Play It Straight

There's something that annoys me about air travel. Now, you're right to be entirely fed up with decades of humorous observations about all the inconveniences and idiosyncrasies of air travel, for I know I am. That doesn't mean I don't have them myself, and while I try to spare others the more commonly held ones that come to mind, there are those which I think might be relatively fresh and unique. Those I feel it reasonable to share.

Take the flight attendants. Maybe my memory isn't what it is, but I recall them being friendly but professional. It's fair enough that the job isn't as great as it once was, and so the people holding that job maybe aren't as disposed to be so friendly or professional anymore. I can hardly blame them, and yet I do when I am at their mercy. They just don't behave the way they used to, and while most people might even like the new way, I don't really.

They seem considerably more open about the unpleasantness of their job and how that springs from us, the passengers. Hard as it must be, I do wish they'd manage to keep that to themselves. I've done lousy jobs in the past, and hated the customers (or at least they way they were as I interacted with them in the line of duty). I kept it to myself as well as I could, which in retrospect may not have been so well. I wasn't good at that job.

The part that most people like is that they are a lot jokier than I remember. Even the more serious elements of their communication with the cabin seem meant to catch the attention of a traveling talent scout, so riddled are they with levity that has more than a touch of passive aggression to it. Some people like that, and maybe they fly so often that they share the viewpoint of the flight attendants more than their fellow passengers. I don't. I wish the flight attendants would be like they used to be.