A couple of weeks ago, I caught up with a high school classmate, Sue Deeks. Sue recently retired after 40+ years as a flight attendant with United. We spent a couple of hours talking about her travel experiences, recommendations, and travel tips. Here are the highlights of our conversation:
The Exceptional Traveler: What’s your favorite city to visit?
Sue Deeks: It’s hard to choose. Since I had so much seniority, I was assigned to a lot of international flights. Tokyo and Beijing, because the cultures are so different from ours and so fascinating. Amsterdam, because it’s just beautiful and a lot of fun. Paris, because, well. . .it’s Paris!
TET: What did you like best about Beijing?
Sue: The shopping is absolutely amazing, from high-end, expensive jewelry to knockoffs that you couldn’t tell from the real thing.
TET: How did you know where to go?
Sue: We had a pretty good network of United personnel, so we just checked with each other. And Beijing is pretty safe, but sometimes we found ourselves in a few shady places.
Real or Fake?*
TET: What was your best buy?
Sue: I was in the middle of Beijing at a mall, looking at watches. I knew they were knockoffs, but they were inexpensive and looked great. All of a sudden, the clerks herded everyone in the store into a small back room. . .apparently the police were there for an “inspection”. We could hear them talking to the store manager. After a few minutes (it seemed like longer), they let us back out and I bought myself a beautiful “Cartier” that I still wear today. I love it, and it keeps better time than a lot of the expensive authentic watches I bought over the years.
TET: Best flight story?
Sue: I really enjoyed the flights I worked when we were bringing our troops back from active duty in the Middle East.
TET: I didn’t know the Army used commercial flights to move personnel.
Sue: Yes, all the time. . .but they were charters, not the same flights civilians would take. Usually, we flew them from Iraq or Kuwait back to one of our bases in Europe or the US. They were very happy and relieved to be heading home. Of course, we also flew them to their active-duty posts as well, and there were a lot of very nervous troops on board. We always did our best to let them know we were behind them 100%.
TET: Worst flight story?
Sue: I was working a flight to Tokyo in 2017 and we suddenly hit some severe turbulence. I was literally bouncing up and down from the floor to the ceiling until some passengers caught and held me down until we got out of it. It messed up my back pretty badly and ultimately led me to retire a few years earlier than planned.
TET: You had no warning that it was going to get bumpy?
Sue: None whatsoever. Everything was smooth, until all hell broke loose. Let your readers know that they should take us seriously when we tell them to keep their seat belts on all the time.
TET: You just did. Speaking of tips, what’s another piece of advice you can give us?
DON’T use this kind of ATM. Photo by Andrew “Donovan” Valdivia on Unsplash
Sue: Be very careful when you’re using an ATM to get cash overseas. I had several colleagues that had their debit cards hacked. For us, we were so busy that we didn’t have time to check our accounts. . .they didn’t discover it until they got home and their checking accounts had been cleaned out. Only use the ATM’s at a big, reputable bank. . .never use any of the random ATM’s you see all over Europe and Asia.
TET: So are you ready to start traveling again?
Sue: When I first retired, I was thrilled to be able to just be home all the time. But now I’m getting the itch to get back out again.
Barge cruising in the Champagne region of France. Photo courtesy of The Barge Lady.
TET: Where will you go first?
Sue: Some of my United girlfriends are planning a river trip to France for the fall. I’m looking forward to going on a trip where I can spend a week or more in one area. When I was flying, I saw a lot of the world, but usually for only two days at a time.
TET: Any planning tips?
Sue: No (laughing). . .I’m terrible at planning. I’ve never had to plan a trip; I would just show up whenever and wherever I was scheduled!
TET: Last bit of advice?
Sue: See as many different cultures as you can. It’s a little uncomfortable at first, but extremely interesting and fun.
TET: Thanks, Sue. Have a wonderful time on that river cruise!
*That particular Cartier watch and box are REAL. And spectacular!
That was very interesting, and she’s so pretty. Thanks for the wonderful stories!