Gone with the peanuts.
Not prayer beads.
Not prayer carpets.
Not prayer shawls.
Prayer cards.
We just came across one here at home several days ago. (And we haven’t flown Alaska in well over a decade.)
I remember being pleasantly astounded the first time I got one of those on an Alaska flight. Very astounded. Very pleasantly. 🙂
So this story grabbed me:
Alaska Airlines will end its 30-plus-year tradition of presenting prayer cards on customers’ meal trays next Wednesday.
Only first-class passengers have received the cards since 2006, when Alaska stopped providing meals on trays to customers in coach.
Even now, the cards appear only on flights longer than four hours, when they can be presented on a meal tray as they always have been, said spokeswoman Bobbie Egan.
Hold it. You mean they weren’t stapled to the boarding passes? Or handed out as passengers boarded? Or read aloud by cabin crew reciting all that pre-flight stuff?
Oh. OK. 🙄
Somehow, the writer found someone that had a serious problem:
“I’d get a clutch in my stomach when I read it.” 😯
So why read it? Or why not request that no such fearsome card be given him?
And I wonder what automotive parts showed up in his innards when they got to the pre-flight instructions pertaining to using flotation devices. (You’ll need to click the link below for that to make any sense.)
Oh well.
Here’s another quote, this one from a company exec:
“This difficult decision was not made lightly.”
And since this is a private company, they’re free to decide as they wish. So, Mr. & Mrs. Alaska Airlines, thanks for the cards you gave me years ago. While they didn’t put a clutch in my stomach, they certainly got my heart and mind in gear. I should have thought to send you a transmission of thanksgiving for it. I slipped.
PS: What makes those cards “prayer” cards?
More of the story: Alaska Airlines to stop handing out prayer cards to passengers
