I came across a video on Instagram that has been viewed tens of millions of times. At first, I was confused how this was even interesting, but then I quickly figured out what was going on here (though it’s not entirely clear to me if the passenger even realizes it?).
Flight attendant asks passengers a smart question
A couple of days ago, a social media user with hundreds of thousands of followers took a video while he was boarding an American Airlines flight. He was traveling with his wife, who was walking in front of him onto the plane.
I’m not sure what his purpose even was with taking the video, but two flight attendants can be seen standing at the door (more on that in a bit). The one flight attendant can be seen mouthing “hi, how are you?” to the man.
The flight attendant then notices the man recording in front of him, seemingly capturing the backside of the woman. So the flight attendant then asks the woman “are you two traveling together?” When she confirms that they are, the flight attendant says “I was going to say, cause it’s just, it’s either you’re traveling together, or you’re randomly wearing pretty similar outfits.”
If you watch the video quickly, you might assume it’s just random small talk, but it’s pretty clear that there’s more going on than that. The flight attendant registers that he’s filming the woman in front of him, so her way of analyzing the situation is to ask if they’re traveling together. Kudos to her for being quick on her feet.
I do have one issue with the crew in the video
The above isn’t the only thing that stands out to me about the video, though. Let me first say that passengers shouldn’t record videos in this way, because American has a policy against recording employees without their consent, and this video pretty clearly captures the two flight attendants in a way that’s not really just passive.
That being said, can I just point out how wild the contrast is between how you’re greeted on some US carriers, vs. on most foreign carriers? There are simply no standards. At most foreign airlines, flight attendants stand at the door in a specific way, with good posture, greeting each passenger with a smile.
Here you have the one flight attendant standing there with her Starbucks drink in one hand, and her other hand in her pocket. Meanwhile the male flight attendant is basically reclined, couldn’t have an unhappier look on his face, is playing with his nails, and looks like he’s judging the hell out of people boarding.
I’m not someone who expects service on US carriers to be like how it is on Emirates or Singapore Airlines. But first impressions matter a lot, and seriously, does anything about this give off a good first impression to passengers? I can’t imagine going to any sort of business and not finding this off-putting.
To be clear, the focus on this video is the flight attendant’s excellent job trying to identify a possible problem passenger, but I find their general galley setup and vibe to be so common at American, and it’s just a perfect reflection of the company’s lack of customer service culture. Let me of course emphasize that there are also lots of friendly flight attendants at American who do an amazing job greeting passengers, but I find the above to be more common than it should be.
Bottom line
For whatever reason, an American Airlines passenger was taking a video while boarding a flight, seemingly recording the backside of the passenger in front of him. Fortunately it was his wife, but the flight attendant wanted to make sure. So she subtly asked them if they were traveling together based on their outfits, and I commend her for how she approached that.
What I have less appreciation for is their general approach to greeting passengers, which is all too common on the airline.
What do you make of this American boarding interaction?
