This morning I flew from Florida to Buffalo on Jet Blue airline. As we were settling in for the trip, our stewardess made an announcement on the mic that pretty much apologized that they were taking us to Buffalo. She said that she had been there earlier in the morning and was not excited to return. After the announcement my wife and I looked at each other and our expressions both said the same thing. “Who cares what you think of our hometown – just get us there and leave if it makes you so unhappy.”
The problem with her attitude (and announcing it over the loud speaker) was that we were genuinely excited to get back home from a short vacation that pretty much rained the entire time anyways. I only mention the rain because it was not as if we were even leaving hot and sunny Florida. We were on out way home to catch Flurrious! – the winter festival in Delaware Park, and we booked a flight out, cutting our vacation short, so that we could enjoy the true essence of Buffalo winter.
Not to mention that a good chunk of the passengers on the flight were from Toronto, and there were most likely travelers from other parts of the US and Canada. For our stewardess to express her apparent disdain for Buffalo was callous and obnoxious. She should have left her attitude at the gate. I’m sure that she was not happy to be returning to the snow, and that it had nothing to do with the city itself (at least I hope), but guess what? Nobody likes getting on a plane being told that you’re heading somewhere that you probably won’t want to visit, let alone stay. A lot of people live in Buffalo for all of the reasons that make it unique, including the winter weather. It’s not our problem that the stewardess doesn’t like cold weather. Of she wanted to tell us the weather conditions in Buffalo, that would have sufficed. If you think I’m just being oversensitive, then maybe you should have been there when the announcement was made… it really ticked me off, and others agreed that it was uncalled for.
Fortunately I made it in time to attend Flurrious!, which was a blast. When we got there it happened to be drizzling rain…just like Florida.