Cabin crew- from one extreme to the other.

Do you ever really pay attention to the crew as they talk about fastening your seatbelt and so on? Probably not- but if not, it is probably because you’ve flown that many times you feel you could do the demo yourself. I was surprised, though, when on a Vietnamese internal fight there was no such safety demo...

 I was asked how to do up a seatbelt by a confused woman next to me, who thanked me and then sorted out her son. What’s more, people didn’t have their chairs upright and some tables were down, but more incredible was the fact that people were making and receiving calls as we landed. One of the stewardesses told off the people in the front row, but never bothered moving down the plane to check the rest!

The flight I had back to Spain was with a French airline. The crew were sticklers for the rules and it felt the longest 12 hour flight I’ve had.

As I’d had an accident, I asked for leg room as I needed to keep my left leg elevated. What did I get? A seat with a wall in front with the aisle to my right! I also asked not to be near children as if little they may kick me by accident, and next to me was a little Chinese girl. When her Mum saw my knee and foot, she swapped places with her daughter, but things were still to get worse…

I don’t think the girl had ever flown before and she got so stressed she started screaming and crying then being sick. The mum tried desperately to console her by putting her on her lap and holding her. Just as the little girl started to calm down, along came cabin crew- one from either side- and wrenched her away from her mum and plonked her unceremoniously in her own seat. Then, in a mixture of Spanish and French (which I very much doubt she understood) explained she needed to be in her own seat with her own seatbelt on. This happened all night. So not only was she stuck on a big scary plane, she was not allowed the consolation of her mum, repeatedly forced away by (to her potentially odd-looking) strangers. I have made babies cry just by looking at them in Vietnam as they think I look weird with my narrow nose and long face- so imagine how this girl must have felt!

the sick bag :/

The father soon had enough and swapped seats with another little girl. I was not so lucky!

I will try and avoid both of these airlines in future.