Deep empathy for flight attendants - giving gifts to balance things out?

[gentlegee1976]

Hi everyone,
I want to show some appreciation to the flight attendants on an upcoming trip. This is country number 11 that I am going to visit, and over my travels, I've developed a deep personal empathy for public service workers.

I have prepared four £10 Starbucks gift vouchers (one for each crew member on a short-haul flight) to hand over.

This will be done from BHX whenever my finances allow me to. Along with the gift cards, I’ve written a note to explain why I'm doing this. This is the exact text of the note:

"Hi, please accept these Starbucks gift vouchers as a small gesture of my appreciation. There's one for each of you (4 in total).
I spent 10 years as a Birmingham bus driver, during which time I was spat at, punched in the face and headbutted, not to mention the endless disrespect and abuse that public service workers have to endure.
Although (as you already know) the overwhelming majority of people are polite and respectful, it's the small minority that can really ruin your day.
I'm just trying to balance things out a bit and maybe brighten your shift up a little. I truly understand the problems that you face, and the fact that they're only getting worse.
Unfortunately, 12-hour+ workdays are all too familiar to me as well. Please buy yourselves a nice breakfast, you deserve it. I appreciate your hard work, and recognise that you do a difficult and demanding job."

My question for the board is: will this small gesture do to try and balance out the endless problems that they have to deal with?

Has anyone done something similar, or do we have any cabin crew on here who can advise? They'll be given to the first attendant I see in an envelope (discreetly) when first boarding. They'll understand when they open it.
Thanks in advance.

If you drove a bus or did this job for 10 years, I can absolutely assure you that you'd feel very, very differently. Can you please describe what you believe these public service workers have to deal with if the job is "mostly pretty easy"?

This is clearly AI generated and nonsensical.

I think it's strange this new trend of giving presents to strangers doing their jobs. I'm not even doing anything particularly exceptional.
Please can we stop it?

@gentlegee1976 But none of that makes me give out gift vouchers like Lady Bountiful? Where does it end? Every shop assistant, care home worker, doctors receptionist ? Who deserves the vouchers and who doesn’t? We do actually pay for the services! You have picked the transport industry because you know it, but others are subjected to abuse too. Of course people don’t have to work for shitty low cost airlines! They do have a choice!

This. Giving a gift to somebody for doing their job and then bore them by telling you about your tedious job in Birmingham

Batshit.

It might have challenges, and I'm sure some people try it and find that it's not for them, but it's a highly sought after job that people choose to train for. You are acting as if it's bottom of the barrel stuff people have to do because they are absolutely desperate.

The gift card is nice (providing they are allowed to accept), but the note is a bit patronising and odd.

This is weird and patronising. I’m not sure you are quite as empathetic as you think you are if you can’t accept that not all cabin crew hate their job.

How bizarre.

If you really care and are not doing it to make a showy gesture then donate the money here https://www.babenevolentfund.org

You will help many more people rather than the token four staff on any given flight, won’t make anyone feel uncomfortable, and you would actually be helping people in their time of need.

Patronising and weird.

This is completely ridiculous 😂

If I was a flight attendant I would be pretty offended by that note. I work in a job that’s a bit ‘unbearable’ at times - I can say that about my own job but I don’t want other people saying it to me, very patronising. For all you know they may love their job and be very proud of it. Also agree with pps that you’ve made it ‘all about you’.

If you really want to give the vouchers (assuming it’s allowed, at the end of the flight) then cut your note down to the first sentence and leave it at that.

Deeply weird.

Are you handing them out to all bus drivers / network rail staff / public facing council workers / fast food servers / supermarket workers you meet too???

Are you a man? Did you use AI to write this? It’s weird AF and the cabin crew will be creeped out.
Also, £10 gift voucher?! Soooo generous! 😂💅

Give them to real public sector workers who get shafted and really get treated badly by the public, like beaten up and worse…. Local police, nurses…. Or care workers.

Your approach and mindset is odd and almost unnerving.

If you start discreetly passing notes to cabin staff before the flight I imagine their first thought won’t be “lovely, a gift” but “fucking hell, it’s a demand from a terrorist”

Will you also be giving vouchers to the staff at Starbucks when you buy the vouchers as they have to deal with the public every day too?

This made me laugh 😆

That's such a lovely gesture....I'd do what @cocochoola suggests, as she/he is ex-cabin crew. I do think anything else would seem a bit over the top and possibly a bit patronising, I'm sorry.
Awww you're making me want to do this for my local bus drivers now! I've seen some of them get a hard time.

You keep referring to them as public service workers but they are not

Please, no. The note is too weird.

Why is everything "deep" at the moment? Is it the current buzz word?

If you feel like you've genuinely had good service, follow that up with feedback in an appropriate way. 10 quid in an airport Starbucks franchise will barely get you a bottle of water, never mind a breakfast.

They see the glamorous side of travel or view the crew merely as "waitstaff in the sky," completely missing the gruelling reality of managing the public in a confined space, whilst dealing with ignorant and disrespectful people on a daily basis.

This is very patronising and just simply not true. As a regular flyer, I see nothing glamorous about being cabin crew and would assume they see very little world. They certainly do a challenging job, and it’s not one I want to do so that is why I chose not to train as cabin crew. But they did. Because they want to. And by do a great job, so it’s nice to show appreciation but you’re being a little weird and OTT about it.

What I was gonna say.

I feel like this post was just made so you could get lots of adoring comments? If you wanna give flight attendants gift cards go for it, they probably don't care about your life story though.