Stories

March 13, 2013 - Lisa Guinn

BTW, I took See's candy with me on my flights out to Singapore.

>

>First flight, the flight attendants gave me a bowl of first-class ice

>cream in Economy Plus. Nice!

>

>Second flight was a bit more hectic, but a couple of people said thanks.

>Just as we were starting to land, a guy comes by and says "we are so

>sorry that we couldn't say thank you properly earlier" - and gives me a

>bottle of French champagne! I shared it with my class on Friday as a

>celebration of the week.

>

>This isn't why I bring the chocolates on the flight, though I really

>liked the attention. In a way, it is just sad that these folks are so

>underappreciated. Any nice thing overwhelms them, because it is so

>unexpected.

>

>Just thought I would share. In a few more segments, I hope to be entitled

>to the stickers. At the moment, I am just giving a hand-penned note that

>says "thanks from the flight attendant appreciation club"!

August 17, 2014 - Beth

Thanks for this great club! My sister told me about it, as I was en route to London/Florence. I bought candy at Kennedy airport (Barton's). I gave them to the flight attendants on my flight to London (they cried) and again on my flight to Florence (they hugged me). I bought more candy in Italy, and gifted my flight attendants flying back to London (a truly heart felt thanks) and again flying from London to NYC (tears and tears).

I didn't know to document these flights. I am flying round trip to SF this weekend, and will document those flights. (and I will stock up on See's candy there… it's hard, and ridiculously expensive, to get here in NYC).

Will that be enough to get membership? I just would like to put the stickers on the candy, to make the club more well known. It's a brilliant idea,

Thanks so much,

Beth

March 23, 2012 - Hans Bernhardt

FAAC:

Last month, I was on a flight from Binghamton, NY to Tampa via Philadelphia. I am a freelance writer and poet, and while on my vacation, I wrote a poem about a fictional flight attendant named Wanda (so named because an attendant on my Feb. 12 flight looked like a Wanda I had met years ago). I hope you enjoy this. Because I am an infrequent flier, it may take a while to become eligible for membership in your club--2014 at the earliest.

WANDA THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT By Bob Ruane Jr.

Wanda has been a flight attendant for 36 years, since they were often still called stewardesses. She is keenly aware that she may not be allowed to work until age 65. She also knows that they've been gnawing away at her pension and health insurance like a rat. Still, Wanda goes to work faithfully and gives it her all.

She began as a flight attendant when Gerald Ford was president, Happy Days was the number 1 TV show, and her favorite songs were Peter Frampton's "Show Me the Way" and Aerosmith's "Dream On." Back then, she was a bouncy girl just out of flight attendant school. Now she all too often works on autopilot, since they have her give the same warnings and precautions every flight.

Wanda has been through untold episodes of turbulence, come-ons from fresh male passengers, snide remarks from petulant passengers, belligerent drunks, snobbish business class fliers, and Alec Baldwin-style prima-donna celebrity episodes.

Wanda has had some close calls with sudden thunderstorms, snow squalls, and the grounding of all flights for days after 9-11. Still, Wanda has reported to work as a trouper, missing only one dozen days in three dozen years, mostly days when family or friends died.

Still, Wanda tolerates her achy joints, the narrow aisles, the sometimes querulous passengers because there are some fliers who give her the occasional compliment on a job well done.

April 29, 2005 - Russell Henmi

Hello:

I thought I'd just take a moment to share a funny story from a recent trip.

I had bought my required box of candy and affixed the sticker to the top of the box while waiting for my flight to board. As I walked down the jetway with box in hand, a flight attendant in the galley of the 757 looked up and saw me. She grabbed one of her co-workers and pointed excitedly towards me.

"See - these guys do exist!" she exclaimed.

She had been telling her crew about receiving a box of chocolates from another FACC'er (from the description, I'm guessing Craig) and they didn't believe her. She then asked me when I would be flying back and was delighted to find out that she would be getting a second box of candy - yes, she was working both legs of my trip.

For the rest of that trip and the next, the flight crew referred to me as "the Candyman" ... :)

FACC as urban legend? I'll discuss it at my weekly poker game with Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster this weekend.

-Russ

January 2003 - Hans Bernhardt

Hola All,

First funny story of the new year. Well not just the first. But one that just happened. And I hope to be less of a slacker this year in sending on an occassional chuckle. Happy New Year!

So here goes:

So I have joined my co-worker Craig as a member of the Flight Attendant Appreciation Club.

Website: Http://sites.google.com/site/faac4u

The rule is that as a member, every time I fly, I am to give a box of See's candy to the flight attendants as appreciation of a job well done. This has been fun and resulted in lots of rapport and camaraderie on my flights - easing the burden of travel and making things lighthearted... a good thing nowadays.

Tonight I walked on my San Jose to Los Angeles flight, and looked at the flight attendant. We immediately started laughing because we recognized each other from a previous flight. I handed her a box of candy.

Later during the routine announcements, a recording said, "If you have any requests of us, please don't hesitate to ask.." or something like that. SOOOOooo I requested that the flight attendant ask the captain to find out the final football score from the Sugar bowl, which was in the 4th quarter - meaning I would miss the remainder of the game during my flight.

The flight attendant looked at me really funny. I said, "Can you get the captain to get the score of the Sugar bowl?" She still looked at me funny. "Uh sure...uh..OK," she said, and walked away. After she left, it occurred to me that perhaps she did not know about the football game.

Later in the flight she came up to me and asked to clarify my request. So I said, "Football score of the Sugar bowl game. The game is going on right now." "Oh, OK..." She left. Then she came back later laughing and said, "I have to tell you a funny story!"

And then she said, "I asked the captain if he licked the bottom of a sugar bowl."

Yes, she thought I had asked her to ask the captain if he licked the bottom of the sugar bowl! Or at least she relayed it that way to the captain. Or at least he thought that.

Imagine being the captain of a jet and one of your passengers asks if you have or will lick the bottom of a sugar bowl. Strange request indeed.

She later told the captain that a passenger wanted: A) The score of the football game, and B) NOT the knowledge that the captain had licked the bottom of a sugar bowl.

Now the flight attendant is getting picked on by her flight crew. I cannot figure out why. :-)

The captain told her he did not know the score of the football game and that he was not going to lick any more sugar bowls. See what kind of problems one can cause!?

At the end of the flight I pulled out my crayons and wrote a nice letter to the captain. Picture a child's handwriting saying the following: "Dear Captain, Thank you for licking the sugar bowl. I hope it tasted good. Your Pal, Hans (age 34). Please hang this note on the refrigerator.

As I walked off the plane and looked up at the window, the captain gave me a thumbs up. I think he liked the Sugar Bowl. HA HA

-Hans

JULY 2013 - Jessie Keung

A few stories below I find interesting to share. Please feel free to share them on your website if you like.

Story one -

I was on China Eastern Airline MU 5560 from Nanchang, China to Shanghai, China on July 1, 2013. The 1.5 hour flight was 3 hours delayed in departure due to "traffic control," by the time we boarded the plane. The flight attendant was walking through the rows of unhappy passengers, answering to them one by one and addressing their issues related to their connection flights and checked-in luggages. She really did a fantastic job comforting the passengers and helping them the best she can to solve their problems. By the time she got to my row, I stopped her and handed her the box of chocolate, telling her why I did so and whom the FAAC is. I saw her face turned from a prepared professional ready-to-receive-your-complaint smile to a total surprised expression. "I'm so deeply touched that someone would thank us on a such situation, and I'm so sorry for the inconvenience caused by our flight delay!" she said with her eyes wet, "I've been doing this for more than 10 years, it's my first time to see anyone who shows appreciation to our work with sweets. I want to know more about this FAAC!"

Story two -

I was on American Airline 1008 from San Jose to Chicago on July 8, 2013. I handed a box of chocolate over to the flight attendant upon my boarding on the aircraft and told her what is about. After that I walked to my seat, when someone behind me asked, "do you do that every time you fly?"

I turned and smiled, "Yeah."

"That was very nice of you!"

I sat down on my own seat, not paying too much attention to the guy who just talked to me.

On my return flight from Chicago to San Jose on July 12, 2013, I did the chocolate again as I have done before. Later when the crew members came to thank me for the chocolate, the person sat next to me asked, "Were you on the flight from San Jose to Chicago on Monday?"

"Yes..."

"I remembered you. I was behind you when I saw you handed chocolate to the crew on that day! Remembered I even talked to you about it?"

"Ah, right!" I remembered him. "What a confidence! We are on the same flight again!"

"And I get to witness what you do twice!" He smiled. He then told the crew member what he had seen me on Monday's flight. "I can prove that she really does it on all her flights, not just this one."

As a return, the crew gave me some booklets of "Junior Aviator Logbook, which allows the owner to collect Captain signatures on their each flight as logs - a gift I like very much.

After the happy flight attendant left, the guy asked me about the FAAC and where to get more info. "Now you've inspired me. I'm a life-time platinum member of American Airline. I'm going to do the same thing! "

He even gave me some of the "appreciation coupons" that can be given to any flight attendant as an award and appreciation for their excellence work. I guess it adds to the receiver's performance assessment in their record when they turned in.

All these are new and exciting things to me. And it's all about brightening one's day with a little extra giving!