Nicest things to do when you fly for others around you

When planning to go on a plane, for those that have never flown before, and as a reminder for those that have, here are some handy tips that will make your fellow travelers, and your flight crew grateful for the extra measures that you took to make your emotional footprint as small as possible. 


Eat before you leave. Even if you are getting up and leaving from a hotel, plan to bring a small snack with you. Flights get delayed, airport food is expensive, catering to the plane sometimes gets fouled. Even if it is merely a small granola bar or a piece of fruit, keeping your blood sugar in the sane range is something that really WILL help you if Murphy throws his monkey wrench into your travel plans. 


Hydrate. But not with alchohol. Drink something. Juice. Water. Coffee even. But avoid the booze. There is no such thing as a fun drunk when you are being obnoxious, or ill, or any other host of effects that can happen to people when they have been drinking. Alcohol DOES affect you differently on a plane than it does on land. Do you really want to use the air sickness back because of a glass of wine and some well timed turbulence? Ruin the white shirt that you are wearing because of same glass of wine? Don't drink alcohol. Drink water, water is your friend. If you cannot stomach the taste of water, there are plenty of companies that sell little powders with flavors that you can put into your water. Carry a water bottle and fill it at the water fountains to save on the cost of food and drinks purchased at the airport. 


Take a long bath or shower in which you soap up your entire body with a non-offensive or unscented soap. You may adore your wonderful perfumed soap that smells just like a field of flowers. Your seat mates may be suffering from allergies and/or asthma, and the whole flight will be uncomfortable to them. DO practice good hygiene. Wash everything. If it seems really dirty, wash it a few times. Wash your hair. Again, try to keep the scent load down. 


Perfumes and other skin scenting items. I have a lot of perfumes that I adore. I do not use them in a metal tube that recycles the air that we are breathing. I DO wear a strong unscented anti-perspirant/deodorant. I use it under my arms, and I use Gold Bond powder under my breasts, and in my panty area. I also sprinkle some on the insides of my shoes. 


Choose clothing that is not floppy or flowing. Last time I flew to Europe, the lady across from me wore a long caftan that was strung with beads of all different lengths. Every time she would get up to go to the restroom, she would turn around, and the little beaded caftan became a beaded dress of cat-o-nine tails. Those little whips really hurt and stung when they got me. 


Comfortable shoes. Your feet might swell. I coveted a gorgeous pair of Ferragamos when I flew once. The woman looked so attractive and sleek in them. Her foot looked liked a painting. At the end of the flight, she was hobbling out on the arm of her gentleman companion, unable to walk well. Why? Her feet swelled and she took off her shoes. Her feet swelled some more. When the flight ended, her shoes no longer fit. Be considerate to yourself and to others. Wear comfortable shoes. 


Clean clothes. Now I am not talking about when you are stranded and you have to re-wear the same clothes you were wearing. I am talking about normal conditions. Wear clean clothes. No heavy fragrances, just clean clothes that are not beaded, bangled, and so forth. Clean clothes means I do not have to smell your prior adventures if we are seated near one another. 


If you are a person of size, call ahead and learn the dimensions of the seat that you are going to be in while you are flying. Ask what the policy is if you are unable to fit in that seat with the armrest all the way down. American Airlines is one of the carriers I am aware of that tries very hard to accommodate larger passengers without charging them an extra fee. Of course, if all of the seats are filled on a flight, they will not be able to do that. Make yourself and your fellow passengers content and check this fact out. As we all know, seats have gotten smaller and smaller. 


If you have to use a seat belt extension, you may not be seated in an exit row. This is not the flight attendant being mean, this is the law. 


Bring something to entertain yourself. If you have a laptop, check and see if there is a row that has a power port if you are going to be on a very long flight. Travel to Paris was a lot of fun when a friend and I were able to watch movies in between naps. 


Pack a change of underclothes and medicines in your carry on bag. 


Remember essentials such as chargers for all of the things that need them. 
Have a piece of paper stored somewhere that has the most important numbers on them, in case something happens to your cell phone. 

The Flight Attendant interview, employment tips, tricks, hints, and helps

In a world where the economy is barely beginning to crawl along, people still have their dreams. 
I have always dreamed of being a flight attendant, of walking crisply up and down the aisles, telling funny anecdotes to travelers who were happy to hear them as I also dispensed beverages and snacks. 
I have had this dream since I was a small child. My mother tells of a story when I was on a flight with my grandmother from Houston to Los Angeles. We were late for the flight because of a horrible car wreck in Houston. Running as fast as we could, we made it to the gate, Hollywood style with aplomb and drama. "Run, Run, Run!" My grandmother shouted as we ran past gates. She called out the number that we were looking for, and, soon enough, we were on the plane, settled into seats, and snoozing until we reached LA. As we got off, the stewardess stopped us to pin small badges on us. My brother was a junior pilot, and my sister and I were junior stewardesses. I still have my pin in a small jewelry box with some other very sentimental things. 


More flights filled my life, some good, some bad. I have racked up more flights than most people I know, and many friends joke with me that I live out of a suitcase and in a hotel room. 


The first time that I ever interviewed with an airline, I really blew the interview. I did not know about their corporate culture, and I blathered on and on about the good things that free travel would allow me to do. Needless to say, they were not impressed, and I was declined the chance to work in the sky. 
More interviews happened, and, finally, I was selected to be a part of a sky crew. 
Here are some hints and tips that I will share with you as I prepare to go on an interview in a few hours. 


Look the part. When airlines say "Dress professional" in their information, they really mean it. Men, you should look like you are coming from a funeral. Dark suit, white shirt, nice tie, pocket square is optional. Your shoes should be clean and shined. Your hair should be tidy and neat, with no extreme style. Think pilot,male flight attendant, Men in Black, or minister in dark suit. 


Ladies. Really? Really? This is not a night club, nor is it a fashion show. Dark, conservative suit. Conservative blouse. No cleavage. Yes to sleeves. Think flight attendant, lady pilot, lady employee at funeral home. 


You are not interviewing for a cheerleader at the football game. Yes, you can be cheerful. Your clothes need to present a serious image. This job is all about safety, not silly. A recent interview I was at had attendees wearing no bras, sleeveless shirts, one man wore a pair of shorts that I would attest looked like swim shorts, and I stopped counting flip flops and sandals once I sighted ten pairs. 


Read the directions. Twice. Then proceed to follow them. Have everything that you are being asked for in front of you. Go over the forms on the internet twice to make sure that you have filled them all in correctly. 


Check your resume before you send it. Read it and make sure that it is correct, that it is complete, and that it is concise. A gal pal shared with me that a resume came across her desk that listed the potential employee's  best attribute as "A rockin hard bod, a soft heart, and a attitude that kicks ass and takes names". This person was applying for a position in hospice. She did not get the job. 


Tell people if you are going to use them for references. Aunt Mabel will give you a good reference, if she is expecting the call. If not, she may be hurt, offended, or worse, give out bad information. 


A good email address. Again, from my human resources friend Cat, a lot of people list off their personal email addresses, and some of them can be very telling. Email addresses that mention sex, drugs, temper, bad choices, or anything else that is not work related can cost you the chance to get a job. Bad choice would be HotHighHoochie@IcantbelieveIamsober.com . Good choice would be JanisJSmith@professionalemailaddresss.com . Obviously, I have made those up to be dramatic, but, it is important to think about how you are looked at. 


If your FaceBook, MySpace, or other social networking site has photos and inferences to you partying, drinking, having illicit sex, or making other poor choices, either make it private to friends only, or remove all of the incriminating photos. Cat tells me that if it is between two potential employees, a quick trip to the internet usually breaks the tie fast.
If you have a LinkedIn or other professional networking site, make sure that it stays professional. No future employer should read about "Work Sux, gonna drink". It is also not fair to the people who have linked to you professionally to post about such things, since LinkedIn and others are all about making business connections. 


Do a search for yourself on all of the search engines. Are there any things that pop up that you don't want others to see? Check under your usernames, email addresses, webpages, and any other ways that you connect on the web. Remove, make private and delete all things that would be bad if a future employer learned about you. 


Change most settings to private. It is your world. It is your life. It is your choice about what you put out there, but sometimes, the hardest person to get around is yourself. Make choices with employment in mind. 


A friend of mine recently posted on her personal page a series of photos from many years ago that show her going from sober to drunk in the series. Her boss found them when looking online, and she was reprimanded, her review was poor, and she did not get an annual raise that year. 
Her boss raised the question of "If I found this, our clients could find this. It could cost us revenue." 


Password protect private things. Sure, photos of trees and birds and a river are sweet. No need to make them private. Your photo of you and your sweetheart wearing only tshirts and underwear is not something that you would want the boss to see. Password protect albums and photos that are of a personal nature, and you will not have to be the talk of the office. 


Before the interview. Look at the company online and learn about them. Take notes. 
During the interview: ask good questions, interesting questions, and let the interviewer talk. Don't ask questions simply to ask. These people are tired. Show that you are interested, but be brief. Note the name(s) of all of the people that you interact with from the company. Write them down if you need to, but not in front of them. 
At the end of the interview, thank people for their time. Wish them well in finding the person that is the best fit. Don't beg for the job, or tell them how desperate you are to work. 
After the interview, send thank you cards. To each one of those people you met. To each one of the people in the email chain. To the company itself. Email if you have it, but most assuredly, do send written cards as well. It stands out more than you know. 
If you do not make the first cuts, still be gracious. Still send cards. I got a job once when I was not selected for the first cut simply because of the cards I sent after. When another applicant was ill and could not come, I was who was called. I asked how I was chosen, and all 4 recruiters told me that the cards I sent were thoughtful, and they kept me in the mind of each one of those four people.


Be yourself, but the corporate, responsible version. Good Luck!

RyanAir Child falls while boarding plane

On RyanAir, a small three year old child named Olga was walking up the steps unescorted as her mother was holding her 18 month old brother and handling their luggage as well. She turned around to speak to her mother and fell in the gap between the plane and the ground, landing on the tarmac below. 
The child was flown to a hospital, where she was released 24 hours later. 


Details here. 
I have a question. Have you ever looked down at the distance between the ground and yourself when you are on the stairs or jetways between the plane door and yourself before you step over? Sometimes, that distance can be high up. A wrist strap broke on a camera of mine, and the camera plummeted to its' demise. The only thing I was able to retrieve was the memory card. 
Why on earth would you allow a child to travel the same jetway or stairs without holding a little ones' hand? 
I do not care how much you think you need all of the things that you are bringing on board the plane with you. If you cannot hold all of what you are bringing on board, wear it in a small backpack. 
Small children are allowed to board with their families early so that they have a little more time. 
I am still baffled by this as I do not understand how this mother could have let her child walk up that stairway to the plane without holding her hand until that tall threshold between the plane and the stairs was crossed. 

Steve Slater, American Folk Hero or Troubled man?

We have all read the accounts of Steve Slaters' incident with a passenger in which Mr. Slater was struck on the head by the overhead bin when a passenger refused to kindly return to their seat. 

Mr. Slater was injured, and a cut can be seen on his head in some of the footage that the news has shown us. 

According to all of the reports, Mr. Slater then began a very ugly rant, using profanity, slamming profanities out to everyone via the PA system on the airplane. 

Amazing is what happened next. Steven Slater became a folk hero overnight. There is a fan page that has nearly 200,000 members in less than 24 hours since his release from jail. 

What is it about the event that has everyone talking? Well, there was his grand exit. He threw his bags down the emergency slide that he deployed, grabbed a beer, and then slid down after his luggage, took the crew van to the car, threw down the company tie from his neck, and rode home, where he was arrested soon after.  How many of us have had the fantasy of "getting even with the boss"? How many of us have thought of some grand and dramatic way to make that exit in a way that would demean the person or the company, and build up our ego? Of course, most of us have thought about it. 

I once held a temp job where my employer would block all of us until their chime on their watch went off, not allowing us to exit until then. Persons who clocked in late at the same place were told to come and talk to the boss about the tardiness, even if it was within 5 seconds of on time. No matter that you had to wait behind others to clock in, you better be on time. 

Another boss made us clock in at a time clock near our computer, and clock out at the time, but the computers had keystroke monitors, so, there would be notes on the computer for "idle" time. (Such as when I would be away from my desk to get a fax or make copies) "idle" time of more than 3 minutes came out of your check. When I left, I made a flip show using post-its from the office. Childish? Sure. Wasteful? Sure. Harmful? Not really. 

Steve Slater deployed the emergency slide during a highly emotionally charged moment. He was up to his eyeballs, frustrated, and could not deal with it. So, he made the announcement, deployed the slide, and down he went....after grabbing a beer. Which is startling, because on two of his social networking sites, he mentions 12 step programs. I certainly hope that Steve did not drink, but the indications seem to be that he did. 

People are coming unglued wanting to know the identity of the mystery woman that struck Steven in the head. She is being vilified as an indecent, rude, pig of a woman. (and that is being nice. You should read some of the descriptions of her, and what people are saying about her elsewhere.)

Personally, I do not think that the woman who struck him in the head intended to do so. I think that it was a genuine accident that injured someone. Was she wrong for getting her bag before she was supposed to? Sure. Wrong for failing to comply with the directions of cabin crew? Sure.

Was she in violation of the law for not giving Steve an apology? No. Rude, yes, but breaking the law, not really.

When I was in a tug of war a long time ago, the person in front of me was pulling the rope so hard that their hand slipped and they bonked me in the face, giving me a black eye. They were unaware that they had done it. We finished the tug of war, and afterwards, I got ice. When the person saw what happened, they asked how it happened. I said that it was during the tug of war, honest accident, no harm, no foul. 

For Mr. Slater to DEMAND an apology, as has been reported elsewhere was a little over the top. I agree, she sounds rude, but it is not his place to teach someone manners. I know, I know, I seem harsh right now, too. 

For him to grab the PA, make an announcement to the entire plane using extremely crude language was, although dramatic and memorable, completely uncalled for. 

Finally, for him to grab an alcoholic beverage from the galley cart, open the emergency exit and deploy the slide, was completely reckless in regards to the crew, the passengers, the ground crew, and the safety of the airplane.

Had I been on board the plane, I would have been amused and concerned at the same time. 

JetBlue suspending this man pending an investigation is completely understandable. 

Much attention has been brought forward to show the amount of stress load that a typical flight attendant endures in a day. It can be heartbreaking to read some of the stories that the men and woman who work in the cabin endure on a daily basis. On the other hand, a quick search on any search engine will show equal amounts of articles that are given over to rude flight attendants. 

I have read over and over about flight attendants who nearly fall over when they are thanked for pouring a beverage. I always say Thank you when I am served, and sometimes it is noticed, and sometimes, it is not. 

I have read accounts of people who bring screaming children on board a plane, and scream the entire time that they are in the air. 

I think that there is a place we all as air travelers need to return to. That place is civility. Treat every person as though they were you. With Mr. Slater, I hope that he will find happiness in whichever direction his life leads him, and that this very published story will lead to a lot more courtesy in the air for a while.....from both the passengers and the crew.

 

Wonderful HOT summer in Arizona!

It has been a wonderful, but HOT summer for my nieces and I, who came to see me while I was in Arizona, which is why I did not get a lot of posting done while they were here. 

We went to Tombstone, where one of the things that we did was to have our fortunes told by Pappy, the animatronic fortune teller, who, told a little joke and dispensed a fortune card at the end of his fortune telling.


The reason I mention this is that both of my nieces loved this machine. I told them about the movie "Big", starring Tom Hanks, and about some of the other fortune telling machines that are out there.  


Pappy only cost us $1.00 per fortune, so, for $3.00, we all had fortunes told. It was fun, it was cheap, and the girls talked about Pappy for days after we were gone from him, elaborating on their fortunes, and how they were coming true. 


If you are traveling with children, sometimes, it is the BIG things that will garner their time and attention. Other times, it is the unexpected and simple that will bring some calm and happiness into your and their day. 


During the time that we were in Arizona, my nieces and I did a lot of things that I was really happy to take them to see. We went to Tombstone, saw some ghost towns, made a really good time happen. Pappy was not part of the plans, as I did not know that he even existed.  For a head start on their homework, I had them interview a lot of the characters in Tombstone who portray people from Tombstones' boom days. We talked about it on the night before, they did a lot of research, and they were happy to finally get there and meet the people that they had read about, seen in movies, and that their aunt (me) talked about. 


An interview by my younger niece with one of the stage coach drivers got her some great knowledge about the town, but he also gave her a silver nail used for driving the horseshoes into the hoofs of those big beasts. 


At the Rose Garden in Tombstone, where the Worlds' Biggest Rose resides, the owners kindly let us have pears, crab apples and pomegranates when they learned that we were making jelly.  


A reminder to the kids that we were not going to rush through anything, and making them find things in each room of places and ask them about things was a great deal of fun, because it made them still themselves and enjoy where we were, not where we were headed to. The girls would ask me about things as well. 


Well behaved children who were very hot got a treat of ice cream in the morning. They really liked it, and it was a perfect stop to cool down. 


Tombstone, if done right, without running from one end of the town to the other is assuredly a place that would take 2-3 days to see, especially if you ventured off the main streets, like we did. 
We saw the Good Enough mine tour, took a US Mail stage coach around town, saw the Bird Cage theater, went to many gunfights, and we had a really good time. In fact, we had a good enough time that we went to Tombstone 4 times! 


I write this to tell you that with children, sometimes it is not the video games, the computer games, the fastest rides, but instead, spending time with those you cherish in a casual and relaxed setting. 


Have a great time on your travels!