Posted by emily on Monday, May 29, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

I have been on many plane flights in my life, but the plane flight a few of us took for our free weekend from Palermo to Pisa was something I have never experienced before. It all started with the boarding process. There were only two boarding groups: priority and regular. Usually the planes I have been on regardless if they were in the US, Europe, or Central America all had multiple boarding groups and more order. Here in Palermo, everyone just got into a massive cluster. It was the first time in Italy where people have seemed to care about being first and in a rush, but I didn’t understand because we all had preassigned seats. After checking in at the gate, instead of walking through the little tunnel to get to board the plane like what happens in America, we walked straight onto the tarmac and hopped onto a shuttle. So even if people were in a rush at the gate to get overhead bin space, we all ended up on the same shuttle anyways. They shuttled us right up to our plane and had us walk up stairs to the door, just like private planes have in America.

Picture of what the plane looked like

When we got into the plane they checked our boarding passes and passports again which I thought was strange considering we already got it checked at the gate before we got on the shuttle. After sitting down at my seat I looked in front of me and realized there were no seat back pockets.

Picture of back of the seat

This may have been due to the fact we were flying on a pretty cheap airline, but either way, none of my flights have ever lacked seat back pockets before. I am not sure of the purpose of not having one besides the fact that less material needed to go into making the seats.

Another thing that stood out to me was that there was no drink service at all, instead they were trying to sell perfume during the whole flight. I have no idea who’s brilliant idea this was, but an airplane with limited air circulation seems like the absolute worst place to sell perfumes. The air on the plane started getting more and more filled with perfume particles that could not escape. The mixed scents started ruining the smell of the good ones. Also, the flight attendants selling the perfume were speaking very loudly and talking at people to try to buy it not having any consideration for the people sleeping. I actually got woken up at one point of a cologne transaction occurring an inch away from my face.

Picture of flight attendant pestering people to buy the perfume

Picture of perfume catalog given as we boarded the plane

In all my past experience flying in America the flight attendants always try to avoid waking up sleeping passengers. I think this is definitely due to cultural differences. I believe that in America the flight attendants are there to try and make the flying experiences as good as they can possibly be, whereas in Italy, they are here to get you from one place to another and only step in if they need to. On this flight they didn’t ever tell us to push our bags under the seat and they didn’t have to tell us to put our tray tables up and seat upright. It was a very hands off experience with the flight attendants compared to the flights in America besides their perfume sales.

The last thing that was just so different on the flight was landing. In America landing and takeoff are always scary…or so I thought. Here we approached the runway at a speed that did not seem safe whatsoever. The plane came down wobbling in the air and landing was as if the pilot just dropped the plane out of the air. The impact of the plane hitting the ground was so strong that I thought we had literally crashed. Multiple people came up to me after and said “I thought we were going to die.” After the plane landed a little celebratory song came on essentially saying we made it and everyone started clapping. This made it seem like people were impressed that we didn’t die. I got off that plane more than grateful to be walking on land. In America, if a landing were to go as rough as it was, I predict there would be so many complaints to the airline about the pilot and how the pilot’s carelessness put everyone’s life at risk.

Thinking about this flight in hindsight makes me realize how coddled we are in America. These cultural differences were very apparent on this plane flight, but they exist in mostly everything we do. In my opinion, Americans have the mentality that people work for the customers. Businesses–especially airlines–are always trying to improve customer service. Here in Italy, it seems as if it’s a little more “get what you get” mentality. The flight attendants on the plane flight from Palermo to Pisa didn’t seem to care if everyone was happy and having a good plane flight experience, yet everyone was still happy when we landed. This contrast in customer service yet similar levels of satisfaction demonstrates that Americans expect much more out of experiences in order to get the same level of happiness and satisfaction. Is this simply because Americans are more high maintenance or is it because the Italians haven’t been exposed to the customer service Americans have. Either way, traveling into other countries really makes me realize how much Americans take for granted, and how lucky and spoiled we really are.