Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Funny, Funny
Review: This book is pure entertainment value! The stories are laugh out loud funny and it's light read. The many vignettes are broken up into short chapters so this book can be read at one's leisure. As a Flight Attendant I, too, have witnessed many of the antics described so cleverly in this book. It's a great book for laughs; however, I do not recommend reading this as a guide to deciding whether or not the Flight Attendant career is for you. In almost every situation, Mr. Hester describes jetting off to some exotic locale, staying in 4 star hotels, crew lounges at the hotels which host wild parties, etc. This kind of lifestyle is only applicable (and attainable) to one out of every hundred (possible thousand!) flight attendants (and it is definitely not applicable to new Flight Attendants!). But his experience does make for some great stories!
Rating: 
Summary: A real disappointment
Review: As a 100,000 mile a year traveler, I was anxiously expecting this book to much more than it is. I had already read a lot of the stories in the media and in other books. I'm further very disappointed in the fact that flight attendants are viewed as the perfect customer service reps. Most of the airline incidents I have witnessed over 20 years have been between dissatisfied customers and rude airline employees.
Rating: 
Summary: Kind of a Disappointment...
Review: I agree with some of the other reviewers...this was kind of mildly amusing, tame stuff that we've heard before. As a frequent flyer it confirmed what I had thought long ago...the general sentiment of flight attendants is that the traveling public are scum and that they are doing us a great favor. Also, after a while I was kind of annoyed by Mr. Hester's frequent sophmoric references to the opposite sex...it's like, I want to say to him "Alright, already you're straight...I believe you!"
Rating: 
Summary: In the Friendly Skies
Review: Ever wonder what the job of a flight attendant consists of when you are being hurtled through space in that metal cylinder? It isn't just coffee, tea or me. Elliott Hester has written a wacky, fun, never dull book on the challanges of dealing with the public at 30,000 feet.
Everything that could go wrong does wrong on an airliner. Only when it goes awry up there it is ten times worse. He tells of Big Bertha, the flight attendant from hell, who makes macho pilots quake in their boots. The San Juan flight where two men get in a fight over a Panama hat, passengers who try to sneak into first class, the passengers from hell. The list goes on.
Hester writes with great humor and a very entertaining style. This book is one that everyone who gets on an airplane should read. The next time you see a flight attendant serving dinner or taking care of the passengers you will have a new appreciation of them.
My hat is off to the men and women who work the friendly skies
Rating: 
Summary: Too tame.
Review: PLANE INSANITY isn't insane ENOUGH. You hear about wilder and wilder doings on airplanes nowadays. The most famous being when a businessman defecated on a serving cart. (The runner-up might be the high-school kids who had a wet T-shirt contest on a flight.) It's those ludicrous, bewildering stories that you expect to hear in this book. But it's not really what you get. The tales of passengers freaking out, having a little midflight sex, growing belligerent over a lack of overhead space, getting ill -- it's all very mild and routine. Stuff you've probably seen yourself. You'd think with sixteen years in as a flight attendant, this author would be able to expose fantastically improbable moments of jaw-dropping stupidity/insanity/hardheadedness/etc. Doesn't happen. A few of the stories make you laugh, but nothing really socks you over the head. This is a book for anyone who wants to nod his or her head in agreement that plane passengers can be a tough lot to please. (One "outrageous" scene is described like it's the zenith of Sadean debauchery, and all we're hearing about is two women who strip to their undergarments.)For a flight attendant, this guy can write. His metaphors are a bit broad, but they are amusing. Anyone expecting the "Kitchen Confidential" of the flying business will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed once...
Review: It was an ok book to read, it was not hilarious like other readers said it was. The author tried his best trying to make it funny, and that is what ruined it. The first reviewers must have been family.
Rating:
Summary: Spoken Like a True Air Warrior
Review: I truly enjoyed each and every one of these stories that were true to life events in the day of a flight attendant. As a flight attendant myself, I have either heard these stories or told these stories myself as these kinds of things happen to all of us. What a joy to see that I'm not the only one who see's these shenanigans on an airplane.
Rating:
Summary: Right on the mark!!
Review: Hester has quite a knack for story telling. As a flight attendant myself, I found myself cringing with empathy, having experienced some of the incidents he tells of which are pretty much "de riguer" (sp? lol) for airline personnel, nodding in agreement, and then gasping at some of his other tales. This book was a joy to read, and is compiled in such a format that you can pretty much start reading from any chapter. All in all, this was a wonderful distraction when I played the role of passenger on a recent flight, being positioned to another destination for work, and, when my colleagues eyed me strangely as I laughed out loud periodically as if on cue, I only had to read aloud a passage for them to join me in a hearty guffaw or two.
Rating:
Summary: Mildly amusing
Review: Since misery likes company, I was interested in reading this as I fly a good deal. Additionally, my philosophy is when things are incredibly tedious and frustrating the best tactic for maintaining your sanity is to mock absurdity and celebrate the outrageous. Based on the gushing recent review of this book in the New York Times, I eagerly anticipated an uproarious collection of "war stories" from the air. I was again reminded, however, not to attach too much credence to reviews with the "New York Times" imprimatur. This is a very tame, and unfortunately pretty predictable collection of air line experiences, interwoven with whining about hard working stewards and stewardesses, under appreciated by the public and exploited by the airlines that employ them. While initially the observations on the egos and cheapness of pilots were amusing the tune quickly rings flat by being overplayed. There is a bit of cautiously expressed, very non-specific, worker frustration over corporate greed. Yawn. The book is entirely too safe, too politically correct, and too defensive about why Hester believes passengers should be satified with the food and service that they get. He is very careful not to go out on a limb or risk enough bite to compromise his position (so you kind of wonder to what extent his travel column is reliant on travel industry support). You get the sense that the flight servers view themselves as doing a favor to passengers who, as a whole, they regard as annoying, insufficiently docile, and underappreciative. My sense was that the exceedingly boring chapter "The Mile High Club" discussing sex in the air was viewed as essential by the publisher to sell copies. While I didn't expect (or what) graphic descriptions, I did anticipate anecdotes that were at least entertaining in terms of being unique and absurd. I don't believe I laughed out loud once reading this. While generally "okay", in light of the immense potential for such a book, this was a crushing disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: great and easy read
Review: ...nothing i can add to the reviews written--it's that good!
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