M-I-L 2 - Not all flight attendants are nice and honest…M

Photo copied from http://www.chezgigi.com/pan-am-and-the-flight-attendant-were-we-oppressed/

My husband and I were on our way back home to Manila from a relaxing vacation in Boracay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boracay) when I kept on reminding myself to keep my Amazon Kindle at hand on the plane for the one and a half hour flight. When the plane was about to land, I was asked by the stewardess to turn my Kindle off and to keep it in the seat pocket of the plane, and so I did. It took some time for the pilot to find a vacant gate. Minutes passed, and we were able to get off the plane. We decided to visit our favourite (The Mint) spa at the Mall of Asia (http://smmallofasia.com/moa/?p=1097) which is just a few minutes drive from the airport. I am used to reading my Kindle while getting a manicure and pedicure and at the instant I was to take it out from my bag, my heart sank. I lost my Kindle!!! And was so 100% sure that I left it in the seat pocket of the plane. L I immediately called the airline and reported the incident, feeling confident that I would get it back because they do routine checks before and after every flight and that the flight attendant sitting right in front of me would have seen the thing. Several days passed after this call, I contacted them every single day, until after seven days, they told me that they didn’t find it. I was so frustrated, I sent them this letter:…as I once had a bad encounter with them last August.

Just want to share with you feedback regarding my recent trip with you.

First of all, thank you for the wonderful customer experience at the initial stage of my travel, which was when you informed me that my original flight schedule has been cancelled. Though disappointed, I really like the fact that you were able to ease my anxiety by helping me push through with my flight. Your reservations officers did a very good job. I was happy then.

On my going-home flight from Caticlan to Manila: Unfortunately, a recent incident whereby I accidentally (or better yet, stupidly) left my Amazon Kindle at the seat pocket of the plane, totally changed my impression of your employees. I repeat, I was stupid to have left the gadget at the plane. However, I was riding on hopes that the airline crew conduct inspections or checks on the plane. Given this assumption – I would have expected that someone found the Kindle and handed it over to the Lost and Found department. There are two things here: 1) Honesty (if someone took it home) 2) Adherence to SOP (the gadget should have been found if the crew is diligent in doing checks) There is no other excuse for the gadget to have not been found. It is impossible that a passenger took it, because I was the last to get off of the plane.

I also don’t like the fact that it had to be me calling your hotline everyday, even if you guys have promised me that you will contact me for updates.

It is unfortunate that this happened, and I am partly to blame. However, I hope that this reaches the management and that HONESTY and ADHERENCE TO SOPs be strictly instilled and enforced as part of your core values.

It’s exactly two months from when I sent this letter to the airline, yet I have not received any reply, not even an auto-reply from their system.

As you can see form my letter, I whole heartedly admitted my stupidity but no one even empathized with me. Because of this experience, my impression on flight attendants has totally changed – they’re just like any service crew in any industry… you are lucky if you encounter honest people; damned if you don’t. Lastly, I don’t think I will ever leave anything in the seat pockets of plane. Ever.