I often wonder if I’m the only one to hear what I hear. On a flight today where the flight attendant was less than stellar — let’s just say she wasn’t the fastest jet in the squadron. Somehow my “apple juice” ended up red (cranberry), and she felt compelled to go on and on well beyond the standard script when she had the mic. I don’t travel a ton, but enough to know most folks don’t care. Be quiet and let me sleep/type/read/mope/drink/whatever. But upon landing, two jewels slipped out, or maybe they were standard fare for this attendent. I have absolutely no reason to believe that she intended them as jokes. First, we got the standard “be careful when retrieving your junk” speech, as it may have shifted… yeah, whatever. The she went on and added that you’d want to look around “and make sure you retrieve your personal effects.” Now I suppose that in the truest sense of the English word, this is possibly correct, but in the connotative sense of the English word, it sounds like she told me to just prepare for my own burial. Fortunately, we were already on the ground (and the pilot made a nice crosswind landing).Then, as we were taxiing (she didn’t shut up from the time we landed to the time we hit the gate), she gave the “thanks for flying American” speech but her actual words were, “and as they say, thanks for flying American,” which again, is probably true, but I’d really like you not to tell me what THEY say, but rather say it yourself.Which just underlies the importance of tone and saying things clearly. I really doubt this woman was able to even get the irony of her statements. And since most people had long since stopped listening and flight was overbooked, it’s doubtful American lost any revenue. But still…
Don’t risk your message to misinterpretation. Speak clearly and personally.
