"Virgin" has the blues

[Pak Lah]

I recently travelled on Virgin Blue on a domestic flight from Sydney to Gold Coast. The check-in went fine and the lady at the counter was rather friendly and helpful. We were actually from KL en route to Gold Coast but had decided to stay a few days in Sydney. In the three days in Sydney we had done quite a bit of shopping. The whole vacation was to last three weeks, and since I was travelling with my 3 young boys aged 11, 3 and 1, along with my mom-in-law, you can imagine the amount of luggage we had. Suffice to say we were quite over-loaded. To my pleasant surprise the lady sort of just "winked" and we were off. For a visitor in a foreign land, and travelling in economy class, this was indeed a treat. Our Malaysian servicemen (and women) should learn from this lady. That however, was the only good part. What came after was another story.

As soon as we boarded we were received (I'd rather not use the word "greeted" as I feel greetings are normally pleasant) by a rather non-pleasant stewardess. I don't care whatever the airline, or hotel, or restaurant it is. WHEN YOU ARE IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY, YOUR PRIMARY OBJECTIVE IS TO PLEASE THE PERSON YOU ARE SERVING. PERIOD. OTHERWISE, CHOOSE ANOTHER JOB!!!

To make matters worse, my children were getting restless, and my second child was crying and screaming, perhaps from the hot weather, or the discomfort of travelling. Whatever it was, the steward should have tried to pacify him by giving him some juice or toys just to distract him temporarily while waiting for the plane to take-off. Instead she shouted at the poor boy in a stern manner. I thought she must have been the Warden of a school for Delinquents, moon-lighting as a stewardess! That made us snap. We gave her a 10-minute 'verbal'.

As it turned out, all my son needed was his 'security blanket', his teddy-bear. We had it in our hand luggage that had already been stowed in the over-head compartment, and as with most airlines, the stewardesses will 'hush' you if you even flinch during taxi, let alone open the compartment. If they don't, your fellow passengers will give you the look. And that is usually enough to make you want to hide back in your seat.

Anyway, what I was surprised about later was how the steward that had the "lashing" suddenly turned friendly (as if nothing had happened earlier), and served us the way we should have been served in the first place -- pleasantly, preferably with a smile. Maybe she just had the blues earlier.

I wished our stewardesses would be able to do the same, instead of avoiding the person(s) with whom they had the earlier confrontation, and asking some other stewardess to serve them. Or worse still, serve the person(s) with the attitude of "what to do, I have to serve you, it's my job". I hate that. If only they could take pride in their craft......and serve all passengers "as advertised".

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