Kindness is its own Reward
March 21, 2014
Flying has been on my mind lately partly because of the continued saga of the missing Malaysian MH370 plane, partly because I just booked a few flights this week for summer travel, and partly because I ran into a good friend of mine who is flight attendant. She had just returned home from a few days of flying during which she went without sleep for a long period of time. I suggested to her that working with people is difficult enough when you are rested and I could only imagine how difficult it must be without any sleep. My comment reminded her of a traveler journalist’s article on why it’s important to be nice to your flight attendant. Thinking it might come in handy in the very near future, I looked up the article online.
The part of the article that most interested me was about HOW to be nice to flight attendants and not necessarily WHY being nice is so important. Some of the ways to charm flight attendants had to do with being polite and listening to the safety demo or at the very least stop talking to your neighbor while the attendant is giving it and trying to keep you safe. Another was to take your headphones off when asked what you’d like to drink and then be specific when ordering. For example, “I’d like coffee with milk and sweetener.” This helps move the service along quicker not to mention staying out of the aisles while food and beverages are being served. Other suggestions included leaving your magazines with them for their enjoyment and to just be polite by saying hello, please, and thank you.
Those suggestions took care of the HOW to be nice, but WHY be nice? Where will all this kindness get you? According to the article, it may land you a free cocktail, snack, or remote chance of a seat upgrade that places you far away from the screaming baby in the seat in front of you. But then again, it may not and in that case, kindness is its own reward. And as my dear mother always says, “It doesn’t cost you anything to be nice!” (Sheryl)
“Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
Ephesians 4:32