She certainly wasn't old at all, perhaps in her early to mid 40's?
I told the story during the bus ride to the hotel this morning and I got a lot more information.
Apparently the big "huff" is that the flight attendant is a former "Song Girl" and part of a new supervisors team that's trying to bury the "old, stuffy southern airline" image and drive it more towards a fun, internationally-oriented carrier. Some of the FA's that are resisting this shift have chosen the new supervisory team and ESPECIALLY the new safety demo as the symbols (targets?) of change and don't like it.
Then some idle chat about how the "original" FA's don't like the former "song" FA's because of hiring standards, RDQ, etc. Naturally, this is from a former "song" FA.
Of course, this is all hotel crew bus gossip.
Aye.
Last week in Mumbai I had an interesting conversation on the crew van in to the hotel with a mid-seniority 40-ish flight attendant. It went something like this (I'll try to get the quotes as exact as I can possibly remember; and no I'm not making this up...):
Her: "Do the pilots get free internet at the hotel?"
Me: "No, we have to pay, I think it's about $15 per 24 hours..."
Her: "Good!"
Me: (turning to look directly at her) "Why did you say 'good'?"
Her: "Well, you know, you'd be getting something we didn't..."
Me: "And, why is that a bad thing?"
Her: "Well, I'm sure you pilots would be screaming about it or down at the front desk demanding the same thing if we got it..."
Me: "Yes, I'm sure we'd want the same perk as you, but I'm curious why you said 'Good!' that we didn't get it. Do you not want other employees to do well, or is it an anti-pilot thing?"
Her: "What do you mean?"
Me: "Well, if I found out that you got free internet and I didn't I might try to get it too, but I wouldn't be glad that you didn't. You know, 'a rising tide lifts all boats' and all that..."
Her: "Now you're just trying to make me feel bad!"
Me: "Do you feel bad?"
Her: "Well, I didn't until I talked to you..."
Me: "I wasn't trying to make you feel bad, I just wanted to know what you were thinking (or if you were thinking at all - I didn't say that!)..."
Some things never change...
Kevin