First Class Persona

These days there are various traveling class differentiation by the airliners eg Economy class, Deluxe class, Business class, First class, last but not least, the ‘Beyond First class’.

Today’s travelers are smarter and more aware of their rights. They came onboard knowing inside-out of how the service is going to be carried out. They know exactly what is on the menu and their choice of drinks and snacks.

One flight, when boarding first commenced, I was surprised to see this family of four seated in the mid section of economy class cabin boarded early (priority is usually given to parents with young children, elderly or handicapped, etc).

They seemed to have a structured planned action. The father of 2 charged to the magazine rack and took a handful of magazines, next I heard “Put inside your bag”, the mum instructed her teenage son.

Well, I can’t do much and I don’t want to act as a policewoman, I simply pretended not to see anything.

Another flight, an economy class passenger parked himself at the front row and anxiously waving at the crew at the back to hang his jacket in the closet.

This particular crew has to beat the flow of boarding traffic in order to respond to his “less-urgent” request. 

When I walked passed, the same pax asked me to get him magazines which he named a few. (Fyi, we displayed magazines in the rack for self-help purpose.) Geez…

Of course, with my experience in handling pax, I know my priority of work and not threatened by such request.

Later then I realized my this dear pax had indeed asked from another colleague. When I came to know about it, I re-prioritised. I took my time to settle other matters that are MORE important.

Sometimes, I simply put off by such character of passengers who like to double or triple request from different crew. Some ordered drinks from different person and when I delivered, I refused to take it back and made the person accept the drinks. Haha! (I guess, if it is chargeable, nobody would asked more than twice)

So I duly checked for the magazine request by the passenger and returned with a different set of magazine.

He looked disappointed and told me to check with Business or First Class. (??!!!) I politely told him that the magazines were taken from those classes as I couldn’t find his particular choice of magazines.

“I know you always carry xxxx, why can’t get a copy?” he said.

“Sir, we only carry one to three copies out of base. If the pax took the mag on the first sector and never return to us, then we would not have another duplicate copy for the return sector.”

“Oh, in that case, I’ll read it on my next flight then.” He added referring to his next business trip traveling on the Business Class.

I know thrifty is a good practice, but sometimes passengers simply stretching beyond our limit.

I ever have a First Class male passenger, named a long list of magazines that he wanted to read. Even the female magazines that I was about to offer another female pax were not spared.

“Oh, my wife (who was not on the flight) loves to read this copy.” He happily grip it under his armpit while holding his glass of champagne.

A colleague once said, there are indeed different classes of passenger (Not the class that is printed on the board pass, but the class of character) which means to say economy class passengers can be of a first class mannerism.

Trust me, if you are in the service industry, you’re pleased and always happy to serve whoever request with a word of ‘please’ or ‘only if you could’ or ‘when you come back again’…

Unrefined words would be:” I want, Give me, Get me….”. But being able to see a diverse cultural background, certain words that they said are not meant to be rude. It’s a limitation of vocabulary, I could understand perfectly.

What I meant here is a person who looks fairly educated and well dressed, yet the behavior is of a contrast. Our heartiest greetings are always exchanged with a request/order (Typically: I want a copy of newspaper).

A senior supervisory colleague ever commented that these are our new ‘educated’ breeds. For whatever Bachelor’s degree, MBA, PhD, etc that they acquired; they simply have not retained part of their early education on mannerism.   

Well, be it whatever classes it is, I always have my soft spot for elderly pax. They are the one who interact and respond well, freely show their appreciation and outward gratitude. 

Their word of “Thank you, my love”, truly melts my heart. 

Airline Ambassador

How many of us like to see a slim and attractive flight attendant as compared to a disproportionate figure in a sloppy airline uniform? Obviously, with regards to whether full-fare or budget airlines that we’re traveling on, our attention are always focus on the appearance of the crew.

Earlier this week, there was news of Indian Airlines grounded its 11 employees for being overweight (It means fat). It claimed that it is an airline national ambassador image; besides, “thinner” employees are more agile and better equipped to tackle terrorist incidents and other emergencies.

Or may be now that the crude oil price is soaring high, cutting on load factor could help to ease the cost effect?!?This may sound like discrimination and a breach of the right to livelihood. However, it’s part and parcel of the real business world. If you are younger and better looking, majority of the time, you stand a better chance in an employment (especially front line service).

It’s all about cosmetic issue that may determine the popularity of an airliner to generate more income from the already competitive air-travel business.

No wonder, these days slimming centers are mushrooming everywhere. My next guess is aesthetic and cosmetic surgery centers slowly setting its root here. It may turn out to the next “in thing”, just like Korea where majority females go for corrective cosmetic surgery.

I have a supervisory colleague who carries the philosophy of being making up for someone’s shortcoming. He said not all are born beautifully outside, but we can make up for it through a beautiful character.

Good look does boost up certain level of confidence in oneself, but inner beauty is equally important.

Imagine there’s an attractive stewardess who has the body of a model and look of a sexy kitten that you can’t get your eyes off her, but she is as cool as ice, as monotonous as a robot; while there’s another plain looking, out-of-the-slim category stewardess that hardly catch any attention of the passengers, however, she is always ready to serve with a smile and take care of the wellbeing of passengers.

I leave you to ponder about it. Of course, the ideal is to have both qualities hand-in-hand…

I’m not a super-duper good looking stewardess in the airline (I still see myself more beautiful inside than my look), however, the only time I can make heads turn (catch most passengers attention on me) is where I march down the aisle with a pile of newspaper in my hand.

Sorry, I use to catwalk but when comes to carrying newspaper, I need to march, otherwise, the papers would be seized along the way. At times, I have to hide behind my back while gliding down, in order to deliver it safely.

It’s never easy to be an “airline ambassador” as we are always under scrutiny. Well, a thought just hit me as it’s about time for me to head to the gym to sweat away some calories!

Budget Airline

For your viewing pleasure.....

Doing a good job

For the past few days, I have adjusted my priorities by running lots of errand before I’m tie up with my next week hectic flying schedule.

I somehow did myself proud by clearing my messy desk, filing all my official letters, bills and receipts, having spring-cleaned and dust-free my spacious bedroom in a systematic and efficient way. Happy!

I find myself fairly productive for the past few days. My personal recipe is I list a TO-DO note and strike it off one-by-one when I have completed it. Of course to expedite certain tasks, I lump them together, in another word, do them simultaneously to save time and effort. Sound like a primary school pupil method, but it works perfectly find with me.

May be it’s a small time achievement, however, it works very well with person like me (perpetual day-dreamer and zero-action character) considering I’m flying (working) all the time, comes to my rest days, of course I want to relax and chill out.

Sound convincing?

How about being productive being an air stewardess working in the air? Hohoo… we certainly need to be action-pact, if not highly efficient in having all the tasks completed within a given time-frame (the flight time from one destination to another).

Once the plane take-off from ground, our minds always run wild of what to do once we are out of our crew seats. (Yes, not to forget to pre-run an emergency scenario in my mind should an unplanned emergency taken place).

Let’s say it’s an extreme short journey, eg 2 hours flight time, we would have to complete a meal service within 2 hours, by hook or by crook, the plane has to land and won’t wait for all the passengers to finish their meals like dining in a restaurant (Even restaurant kitchens also have their closing time).

Given normal circumstances, where all the crew put in their fair share of work, completing a meal service on time is never an issue.

On the contrary, there bound to be many ad-hoc requests that are really bottleneck and every request is expected to be delivered in time. Imagine a handful of request in an airtight fuselage could really be testing our patience and energy.

We are as good as a beautiful swan swimming above the water while paddling hard below to keep afloat and to look serene.

Many a time, we are perspiring inside our glamorous uniforms, while still dolly looking with a pretty smile marked with a bright chilly-red lipstick, neatly salon-done hairstyle and a beautiful French-manicure.

In the eye of the public, flight attendants are simply high-paying waitresses. The truth, however, is there no such waitress who multi-task by playing so many roles as a bartender, housekeeper, trash collector, toilet cleaner, babysitter, first-aider, safety-enforcer, fire-fighter (although we are not fireman, but we’re equip with the knowledge of handling fire extinguisher), inflight sale promoter, administrator (immigration and custom issues)….

In addition, flight attendants are required to speak professionally and tactfully. Rudeness, impoliteness and unfriendliness are a big no-no and subject to disciplinary action.

So are they not deserved for a premium pay package by playing all these roles?

Life's a journey

I notice for the past one third of my life, I have been packing and unpacking my travel luggage. I would say: “ Wow, what a life!?!?!” (Oppsss…. for your info, I’m a flight attendant of a prestigious airline. No name mention, but I’m proud to be part of it) =)

At times, I’m pretty agitated with the idea of packing with the consideration of the weather, duration of stay, activities, accessibility or convenience for food, sufficient local currencies, etc.

To further describe, I basically have three ‘companion’ bags which I can’t leave (or live) without it. They are my check-in 30’’ Delsey hard-case 2-wheels bag, a black canvas Hush Puppies 2-wheels trolley cabin bag (though it has a heavy casing but the roller is superb and lasting). Last but not least is my Samsonite laptop bagpack which I carry my laptop (Apple, of course) around the world. Not to mention other range of bags that I have collected over the years and they are used inter-changeably.

Undoubtedly, packing/unpacking is part and parcel of my job and it has seemed to be part of my “life-style”. Why do I say it’s a life style? Or should I say, Life’s a journey, like Samsonite’s slogan?

Looking at my weekly activities, I’m basically traveling from one GMT to another constantly, different time zones, diverse culture and differing food palate. Sometimes, I can be awake for 36-hours; or sleeping around-the-clock; or sleep during the day and work during the night; if lucky, I would be off either in overseas or back in base for a couple of days…. When I’m fully re-charged, I basically have all the time by myself and enjoy my free time.

Is it a job that everyone envies?