Passengers who tried to tip, propose, recruit or convert me: the collection
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#1 Five years on the upper deck and I have been offered money, marriage, jobs and salvation, sometimes on the same sector. Everyone has these and they belong in one thread.
Tipping
The American passenger who tried to give me a hundred dollar bill after a meal service and was genuinely hurt when I could not take it. The explanation that we are not allowed took longer than the meal. He gave it to the purser instead, who also could not take it, and it ended up in the crew charity box, which he found acceptable.
Proposing
Three so far. One serious, one joke, one from a man who had had four gin and tonics and proposed to two other crew members on the same flight. The serious one was a lovely older gentleman in first who asked very formally whether I was married and, when I said no, said he had a son. Which is not quite a proposal but is the most Filipino thing that has ever happened to me on an aircraft.
Recruiting
A recruiter for a private jet company who gave me a card in the galley. A hotel manager who wanted me for his front desk. A woman who ran a modelling agency in Milan, which I declined because I know what I look like at hour 12. I keep the cards. I have never called one.
Converting
A very kind evangelical couple from Texas who spent an eleven hour sector trying to save me and gave me a small book at the end. A man who wanted me to know about a cryptocurrency. Not a religion, but it was presented like one.
The one I think about
A passenger in business who asked for my name, wrote it down, and sent a letter to the airline about how I had handled a medical situation in the row behind. That letter went on my file and it is part of why I am where I am. So sometimes the strange passenger interaction is the good kind.
Yours. Keep it anonymous, keep it kind.
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#2 The hundred dollar bill situation happens on every US route. I have developed a speech. The crew charity box is the ending they all accept, and the box is genuinely full by December.
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#3 Business at Qatar and the proposals are a monthly event. My favourite: a man who proposed, was declined, and then asked if my colleague was single. Same sector. No shame.
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#4 Air France, and I was offered a job by a passenger who ran a vineyard in Bordeaux. I still think about it during a bad service.
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#5 Jetstar Bali, and the most common one for us is the recruitment to a yoga retreat. I have been invited to at least six. I have gone to none. I am told they are lovely.
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#6 The letter to the airline is the real one. Mine came from a woman whose father I had looked after when he was unwell on a Nairobi flight. It was two pages. My manager read it to me. That is the one that matters.