On my previous flight, I had a plane full of Singaporeans.
It was Monday, and the front-page of the various newspapers that we displayed were solely about the state funeral that had happened the day before for Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.
Passengers snapped up the newspapers, with a few of them taking more than just one.
Now, you all would have remembered me telling you stories about my passengers. I won't repeat them here because my comments are not meant to be published! On Monday, I had the most pleasant flight and I think I will remember it for a long time. It was mostly Singaporeans in my zone, and they were pleasant and polite and courteous. As many of them did not get a copy of Straits Times, I had to apologize to them and then offered a copy of Today. Responses that I got for telling them there is no more available copy of ST are different from what I usually get. It's not the usual ****cannot publish here but I'll be happy to tell you in person****, rather it was "Oh, it's ok. That's too bad."
When I promised them that I'll grab an available copy for them if I see one, they showed gratitude for the little act that I've promised them.
And - again, something that happened for the first time - as I walked down the cabin halfway through the flight, a lady passed me a copy of her ST that she had finished reading. I thanked her for it and told her there are actually passengers who are waiting to read today's newspaper. Hopefully, now that she knows, she can continue the habit of passing read papers back to us on her future flights. On flights where there are A LOT of Singaporeans, I sometimes wanna knock the idea into the heads of passengers that they are not flying SPH (Singapore Press Holdings) Airlines!
I managed to give three passengers who didn't get a copy of newspaper earlier in the end and they were really grateful that I went back to them.
Sorry I know that I spoke a lot about newspapers but newspapers - only $0.90 for ST may I remind you (and passengers alike) - are really so important to the flying folks. More important than cabin oxygen!!!
Newspapers aside, overall, passengers were very easy on Monday. Everyone thanked me for every cup of water or juice that I gave, and for the meal I put on their tray table. Every time I cleared their used cups, they thanked me.
Very unusual.
My theory is the events of the last one week rubbed off them. The good things that Singaporeans were doing for one another as the country mourned the loss of LKY (e.g. buying food for strangers in the queue, volunteers distributing food and water, sheltering one another from the hot sun, massaging elderly people who were in the queue for too long) were widely publicized. Singaporeans were heartened to read such heart-warming stories and that made them do more good to reciprocate the nice gestures. Monday was only a day after a hundred thousand people braved the rain to send off LKY. It was only a day after millions watched the live telecast of the state funeral. Maybe Singaporeans realized that it's really such a wonderful place to live in if people weren't so cold towards each other, and just how far the country has come as one united people. What I witnessed on Monday was more than what a decade's courtesy campaign has done for the island nation.
It took the death of Mr. LKY to wake young Singaporeans up. But there's only one LKY. Now that he is gone, what else do we have left to wake Singaporeans up should they fall back to being self-entitled.....
I feel hopeful for the future, yet with a little apprehension that this may be the best that we will ever see.
It was Monday, and the front-page of the various newspapers that we displayed were solely about the state funeral that had happened the day before for Mr. Lee Kuan Yew.
Passengers snapped up the newspapers, with a few of them taking more than just one.
Now, you all would have remembered me telling you stories about my passengers. I won't repeat them here because my comments are not meant to be published! On Monday, I had the most pleasant flight and I think I will remember it for a long time. It was mostly Singaporeans in my zone, and they were pleasant and polite and courteous. As many of them did not get a copy of Straits Times, I had to apologize to them and then offered a copy of Today. Responses that I got for telling them there is no more available copy of ST are different from what I usually get. It's not the usual ****cannot publish here but I'll be happy to tell you in person****, rather it was "Oh, it's ok. That's too bad."
When I promised them that I'll grab an available copy for them if I see one, they showed gratitude for the little act that I've promised them.
And - again, something that happened for the first time - as I walked down the cabin halfway through the flight, a lady passed me a copy of her ST that she had finished reading. I thanked her for it and told her there are actually passengers who are waiting to read today's newspaper. Hopefully, now that she knows, she can continue the habit of passing read papers back to us on her future flights. On flights where there are A LOT of Singaporeans, I sometimes wanna knock the idea into the heads of passengers that they are not flying SPH (Singapore Press Holdings) Airlines!
I managed to give three passengers who didn't get a copy of newspaper earlier in the end and they were really grateful that I went back to them.
Sorry I know that I spoke a lot about newspapers but newspapers - only $0.90 for ST may I remind you (and passengers alike) - are really so important to the flying folks. More important than cabin oxygen!!!
Newspapers aside, overall, passengers were very easy on Monday. Everyone thanked me for every cup of water or juice that I gave, and for the meal I put on their tray table. Every time I cleared their used cups, they thanked me.
Very unusual.
My theory is the events of the last one week rubbed off them. The good things that Singaporeans were doing for one another as the country mourned the loss of LKY (e.g. buying food for strangers in the queue, volunteers distributing food and water, sheltering one another from the hot sun, massaging elderly people who were in the queue for too long) were widely publicized. Singaporeans were heartened to read such heart-warming stories and that made them do more good to reciprocate the nice gestures. Monday was only a day after a hundred thousand people braved the rain to send off LKY. It was only a day after millions watched the live telecast of the state funeral. Maybe Singaporeans realized that it's really such a wonderful place to live in if people weren't so cold towards each other, and just how far the country has come as one united people. What I witnessed on Monday was more than what a decade's courtesy campaign has done for the island nation.
It took the death of Mr. LKY to wake young Singaporeans up. But there's only one LKY. Now that he is gone, what else do we have left to wake Singaporeans up should they fall back to being self-entitled.....
I feel hopeful for the future, yet with a little apprehension that this may be the best that we will ever see.
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