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Home / Travel

Winston Aldworth: Truly nutty behaviour

Winston Aldworth
By Winston Aldworth
Head of Sport·NZ Herald·
15 Dec, 2014 04:30 PM2 mins to read

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Korean Air's executive vice-president in charge of cabin service, Cho Hyun-ah, lost her nut when her macadamias weren't served to her in a bowl. Photo / 123RF

Korean Air's executive vice-president in charge of cabin service, Cho Hyun-ah, lost her nut when her macadamias weren't served to her in a bowl. Photo / 123RF

Winston Aldworth
Opinion by Winston Aldworth
Winston Aldworth is Head of Sport for NZME, working alongside New Zealand’s best sports journalists in the radio and publishing teams.
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We've all been there. Some macadamias are delivered to you in your First Class seat just before takeoff and the nuts are SERVED IN THEIR PACKET INSTEAD OF IN A BOWL!

When this happened to Korean Air's executive vice-president in charge of cabin service, Cho Hyun-ah - who also happens to be the daughter of the airline's chairman - she had a full macadamia-induced Mariah Moment.

Outraged that her macadamias weren't served in a bowl (which is the airline's policy), she had the pilot, who was taxiing towards the runway ready for takeoff, return the plane to the terminal gate so the cabin crew member responsible for Nutgate could be booted off the plane.

Cho has since stepped down from her role with the airline and offered an apology to the staff member. I have a little sympathy for her: among the prestige carriers, getting the First-Class service just right is big business.

Rockers Van Halen set the gold standard for such behaviour. In the contracts for their shows, the hair-metal heroes inserted a clause stating that there must be a bowl of M&Ms in the dressing room - with the brown ones removed.

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It was actually a test. The band suspected that many promoters didn't pay full attention to the numerous technical specifications that went with their elaborate show - the lighting, the sound, the visual effects. So if they saw brown M&Ms, they knew the terms of the contract probably hadn't been followed in other areas.

Cho can similarly claim that she merely wanted to maintain Korean Air's excellent service. Of course, she went too far.

I hope your journeys in 2015 will be as memorable as Cho's, but for all the right reasons.

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