The long haul flight was closing on to its destination,
we had taken off from Doha at 8 35 am (1 35 am in Miami), right now the time is
3 15 pm in Miami, about 14 hours into the flight.
( I was at a seaside village in Bretagne just a couple of days earlier)
After I woke up from my nap, I had been served
Lamb loin with herb crust and rosemary jus and later on it was Lentil pancakes
with paneer masala.
I wanted a repeat of the Lentil cakes and a glass of
champagne, Billecart-Salmon, I had planned not to drink during my stay in the
USA for the next fourteen days, when I would fly back to Asia with Qatar
Airways again and I am sure it will still be Billecart-Salmon!
As luck would have it (I seem to have lots of it on my QR
flights!) Christopher MelloCastro was the Flight Attendant assigned to my side
of the cabin, the supervisor was the friendly Varun from India. The longer
flights are made easier to bear when you have FAs with whom you could chat
about the world, and of course, as an anthropologist, I am interested in their
stories.
(always with nostalgia, I look at Iran as I fly over, NMH and Som in Shiraz)
Both Varun and Christopher has that extra sense of making
their guests comfortable, I think it is not an acquired false sense of sincerity,
but a genuine character strength. I can recognize this quality and I have seen
them in a few of the QR attendants: Zorica from Serbia, Fatima Zara from
Morocco just in the last couple of weeks. I am eager to hear their stories
Christopher is of Goan ancestry, he and his family as is
common among the subcontinental people, had become International nomads. They
are not expatriates but rootless in the countries of their birth and work.
Christopher was born in Saudi Arabia while his mother was born in Qatar, where
his grandfather had worked for Qatar Petroleum. He is very proud to point out
that he is the third generation in his family- his Grandmother, his mother and
his aunt-to work in the airline industry, in the service sector.
He went on to say: I want to treat each passenger, with
the same attention my family would expect and deserve when they fly. So I think
of the passengers as my family.
It was his first Business Class assignment and I watched
him as he attended to the minor details of each of the passenger under his
supervision, on this long flight from Doha to Miami (todays flight lasted
nearly 16 hours!), to be repeated back within 24 hours.
As the flight was closing in on the Florida borders, I
had requested a glass of Champagne, he brought over the Billcart-Salmon, saying
he has noticed that there were less bubbles. I will tell you in a minute if it
is flat, I kidded him, and I sipped it and found it to be a little flat. Don’t worry,
he assured me, and rushed off to open a fresh bottle off Billcart-Salmon. I
enjoyed that flute, soothing the body after 15 hours on the plane.
Last night on the QR flight from Cairo (a surreal
experience awaits you at Cairo International Airport!) to Doha, the FA was
Fatima Zahra from Morocco, once again with the starry sheen to her, like
Christopher
Thank you, Qatar Airways, from this Platinum Privilege
Club Member for making me feel special on your flights.
I look forward, in the month of May, on the following QR
flights:
Miami to Doha; Doha to Brussels to Doha; Doha to Kuala
Lumpur; Singapore to Doha; Doha to JFK
When I arrived at the Miami airport, there was an email from QR saying that I had reached their Platinum Level of Frequent Flier, Privilege Club. An honour indeed!
