Letters to the Editor
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Adventure Girl -- Still Living The Glamorous Life of a Stewardess!
There are a few FAs out there who still have a glamorous life, or at least it seems so from the outside.
Check out "Adventure Girl" -- she's senior cabin crew for Emirates, who reports on her high-flying trips around the world in her fun blog...
http://adventuregirl.journalspace.com
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Wow, just wow
I seriously wonder what the readers of Broadsheet will make of this article. Seems to be saying (in not so many words) that good airline service is to be equated with hot young stewardesses. I understand that part of the appeal of the Singapore airlines girl is that she has gotten far more training than that of many western airlines, but to exclude women who are not 'attractive' or over the age of 35? These people are NOT fashion models, their jobs if anything should be more akin to customer service staff. If a female (or heaven forbid male) flight attendent is a little older and less than stunning looking, but they manage to be friendly and deal with the stresses of air travel in a competent and relaxed manner, then are they worth less than the hot chick in her 1950s style uniform? Its an airplane, not a Paris fashion show. And people who want to work as FLIGHT ATTENDANTS should be judged on their character and jobskills, not their apperance and how good they look brushing their teeth with a pink toothbrush.
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"Calm down, ladies. Just be glad you're not in Singapore!"
Is there a more effective and condescending way to stifle a woman than to tell her to calm down and thank her lucky stars she's not living over there, where they're really sexist?
It would have been an interesting essay about the evolution of the stewardess/flight attendant image without the irritating "let's scold the PC police" vibe.
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Thank the lord for the Singapore Girls
for they are truly a godsend on long-haul flights. The service is impeccable. Also, they are thin and attractive. This is the sort of thing you can object to only if you think a longhaul flight is Omaha to Dallas. And it's not just Singapore Air - Thai Air, JAL, ANA, Korean Air, even EVA and China Air provide a markedly better experience than any US carrier. Of course, it helps that the food is edible and all the equipment onboard functions, but most of it is because of the stewardesses, flight attendants, whatever.
Every time I fly home, I dread having to make a change-over from a good international airline to one of the wretched Third World livestock haulers otherwise known as domestic carriers. Particularly American. But there's nothing much good to say about Northwest or Delta or, lord have mercy, the budget carriers. The transition is jarring - you go from "Are you sure there is nothing else I can do for you sir?" and big, friendly smiles and problems taken care of BEFORE you ask to "Here's your peanuts" tossed at you by some overweight biddy trundling down the aisle with a scowl on her face that informs the world she is far too good for this job. People who fly only domestically or only on US airlines are just used to being treated like cattle for the privelege of flying on some creaking 30 year old plane and subjected to all sorts of indignities from check-in to the parking lot. Trust me, you'd feel a lot better about flying if you didn't have to put up with so much shit, and on an airline like Singapore Air, you don't have to. If the US's protectionist policies for domestic flights were dropped and foreign competition let in, US carriers would be out of business in a year, and I'd say good riddance.
On a slightly related note, some years previous I had the good fortune to be contracted to teach young college grads at a "Singapore Air Prep Academy". These young women paid some obscene amount of money for a one-month training course in how to do well in their Singapore Air stewardess INTERVIEW. (And yes, they were referred to as stewardesses.) That gives you some idea of how coveted a position it still is in some part of the world. As I recall, only 1 out of 25 of the ones I knew of were hired.
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Glamour kills
"I don't know how many male passengers truly fantasize about subservient Oriental women, but plenty of fliers, male and female alike, fantasize about good on-board service."
If you think that the above sentence is intended to mean "good airline service is to be equated with hot young stewardesses," then you probably weren't paying enough attention in English class. This column is full of interesting history, and the attitude of the author is on full display, but that attitude has nothing to do with sexism or "scolding the PC police."
Honestly, the lack of humor and the willingness, nay eagerness to be insulted on the part of some people...I hope they don't work in a confined space full of other people, like an airline cabin.
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You are so right Bob
I flew Singapore Air both in business and coach on the 16 hour trek from LAX to Singapore. In business every time I woke up she was there like a dream asking if I needed anything. In coach, in a middle seat exit row, groggy from 2 Ambians I accidentally kicked the jump seated Singapore girl in the shin. She apologized to me! Had I done that on a U.S. carrier I would have been carted off the plane for interfering with a flight crew. Their professionalism is a stark contrast to the minimum wage labor on U.S. lines.
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customer service for whom?
I agree with a lot of the comments about flights on non-American vs. American airlines. however, as a woman who flies internationally quite a bit, and often in business class, I can say that not all business class passengers are created equal. I find that flight attendants, stewardesses, stewards, whatever tend to treat you with more respect or give you more time if you are a man in business class, followed by a woman traveling with a man in business class, followed by a woman traveling alone in business class, followed by a longshot by anyone traveling in economy class.
yes, the food is better and so is the equipment. but the (mainly female) flight attendants from Singapore Air, Thai Air, Emirates, etc. cater to men and are not nearly as charming with their women passengers.
I am sorry but I do think it is an infantile fantasy of men traveling long distance on business that they want to be looked after and tended to by beautiful women because they are traveling so far from home and working so hard. puhlease. I don't know about the Singapore Girls training for emergencies, but I would appreciate it if everyone - male, female; flight attendant, steward stewardess, for first, business or economy class was courteous, respectful and professional.
If you want style or beauty or submissiveness there are other places to look.