This post will not be snarky. There is no subliminal messaging. I simply want to take a moment to offer a sincere thank you to flight attendants for their hard work and sacrifice during this difficult time.
Thank You Flight Attendants
View from the Wing shared a note today that a passenger on American Airlines allegedly handed a flight attendant on his way off the plane. No, this wasn’t the savage note I shared last week, which also attacked a flight attendant on American Airlines. Instead, this was a different note, which read:
You use COVID to justify being lazy. At a time when you should do the opposite.
According to the flight attendant that shared it, she and her colleague had bent over backwards for the passenger, serving him four drinks on a 929-mile flight, including one during landing preparation.
While airlines have certainly used the pandemic to mask cost-cutting, an act I call hygiene theatre, flight attendants find themselves between a rock and hard place.
They don’t control the service offered onboard, they just follow orders and work with what they’ve been given. They don’t decide whether a passenger must wear a mask, they just enforce orders.
And yet so many people treat them like they do…like it is all up to them.
Well, for what’s it worth I handed this note to a flight attendant on my flight this morning:
To my fellow frequent travelers, I know we are in the business of complaining. Often those complaints are justified. But when I read such demoralizing notes, I cannot help but to push back.
I’ve been on a fair number of flights lately. The service has been outstanding. Many flight attendants working are the juniors who will soon be furloughed. I’ve encountered several more senior FAs as well. They’ve all been lovely and expressed thanks and gratitude for those willing to fly during this time and help keep them employed.
Being a flight attendant is often a thankless job, but I know they do more than push a beverage cart. They are trained for those moments we hope will never happen and I am fully confident that if an emergency occurs, I am in good hands.
Hang in there, dear flight attendants. Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. I wish better days ahead for all of us.
But in the meantime, let’s all be nice to flight attendants. For goodness sakes, be nice to everyone. But during this particularly difficult time of uncertainty, let’s say “thank you” instead of demanding water out of rocks. Perhaps more notes like mine will counteract the bad ones.
Matthew, you can still do something good without boasting about it. Maybe you don’t realize it but this (posting about it) comes of as a bit douchy.
It wasn’t to boast, or else I already have my reward. I want others to do the same. I think we need to remind FAs how much we appreciate them.
@Pedro R: what a real jerk. If Matthew wasn’t going to filter them out, I’d call you a really nasty, curse-word filled name on this public forum, and I would sincerely think you deserve it. How, honestly, could you possibly think he was boasting? I wish you well and healing, because if this is the best you can do after he wrote a really nice note that was definitely not a boast, then you really do need counseling. Wishing you well and hope you become a more grateful person one day.
I agree, a lovely note but it feels as if this gesture was done more for the audience than the recipient.
@Joe: It wasn’t. Try to come up with a reason why he’d do this for the audience?
To get special treatment on the Airlines? Most flight attendants don’t read this blog so that wouldn’t do him any good.
To make himself look good on the internet? Well, that might be true, except you’re forgetting that he’s posted many things on the internet that don’t look so flattering, so that argument is a moot point as he obviously doesn’t care about that.
To make more money on the blog? Again, that could be, except the same point holds. He can make lots of money by posting unflattering things about himself. You’d be really surprised at how many people would read that nonsense and click on the ads because they found it entertaining. I don’t think that’s it either.
To counter the image that his haters might have for him? Wouldn’t do any good. He’s going to have those haters no matter what he writes. There are too many people who just disagree on principal, or are so hateful and weak that they’ll write anonymously any negative comment they can just to make themselves feel better. Matthew knows that.
To make his blog more popular? He’s had a decade to do that. He knows full well that this blog isn’t The Points Guy or One Mile at a Time. Is he not allowed to write just for pleasure?
To send a message to the rest of us to try to be nicer? Now you’re talking. It was definitely intended for all of us to hear, but not for the reasons you were implying. There was no ill intent with this post.
There was a time that I thought the same thing. I used to think that his post about the time he was thrown off a flight was entirely his fault and that he was making excuses for his behavior. But in time I’ve changed my perspective. Try to think about this from his perspective. If he was simply looking for the audience and money, all he’d have to do is to pose for a picture with every pilot in the cockpit of every plane he goes on. He’d make a ton of money doing that. He probably could do that, no problem, and then write a post titled “enough is enough! Pilots need to let ME in the cockpit! I’m special!” He’d make a ton of money doing that. Have you ever seen him do that?
As much as I sometimes disagree with your posts, this is the most heartwarming thing I’ve seen all day, Matthew.
Very nice note. I like the Euro way of writing numbers 1, 7 and 9. But the date format should have matched and been in DD/MM/YY 🙂
I really like your hand-writing. It is very nice.
Yes, that rare beast: a millennial with legible handwriting ( ..even if it’s printing, nice nonetheless..)
I’m sure they’re glad that they got that note and not “divert this plane to Tehran”.
I don’t know why anyone would want to be a flight attendant anymore. The pay is usually low unless you’re in the top 5% in seniority. The passengers are snarky. The budgets are low so you can’t giveaway airline stuff. The routes are boring, not CLT-CDG or PIT-LHR anymore. Maybe that’s why it’s middle aged people doing it on US carriers.
That was very kind and thoughtful of you to do. I’m sure it brightened the day of your flight attendants.
Just to let you and others know, if you want to complain about or compliment your crew, it is best to do it by mailing, emailing or filling out the online survey for your flight. Any note you hand to your flight attendant or purser doesn’t “count”. It never makes it into any official work record or supervisor file so nobody knows who is doing a bad job or a good job. Even if the flight attendant takes a handwritten letter to her supervisor to show as proof, it isn’t accepted and isn’t placed into her file.
Pure class. Thanks for standing above and setting the example.
And, thanks for posting about it. Others need to learn from your leadership.
A very kind and heartwarming note. Great inspiration for us all to pay it forward!
Penmanship is top-notch! I always bring a bag of halloween-size candy to give out on my flights, especially long-haul. It’s a nice thing to do, costs a mere $5 at most, and sometimes they’ll give you extra attention and appreciation in return (of course, never expected).
Probably 20 years ago I went to the ER for possibly having appendicitis. It was a long day of testing and I didn’t have it. Looking back it was probably stupid to go since my symptoms weren’t bad but after chatting with a doctor he seemed to convince me to have it checked out.
Anyhow, afterwards I submitted a thank you to the staff. I can’t recall whether it was web based or how I did it since we are talking late 1990s but I do recall getting feedback from someone working there saying they rarely get a compliment and appreciated it.
I can complain at times and have written a few when justified but often it isn’t anyone’s fault. Right now society in the US has completely disintegrated and everything is political and people have to lie to get their way. Not sure how/when/if it will improve but I do wish for simpler times. Didn’t think as I near retirement (in my 50s) I’d be dealing with this stuff along with the virus. Makes me stronger consider moving overseas for at least part of the year post-virus.
Matthew, dunno. You might hate me for this but I am still going to give my thoughts.
Do you pass a note to every person out there in the service industry doing there job and trying to assist? I am a great admirer of how Starbucks seems to get the best people and the best attitudes amongst employees. But do I pass them a note to say that? No? I just thank them each time and wish them the best day ever. Yet, now we have to send them love notes?
How are flight attendants doing any more than the rest of us right now? We are all holding businesses together, watching jobs vanish, seeing friends laid off. It’s crap. It’s hard. But Flight attendants are hardly special in this. Did you pass a note to your hotel housekeeper in Santa Barbara who is hanging on by a thread and, in many cases, making far less and with a different set of opportunities? Do you pass a note to the pilots about to be laid off? Do you also pass a note to your waitress at a local cafe you love that may be bankrupt in a few weeks?
The guy who wrote that note is an A-hole…no doubt. But this is an overreaction to compensate for something that is completely a one off and rare. Most are courteous, and, quite frankly, most are far more courteous than many flight attendants. Everyone deals with nasty people and, well, we just deal.
The unions have destroyed the FA’s in thinking they are somehow special and far above service level employees. They are not. It’s a service industry. And they want you to believe that some idiot who writes a note is somehow different than the abuse that any service employee takes from people who, clearly, need to seek help. My ex wife managed top restaurants in DC for years, you should have seen the abuse, did she cry or run to share it on social media and ask for justice? No, she just laughed it off and moved on.
It was a lovely gesture you made. But please stop making FA’s feel more special than they already imagine themselves to be. The culture they (and the unions) built is impeding their ability to handle douches like the letter writing guy the same way everyone deals with it, by laughing and shrugging it off. And you are not helping.
Very nice penmanship.
Matthew
“Let your light shine before all”. A quote from the Gospel of St. Matthew.
Gratitude is a way to counteract entitlement, anger and a demanding spirit.
There is enough going on in our world to bring out mean-spirited actions and thoughts. We can try to be the good we want to see in others- and not be ashamed. While others may flaunt their meanness and anger – so we should express the opposite.
You always take graciously the criticism that can come by putting yourself out there. It’s admirable!
We all need encouragement and I think some times we live way too much in our left brain of analysis and judgement. An action of the heart should be received – not evaluated.
Have we become that cynical?
I’ve been reminded to be more grateful than ever because of what you wrote.
Thank you!!!
I am a 42 yr senior flight attendant in the friendly skies and I can’t tell you how few thank you’s we receive; especially written ones. (For those cynical readers out there, I have been told that I am the flight attendant that people hope to see again on their flights.)
People are quick to complain as is the norm in our society and oh so slow to compliment. Thank you not only for writing the note to your crew, but for sharing and encouraging others to do so!