The crew who have flown with their own parents as passengers: the mother in 14C watching you do the service
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#1 Azul São Paulo, four years, and the working the flight your family is on thread exists and the childhood airline thread has the parents who worked for it. This is the specific thing that happens once to most crew: the parent as the passenger on your own flight, by chance or by the staff travel, in your cabin, watching. My mother in 14C on a Recife flight last month. Here it is.
The moment at the door
The boarding, the greeting, the face you know at the top of the stairs in the passenger line, the second of recognition, and the choice: the greeting as a passenger (the brand's) or the greeting as a son (the family's). The crew who have had it say the first, at the door, with the smile that says the second, and the mother who understands it and plays along and the father who does not and says 'that's my boy' to the purser.
The service
The cart down the aisle to row 14 with the mother watching the hands, the tray placed from the right side (she does not know the right side and you do), the coffee poured for her as for everyone, the 'anything else, madam' that she answers with the look. The father who asked for a second coffee from his daughter on a Lisbon flight (a TAP colleague's story) and the daughter who gave it with the brand's smile and the family's eyebrow. The service is the service and the parent is watching it the way nobody else does.
Why it is harder than a VIP
Because the VIP watches the service and the parent watches you. The VIP is a standard; the parent is the childhood in row 14. The crew who have served a minister and a footballer and a parent say the parent is the hardest, because the hands remember being a child and the uniform insists on being crew and the two are in the same aisle. And because the parent's pride is the thing you cannot acknowledge at row 14 and have to carry to the galley.
The galley after
The crew who know (the purser always knows; the family resemblance and the father's 'that's my boy' make sure) and the galley's teasing, which is the crew's way of saying the thing. The mother at the door on the way out, the hug that the brand allows at the door and not in the aisle, the photograph at the aircraft door (the etiquette thread's good version), and the crew bus where the comedian does the impression of the father.
The honest feeling
The pride on both sides, held in the aisle and released at the door. The strangeness of the uniform in front of the person who bought the first one. The sense that the childhood airline thread described from the other direction: the parent watched the uniform at the airport when you were six and now watches it from row 14. It is the job's most private moment in its most public place.
For the crew who have had it
Post the parent, the row, the moment. The father's second coffee and the mother's look. The forum has the celebrity and the VIP and the medical. It should have the mother in 14C.
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#2 TAP, and the father who asked for a second coffee from his daughter on the Lisbon flight was my colleague and the eyebrow was famous on the fleet for a month. The parent watching you and not the service is the thing Bruno has named. The door is where the family is allowed.
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#3 Georgian Airways, and my mother was the ground staff who ran my assessment desk and then was the passenger in row 3 on my second week, by the staff travel, and the greeting at the door was the brand's and her face was the family's and the purser knew before the door closed. The hardest VIP. Bruno is right.
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#4 Emirates from Karachi, and my father on the Karachi flight in year two, by the staff travel, in 22C, watching the service with the face that had said yes at the family conversation. The hands remembered being a child, as Bruno says. The galley teased for a month. The door hug was the brand's allowance and the family's reward.
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#5 Jetstar Brisbane, and my mother on the Bali flight in 30A on the way to her own holiday, by the staff travel, and the buy on board sold to her at the brand's price and her look. The comedian did the impression on the crew bus. Bruno has the whole thing including the bus.
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#6 JAL purser, and the parent in the cabin at a Japanese carrier is the omotenashi applied to the person who taught it, which is the strangest service I have done: my mother in the premium economy watching the bow she taught me. The purser knew. The purser always knows. Bruno's thread is the private moment in the public place.
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#7 Jet2 training, and my mum has already booked the Tenerife on my second month by the staff travel and I have read this thread as the warning. The door is the brand's and the hug is at the door. The course mum says the same.