A flight attendant has shared her craziest experiences from her years flying for Emirates airline.
Marika Mikusova spent years working as a flight attendant for the Arsenal sponsoring plane operator, and over those years she has experienced many odd requests. On one particular flight, a passenger asked Marika to bring her son a hamburger from McDonald’s. “In my mind I was thinking if she was joking and expects me to parachute from the plane to the nearest branch to get it for her,” Marika explained.
“On the top of it she asked me for ketchup. I apologised, answering professionally and as per our menu standards: ‘Unfortunately we do not serve hamburgers ma’am. But I can offer you chicken or beef – both with mashed potatoes with a sprig of parsley and mushroom gravy.’ She didn’t object and took the chicken (without ketchup of course).”
One of the most typical requests Marika experiences is being asked where the toilets are for US passport holders.
“I stood perplexed, trying to make the sense of it. I suppressed laughter, but I couldn’t control my raised eyebrows anymore. ‘Sir, the toilets are common for all passengers regardless of passport,’ I answered. He stopped waving proudly his US passport in front of my eyes as he realised the crew consisted of multiple nationalities and his passport (US or whatever country it would be) would not impress anyone”, Marika shared.
Children aren’t anything new onboard flights. However, Marika shared one shocking experience with a child: “I admit I was rather shocked when a female passenger asked me to change her baby’s diaper. She must have confused the onboard crew for nannies. Luckily, we are not allowed to do that (unless we really do want to for some kind of weird reason).”
“I particularly loved when passengers asked me for “fresh milk”. Neither my colleagues nor me ever knew what exactly they meant by that. However, there is a myth I would like to dispel – no, we definitely do not have a living cow in cargo to milk for our passengers so that they can have a fresh milk for their coffee.”
Marika also has a personal favourite odd request from a female passenger who asked her: “I heard you have a spa on board. Can I get my nails done?” Marika said: “I was so tempted to send the lady to the captain, saying that he’s doing French manicure on today’s flight and she is lucky because he’s giving a 20 per cent discount today.
“As a professional I had to answer: ‘Unfortunately, ma’am, this is only a spa, which is a shower in first class for first class passengers use only.'”
On another occasion, a passenger asked Marika to tell the captain to slow down a bit because he was getting sick from the speed.
“I felt like publicly announcing to all passengers over the interphone: ‘The passenger in Delta seat 36 wants to slow the plane down, so if you can’t make your next connection, she is the one to blame.’ Little did she know the speed depends on the current flight conditions,” Marika shared.
The ultimate query for Marika, was when a passenger refused to sit by the window as she had just had her hair permed and didn’t want the wind from the plane window to ruin it.
“I was wondering if I should explain to the lady that windows cannot be opened on an airplane in flight anyway. She asked me to change her seat and I gladly did it for her telling her: ‘Of course, ma’am, that’s understandable, you can sit on any empty seat you like.'”
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