If you Travel on the Plane, Please Read This

Some passengers are just complain to the flight attendant about their unhappy treatment, not being able to fulfill their request and so on. Remember, the main task for Flight Attendant is to ensure your safety from the time you board the plane until you reach your destination. Don't treat them like your professional maids or personal assistance. 

Have you ever wonder what flight attendant is secretly talking about you? Here are the list that crew won't tell you right in front of your face.

1. I'm not receptionist.

first of all, upon check in your baggage, you will definitely receive your boarding pass. If you know you are separated with your friends or your love ones, PLEASE immediately ask the check-in counter staff to change the seat for you. They know the allocated seats that can help you to solve your problem. it's too late to change seat once on board the aircraft. The crew will not able to help you especially it's a full flight.

2. I'm not your Porter!

it's not that i'm being lazy not to lift your bag to the overhead bin, but if you can bring it all the way to the aircraft, you can lifting it up to the compartment by yourself. PLEASE remember, Flight Attendant Rules AREN'T ALLOWED to lift passenger luggage into the overhead bin for you, though we can "assist" you. and please, if FULL, please close the compartment, don't wait for someone else (Me) to come along and close it for you.

3. Don't tell me all your problem!

Passengers are always coming up to me and dobbing each other. "can you tell him to put his seat up?", "Can you close the compartment for me?" oh please, i'm not your maid nor a teacher to scold the passenger in front of you.

4. Don't poke or grab me!

to be honest, no one like to be poked or grabbed, but even worse on the plane because you're sitting down and we are not, so it's usually in a very personal area. don't tell me you grab and poke a waiter in restaurant if you want a spoon or fork!

5. Do i look like walking stationary to you?

if you're travelling overseas, do yourself a favour and bring a pen for those immigration forms and note book for important message. i have few but please return it to me. don't just keep it after use, you are just none other that polite robber. it's just a pen.

6. Come well-equipped

we have limited stuff onboard the plane. if you travelling with your baby, bring nappies. 

7. It's plan simple.

The lavatory door is not rocket science. Push it. and some passengers thought that the airplane door is toilet. Oh please.

8. Please Pay Attention

if you hear us paging for a doctor, or see us running around with medical kits or oxygen bottles, it's not the right time to ask for a coke or throw your filthy napkins.

9. Mind your child

if you're travelling with your small child and you keep hearing bells and disco lights on your seat, PLEASE see if your child playing with the flight attendant call button. we have a lot of things to do.

10. Can't you wait a moment?

Do you really have to go to the bathroom right now while we're wrestling a 100kilogram food cart down the aisle? we won't take hours just to serve the passenger in each cabin.

11. Does your mother teach you politeness?

When you ask a favour from the crew, please use the word "PLEASE" and end it with "THANK YOU".

12. It's Public place, Keep others in mind.

do not clip your toenails or do any type of personal business under a blanket!

13. Cleanliness please.

it's so obvious that is your dirty tissue, your vomits or even your baby poo poo in the nappies. can't you throw it in the lavatory by yourself? There's no cleaner or housekeeping team in the plane, so please do it by yourself. PLEASE... don't expect me to take your filthy stuff with my bare hands.

14. Please know what is called URGENT.

when the crew order you to keep your bags before take off or landing for twice or trice, PLEASE just do so like IMMEDIATELY. we have to take care of 300 other passengers, not just YOU. and please do not show face to them. they are doing their job. At the end of the day, They are the one who ensure YOUR SAFETY onboard. not YOUR BAGS company.

Good Words from Dad

Beautiful letter written by a father to his son. Must send to your children.

Following is a letter to his son from a renowned Hong Kong TV broadcaster cum Child Psychologist. The words are actually applicable to all of us, young or old, children or parents.! This applies to daughters too. All parents can use this in their teachings to their children.

Dear son ,

I am writing this to you because of 3 reasons.....

1. Life, fortune and mishaps are unpredictable, nobody knows how long he lives. Some words are better said early.

2. I am your father, and if I don't tell you these, no one else will.

3. What is written is my own personal bitter experiences that perhaps could save you a lot of unnecessary heartaches. Remember the following as you go through life .....

1. Do not bear grudge towards those who are not good to you. No one has the responsibility of treating you well, except your mother and I. To those who are good to you, you have to treasure it and be thankful, and ALSO you have to be cautious, because, everyone has a motive for every move. When a person is good to you, it does not mean he really likes you. You have to be careful, don't hastily regard him as a real friend.

2. No one is indispensable, nothing is in the world that you must possess. Once you understand this idea, it would be easier for you to go through life when people around you don't want you anymore, or when you lose what/who you love most.

3.Life is short. When you waste your life today, tomorrow you would find that life is leaving you. The earlier you treasure your life, the better you enjoy life.

4.Love is but a transient feeling, and this feeling would fade with time and with one's mood. If your so called loved one leaves you, be patient, time will wash away your aches and sadness.Don't over exaggerate the beauty and sweetness of love, and don't over exaggerate the sadness of falling out of love. BUT give a positive response to the one who has been waiting for.

5. A lot of successful people did not receive a good education, that does not mean that you can be successful by not studying hard! Whatever knowledge you gain is your weapon in life. One can go from rags to riches, but one has to start from some rags!

6. I do not expect you to financially support me when I am old, neither  would I financially support your whole life. My responsibility as a supporter ends when you are grown up. After that, you decide whether  you want to travel in a public transport or in your limousine, whether rich or poor.

7.You honour your words, but don't expect others to be so. You can be good to people, but don't expect people to be good to you. If you don't understand this, you would end up with unnecessary troubles.

8. I have bought lotteries for umpteen years, but I could never strike any prize. That shows if you want to be rich, you have to work hard! There is no free lunch .

9. No matter how much time I have with you, let's treasure the time we have together. We do not know if we would meet again in our next life.

Your Dad ...

IQ? EQ?

I was reading several article about the IQ and EQ and decided to re-post those article here.

Different between IQ and EQ?

IQ, also known as Intelligence Quotient, is a score or number derived from a standardized intelligence test. IQ scored are used as predictors of educational achievement, job performance, special needs, or even income. and 95% of the populations scores an IQ between 70 - 130.

EQ is a measure of a person's level of emotional intelligence. This refers to a person's ability to perceive, control, evaluate, and express emotions. Studies have shown that high EQ people have greater mental health, exemplary job performance, and more potent leadership skills.

As an individuals, our success and the success of the profession today depend on our ability to read other people's signals and react appropriately to them. Personally, i believe EQ is more important compared to IQ, although people with IQ is still recognized as an important element of success, particularly when it comes to academic achievement. "Your EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them," says Howard Gardner, the influential Harvard theorist. Therefore, we must develop the mature Emotional Intelligence skills required to better understand, empathize and negotiate with other people - particularly as the economy has become more global.

i remember i did an IQ test back in my school day when i was around 15-16 years old. i can't exactly remember what is the score of my IQ test back then, but however, the scores predicted that i'm suitable for Civil Engineering.

However, i just did Emotional Intelligence Online Test, which presents a mix of self-report and situational questions related to various aspects of emotional intelligence. My results indicate an above average score on emotional intelligence. According to the result shown, people with a better than average score on Emotional Intelligence tend to be good at interpreting, understanding, and acting upon emotions. They are usually quite good at dealing with social or emotional conflicts, expressing their feelings, and dealing with emotional situations.

Salovey and Mayer proposed a model that identified four different factors of emotional intelligence:

1. Perceiving Emotions - the ability to detect, perceive and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, body language, and cultural artifacts.
2. Using Emotions - the ability to think and cognitive activity, such as; solving problems. Emotions help prioritize what we pay attention and react to; we respond emotionally to things that garner our attention.
3. Understanding Emotions - the emotions that we perceive can carry a wide variety of meanings. if someone is expressing angry emotions, the observer must interpret the cause of their anger and what it might mean. For example, if your boss is acting angry, it might mean that he is dissatisfied with your work; or it could be because he got a speeding ticket on his way to office, or that he's been fighting with his wife.
4. Managing Emotions - the ability to manage emotions effectively, responding appropriately, both in ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.

According to Akers and Porter, This 5 major categories of emotional intelligence skills are equally important:

1. Self-awareness - the ability to recognize your own emotions and their effects, and sureness about your self-worth and capabilities.
2. Self-regulation - the ability to control your self-experience emotions, such as anger, anxiety or even depression. this involves self-control, trustworthiness, conscientiousness (Taking responsibility for your own performance), adaptability, and innovation.
3. Motivation - to motivate yourself for any achievement requires clear goals and a positive attitude. Motivation is made up of; Achievement drive, commitment, initiative, and optimism.
4. Empathy - the ability to recognize how people feel is more important to success in your life career. An Empathetic person excels at: Service orientation (anticipating, recognizing and meeting clients' needs), leveraging diversity, political awareness and understanding others.
5. Social Skills - includes; communication, influence, leadership, problem solving, building bonds, collaboration and cooperation, team player.

However, it's important to remember that no matter how good your score is, there's always room to improve your emotional intelligence. consider areas where you are not as strong and think of ways that you can learn and grow. take stock of your strong points and find ways to continue to develop and apply these skills.

References:
Gardner, H. (1975) "The Shattered Mind", NewYork: Knopf.

Kendra, Cherry "IQ or EQ: Which One Is More Important?". psychology.com

Michael Akers & Grover Porter. (2007). "What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?". Psychcentral.com

Mayer, J.D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2000) "Models of emotional intelligence". In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.). Handbook of intelligence (pp. 396-420). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Things You Should Know As A Passenger During Your Flight

People always said "Customer is a King", "customer always correct", but let me tell you this, All of that will not happen in airline industry.

Some of us might be a frequent traveler, some of us may be the first timer, but this information might help you understand more about the aircraft and to let you know what is the reason behind all the cabin crew command, from the time you step in the cabin during boarding until end of your flight.

1. FAST BOARDING

ALL transportation need some parking space and it is chargeable. Same with airline, whenever the aircraft park in an airport, it will be charge per minute. The faster the airplane push back, the lesser the Airline company need to pay the airport. Other reason, ALL FAs in the world will only get paid when the aircraft door is close and push back. The faster you board the aircraft, the faster you will get to your destination and the faster the cabin crew get paid.

2, PED (Portable Electronic Devices) OFF BEFORE DOORS ARE CLOSE

In october last year (2013), FAA allows passenger to use their electronic devices during take off and landing. That will only happen in the States, but not in ASIAN Airlines. Nowadays, everyone will own at least 1 mobile phone. some of them will have 2 phones, a tablet and a laptop to travel with them. the reason we are the passenger to switch off the phone before doors are close because for obvious reason, phone call or other transmitting devices might interfere the communication between cockpit and ATC Tower (Air Traffic Control), although this thing has not happen yet, take some precaution will always a better way to play safe.

second reason, There are hundreds of other passenger in the cabin with only 9 to 15 crew in the cabin (depends on airlines standard). FAs have no time to entertain one by one if one taking their own sweet time to switch off their device. They need to be seated and takeoff as soon as possible. It save FA's time to inform all passengers by making Public Announcement. 

3. BAGS STOWED IN THE OVERHEAD COMPARTMENT or UNDER THE SEAT IN FRONT OF YOU

For obvious reason; in case of evacuation especially those who are seated at the emergency row, the passenger seated inside or around you will have difficulties to evacuate if your bags or pillow are all over the floor. worse might be a hazard for all the passenger surround you. That's why FAs will always tell you "you may bring it down after takeoff or after seatbelt signs are switch off.

secondly, in case of emergency evacuation, FAs need a minimum time to evacuate all the passengers. EACH passenger seat in ALL airlines is equipped with lifevest for evacuation purpose. What will happen if you pull your bag instead of lifevest?

4. DIMMING CABIN LIGHT FOR TAKEOFF OR LANDING AT NIGHT

number 1, ALL human need several minutes to adjust our eyes with total darkness. We will see total darkness when the lights is off suddenly. Number 2, most of aircraft accident happens during takeoff and/or landing. This is why, they need to dim or off the cabin light for you to adjust with darkness, in case of emergency evacuation at night, you are able to see during evacuation.

read the research regarding How our eyes adjust to darkness.

5.  LATE/SLOW SERVICE

ALL HUMAN only have 2 hands and FAs need to do hundreds of things in flight starting from takeoff to landing. Each flight only have 9 to 16 FAs (Depends on Airline standard) with hundreds of passengers and thousands of requests (each) during the flight. So please bare with the crew if they serve you slow or late; even toilet can only serve 1 person at a time.

6. TURBULENCE

Captain will always Switch On the Fasten-Seatbelt Sign if there's a turbulence/weather condition. Especially if you hear the Captain says "Cabin Crew Please Be Seated", it's going to be super bumpy. As a passenger, you better DO SO. 

Generally, Turbulence is quite harmless, Clear Air turbulence, however, is another story. Clear Air Turbulence is the most dangerous kind, as it occurs in cloudless skies with perfect visibility-so oncoming turbulence cannot be picked up by weather radar. This gives leaves little to no time for the pilot to warn passengers to return to their seats and buckle up their seatbelt. Most injuries-inflight happened due to clear air turbulence.

The only way of preventing turbulence-related injuries is to keep your seatbelt fastened whenever you are seated. Simple saying, when the FA tells you to be seated with your seatbelt securely fastened, please do so. You can hold your pee for few minutes, aren't you?

7. DIVERSION

Diversion of a flight will DEFINITELY costly to the airline company; refueling, parking, documentation, doctors, police, etc. ALL of that is to ensure your SAFETY. FULL STOP. You don't want to fly with rowdy, intoxicated, loud, or even dangerous passenger right? Same to the cabin crew and their airlines company. They don't want this thing to happen. So please be a 'good kid' onboard. However, In case of medical case, that will be another story, It's Someone's LIFE.

8. MANY OF THE PLANE ARE FILTHY

First, you need to know that the water we pour from the pitcher or the coffee that we make may taste okay, but that doesn't mean it is clean. Water is housed in a special tank on each aircraft and is supposed to be disinfected on a regular basis by maintenance. The truth is however that many airlines outsource this kind of work to companies that are less than reputable. So, Please do not save you $5 just to get a (filthy) free drink. Buy a bottle of water onboard will keeps you dehydrated and healthier.

Second, many many many of the planes are filthy. Notice of the seats, floor, wall, windows. look around and notice how dirty it is. FAs and/or the cleaner usually do a quick cleaning during a fast turnaround but often there is little time to do it. They have no time to clean each seat, the whole flooring carpet, the wall, window, or even the toilets. Always make sure your carry on bags are zipped up and closed, you won't know how dirty the floor/compartment is.

9. ABUSING THE PASSENGER CALL BUTTON

Of cause we will do our best to serve you. By all means press it if you need to. Imagine working a 10-hours shift of non-stop requests accompanied by the noisy "Ding Ding Ding..." constantly ringing in your ears. keep walking in the different air pressure is a very exhausted things to do. Cabin Air Pressure is equivalent to the outside air pressure at 1800-2400m (6000-8000 feet) above sea level. imagine you need to keep walking for 10 hours on top of the mountain. FAs are human too, right?

10. SPECIAL REQUEST

you know yourself better than anybody else. Please make the necessary special request when you book your ticket. Once you're on the plane, it's too late to inform the FAs that you need a low-sugar, gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian meal. ALL Catering company will not operate in the airport building. They need time to prepare, to access the airport premises, to deliver to aircraft, etc. even a chef need time to prepare and cook for you in a restaurant, but please, this is airport.

If you under medications, by all mean please bring your own medications and a letter from your doctor. ALL airport will allows you to bring onboard with valid documentation proof. Most of the FAs have limited knowledge in medication (some know nothing), that's why they always page for doctor in case of medical emergency.

11. HANDING A BAG OF VOMIT/DIRTY NAPPY/BABY POOPS

Just be at the FAs shoes, will you take other people's vomits or baby poops?

12. SAFETY INFORMATION CARD

this card is not just a note to make your seat pocket full of stuffs, it is your life bible to survive in the aircraft. After takeoff, it's only you, FAs and other passengers. Nobody will help you in case of anything that happen onboard other than the FA. so please help the FAs by understanding and know the important of SAFETY.

13. QUESTIONS?

if you have any concerns, do not hesitate to ask/tell the FAs. They will be more than happy to let you know the answer. At the end of the day, it is Their duty to ensure your safety and comfortable at all time during the flight.

So please, just do whatever cabin crew told you. and if you wondering, FAs stand for Flight Attendant.

*All of the above information are for educational purpose. There's no intention of abusing the airlines company/industries. Any resemblance name, people, place, location, products, photos, company, characters, incident, events, trademarks, or even slogan mentioned are purely coincidental.