Flight Attendants: Good, Bad, & Ugly

I just got back from a family vacation to Cape Cod, and aside from the obvious highlights of sand dunes, oysters and drinks on the boat to and from Nantucket, another positive detail of the trip was actually our flight attendant on the way home. With the recent story of the renegade JetBlue flight attendant making headlines around the world, our cheerfully hilarious Southwest attendant provided a refreshing and interesting contrast. Was Steven Slater justified in his dramatic response to an unruly customer, I wondered, or should he have found a different job long ago, leaving his position open to someone who might have enjoyed it more and giving him the opportunity to discover work that didn’t make him go nuts?

On the one hand, flight attendants do have a hard job in the sense that they often have to deal with rude and exhausted customers who don’t seem to realize that the person serving them their tiny $6 cocktail is probably pretty tired too. Steven Slater has been hailed by many in the service industry as an overnight hero, championing the cause of the beleaguered employee who has had to happily endure one too many insults at the hands of demanding and self-absorbed customers. Having worked in the service industry myself, I was able to instinctively sympathize with this perspective.

On the other hand, my Southwest attendant got a standing ovation just for reading the safety instruction manual in a funny accent. At the end of the flight, he made a joke about the amazing gentleman at the front of the plane who was about to turn 92 years old - so please, he said, wish our pilot a happy birthday on your way out. The pilot, who looked to be closer to 32 than 92, really did come out to say hello to everyone as we shuffled off the airplane, and we all grinned at both him and our funny flight attendant, thanking them profusely for an excellent flight. We had actually landed a little late, but nobody seemed to notice. We were so easy to please that for a joke and a funny accent, we were practically ready to stay on board for the next leg of the trip, wherever they were flying.

Flight attendants may not have the best job in the world, but there are certainly ways to make it fun enough that instead of getting hit over the head with carry on luggage, they get applauded. I don’t know if my funny flight attendant uses the same jokes every time, or sometimes doesn’t have the energy to joke at all, but I do know that after my trip to the Cape I’d much rather fly Southwest than JetBlue… although I definitely wish I’d gotten ahold of one of those All You Can Jet passes! Stay tuned to the blog for an All You Can Jet feature on Everlater coming soon, and happy travels!