The beginning of a guide to the sophisticated art of NRSA spotting, a highly entertaining hobby that makes the lack of any IFE irrelevant in the world of air travel. It is played in conjunction with the highly sophisticated art of NRSA hiding as practiced by the SAs and their friends in the flight crew.
This highly specialized art should not be confused with the dabblings of the amateurs on either side. Passengers who spot a NRSA only when the NRSA is wearing a uniform, has luggage with bright tags and in addition, drops the luggage on top of the passenger causing an imprint of the airline logo on the forehead are both just poseurs and should not be confused with serious practitioners.

The serious hobby is a win-win situation where the NRSA spotters have conclusively spotted a NRSA while the NRSA feel that they have completely escaped detection.

The complexity of the hobby comes from the unreliability of the indicators and the ability of expert NRSA to disguise themselves as ordinary passengers using some clever and forever changing techniques.

There are some unwritten rules for the NRSA spotter such as

1. No peeking at the passenger manifest
2. Rifling through the suspected NRSA's belongings
3. Asking NRSA questions of the type "Are you an SA?"

One is allowed to engage in conversation with a suspected NRSA to "out" them. The NRSAs of course sre allowed to lie as may be necessary to protect their identity.

Now, each NRSA spotter has his/her own set of techniques and give-away indicators and the following are a few of those.

Cabin scan technique: Now this is not to spot the matron in full uniform sprawled over a seat, paper or book in hand oblivious to anything else going on in the cabin. More than likely she is not a NRSA but a member of the active crew for the United flight which makes her ineligible.

The purpose of the scan is to identify potential targets for further scrutiny. Any NRSA who can be spotted by the scan alone is an amateur who does not contribute to the sport.

Unaccompanied young women in FC get selected because it is rare to see unaccompanied revenue young women in premium cabins and even if they turn out to be non-NRSAs, well it is fun anyway to study them further.

Gray-haired and loud couples that have never been physically fit in their life are ruled out as even professional NRSAs refuse to stoop to that level of camouflage.

Anyone whipping out a laptop and talking on the cell phone loudly at the same time is ruled out because this person is obviously starving for attention and professional NRSAs rarely ever call attention to themselves.

The cabin scan will also eliminate those who

1. Have their headsets on the moment they get on the cabin (wannabee pilots tuned to channel 9)
2. Sit around looking for the FA to come and take their coats even though the hangar is right behind their seat or demand and lovingly nurse their pre-flight drink in full view of the coach passengers boarding (pompous upgrader - not a NRSA)
3. Anyone wearing high-heels or cowboy boots (infrequent traveler who has no clue as to how to travel although some serious professional NRSAs might adopt this disguise)
4. Anyone sitting with their coats on (air marshal)

The potential candidates are those that do not fit into any of the above. In fact, the most plausible are the ones that cannot be categorized at all.

Behavior scan: While not requiring the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes, any serious NRSA spotter will know the behavioral clues that give NRSAs away. For example, strong indicators of NRSA include (each by themselves not a giveaway but the art consists of gathering sufficient evidence)

- being non-communicative with anyone but instantly chatty with the FA
- refusing pre-flight drinks
- sometimes pre-boarding even before the FC call with no obvious signs of handicap
- being the very last to board and stowing away the luggage with minimum fuss and as a complete give-away closing the overhead baggage cabin door after stowing away the luggage
- never looking at the rest of the passengers or making eye contact
- if boarding at the end, hiding their ID card very well from anyone else except the GA since it is usually a company ID.
- some extremely practical luggage with no checked-in baggage

Even though the NRSAs themselves may be professional, the FAs on the flight may be amateurs and give them away and hence it is useful to watch their behavior as well.

A passenger is a potential NRSA if

- The FA sits next to them and chats for several hours during the flight
- Never asks them for their meal choice but asks if they would like a meal at the end of taking all other orders or very often tell them what they have left and ask if that is OK.
- When there is an obnoxious passenger, exchanges a sigh and rolling of eyes with the suspected NRSA

As a NRSA spotter one is allowed to elicit responses to "out" NRSAs. For example,

- Dropping your drink napkin in front of them. If they don't even bother to look at it, most likely a North American FA NRSA. If they immediately retrieve it and apologize, most likely an Asian FA NRSA

- Casually commenting on a problem (late departure, non-functional light, bad service, etc.). Non-NRSAs will offer their own comment. NRSAa are most likely to just make a non-committal grunt and avoid eye contact.

The above is just a tip-of-the-iceberg of the art.

So as you can see, NRSA spotting is rarely ever the obvious game some make it out to be but a highly sophisticated hobby that people have been practicing for years. So when people ask how we know NRSAs were on board, we don't state the obvious but just smile smugly.



[This message was edited by AL - SYD on December 29, 2002 at 02:29 PM.]

[This message was edited by AL - SYD on December 29, 2002 at 02:30 PM.]