Being Nice

I am sitting in a coach class seat sipping on a glass of white wine about half-way through my last flight of the day. I have now been at the mercy of this airline for something approaching sixteen hours. But, this is what I do. I've learned over the years that it never pays to be nasty but being nice... "...more flies with honey..." as the old saying goes. The glass of wine, my second, is one of those flies.

It all started back in the boarding process. Someone who obviously does not subscribe to this idea walked on the plane in the later part of the loading procedure with her three cases, and started trying to shove them into the overhead bins. For those of you not familiar with air travel, it is customarily accepted that you may bring two pieces of luggage with you, one brief case and one carry on, or one carry on and one purse, when you board the plane. On flights that are not extremely full, you can usually bring on a third, but you will almost never see anyone try it on such as packed flight as this. When you do have two, one should go under the seat in front of you, the other in the overhead bin.

So this woman, having conscripted a helper to get her bags (yes, all three of them) into the already near-capacity overhead bins. She just shoved people's stuff around to get her own in and left her bag hanging two inches out of the bin so that it couldn't possibly close. It was at this point that the vinegar/honey decision had to be taken and she chose unwisely.

The flight attendant came along to assist and asked if she could help with finding alternative stowage for the woman's baggage. "I'm dealing with it. It has to stay with me." The woman replied tartly. "It's in the bin."

"I'm sorry," the flight attendant responded, "it cannot stay there. That bin has to be able to close."

"Just where do you want me to put it?" retorted the woman crossly.

At this point the original flight attendant started backing off, obviously irritated. As one of her collages came to her aid, she said under her breath, but loud enough for me to overhear (I believe it was intended to be heard by her colleague alone.) "She asked me where I wanted her to put it!"

"That's a loaded question." her colleague whispered back.

I smiled quietly to myself and read my book through the remainder of the boarding process. That was an hour-and-a-half or-so-ago. A short while ago, perhaps ten minutes after the beverage and snack service, I went back to use the loo and to stretch my legs. The first of the two flight attendants was there. While waiting for one of the personals to become available, I was chatting with the flight attendant. (Those of you who have read my columns before realize that this is something I do often.) During the conversation I complimented her on her restraint.

"You showed amazing restraint in not explaining, in great details, you answer to that woman's question." I said. Receiving a shocked look in response. "The woman with the bag problem back in <>Airport Name Omitted<> who asked you where you wanted her to put it." I explained.

"You heard that?" She asked."Oh, god! Do you think she heard it?"

"No! I was sitting right below you while you and your colleague exchanged your comments. I wasn't eves dropping, but that woman was so unspeakably rude. I just thought that you should know that you, in my humble opinion, handled it right."

She was relieved to hear that their comments probably didn't go much further and that probably nobody else was able to hear them. We chatted a bit more, about travel, where her itinerary took her tomorrow, where mine had taken me, and about my travels earlier in the day. She and I were discussing how hard it is to deal with the public some times when I said that she has a hard job and she handled it more professionally than some of her colleagues. I mentioned the guy in my flight back to the states from London when I asked for a glass of water and a glass of wine with my dinner.

As I was wishing her a good flight and said that I would be returning to my seat and my book. She brought back-up that last point again and asked if I ever did get the wine. "Yeah, but every time I asked for anything he made it sound like I was asking him to run errands or something for me."

A few minutes later, she brought me my first glass of wine from the open bottle in First Class. My row-mates were asleep so no explanation was made. It was quite a nice chardonnay. A couple minutes ago, she walked by and explained that the bottle was opened because one person in First Class had wanted white and the bottle would be counted as spoilage if it was served. So why not?

When I agreed to a second glass, she walked off and got it. I am pretty certain that the "Where do you want me to put it woman." didn't get this kind of service. I hope she got mostly ice when her drink was served. But I am sure my new acquaintance's with this airline is too professional to have done anything like that. I am pretty sure if a third glass is offered, I will turn it down. It will be twenty-one hours on the road today before I get to bed and I have yet to sleep since I left London.

The announcement that I just heard places us somewhere near Lincoln, Nebraska. I guess I will close this off for now, get back to my book and post this when I get home.

I hope that wherever you are today, you have an opportunity to be nice to someone.

Don Bergquist - 20-February-2006 - Lakewood, Colorado, United States