09. November 2017

At an airport once again and I must say that in the past weeks (and it’s not over yet) I feel I have spent a lot of time at airports and in hotels. But I am on my way home for a long weekend (it’s Thursday evening) and truly look forward to sleeping in my own bed.

Somehow you spend most of your time waiting in line at security or boarding and simply waiting. So I am admittedly terribly bored. One of the reasons I thought it is time for another challenge, even if I am dead tiered (it’s an evening flight after several long days).

So, as I fly so often I was always considering a challenge that Jia Jiang did – asking to do an announcement on a flight. After all I am doing this challenge to get rejected and I do believe that the odds are definitely in favor of a very clear NO. Nevertheless, if it’s a rejection I will always try to turn it into a yes or at least a compromise – ok if I really dare to.

I must admit that when my flight was called for boarding my heartbeat went up quite a bit and I was seriously reconsidering. So I waited for everyone else to get in line (waiting once again). Lufthansa is a great airline but I highly doubt they will allow me to do an announcement – but you never know.

As it’s a small aircraft, we boarded on the airfield and I waited for everyone to get on board before me as I certainly didn’t want to hold anyone up – most passengers don’t appreciate that at all. The last thing I wanted was to annoy anyone and start a discussion.

Again I plucked up all my courage while walking up those steps (I know I am not a dead woman walking, even if it feels a little like it) and getting my request sorted in my head – sort of!

It went more or less like this:

“Good evening, may I ask you something?”
A friendly face smiles at me while handing me a tiny bag of crisps and replies, “of course”.

What a good start, I thought.

“I fly with Lufthansa very often and I really enjoy it every time, so I have a perhaps rather unusual request. I always wanted to do the announcement before the flight and was wondering if I could do it on this flight tonight?”

The flight attendant still smiled but I could very clearly see the confusion in her face. Somehow my requests seem to provoke bewilderment. “You want to make an announcement?”
“Yes, I would like to make the announcement before the flight, if that is possible?”
Her puzzled look intensified and she asked me the question that caught me slightly off guard, “Why do you want to do that?”

My heart is racing and I am shaking a little. But I wear my heart in my sleeve and simply tell her that as I fly so often I have always wanted to make the announcement myself.

She kindly but clearly tells me that it is not possible and as I am the queen of WHY, I inquire the reason. I understand that for security reasons only trained personnel may do the announcements. I am too nervous to ask for anything else – to greet my fellow passengers or whatever as I am happy that I got through this request. I am again proud of myself though for not pulling out. After landing in Munich, while exiting the aircraft, I thanked the friendly flight attendant for her kindness and she beamed at me wishing me a lovely evening.

Now I am happy to get home and let’s see what my next challenge will be.