The first time I ever received gifts from the cabin crew was on a flight from London Heathrow to Moscow. I was travelling in business class and after the main service I popped back to the galley for a chat with the crew.
They were a happy bunch and I got along very well with them. Just before descent, one came by and announced, “Here’s the Duty Free you ordered, sir!”. Puzzled, I saw the pleading look in his eyes saying, “Just go with it!” so I thanked him and stowed the bag.
Gifts Revealed!
Once we arrived, I said my goodbyes and found my way to my hotel. Once in my room, I opened the bag and laughed with delight. The crew had packed up three mini gins, three mini vodka’s, three little cans of tonic, three lemonades and one full size bottle of Champagne!
That was a really nice surprise from a really great crew. Perhaps they felt sorry for me travelling alone, or perhaps they just liked me but either way I’ve never forgotten that flight.
Other Gifts On Other Flights
Anyone who reads my flight reviews will know I always like to drink Champagne when flying. On a few occasions I have received one or two of the piccolo size bottles to take home with me. The only downside is when connecting as liquid restrictions mean you can’t take them through security to the next flight.
Why Does This Happen?
My take on it is good customer service training coupled with a company that empowers their employees to go the extra mile. Being able to surprise and delight a passenger with something unexpected creates a feeling of goodwill towards the brand.
It works too, because I’ve recounted that Moscow story to lots of people as part of my repertoire of stories about memorable flights I have had. The people I have told know that a particular airline is a good bet because of it.
Being nice to the crew is also another influence as well. My background is in customer service and I always bent over backwards to help the really nice people. The difficult ones would get the bare minimum I could get away with as pay back for their attitude. It pays to be nice!
Overall Thoughts
Receiving a gift from your crew is a really nice surprise. It happens quite rarely so when it does happen it is truly a really nice surprise and gives a person a favourable impression of an airline.
It does go both ways as well. Once I had really good service from a lounge attendant and gave him a business class amenity kit from another airline to say thank you for his service. Recognising good service is also very important.
Have you ever had the crew give you a gift on board or surprise you with some great service? Let me know in the comments below. Thank you for reading!
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Featured image by Annie Spratt via Unsplash.
Back in the 1990s another couple and my spouse and I were traveling from VT to Hawaii via Chicago on an early morning United Economy flight. Although the plane was full, the 4 of us, not sitting together, were the only ones drinking champagne and kept buying each other a round. As we deplaned in Chicago, the flight attendants gave EACH of us a full size bottle of champers and told us we had made their day by being so much fun! We consumed one bottle in the waiting area (disastrous for the other woman…..) and, back “in those days”,… Read more »
Hahaha! That is fantastic, I can just imagine you all buying each others rounds. Sounds like my kind of people, that’s for sure! You did amazingly well to get a full bottle of Champagne each – now that’s really fantastic. Oh, I hear you on the liquids, I remember not having to worry about that kind of thing when flying either. Excellent memory, can see why it’s a fond one. Appreciate you telling me – always love a good story, I do!
Received many nice gifts from flight attendants, usually in business class. Examples: United economy a large bottle of champagne; Pan Am economy large bottle of champagne, miniatures, first class wine; Emirates business a leather writing set, extra amenities kits, selection of minis. The most appreciated things from crew is the outstanding service, care and extra attention, and sometimes extra food. The best gift from an airline is the complementary upgrades, which seem few and far between for loyal emirates these days. However I now find it very heartening to see the responses when I am the one giving the gift… Read more »
I am really pleased to hear you’ve received some really good gifts from the crew over the years. You are right, outstanding service, care and extra attention are just as appreciated – if not more – than actual gifts. I also like extra food if I am hungry and ask and get more.
It must have been very memorable to surprise someone that much with your gift, especially as it was her first one. People often forget that crew are people too, so it’s great to see that you do things like that. Great story, thanks very much!
My husband and I were flying from Phoenix to Seattle and got a last minute upgrade to First Class. We are both retired educators and somehow got to chatting with one of the flight attendants about his (probably very gifted) son. As he was back and forth providing the regular service, we managed to share a lot of our (probably) sage advice. Just before leaving he handed us a full size bottle of the lovely wine we had been drinking. A lovely way to say thanks.
It sounds like you had a really good conversation throughout the journey. Excellent that you had such an connection – it must have been pretty good advice you were giving! It must have been a fascinating conversation you were all having. Great story, thanks for taking the time to share!
Thanks – My husband and I each have 32+ years experience in Education – both regular ed, gifted and special ed programs. Now that we’re retired, we love sharing some of that experience. Teachers are so overworked that they often don’t have the time to spend giving parents advice and ideas on how to be the best possible parents. And being a parent certainly isn’t an easy job. Thanks for your posts – I always look forward to reading them.
Sounds like you have quite extensive and well rounded Education experience. You both must have loved your job, which only makes it better, I guess. My cousin is a Primary School Teacher in Australia and she absolutely loves her work and the kids. She has the right disposition to be both a good teacher and a fun teacher – I’m quite proud of her. Thanks for the kind words, I’m glad to hear you enjoy my posts!
On my last flight to MCO from PHL I was sitting in first , with 3 of the rudest people ever, it was just the 4 of us and the flight attendant and these fellas were being overly demanding on a 2 hour flight. Afterwards I apologized for them and the flight attendant told me to sit and wait for everyone to leave and she gave me a bottle of red and I got a flight voucher for 200 bucks !!!!!
Wow, that’s amazing! Well done – it really does pay to be nice. A shame you had to sit among the rude people for the entire flight though. That is above and beyond from the crew member – really impressive!