From requests for extra espresso to inquiries about Wi-Fi entry, flight attendants discipline 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 aircraft to the again of the aircraft so rapidly?”
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 haven’t any magical powers. They do have one thing that units them aside from most flight attendants, although: They’re equivalent twins.
“It’s so humorous when one in every of us is on the entrance of the airplane and one in every of us is within the again, and folks taking place the aisle will say, ‘How did you get again right here?'” the twins informed TPG in an interview.
The belief that Brenda and Glenda are, in truth, two totally different folks often results in passengers sharing their very own twin tales. “They love to indicate us photos of their grandkids which are twins or their sisters which are twins,” Glenda mentioned. “We love interacting with folks and we get to listen to so many fascinating tales.”
After talking with the twins, I can safely say that Brenda and Glenda’s story is simply as fascinating 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 had been little ladies,” Brenda mentioned. “Our household would go to Lambert Airport in St. Louis and would park the automobile alongside the driveway of the road at night time to observe 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 Jap Airways after school, however they finally determined to seek out careers based mostly on their majors. Brenda went into advertising, and Glenda turned a instructor. After about eight years, they realized two issues: They missed one another, they usually missed flying.
“We determined to use to the airways once more, and it was the most effective determination 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 Nineties. Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) is dwelling to United’s state-of-the-art Inflight Coaching Heart, the place United trains greater than 600 flight attendants per 30 days to arrange 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 number of the friendliest flight attendants within the sky.
“A heat welcome and a smile go a good distance, whether or not 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 comfortable.”
Each twins love flying, however they particularly love flying collectively. At United, Brenda and Glenda usually “buddy bid” for shifts. “It is actually a blessing as a result of we will 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 completely satisfied doing it alone. It means a lot extra to share it with a member of the family.”
You’d suppose 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 finest — making the expertise “the pleasant skies” twice as pleasant.
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