Two Photos of This AirAsia Flight Attendant Have Gone Viral

A passenger snapped two photos of a flight attendant during an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong on October 12, posted them to Facebook, and they’ve gone viral both online and in media with worldwide coverage in China, Australia, the UK and beyond.

Passengers are increasingly permitted to photograph inflight which is important not just for personal reasons but also to document evidence when the behavior of other passengers — or flight crew — goes bad.

However it’s not always so acceptable.

In this case the flight attendant, Mabel Goo from Malaysia, doesn’t mind the attention — finds it ‘very nice people say such kind words’ but prefers “to focus my attention more on my work with AirAsia” where she’s part of their “cabin crew Fun Team.”

The story appears to have substantially boosted her Instagram account where media reported her following skyrocketed to over 80,000 but I now see it’s over 140,000.

Photography of course is the least of the indignities flight attendants suffer, even in supposedly conservative societies that may protect them from passenger photos — an Indian airline was permitted to strip search flight attendants and a Malaysian airline requires them to remove their tops as part of the interview process.

Apparently it needs to be said: look (but keep your glances furtive). And definitely do not touch.

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. Tony Fernandes is a total creep. He markets his airline by promoting the idea of “hot” flight attendants. Plus his airline is not safe and he does not care. Avoid AirAsia when you fly around Asia. Oh yeah and they will punish you if you eat food you brought onto the plane. Ryanair does not even do that! He is a disgrace.

    Gary you should spend some of your thought time ripping AirAsia apart.

  2. Honestly just looks like your average well dressed Asian woman in her 20s or 30s. OP on the other hand sounds like an exceptionally horny male.

  3. What is the point of posting this? Except for to encourage sexist and offensive behavior?

    (and just because the FA says she’s OK with it, doesn’t mean it is OK. Given the airline in question – she’d likely get fired if she didn’t seem to be supportive of it.)

  4. I’m sure Mabel is very nice but who really cares about this? AirAsia seems like they want to become the Hooters Air of Asia.

  5. Agree with Ray, she is above aversge but nothing to get super exvited about.

    Sorry to hear about the loss of ur sack, Bob

  6. That OP by GeorGe Wong was way sexist. I wish that perspective would have been shared more. Women are not objects for men.

  7. Anti photo policies exercised by some airlines are dumb and not savvy with this world of social media we are in currently. It is like they are forgoing free advertisement. But this also has to be done with tact and without harassing or interfering with the flight crew.

    I recall an incident where one of your blogger buddies (Matthew?) got kicked out of the flight for announcing that he was a blogger about to take photos onboard!

  8. “Plus his airline is not safe and he does not care. Avoid AirAsia when you fly around Asia. Oh yeah and they will punish you if you eat food you brought onto the plane.”

    Libelous and false comments. And my experience flying AirAsia in multiple countries underscores this rant is untrue.

  9. Add my support for AirAsia which I have flown numerous times. An LLC but better service than United. And in at least in the Jacdec ratings also safer.

Comments are closed.