Originally Posted by
ylefin
Excuse me very much but sometimes, reading this thread and others, I have a strong feeling that some, maybe many of you are actually narcissist. I would NEVER like to be personally greeted by name or recognised or getting a free paper or even a drink if my neighbour in the next seat does not get it. I would feel embrassed and would like to move to another seat. Any of you who admires the narcissist Trump? Sorry again for this late night postage. What concerns other top tier benefits, they are of course OK and well deserved.
After a long hard thinking I also answer no. Steve's answer is very much my own. I appreciate the things that shows the airline recognizes my business, making a bond between me and the staff. It is not about making me look good to the crowd.
I felt very uncomfortable even just reading about two incidents described here, where seat neighbours saw tier member get drink / paper, asked for it themselves and then was charged. I'd hate to be that other guy, sitting there first feeling happy "hey, i can get a drink for free" then have to play along and cough up the dough and feel like an idiot.
This is why it actually is clever to recognize the tier member in the first place:
"Welcome back Mr FF! As our platinum member you can have a drink for free, what would you like?". Or when serving, saying "that is free of charge as you are platinum member". Again, not with the purpose to make pax A "look good" to the crowd, but to pre-emptively explain why pax A got a special service.
The newspaper they usually hand over discretely, but if another passenger asks "can I have one too?" they should say something to make pax B understand why pax A got it for free.
If staff learns how to do this in a comfortable, relaxed, kind way, there will be less friction and uncomfortable moments.