From requests for extra espresso to inquiries about Wi-Fi entry, flight attendants subject all types of questions throughout their flights. One query most flight attendants by no means hear is, “How did you magically journey from the entrance of the airplane to the again of the airplane so shortly?”
Brenda and Glenda Key, nevertheless, have heard this query greater than as soon as throughout their careers as Houston-based flight attendants for United Airways. No, they have no magical powers. They do have one thing that units them other than most flight attendants, although: They’re similar twins.
“It’s so humorous when one in all us is on the entrance of the airplane and one in all us is within the again, and other people taking place the aisle will say, ‘How did you get again right here?'” the twins instructed TPG in an interview.
The belief that Brenda and Glenda are, in truth, two completely different individuals normally results in passengers sharing their very own twin tales. “They love to indicate us footage of their grandkids which are twins or their sisters which are twins,” Glenda mentioned. “We love interacting with individuals and we get to listen to so many attention-grabbing tales.”
After talking with the twins, I can safely say that Brenda and Glenda’s story is simply as attention-grabbing as these of the passenger’s they’ve come throughout.
The twins grew up because the youngest of seven children in Moberly, Missouri. “We have been intrigued with airways ever since we have been little women,” Brenda mentioned. “Our household would go to Lambert Airport in St. Louis and would park the automotive alongside the driveway of the road at evening to look at the airplanes take off and land. It was thrilling to us from a really younger age.”
Brenda and Glenda labored a brief stint with the now-defunct Japanese Airways after school, however they finally determined to seek out careers based mostly on their majors. Brenda went into advertising and marketing, and Glenda grew to become a trainer. After about eight years, they realized two issues: They missed one another, and so they missed flying.
“We determined to use to the airways once more, and it was the most effective choice ever,” Brenda mentioned.
The duo flew with Continental Airways in Denver within the Eighties earlier than touchdown at their present dwelling at United Airline’s Houston base within the Nineteen Nineties. Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) is dwelling to United’s state-of-the-art Inflight Coaching Middle, the place United trains greater than 600 flight attendants monthly to organize them for his or her careers.
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After 40 years again within the trade, it is clear they made the fitting alternative. Brenda and Glenda are a few of the friendliest flight attendants within the sky.
“A heat welcome and a smile go a great distance, whether or not it’s a enterprise traveler or a leisure traveler,” Brenda shared. “Folks take observe when the flight attendants take time to get to know them. It makes them really feel extra relaxed.”
Each twins love flying, however they particularly love flying collectively. At United, Brenda and Glenda typically “buddy bid” for shifts. “It is actually a blessing as a result of we are able to select our schedules to have the ability to fly collectively,” Brenda mentioned.
One of many perks of working the identical flights is having fun with layovers collectively, too. A few of their favourite layovers have been in Israel, Munich and Jackson Gap, Wyoming.
“I get to expertise these new locations with my sister, and it is so great,” Glenda mentioned. “I would not really feel as glad doing it alone. It means a lot extra to share it with a member of the family.”
You’d assume they’d be sick of one another by the point they get off, however the pair by no means tire of one another. “On our days off, we do all the things collectively,” Brenda mentioned. “We go to the grocery retailer collectively and even the dry cleaners.”
The sisters have already deliberate to retire collectively. They plan to someday purchase property in Texas and open an animal shelter for cats and canine needing a house. “We’ll do it collectively to allow them to have double the love and double the care,” Glenda mentioned.
Within the meantime, Brenda and Glenda will proceed doing what they do greatest — making the expertise “the pleasant skies” twice as pleasant.
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