John Travolta is fronting Qantas's new in-flight safety videos, and the airline's staff are up in arms. It's "corny", apparently, and "tacky". Why an American? And, very particularly, why does Travolta refer to them as the team, not the crew? "We feel it's demeaning to be called 'the team'," one said. "It makes us feel like we work at McDonald's."
Travolta is not as random a spokesman as one might think. The introduction begins: "This is your captain speaking – well, maybe not today," because Travolta, a trained pilot with 40 years' experience, has flown in Qantas livery, and acts as an ambassador for the airline.
But, as one poster at pprune.org, the pilots' rumour network, says: "Does [hiring Travolta] get the pax paying attention?" That, after all, is the real test.
