An air passenger treated all 40 members of her cabin crew to handmade, personalised gifts on a Christmas Day flight - and was given a Champagne party in return.<br /><br />Whitney Steel, a 36-year-old from Auckland, New Zealand, was flying from Melbourne, Australia to Johannesburg, South Africa.<br /><br />She flew on Christmas Day 2019 when she handed out personalised gifts to 40 crew members on two different flights.<br /><br />Whitney's auntie was a long haul flight attendant for 15 years and she remembers her auntie's devastation every time she had to work during the Christmas holidays.<br /><br />“Every year she’d DREAD seeing the Christmas rota, hoping that she could spend the day with her family. <br /><br />"I remember her devastation at working so I knew that the cabin crew would probably feel the same way.<br /><br />“I spoke to my auntie and asked her what the crew would actually need and appreciate. <br /><br />"We decided on lip balm, eye masks, some Australian chocolate and personalised cards detailing how thankful I was for their sacrifice this Christmas.<br /><br />"I was up until about 1am the night before and I spent around 100 AUD so I hoped they’d appreciate it!”<br /><br />The journey included a layover in Dubai, so Whitney, a marketing manager, knew she needed enough gifts for all the cabin crew on both flights. <br /><br />Armed with 40 presents stashed in her carry one, she boarded her first flight.<br /><br />“I didn’t know how many staff would be on each flight but I knew each would be an Emirates A380, which is a double decker. I had to guess how many staff would man a plane that size, so I just overestimated and hoped for the best!<br /><br />“I travel A LOT, so I knew when the staff would have some downtime. At the back of the plane there’s a galley where the crew get to relax after our mealtimes, so I went up there after dinner.<br /><br />“They looked at me like ‘What the f*** do you want? Are you serious?’ but their faces quickly changed when I showed them the gifts. <br /><br />"I left pretty quickly so they could still have their break but once I sat down, the gifts just kept on coming!<br /><br />“Someone came down with champagne, the inflight service manager came down with toiletry sets and little gifts - people thought I was a celebrity! They brought so many desserts I had to share them with the passenger next to me.<br /><br />“The cabin crew had props and accessories set up to take polaroids so they posed for some fun photos with me. Quite a few of the staff got teary, telling me how nice it was to be seen as a person, not just a worker."<br /><br />After the success of the first flight, Whitney was excited for her next flight and to see the reactions of the other crew:<br /><br />“On the second flight from Dubai to Johannesburg, the crew threw me a whole a** party! They had another set of gifts, they took me up to the business and first class bar and surprised me with the crew holding a Merry Christmas sign. <br /><br />“They gave me all the food and cocktails I could dream of. Literally anything I wanted, they gave to me - it was amazing. After about an hour I returned back to my seat.<br /><br />Whitney had no idea that the video would gain the attention it did. <br /><br />She collated all the clips she had from the day and posted it on a whim, hoping that the power of social media would connect her with one of the crew on the flights. <br /><br />It did that, and so much more:<br /><br />“I was secretly hoping one of the flight attendants would see the video so they knew just how much it meant to be as well as them. <br /><br />One of the flight attendants did see it! She was so thankful and I’ve had many messages from cabin crew staff around the world who really appreciate what I did."<br /><br />“It was the last Christmas before Coronavirus so I thought I could potentially inspire someone else to do the same. <br /><br />"A lot of people probably don’t have jobs with Emirates anymore, or at least the past couple of years have been very stressful, so I think people need gestures like this more than ever."
