You know Singapore Airlines spoils you terribly. The pretty girls, the pretty smiles, the better-than-usual food, the definitely better-than-usual in-flight entertainment. The price tag is pretty too, but that’s another story.
“Flying the Friendly Skies” with United Airlines (their motto, not mine), is much like gambling. You never know what card you’re being dealt until you board the plane.
The crew can be hit and miss. And on a long, l-o-n-g stopover flight from Seattle to Singapore, you want to make sure that you have at least one or two friendly crew members to lessen the pain of long-haul flying.
One flight attendant rudely asked me, “What do you want?” when I walked back towards the bathroom, and obviously got in his way. “The bathroom,” I stammered, feeling like a Primary 1 kid caught leaving for recess too early. I should have said, “Your manners.”
I noticed another was downright surly and pushed her way past an elderly couple in the aisle.
Yet another was grumpy when he made his Mandarin announcements. It didn’t help that he was in full view of the passengers as he growled his words, and that his announcements followed a very perky and happy sounding Japanese flight stewardess.
To be fair, there were a few happy campers in the two crews I met today. They smiled, were attentive, and spoke nicely. But one bad apple is all you need to make a 20-hour flight a nightmare, especially if that flight attendant is in charge of your row of seats.
Is that why United isn’t exactly known for service? And although their flights seemed full as far as I could tell today, the company still filed for bankruptcy.
A foot note: Flight captains usually come on the intercom to say the most banal and unnecessary things, including, but not limited to, such gems as “We are now holding at 38,000 feet” or “I have turned off the seatbelt sign and you may move about the cabin.”
I don’t know what to make of one of today’s captains. He started off by saying, “I’m just about to push off from the gate, while they’re loading your jammies and toothbrushes down below…”
And, to top it off when we were closing in on Singapore, he made the startling announcement, “We’re about to make our descent into Singapore. The time is…the weather is…and IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY LANDING, please do not take any of your belongings with you.”
Whoa. I don’t know if that’s what passengers want to hear as they’re about to land.
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