Negative of a plane over Chicago |
I had just finished the dinner service in first class and was seated on the jumpseat to catch my breath. It was a long service, interrupted by turbulence in the stormy skies over West Texas and Southern New Mexico, compounded by having to feed the hungry pilots as well, and made worse by the fact that of my two ovens, one was inoperative. Dear Mia walked into the galley looking like she'd just run a race. It seems the service in coach was as rough.
We exchanged a few
pleasantries after checking in on one another, when she told me that
I needed to talk to the woman in 28F. The woman had already spoken to
both flight attendants working in economy and was not happy with what
either of them had to say. It was something about food being served and
how much she spent on her tickets.
I had already dealt
with three negative people earlier that day, so when I turned around
to see the threshold of my ability to sanely deal with more
negativity, I could no longer see it. That threshold was long gone,
hurried along by 1A during our boarding process.
He had a bag that
was preventing the overhead bin from closing. Neither Mia nor I were
able to close the bin. I even turned the bag around to see if that
would help. It didn't. I asked who the bag belonged to and found a
bunch of faces silently looking at me as if I might break into song.
Without a word, 1A gets up, stomps to my location at row 2, turns his
bag around and then slams the ever-loving shiitake out of the door. It
startled the women in 3A and B and the man in 1B looked terrified.
Mia was there, looking at me with her mouth agape and eyes as wide as
the Gulf of Mexico.
I followed him back
to his seat and asked that he not treat our plane so roughly, or I'd
might be forced to send him the bill for the damage. I should have
reminded him that had he broken it, we'd have to empty the contents,
check the bags and tape the bin closed, as that is what happens with
a broken bin. Regardless, he was now on our radar and had best behave
himself for the remainder of boarding or he'd find himself on a later
flight to San Francisco.
I rolled my eyes at
Mia, seated next to me on the jumpseat and asked if the woman in 28F
had actually asked to speak to me. She had. There was no getting out
of this one; I'd have to go back and deal with it.
It's amazing how a
smile can disarm negativity. I started, maintained and left with a
smile on my face when I got to 28F. I'm not sure where I found that smile, but surely it was just about the last one I had left. Waiting for me was a woman with a
quaint British accent seated next to a young man who spoke under the
same condition. She seemed a bit surprised that I actually came back
to speak with her and she reminded herself that she was upset.
She started by
telling me that she was amazed to be told there was no food when the
flight attendants reached her row during the service. “We ran out
of food?” I asked. “No, there was only food for purchase,” she
replied. I told her that we no longer had complimentary food on our
flights. When she asked how long this afflicted us, I found myself
searching for a condensed version of Mother Airline going into bankruptcy
many years ago, and how, to save money, one of the things we lost was
free food in coach. But she had just flown in from London and
received a meal. Yes, but that's international- this is domestic.
This response required my giving her a few definitions, but I was all
smiles.
The woman lost steam
as we spoke and she became more and more pleasant, telling me she had
spent over 2,000 pounds on her flight from London.
“Two thousand
pounds? Why that's more than a rhino weighs.”
“Shut up, Inside
Voice, this doesn't concern you!”
Soon we were
chatting about the places I've lived, what to do in San Francisco for
their 10-day holiday, and the lack of anything redeeming about fruit
cake. By the time I walked back to the forward galley, my two friends
from London in row 28 were all smiles, including the woman listening
in behind them who had hoped to hear more tirades, but instead got an
earful of pleasantries.
Mia couldn't believe
how nice she was to me after giving she and Sue such a hard time over
not eating on their 4 hour sit time in Houston and how we didn't have
anything free to give her for her 2000 pounds sterling tickets.
As she and the young
man left, they both shook my hand as I bade them a fantastic
California holiday. She stopped to look in the cockpit and asked if
she could thank the captain. “Oh, she just left,” I said. “As
now must you!” said Inside Voice. I'm so happy Inside Voice stays
inside or I could get in trouble. My new friend in 28F and her
companion were nice, but the flight was late and I was ready to get
to my hotel. “Buh-bye.”
Landing in SFO |