Air Babylon

Babylon Confessions #2

by Imogen Edwards-Jones

Heard the one about the airline that has introduced 'corpse cupboards' on new planes to cope with the number of people who die in the air? Heard the story about the First Class air hostess who got fired for sitting on the face of a passenger during a long haul flight? Heard about the amount of knickers and false teeth that are left behind in the body of the plane? Heard how pissed-off stewards put laxatives in your drinks? Heard about the pilot who ran out of runway? Heard of the disabled passengers who miraculously walk again? No? Then you haven't read Air Babylon. Do you know the best place to have sex on a plane? Do you know how to dress for an upgrade? Do you know that one drink in the air equals three on the ground? Do you know who is checking you in? Who is checking you out? Do you know exactly what happens to your luggage once it leaves your sight? Is it secure? Are you safe? Do you really know anything about the business that you entrust your life to several times a year? Air Babylon is a trawl through the highs, the lows, and the rapid descents of the travel industry. It catalogues the births, the deaths, the drunken brawls, the sexual antics, and the debauchery behind the scenes of the ultimate service industry - where the world is divided into those who wear the uniform and those who don't...

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Aviation, Memoir, Chick Lit, Humor, Biography

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Canette Arille · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book describes 24 hours in the life of an airline at a British airport. The manager of a British airline introduces the reader to a world known only to airport employees. The book is read in one breath and easily. It describes the life of employees at the airport, on the plane, and the stories of passengers. You can find a funny moments and unexpected ones. 4 stars

[Alex is The Romance Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Having been one of those “hosties” with a major international airline for years, I identified with so many of the stories...which by the way have some truth in them even though some might be termed exaggerated....but hey it makes for much more interesting reading.
An hilarious ride..........

The story, told thru the eyes of an airport duty manager, which happens in a span of 24 hours shows us all the dramas that go on in an international airport...from the baggage handlers, check-in agents, flight attendants and more. It’s an hilarious ride.....you now have discovered all the secrets of all those people who you don’t give a toss for and take for granted.....and how they go about getting their revenge on those so called hideous pax!!!!!!!

Yes, flight crew...cockpit and cabin do get up to mischief...though the days of fun times during long lay-overs are a thing of the past. Now you fly to your destination and if you are lucky, have a day there and then fly right back home....no time given for partying...well how much can one cram into a night-stop I ask????

Travellers are given a few tips on how to.....in a fun way.....get yourself upgraded....now that’s very hard...but one can still try I suppose...those drunken pax....they happen believe me!!!!!! And sex in the sky...it’s not a myth......it happened on one of my flights!!!!

I absolutely loved the scenes with the crew in the Dubai hotel. I couldn’t stop laughing...in fact I laughed through most of reading this book. A real buzz.

And finally it did bring back the most amazing memories I have of my flying life.....you know it’s really true.....we flight attendants are really “Jetsetters on the cheap!!!!”...and oh yes buy the book, have a laugh and try not to take it tooooo seriously....just have fun as u turn the pages!!!!!!!

[Tania Kliphuis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book hilarious.

The way it is written is interesting, as it has the fiction essentials: main characters and an interesting plot. However, all of the incidents and characters are supposedly true - albeit a bit squashed into 24 hours.

This book made me want to be nice to every person working in an airport. If they can really get that nasty then I don't want to cross them. I was also tempted to become terrified of flying, but figure that it's out of my hands anyway so may as well not freak myself out.

If you care to know what really goes on in the cockpit and behind-the-scenes at airports, then read this book. Don't bother though if you don't have a sense of humour, and think that air stewards are braindead waiters in the sky who don't deserve some respect.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot believe that this book is so popular when it's so bad. I didn't laugh once. There were a few things that were fleetingly interesting.

Bonus - it was a quick read.

[LoLo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is certainly entertaining though I am dubious as to how truthful this book actually is. While I believe a majority of these stories, I doubt that they happened in a 24 hour period and I STRONGLY doubt any flight attendant would really be stupid enough to rub someone's steak on the toilet seat before serving it to the first class passenger just because he was rude.

It was however an insight to passengers that will hopefully provide some perspective into the lives of airline employees.

[Johara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very random pick from the bookstore, as the title grabbed my attention, being a traveller myself.

Part of the Babylon series by the author, it's an expose on what goes on in the travel industry, and claims to be based on true incidents from London Heathrow Airport, narrated by the airport duty manager.

I found it super light to read, funny, and naughty too... obviously things do happen between the crew.. and how they are described in the book are hilarious! And then there are the priceless tips that you get as a traveller are pretty cool!

Recommended if you like to fly, travel, and get on a plane.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funnily enough, I bought this at duty free in Heathrow Airport. This book is a loose collection of anecdotes of the shenanigans in the airline industry. They are told in the form of one day in the working life of an airport duty manager. Very British, very shallow, occasionally very funny - especially if you have flown a few times. Brain candy. This is probably a great read during a long-haul flight with too much alcohol.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly entertaining look at the airline industry.

Imogen Edwards-Jones took stories of real events told to her by airline workers and wove them into a novel covering 24 hours at a fictious airline.

Hilarious and horrifying in equal measures.

If you are a traveler you need to read this.

[Colm Bell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Silly book, with made up stories.

[Dovile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tikros istorijos, tikri veikėjai, tik išgalvotos oro linijos. Įdomu ir šiek tiek šiurpu, kas vyksta visai nieko neįtariant ir ramiai sėdint lėktuvo kėdėje.
Knyga netenka dalies žavesio dėl prasto vertimo ir laikmečio, nes leista 2005 m., tad kai kurie faktai atgyvenę, o nuostatai/taisyklės pasikeitusios.

[Rich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to know what's real vs fictional. Story is mental.

[tei hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

i cannot for the life of me decide how i feel about this

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book for cheap on Amazon after learning about the author from "Hotel Babylon", a guilty-pleasure BBC series about what goes on in a luxury London hotel, based on her book of the same name. The author has made a career out of books about the inner workings of certain industries, so this one delves into what it's like working for an airline, supposedly based on real interviews with anonymous airline staffers. It's a fun beach read if you happen to find it, and there are a few laugh out loud bits. My favorite: the story of a clueless, spoiled mother on an airplane who hands her baby to a flight attendant, saying "she needs changing". The flight attendant walks down the aisle, returns with a black baby, and asks the mother if the baby is changed enough for her. Who doesn't love little stories of comeuppance like that? Airline staff have to deal with people at their absolute worst, so as you can imagine, this book is full of similar tales.

[Steve Horsfall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read 'Air Babylon' during a recent trip to NY, enduring a number of BA cabin crew telling me it was all pure fiction. It is a very interesting concept in revealing the trade secrets of a chosen industry and a difficult one to pull off - my only criticism is that the 'do you remember the time that..." anecdotes come a bit too thick and fast towards the end of the book and do not flow into the day's diary of events as smoothly as the earlier chapters set in the Airport. There is some real food for thought here (speaking of which, you may never eat an airline meal again after reading this). In summary 'Air Babylon' will really get you thinking about very aspect of the flying experience next time you pass through a UK Airport, which may not be a good thing for the more nervous flyers out there.

[Odette · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with all the books under the "Babylon Genre", Air Babylon is no exception.
It is witty, and very well researched. I was both highly entertained and shocked at the facts that the book pointed out. One of my favorite parts, was about the window shutters on the aircraft and why they are to be kept open during the landing and take-off procedures.

[Ruth Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually really impressed. I was a bit dubious to begin with but it really was laugh out loud funny in places. While it's obvious all of this can't happen in 24 hours or certainly not to one person, it does get the behind the scenes look of the airline industry information out and in a fun read.

[Lara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Derivative and near pointless. Has none of the punch of its older sibling.

[Richard Mulholland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fucking excellent

[Imke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished this in no time! Really funny, and gives you great insights in the life of the duty manager of an airline. You'll never fly with the same easy feeling again after reading this book.

[Vismantė · Rating 2 out of 5]

„Labai dažnai, kai mums atrodo, jog tai per gerai, kad būtų tiesa, ir būna per gerai, kad būtų tiesa.“

[Tony Lawrence]

I've had this on my bookshelf 'to be read' for a long time, but had forgotten to register it. Here goes!

The unnamed narrator of this fictionalised account of airline life, the Duty Airport Manager, endures 24 hours of chaos and hell for our entertainment. I'm sure all these individual events, the death, sex, drink and drug debauchery etc. all happen, but the industry must also have a lot of drudgery and boredom and some sense of routine - otherwise all the staff would metaphorically and literally crash-and-burn! The 24-hours follows the 30th birthday of one of the ground crew through the 'normal' check-in and check-out activities (Heathrow?) and then on a staff perk to Dubai. The latter has - amongst other events - deaths (2), drugs (celeb boy band), a Sheikh, a leaking colostomy bag, sex acts in seats (several) and in the toilets, and hostess breakdowns (2). All good fun, and then birthday party go straight to a hotel crew room for more partying and a few hours later will fly back home and then work a full shift. Wow! Nice to see that the narrator gets his girl after all the s**t that he has to go through. Despite the above nonsense I did quite enjoy this, as a fairly frequent flyer it's interesting to see what *could* be happening on the other side of the curtain ;)

[Elgyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Překlad je odfláknutý.

s. 115 zabukují si nejlevnější nevratnou letenku na každý předimenzovaný let, a pak přijdou na poslední chvíli a doufají, že v letadle zbylo nějaké místo, a my jim potom musíme cenu nahradit
Nebylo někomu divné, že to nedává smysl?
they book the cheapest non-refundable tickets
on very over-subscribed flights then turn up late in the hope that there is no room on the aircraft, and we have to compensate them.

s. 207 Naznačil prsty ve vzduchu otazník
quotation-marks-in-the-air thing
Otazník, úvozovky, všechno jedno. Navíc udělej otazník, když máš jenom dvě ruce.

s. 231 časopis s Billie Piperem na obálce
Není Billie Piper holka?

s. 25 a občas si i zouvajících. ?
s. 176 odrhnula blond vlasy
s. 187 „Moc rád vás zase vidíme!“
s. 189 Jonny [Johnny]
s. 245 Anddy [Andy]
s. 286 úplně dohona

špatné dělení slov - s. 32, 143
čárka - s. 202

[Lisa - The BookSirens Goddess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a massive fan of Imogen Edwards-Jones for a while now. Her Babylon series is a perfect guilty pleasure that I enjoy on holidays.

Air Babylon is a satirical exposé of the airline industry, shedding light on the behind-the-scenes chaos and humorously highlighting the absurdities of air travel. Through a series of vignettes, the author reveals the hidden side of airports, from outrageous passenger behavior to the challenges faced by airline staff.

All this sounds great, but you do have to read it with a pinch of salt. There is apparently truth in the book, but also plenty of fiction. So, if you expect a balanced perspective on the airline industry, skip this one.

Air Babylon is a light and amusing read that provides moments of laughter and shock and has a high entertainment value.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read for a plane nerd. Everything that can happen on a plane and airports gets woven into a 24h journey, a day of a ground airport staff.

This would get 4* but the comments about assistance and wheelchairs were rather rude, so one star taken away for that. Hey, Fictional Male Airport Groundperson, you do realize that anyone who asks for *any* disability assistance just gets the bloody whechair, don’t you? Traveling with guide dog? wheelchair. Deaf? wheelchair. Elderly person who doesn’t know english and finds it difficult to navigate thru airports alone? Wheelchair.
That’s also just being generous because I’m more tempted to remove two stars for just attitudinal problem and rudeness for what comes to passengers with *any* disability.

[Steph – BookSirens ‘R’ Us · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can’t travel but can surely read about it, right? I read Imogene Edward Jones’ Hotel Babylon a while back and loved it for its gossipy take on running a hotel. Air Babylon does the same; only this time, it is all about airlines. Apparently, based on real events but written in a fictional form, the events in the book occur over a 24 hour period. The book is a laugh riot from the start and might even tell you a thing or two about what airlines and their staff think of their passengers. It makes for a great beach read, but I enjoyed it equally being stuck at home. Next up for me is Restaurant Babylon.

[Caryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Hotel Babylon years ago when I picked it up so immediately ran out and bought Air Babylon and Fashion Babylon. Found this one a bit slow in spots but the final third is filled with the most salacious stories and scenes. Will never look at airline staff the same way again. If you enjoy “behind the scenes” looks into familiar scenes or shows like Undercover Boss, this is definitely up your alley.

[Mattpatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is part non-fiction factoids about airports, part outrageous anecdotes of the most interesting things to ever happen to airline employees, and part licentious mile-high club gossip, tied together with a weak narrative of a (particularly busy) day in the life of an airline manager. I would have liked it to be more factoids and less orgiastic, but I guess the sex sells. There were good and interesting bits along the way. 2.5.

[Nešo Shonery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nije lako raditi na aerodromu, tu su nervozni putnici, izgubljen i neobičan prtljag, smrtni slučajevi, kontrole i inspekcije, naporne i dugačke smene, ali i druženje, ljubavi, žurke. Pratimo ekipu koja radi na londonskom aerodromu i njihove zgode i nezgode. Male tajne, sakrivene od očiju nas koji samo prolazimo kroz aerodrome. Vrlo zabavno štivo.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating and entertaining, jaw dropping stories. At the same time, I felt the course language was unnecessary to the telling of the escapades on a fictional airlines (though all the stories purport to be true)

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so trashy, but SO GOOD. It's like an episode of Airline that gets so raunchy they have to show it at 11pm on like, 5Star or something. Obviously it's exaggerated massively and there's no way that all this could actually happen to one person/crew in a 24 hour period but that's the FUN in it!