It was the final flight for the week's assignment last Friday, and we were scheduled to "get out of school early" about 1:30 p.m. That just doesn't happen very often. Most of the time our last flight arrives after 9 p.m. following a really long day. So, this was a treat--and it was Valentine's Day besides. Louis said he would plan something fun for us to do that evening. I was looking forward to it and eager for the trip to be over.
Instead of being the last flight attendant off the plane like I usually am, because my position has to "sweep" the cabin and check that the doors are disarmed, the coffee makers off, the lavatories empty, and there is nothing in the overhead bins, I finished that assignment and muscled my way by the other four flight attendants who were chatting about who knows what. So I was number one off the plane.
As I was going up the jetway toward the gate area, I saw first one supervisor, then a second supervisor, and then more supervisors. My first thought was, "Did something go wrong on our flight?" With Instagram and all the other social media and phone cameras, we are sometimes met by supervisors who have already received some kind of complaint connected to the execution of the service, passenger treatment by crew members, or passenger dissatisfaction of some kind.
But the supervisors greeted me with big smiles and a negative to my question, "Is there something wrong?" No. They said they had come to see me. My mind raced again. It wasn't my birthday. It wasn't my company anniversary. WHY would they be coming to see me?
SAFE CARING DEPENDABLE EFFICIENT
Then another supervisor read a description of events leading to my being chosen to receive the TOP FLIGHT AWARD in Denver for this quarter. You may remember reading my blog from last September in which I chronicled the whole adventure of three high school girls going with me to Albuquerque and back in Shadow of a Job). That was the reason for the award.Each domicile gets to pick one flight attendant each quarter. Then from that pool of all of those award winners, just one flight attendant will be chosen as Top Flight for the year. Apparently, these flight attendants represent the top 1% in the company's 26,000 flight attendant group.
Wow! I didn't even know there was any kind of recognition award like this. I felt uncomfortable being center stage while all of this was going on. People going up and down the concourse were stopping out of curiosity to see why the pictures and the little ceremony. I'm pretty sure I acted subdued--because I didn't know HOW to act. I like being in the background, the peon in the economy section of the plane doing the work without a lot of fanfare. A simple thank you, maybe, or even a written note like some I have received in the past.
But this experience with the girls at Roosevelt High School here in my little town of Johnstown was a fun thing, something I didn't even think of as being a BRAND AMBASSADOR for United. Something that didn't put me out there as a hustler or an over-achiever. Just checking to see if their request to shadow me in my job for their speech class was a doable thing. I was glad it was. They liked it and had a good time. I liked being able to do that for them. End of story.
Anyway, it was my one day of fame at United Airlines. And I was pleased that someone thought it was worthy of notice.
1% in this case is a BIG number for me. It made me feel like my contribution in my own way is important, too.
THANK YOU, UNITED FOR MY LITTLE FLAME OF FAME!
P.S. I don't know where the supervisors got some of the information, but somehow they mistakenly thought Johnstown was MY hometown and Roosevelt High School was MY alma mater. No matter, the rest of it was okay.
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