WHAT is the cost of good service? Heather Cho is probably pondering that as she faces a year behind bars for her extraordinary melt-down over a packet of poorly-presented macadamia nuts last December. Ms Cho, at the time an executive at Korean Air, threw a member of cabin crew off one of the carrier's flights, which was taxiing onto the runway at New York's JFK airport, bound for Seoul, after they served her the offending nuts in a paper bag, rather than on a plate. Such was her displeasure, that Ms Cho forced the pilot to turn back to the gate and turf the hapless steward from the plane. This, it was decided, was tantamount to changing a flight's course, which is a criminal offence.
Ms Cho also happened to be the daughter of the chairman of Korean Air. Hence, the episode, which caused some amusement across the world, garnered little but anger back home. There, it came to encapsulate all that was ill with the country's nepotistic, chaebol culture, in which, it is commonly believed, the elite consider themselves untouchable.
