Unreal Expectations

        It has been quite some time since I have updated my blog; the truth is that I have felt completely unmotivated to write anything about my travel experience.  Everything has been relatively normal and non-irritating…until now.  I just finished a three-day trip overseas and was blown away repeatedly by the level of expectations that people had about what should be offered on the flight.  I know that a great deal of service has been cut in order to reduce operating costs and to keep fares low for the traveling public.  Most of these cuts affect the domestic traveling population—checked baggage fees and no free meals among the most obvious.  For the international flyer, however, very little has changed.  If anything, there have been more and more advances—individual entertainment systems and improved interiors.  Despite what people say, the relative legroom on most international planes hasn’t decreased very much, if at all.  Typically, I think it’s that the passengers are becoming, well, bigger… but that’s another story.   So, in terms of cuts in service and products offered, the international passenger really has it pretty good.  And yet, there are quite a few who choose to complain about the slightest details, and I must say it’s really quite annoying. 

            On my trip this weekend, there were four main scenarios that made me stop and say to myself…’really!?’  The first of such was a man who decided to make it know that he was upset with the quality of his coach-class meal.  He said that it was little better than what you would serve to prisoners or servants (I guess he has experience with that) and was disgraceful for restaurant quality food.  Firstly, this is an airplane; it does not claim to be a restaurant, and my friend that price you’re paying isn’t for the food, it ‘s for the gas the plane is eating.  Secondly, he added that the food on the way to the USA from his country of origin (which may or may not be famous for its gastronomy and its large phallic-resembling tower that rhymes with Trifle) was infinitely better, which makes sense because it was made by his country men rather than an (humph!) American!  I smiled and nodded as best as I could, while screaming profanities inside.  I wonder how he did during his visit to our country, where more than likely, an American made each meal he ate.  Just a thought.

            Later, on that same flight I was delivering coffee to a woman seated in Business class, when she stuck her extremely high in the air at our cream and dismissed me with a wave of her hand.  Her complaint was that the cream wasn’t chilled to the optimal temperature that she preferred.  I explained that the cream was appropriately chilled for sanitary food-handling purposes and that weren’t able to provide each passenger with cream chilled or heated to their individual and exact specifications because, again, we are on an airplane and the chiller only has ‘off’ and ‘on’, not temperature specifications.  She said it was unacceptable and then waved me away.  Never mind the fact that the woman was traveling as a non-revenue passenger and was, therefore, not paying for her seat.  Now whose behavior is unacceptable?! I did tell her the cream was high quality, and extra rich…but decided to withhold my expletive. (Hint: it rhymes with the quality of the cream).  On a similar note, an elderly woman in coach decided to stick it to me for our lack of champagne.  She reminisced about the golden years of flying with endless splits of champagne.  She went on to compare flying without champagne (here it comes…) to being stuck in a second-class orphanage, where the passengers were like children without rights, shuttled from one point to the next against their will.  Okay, wow….I hate to say it (and thank god I didn’t) but you bought this ticket and decided to get on this plane.  That’s called exercising free will.  Furthermore, I would hardy compare flying somewhere foreign and exotic with unlimited video entertainment to living in an orphanage.  I have never lived in an orphanage myself, but I have seen the movie Annie, and  honey, this ain’t no hard knock life.  I should have said: ‘yes, you’re right and if you don’t clean the bathrooms pronto, you won’t get your second helping of slop,’ but fortunately discretion told me to move on.

            I realize that certain age groups can be more difficult than others, and I must say that the preceding three incidents all involved people of a certain age.  But that doesn’t mean that we don’t get young(er) people who are completely out of touch with reality either.  Yesterday, on my flight back to the USA, I had a 20-something girl who called me over and asked me for an eyeshade so that she could sleep during the flight.  I apologized and explained that the airline no longer provided eyeshades to its passengers but that passengers were at liberty to use bring their own eyeshades or neck pillows.  She listened to my explanation and then pointed a finger at me and indicated (rather abruptly, I must say) that the lack of customer service (by not having free eyeshades or mentioning what services we did not offer) was unbearable and unacceptable.  How ever would she be able to sleep without one, and if she arrived feeling less than refreshed, it would be my fault, personally.  Then she added…’and how do you feel about that!?’ Again, I was rather impressed with my ability to withhold how I really felt about it.  Secondly, I prevented myself from telling her the slew of services the airline would not provide her during her flight—though I was curious what services she was expecting me to provide her…Heavens to Betsy! 

            So, for those of you who ask me how often I get to deal with ‘interesting’ or ‘difficult’ people, these four incidents all happened on one trip.  Plus, there were probably other similar events that I am forgetting.  So in summary: this is an airplane and you are on it to get from point A to point B.  This isn’t a luxury restaurant nor is it your personalized dairy.  This isn’t a bar and no we don’t have free champagne in coach.  We offer a traveling service, not a personal luxury service.  If you choose to fly, great…come along and join us.  One word of advice; don’t expect the world and you might be pleasantly surprised that it’s really not that bad.  Again, just a thought.