me stories about his life, we all have a good laugh. But that's often because I care about my friend, and I'm intersted in things that happen to him. Try putting such stories in a book for strangers to read, and it flops. Unfortunately, this is what Hester seems to have done in Plane Insanity. I suspect that over drinks one time, a friend of his told him he should write. So now Hester has published a collection of stories that is quite uninteresting, unless you happen to be his mom or best friend. Yes, people sometimes throw up on planes. Yes, people sometimes get angry when they have been wronged. My advice: skip the book, and go out for drinks with a friend.
Rating:
Summary: A Wild Ride!
Review: Elliot Hester punctuates his first-person narrative with related clippings from newspaper stories about the incidents, otherwise I wouldn't have believed half of them! Lots of laughs, lots of horrors. To think I used to want to be a flight attendant! A must for all travelers, and a great gift for the frequent traveler in your life.
Rating:
Summary: Funny - a must read for any airline traveler
Review: Wonderful tales of the best and worst of human nature.
Rating:
Summary: Just the book to read on that long flight!
Review: Elliot Hester manages to lift the lid on all the worst of sky travel, and yet does it in such a winning way that you don't mind your foiables as the flying public being aired. After all, I have been guilty of carrying on loaves of Mrs. Baird's bread and trying to find them a safe place in the overhead. What makes this such an enjoyable read, is the open dishing on fellow flight attendents and other crew, as well as the passangers. And there is very seldom a whif that Mr. Hester does not like his work, or the public....just perhaps some of their more outrageous stunts. Interspercing memories with actual press clippings, this book is kept going at a lively pace, and does not fall into a harange of the failings of the great unwashed who fly. Along with the outrageous,(dueling girlfriends mid air) the obnoxious (dirty diapers being handed to the person serving you a meal)and an occasional dead body, come tales that have to be read to be believed. A funny summer read, especially if you are flying.
Rating:
Summary: This should be your flight companion!
Review: Picked up this book at the airport when beginning my cross-country flight back home. It has been so long since I have enjoyed a.) the various legs of a cross country journey, b.) a whole book! When you fly, you never really consider what flight attendants have to deal with on a daily basis. We have all heard the stories of out of control passengers and the "mile high club" but really did not pay too much attention. Elliot Hester has first hand experience as he has been a flight attendant for 16 years. The intro alone is worth the price of the book! As I was watching luggage being loaded in the cold rain, I was reading the intro in which the author reveals why he chose the profession he did. Very, very funny. As for the tales, he is a master. There seems to be an abundance of obnoxious people who drink too much and think there are no rules on planes. Everything from puking everywhere to pure nakedness to just plain stupidity is recounted. He even backs up his stories with reprinted newspaper articles dealing with these types of episodes. The airline crew itself is not without scrutiny. Hester reveals some wild and crazy behavior-stuff we have all "heard" about but never believed. All in all, I loved the book and hated to finish it. Hopefully, I will run into him on a flight as he apparently is still in the air. Try to read this when you are flying and you will have even more fun (p.29 has an excerpt from the pilot's announcement re altitude, etc which I was reading by pure coincidence while hearing the real thing. Pilots really do utter a lot of "aaaahs" between sentences).
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for All SkyGirls!
Review: As a Flight Attendant, I HAD to read this book when I saw it! I LOVED it because there were a lot of stories that I could personally relate to! From the egotistical upgraded businessman, to the SkyHag purser who has been flying since Orville and Wilbur, to the kinky couple getting it on inflight. I know that all Crews and their families will love this great read. And hopefully non airline employees can get a look at some of the things we put up with doing a job that is always a spontanious surprise. The only complaint that I may have is that the author talks a little too much about the [people] who blame any and every airline problem on us. Yeah it happens, put on a ... smile and get over it! Other than that, I totally recommend this book! It kept me laughing on an otherwise boring layover I spent stuck at the hotel. See you on the line!
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