We may not be seeing many more airline videos.....

Most passengers seem to have cell phones and attempting to prohibit taking photos or videos of incidents would seem an impossible and fuel additional public relations nightmares.

Just another way to try and beat the consumer down

Airlines should try a novel idea-treating customers the way they would want to be treated . Right now it seems like being an airline customer means you have an invisible sign on your back that says "abuse me". And if I were elected to Congress, the first thing I would do is introduce legislation to require huge fines payable to customers with nonrefundable and nonchangeable tickets who are bumped. In what other industry can you sell the same merchandise(in this case a seat) twice? And I say this as someone who never gets bumped because of my husband's platinum status.

I have found that I am almost always treated fairly well by airline employees (at least by the workers--not necessarily airline "policies.") Of say, 60-70 flights in the last 5 years or so, the worst thing that happened to me was the complete indifference of Vueling personnel on a short hop from Paris to Lisbon. Otherwise everyone has been decent and a few have gone out of their way to be nice. For example, after struggling to get into the terminal in Delhi (you can't get in more than a couple of hours before your plane takes off and the tour company dropped us off about 6-7 hours early) BA gave me a complimentary pass to their lounge (and airport policy was certainly not their fault.) I'm not saying there are not instances when personnel treat you badly but I find it fairly rare. Now airline policy and practices on the other hand..... For me, I work hard to not confuse the two groups.

I agree, Ray. I haven't taken nearly as many flights as you, but I fly fairly regularly on Delta, more than an average person, and I'm usually amazed how the crew is consistently pleasant and accommodating, especially knowing the schedules they keep. I don't think it's reasonable to allow a handful of outliers to influence us to form sweeping generalizations. We don't live in the 60s anymore where the whole travel experience can be champagne and roses, but we are blessed to be able to fly pretty much anywhere, anytime we want. To ask that individuals are reasonable and behave themselves is not too much, I think.

In the rare cases when something bad happens on a plane, everyone's cell phone comes out to record it. There is NO WAY airlines could even enforce such a policy even if they tried.

And I concur with the frequent travelers/fliers: it is EXTREMELY RARE to be mistreated by an airline employee. I cannot think of a single time in all my flying. I may not always like delays and schedule changes, and have taken voluntary bumps before, but that is part of flying in today's world and it comes with low airfares. I HAVE had employees go out of their way for me on rare occasions when I've needed it and were extremely helpful.

The bad incidents get lots of news coverage because it is the exception and often disturbing. I'm not naive that there are some disturbing things that do happen, and airlines or individual employees should be held accountable in those times. But I think people that blankly categorized airlines, and especially airline employees as cold and heartless are either not very experienced or not very easy to please.

My experiences have varied over the years. I have hours of takeoff and landing videos I shot on various airlines. I have pictures taken out the window of cloud formations and wicked electrical storms, pictures of my seat, of the food I was served. All done without hiding from the flight attendants,

The first time I flew in a real 1st class seat, which happened to be on United, I was snapping pictures of the seat area and a flight attendant asked me if I would like her to take a few of me in the seat. She even gave me a glass of champagne to hold.

The return flight was the complete opposite. I was taking the same pictures of my seat (different layout than the first flight) and a flight attendant started yelling at me all the way across the cabin to stop. She yelled "Only terrorists would want to take a picture inside the plane!!! I will have to destroy your camera!!!" The pilot was watching this with his jaw nearly dropping to the floor. I quit the photos and put my camera away. The pilot and the flight attendant had a conversation and she stormed off the plane. We left with no further issues.

I feel that the only time photos or videos will be restricted is when some employee of the airline has something to hide.

It's not like this suddenly new. United for example has a long established policy --

"Photo and video

The use of small cameras or mobile devices for photography and video is permitted on board, provided you keep the purpose of your photography and video to capturing personal events. Photographing or recording other customers or airline personnel without their express consent is prohibited."