Passenger Secretly Sketches Flight Attendant Mid-Flight, Posts Online to Find Her—Sweet Gesture or Just Creepy?

Vivek Patil was traveling on an Emirates flight a few days ago and sketched a portrait of a flight attendant while she was working. At the end of the flight, he presented the drawing to her. She reacted with a smile, surprise and thanks. He says she was “serving smiles at 35,000 feet… So I returned one on paper” and he tagged Emirates in hopes the art “finds its way to her.”

Online reaction to this is that it’s wholesome, kind and uplifting. It’s viewed almost universally as amazing and cute, and as a nice gesture for a hardworking flight attendant. So am I strange to think this is a little bit creepy and inappropriate? And he’s even trying to get the airline to put him in touch with her afterward? He didn’t sketch a male cabin crew member.

If you’re trying to ask out the flight attendant, this Delta crewmember has tips though I suppose they didn’t think of ‘draw a caricature of them’ and maybe put your phone number on it? Here’s another flight attendant discussing passenger filming becoming creepy. And of course it’s creepy when passengers film each other sleeping (in this case, it was an Instagram model being filmed…).

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. yes, you are strange to think this is creepy and inappropriate. It was a really nice, sweet, innocent gesture.

  2. Sweet gesture. The flight attendant was surprised and clearly appreciated the sketch.

    There’s an element of risk to doing something like this. If the likeness was off, or unflattering, the flight attendant could have been displeased. We live in an age of hypersensitive people that are easily triggered and offended over little things.

    To live a life with no risk is like not living at all. I always feel the most alive while taking calculated risks.

  3. And you wonder why so many women are single.

    Any act of kindness to them is construed as “creepy”.

    Of course, the beta males are the only one actually questioning this as a creepy motive.

  4. When it comes to ‘creepy’ or not, it often comes down to the relative attractiveness of the parties and consent, but it’s kind of a grey area.

  5. I don’t care if his intent was to date the FA. So long as he accepts her response/reaction, so what? The women I know are complimented by a man’s (or woman’s) advance, so long as the advanced accepts the no.

  6. If she finds him cute, it’s charming. If not, it’s creepy.

    Surprised you guys have not yet figured out this truism.

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