safety spokesman

Qantas Crew Not Thrilled About John Travolta’s Safety Video

Bliss Spa may not have signed John Travolta to a marketing deal, but Australia’s Qantas Airlines thought the celebrity pilot would be good for business. So it filmed the actor for its safety instruction video, otherwise known as that thing distracting you from your SkyMall catalog. Qantas crew aren’t pleased.

While some employees may enjoy having the Old Dogs actor on the loudspeaker — opening with “This is your captain speaking – well, maybe not today. But I can guarantee that the guys on the flight deck and the greater team care just as much about aircraft safety as I do. I’ve been flying over 40 years as a pilot and I can tell you, there’s no one I’d rather have at the controls than a Qantas pilot” — others do not.

Staff have taken to anonymous posts on online chat forums to discuss their dislike of the Travolta video. They called on Qantas to use Captain de Crespigny.
“Who better than the genuine aviation professionals who saved QF32?,” said one Qantas staff member. One Qantas flight attendant, who did not wish to be named, described the video as “corny” and “tacky”.

Flight attendants say they also have a problem with being repeatedly referred to as “the team ” – not flight attendants or cabin crew members – in the video. “We feel it’s demeaning to be called “the team”, one said. “It makes us feel like we work at McDonald’s.”

No, what should make you feel like you work at McDonald’s is having to ask every single passenger, “Peanuts or pretzels?” It’s only one step away from, “Would you like fries and a Coke?”

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