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April 2009: How much does a smile cost? On intercontinental flights operated by U.S. airlines, a smile on the face of the flight attendants is more rare than free upgrades to the first class. On these flights, the flight attendants often make me feel as if it was wrong for me to be on their flight. I try to adapt and to be on flights operated by European airlines whenever I can. In particular, I like Lufthansa, not because I am German, but rather because in the past smiles were so abundant even on the faces of those flight attendants serving in economy. But recently, there seems to be a sad tendency to less smiles there, too. Today, on a flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco, I was sitting in row 32, the first economy row behind business class. The flight attendants serving in economy seemed to be close to running out of smiles - so they were distributing them quite reluctantly.

Sitting where I was, I could see through a wide gap in the curtain in front of me down the whole aisle in business class. Close to the end of the long flight, when the flight attendants are tired and their smile reservoir is rightfully depleted, I watched a male and a female attendant walking down together this aisle in business class and distributing to their passengers little presents - nicely wrapped bags presumably filled with delicious pralines. Not only did the passengers get these thank-you gifts (which I always enjoy when I get a chance to be in front), they also got them with bright and perpetual smiles on the faces of the two angle-like figures. The smiles looked genuine.

So, how much does a smile cost? The price difference between the full return economy fare and a business class ticket is about US $3500.00. During the roughly 21 hours of a return flight, contact with a flight attendant happens roughly 10 times in economy and at least 30 times in business. Maybe half of the contacts in economy come with a smile (at least if I make a try to trigger one), while almost all contacts in business are smile-saturated. Thus, roughly 25 prolonged smiles come at a price of $3500.00. Not too bad: $140.00 for a decent smile. Since I value so much smiles on the faces of people, whom I treat with deep respect, and whom I allow to serve me, maybe I have to pay this price the next time I fly.

We all are used to the statement that there is no free lunch. But it would be great if there were some free smiles for those in economy. That would make traveling in economy less aggravating and reduce the difference between those who have and those who don't. But these smiles would not come for free for Lufthansa. Lufthansa would have to improve working conditions for those in economy, so that smiles have a chance to regenerate. The sad trend mentioned above is not because of worse passengers or less friendly and careless flight attendants; the trend solely originates in deteriorating work conditions for those flight attendants working in economy.


If you have a story, thought, or picture worth to be considered as story, thought or picture of the month, please feel free to inform me about it by sending an e-mail to hpplag@unr.edu.