Fly, Per usual, you absolutely kill me! Thanks for the laugh...
To the original poster: It is not my experience that customers hate me. I actually find the public to be very kind and I am amazed when they get jerked around with broken onboard entertainment, long delays due to maintenance and/or weather, and other service disruptions, then walk off the plane with a smile on their face and utter, "great flight." Of course, I try to live by some spiritual laws which work for me. When I bestow kindness, it is often reflected back to me in the words and deeds of others. When I give abundantly, I usually get back abundantly. So, for the most part, my perception of the public at large (in this case, airline passengers) is that 99.8% of them are quite civil and kind.
I was on a voluntary furlough from United for 2 years with full benefits...medical, dental, travel, and seniority accrual...during my time off, there wasn't a day that went by where I did not awake each morning and be in gratitude for having a job which allowed me to be off for a couple of years with full benefits (all the while United was limbering in prolonged bankruptcy proceedings). In the real world (read corporate America), that doesn't usually happen. During my time off, I happened to work for a CEO of a small company as his executive assistant. Having spent time in the corporate world working for a high-strung, type-A workaholic, with no balance in his life and who treated his clients and contractors with utter disdain and contempt, I have to say getting back on board an airplane, serving a few customers in first class cocktails and dinner, and then laying over in places like Maui, Kauai, Honolulu, Frankfurt, Chicago, Boston, etc. and getting paid for it...in spite of the give-backs, the pension dump, the shorter vacations...for me, it's still a pretty damn good gig (compared to what I have seen out there).
On my second trip back from furlough, I happened to be on a long layover in Hawaii (Kauai). Thinking that my days in this job might be numbered, I decided I'd seize the opportunity to take a sight-seeing helicopter tour over the island. When I called one tour operator to ask if they gave discounts to airline crewmembers, after some brief questioning by the telephone representative, she offered to give me a comped helicopter tour (read free). I was picked up at my layover hotel and then boarded a helicopter that flew me down into the crevices of Waimea Canyon, along the shoreline of the Napali Coast, down into waterfalls, up to the tops of volcanoes. It was nothing short of magical. So, to answer your question, it's moments such as this that keep me in this job. Happy New Year...
