Passengers' complaints

One of the worst things that can happened to cabin crew is having complaints from it's passengers. Complaints ranged from rudeness,insensitivity to passenger's feeling to inefficiency are common. Though crew may have been taught how to avoid complaints it is inevitable that it keeps receiving them from time to time.
Compared to compliments received,complaints are shall I say far and few. Out of 10,000 compliments, the airline received around one complaint. Nevertheless, the airline would try to eradicate all complaints albeit impossible.
Below were some of the classic complaints from passengers regarding crew insensitivity.

When the dessert trolley was wheeled to the row of seats whereby a rather huge passenger was seated (in the business class),the stewardesses in good faith and out of concern, waved her index finger at the passenger and said "no, no..it isn't good for you". The passenger took offence and complained because the dessert was his favorite course. Moreover, he did not think he was fat.

Another  case was a stewardess offering a choice of fish or beef to her passengers told the hesitant passenger he should have the fish instead of the beef. When asked why he shouldn't have the beef the stewardess replied "Sir, I think at your age (he was quite old actually) you should not consumed food that are high in cholesterol"

During boarding an old lady was tugging her rather heavy baggage along the aisle of the cabin. Instead of assisting the old lady,the stewardess jokingly told her "it is good exercise for you ma'am"

The poll shows

Finally I have garnered 101 votes by 8:03pm this evening. 2/3 polled preferred only airline stories to be published here while 1/3 does not mind having other stories here too. Tell you what, I have created another blog http://myothertales.blogspot.com for the 1/3...fair?
From now onwards,only airline stories will be told here and other tales in the other blog...ok?
Thanks for participating in the survey.

Stop blogging (not on strike la) until ..........

I will stop blogging from today until I have got at least 100 votes on the poll (right hand side). I would like a clear indication of what (you) my readers would like me to blog eg. more airline stories, tomato face type of stories or prison stories.
I have also removed the YouTube song videos because most of you asked me to via the polls. After all this blog is created for you all.

Thank you.

boh tong

PS: Today is 24 August and I have noticed 50 people have voted. Come la and 50 more I will resume blogging. 30 votes are for airline stories only and 29 are for other stories (including airline stories as well). This is very close between the two. It looks like a lot wouldn't mind me blogging all kind of stories besides airline stories...right? We shall see when the votes reach the magical number (100).

Boh Tong next Aussie Prime Minister?

Watch this video
http://www.australia2010.com.au/index.php?rfname

My prison job.

My job as a Prison Rehabilitation Officer

Before joining the airline I was a prison officer. I was 22 years old when I joined the Singapore Prison Service. Being a non graduate, I was paid $190 per month as a Prison Rehabilitation Officer.

The Prisons department posted me to the Reformative Training Center ( RTC) where young offenders were kept.
My training started at the grounds of the main Changi Prison. It was a 3 month stint,learning basic law to using guns and even judo lessons under the Singapore champion Moorthy a senior prison officer.
The Prisons dept. allowed me and other staff to share a house or what we called then the prisons' staff quarters.
I remember paying $10 as rent.
RTC is still standing there today at Jalan Ulu Bedok. I don't know about now but it was 'home' to around 300 inmates.
Some of these young inmates' sentences ranged from 1 year to as many years as the President of Singapore wishes.
The ones sentenced to 'Under The President's Pleasure' were usually young criminals who committed major crimes like murder,kidnappings or crimes that would warrant the death penalty. Yes, they were too young to face the death penalty and so confined under 'TPP' ( The President's Pleasure)

After my 3 months of intensive training, I was then rostered for duty as a full fledged Rehabilitation Officer in uniform.
Before this, I was in civis and did not get much respect from the inmates.
There was once incidence that took place while I was on duty in my civics.
From nowhere, one of the inmates threw a stone at me.When I turned around, all the inmates were laughing at me.I couldn't figure out who was the culprit. Some of them were taunting me.They were testing whether I had the guts to deal with them.This was at the basket ball court and I was the only staff there.
Whatever it was, I told myself, I could not let the situation passed off without me taking any action.
They would have jeered at me and call me an " ah kuah", a term in Hokkien meaning "gay" or crudely put, balless.
I had to act but then who was the culprit? I had to be decisive and showed these thugs that I was not afraid of them.
In a split of a second,I caught hold of the nearest inmate and punched him in his face. Blood poured out from his nose. I did not feel bad because he was one of those who taunted me.
I caught hold of another one and kicked him in his balls. He let out a painful cry and fell on the ground.
By this time, the inmates numbering about 20 stopped taunting and jeering me. They knew I was a no nonsense newbie officer.
Those days,43 years ago,the inmates understood only one thing and that was punishment by force. Today I was told soft counselling works on them.
From that day onwards, the inmates did show at least a little respect for for me and it made it easier for me.

What does it mean to be a senior these days?

Gone were the days where seniority means power and respect in cabin crew. Seniority in today's context is a burden to the company. If you are a senior staff, it means higher salary and more perks.If you remains in the job beyond 55 you are jamming the opportunity for the younger and junior ones to climb the corporate ladder. If you are senior it also means you are old and naggy. Most likely you are not familiar with the use of the computers as compared to the junior ones.
In certain companies, you will be appraised by your juniors. This action is camouflaged by the word "feedback". The slightest mistake you make you will be on your way out without compensation.
Hello you IFS and Chiefs you wanna work beyond 55 and then to 60? ( I also heard that the union is asking the company to extend your retirement age to 62). Come on la be more realistic don't expect to be working till you drop dead. Have a break man!
The US president only serves 2 terms. People like Hu Jintao became the President of China only 7 years ago and now he is grooming someone to take over his powerful position in the next few years.
Sure, when you are old you are considered a burden not only to society but to your family as well.
I heard in the old days it was a practice  for the poor Japanese to carry their aged parents to the hills and throw them down. The thing here was the aged parents themselves would be the ones who would unselfishly suggest to their children to have them "disposed off" so the family would have more to eat.
So sad as the saying goes in Hainanese "chaet loud boh tong joung" ( notice my name there "boh tong").

Poll on YouTube music.

Wah I just put up a poll about the above and instantly 5 said they prefer not to have me posting the YouTube  song/music whilst 4 said it's fine. Ok,ok if more indicate they don't like or like the YouTube music on my blog I will act by either removing them or leaving them there. After all hor this blog was created to entertain you my loyal readers.
Btw how about the poll regarding my book leh? Dun be so lazy la, just a tick would not hurt your finger nor cost you a cent.

Talking about seniority when I was a steward.

Senior gals

Sometimes working with the very senior stewardesses were worst. They made you worked for them even during the night stops. Besides carrying their shopping for them (those days we don't have trolleys)and sharing rooms with them you would sometimes have to act like pimps for them.
If they were interested in "kow suaing" some rich passengers,you would have to act as pimps for them.You would have to subtly find out whether those passengers were married men or not and how rich were they etc. You would then be commanded to find out whether they were interested in the gals. If they were,then you would have to arrange a date for them. The gals would tried to be the goody goody type to those rich passengers.
At times when these aunties were tired,they would make you massage them in the hotel rooms. These sessions could go on for an hour or two. At the end of it all,the aunties would reward you with a peck on your cheeks. Dare you try to get fresh with them cos would be sacked when you reach home(most had BFs in the office or senior male crew or captains)
.

Senior crew.

The more senior you were the better privileges you would have. Privileges or perks as you may call them came in the form of sleeping with new and cute stewardesses or stewards,junior crew polishing your "apples",buying and serving you yummy meals,making pimps out of junior crew etc.
Senior crew were of both sexes. Those days the junior crew were like today's maids but with no police to report the abuses. One report to the office about these seniors behaviour will have the whole gang of senior crew coming down hard on you. You would get abused and falsely reported to the office about your "inability" to function as a crew.
Many of us stewards were made to share hotel rooms with the senior stewardesses who were "scared" of ghosts. If we refused, we would be marked and life would be miserable. Ha! you filthy minded guys would think we stewards were stupid to refuse. You probably think why not screw these senior gals in the room. If you dare touch even their hair,you would probably be sacked.Sharing room was one thing but we were made to serve and carried their shopping bags and what have you.

Blind jealousy

Tony, a non crew had a stewardess girl friend. He was a young handsome man and his girl friend Sue was a head turner. They looked the perfect couple.
Tony had met Sue when he was her passenger on a flight 2 years ago. It was like a fairytale story when they both fell for each other the first time they met on the plane.
Lately, Tony told me that Sue was behaving strangely. She would chat with her chief steward Alan very often on her mobile phone or skyped each other in Singapore and neglected Tony.
Tony,after reading my blog about stewardesses having affair with senior male cabin crew and pilots became suspicious of Sue. He told me that Sue was having an affair with Alan who was incidentally "married with a child". To make matter worst, one of Tony's friend who was a steward told him that Sue flew regularly with Alan. They would changed flights to get to fly with each other. The last straw was when Tony's friend told him that Sue had during her night stops shared hotel room with Alan.
One day, Tony waited for Sue at the arrival hall. His suspicion was confirmed when he witnessed Alan walking with Sue towards him. He confronted the 2 of them and there was a big commotion at the arrival area.
Back home, Tony was so full of jealousy that he beat Sue up so badly that she had to be hospitalised.
Sue despite of being treated badly begged Tony not to leave her. She told him that Alan was just a good friend and there was nothing more than that. She wanted to explain her relationship with Alan to Tony but he just would not listened. Finally, Tony left Sue.
The real story was, Alan was a gay and it would not be possible for him to have a love affair with Sue. The talk about Alan being married with a child was false. In fact, Alan was in love with Sue's late brother whom they had much to talk about during their night stops.
Tony refused to believe the story even after he had heard it from the crew.

Daytime rain: view from my window

I know it's not much of a view. I thought I wanna show you how it looks when it rains during the day. There was a video showing the night rain earlier. See the field is flooded but not too bad isn't it?
My place has never been flooded. The flash flood only happened at the Orchard and Bukit Timah areas where the rich people live. Heard that their cars/vehicles were converted into "submarines" whenever there is a flood there. At least over at my poor man's place our lorries and vans still stay above flood water if there is one....hehehe

Song about the floods in S'pores

When I eat chee chong fun I saw the rain come I call PUB. They never call me back,my car in void deck,I can't find my cat,my underwear wet.......

These comments are hilarious

I was complaining about people advertising in my blog w/o my permission and there are lots of them. I was asking my readers what was the term used for repeat advertising in a blog called. Reproduced below were some of the answers and rebuttals.

1st comment: "it's spasm lah Boh"
Rebuttal from another: "Spam lah!
Wah lau, i laugh until i got spasm liao!"

Another added "Spam is luncheon meat from china lah."

This one disagreed: "I tot spam is from ang mo country, china one is ham".

The 1st one who was criticized for telling me it's spasm got mad and replied:

"Hmm laugh at me because I mispelled
spam.Think you very clever meh?"

The reply  to the above was : "It's my passion to correct your spelling"

I feel like giving autographed free books to the above people whose comments were so funny that I laughed till I've got spasm.

For more of the above please click here

Mother's love

When one lands in Australia one has to declare the food items being brought in. If you do not declare them in the quarantine forms provided the authorities can fine you up to A$50,000. This ruling is applicable to passengers as well as crew members.
There were a few stories in the past whereby the crew did not declare food items brought into Australia. They had either forgotten to declare them or ignorant about the rules.
Some guilty crew were let off with stern warnings and other fined.
This was a story which I am going to blog. It happened to a stewardess who landed into an Aussie port and was fined a few hundred dollars for not declaring some food stuff she carried in her bag.
Poor girl cos it wasn't her fault really. Her mother was to blame for it. Mom was worried her stewardess daughter would be hungry when she checked into her hotel. Knowing that her daughter loved to eat meat dumpling (bak chang),mom had taken the trouble to go all the way to Joo Chiat and bought half a dozen for her daughter. Mom packed the bak chang in her bag without telling her daughter about it. Off course Mon didn't realised it was an offence for not declaring the foodstuff into Australia. Poor girl had to face the wrath of the quarantine officers in Australia. Back in S'pore the stewardess was also given a warning by the office.

Overseas fan bought my book.

It so nice to see one of my overseas fans bought my book. Above is the print screen of her message to me from Face Book this evening.

Sad to see CEO Chew go

It's kinda sad to see our CEO retiring at the end of the year. To me he has been an excellent CEO. At the height of the SARS crisis in 2003 when he took over as the CEO, he kindly gave us the opportunity to leave the airline with a nice gratuity. Not many of my colleagues appreciate that gesture but I certainly do. By letting me go, he had indirectly gave me the opportunity to write my first book,pursue my profitable hobbies etc etc. Thank you my kind CEO Seng.
Another thing I like about CEO Chew or affectionately known as Ah Seng was that he never criticised the crew who served him on his flight. He would remained quiet and unassuming and smile when we served him.
I had in my 35 years of flying , served unappreciative top brass people. They seldom praise the crew for the impeccable service rendered to them and their family but look for the slightest opportunity to "hantam" (complain) against them. Such was the culture then and I think it's still the same today ( correct me if I am wrong).
There was one who was so very petty with the crew. He would questioned the crew about the countries where the aircraft fruits came from,the profile of the passengers on his flight, the types of cargo we carried etc etc. He really traumatised the already terrified crew.
Not long ago there was another one who complained to the cabin crew bosses that the supervisor on his flight was paying too much attention a a particular first class passenger. Little did that he knew the supervisor was trying his best to calm that passenger because of some service lapse. The airline did not uplift her choice of meal which she had ordered.
Complain,complain complain...that's what they seemed to do. Complimenting the crew?? not in a million years. Wake up you uncomplimentary big bosses for it's time to show some appreciation to your hardworking cabin crew!

The champagne show off la

A passenger,standing along the aisle of the business class cabin,drinking with his 2 associates who were seated, stopped me as I passed him. " Hey you call this champagne, it is flat !!" pointing his half filled glass of champagne flute at me in the presence of his associates. "I am sorry sir I will get you all 3 glasses of freshly opened champagne" I apologised.
As I entered the galley, I saw an opened bottled of champagne in the chilling bucket. It was almost half full. The crew told me it was from the same bottle that they poured the champagne for the 3 passengers. I filled up 3 champagne flutes with the champagne from that opened bottle and served the passengers.
The one who was standing sipped the champagne that I just served,patted me on my shoulder and told his associates " ah this is more like champagne....this old guy (referring to me)knows a lot more about good service than his younger crew..."

No big deal la....

Honestly speaking there is no big deal in writing a book. In fact anyone in cabin crew can write a book. There are so many interesting and funny stories that happened in the skies,overseas etc that could be recorded in a book. If the publisher don't approach you, you may publish your book at your  own expense. The only difference is whether you can recover your cost or not. If the publisher does it on your behalf then you don't even have to dish out a cent.
Not necessary to have stories from the air. I am sure there are many interesting stories in your work place,schools, home etc which you may tell in a book.
There was a taxi driver in S'pore who wrote a book about his daily encounter with his passengers. He was a PhD graduate from Stanford university but was retrenched from his post as a lecturer. His book was a big hit here. See, you can also write like him or me.
Better still if you want to co-write with me (for my second book) you are most welcome. Please email me and we can together embark on a writing project.

A comment about S'porean passenger

Anonymous said...
I am a Singaporean but I think Singaporeans are just to sum it up 'one kind'. Of course there are exceptions, but most Singaporeans are just not gracious. They dont bother about others, they only care about themselves, and their families. Apart from that, if you're a stranger, then there's no way you're gonna be even noticed. They wont hold the door for you, they wont give way to you on the roads when you signal to change lanes, they wont even give way when walking along the malls. But when others dont serve them in a certain manner, they start to make noise, complaint etc. Look at the Caucasians, most of them are well mannered, they know their limits, they would give way, hold the door for others, and always say please and thank you. Most importantly, they smile. That's an international langauge. So to the demanding local pax out there, I think you should just chill out a bit and dont expect too much, when you yourself cannot set a good example of how to act in public. Not everything is about dollars and cents, it doesnt mean that once you pay, you are king.

Stewardess changes clothes on the subway

This one not for free ah!

Some things are free

Btw this video I shot was free. Uploading it to YouTube was also free. It also comes with free music...hahaha....please watch and enjoy for free.

Who says nothing is free?

BT, like most people loves things that are free. Take for example,the ride to and back from this heartland shopping area is free of charge. The owner of the shops provide this green shuttle bus for its shoppers without any charges. Know what? the usage of the toilets there are also free of charge. If you find the drinks at the foodcourt expensive (eg. a can of coke is $1.30cts) then proceed to FairPrice which is just next door charging a can of coke for 70 cts. After buying the coke you make take a seat at the foodcourt and enjoy your coke from FairPrice at a "discount" of 60 cents...so you see the seat is free.You may also watch the TVs for free (many had watched the world cup matches here for free). Btw the car parks are also free for the first hour. If you talk to the supervisor nicely you may have 2 hours of parking for free and before I forget the Chinese music is free too. Dun laugh at me and call me a cheapskate cos if you do then I am going to ask you what are doing here? The answer is: I do not charge you for visiting my blog...so you see you get entertained here for freeeeeeeeee hahaha.

Interview at 938 Live (Living Room)

Wah piang I went for an interview yesterday at Media Corp for a job as a DJ. Guess what? I have to go for the final round soon after passing the stringent 3 rounds of interview yesterday. This reminds me of the SQ cabin crew interview which the wannabes got to pass 4 rounds before being accepted.
Pssst.... I met Wijay's daughter Levisha Kumar at the Living Room. She is a DJ at 938 Live. Wah like that if I am accepted as a DJ, Levisha would be my senior at Media Corp. Her dad was my junior in cabin crew and so it does not make sense having her as my senior isn't it?...mmmm perhaps I would not accept the job.......

Repeat broadcast of 938 Live!

The repeat broadcast of boh tong's 938 live interview in "The living room" this morning with Pamela Ho and Stanley Leong can be heard after tonight 11pm news on 93.8 FM radio

This is where boh tong usually eat his meals.

The noise at this food court is deafening. The diners are usually noisy and loud plus with the TVs switched on,it's an unlikely place for boh tong to dine comfortably. What to do cos BT still has not upgraded to a condo or landed property yet where there are air conditioned cafes and restaurants?
Any neighbor-crew that BT know staying around here?
Please note the almost botak man which the camera zoomed in a few times is not BT ok.

Close shave for SIA plane

By yahoo singapore – August 1st, 2010

A Singapore Airlines plane was involved in a minor collision after its right wing-tip struck the tail of another plane while departing from Beijing’s International Airport.

Click here to continue.