Don't Bother

Writing this from airport appreciation session, 1900-2400.  Aka, ready reserve.

Don't bother going to the Northeast, or flying out of LGA, ORF, EWR, or JFK for about a week.  It's a mess.  All of my flights have been full lately, from passengers wanting to go from point A to point B, via points C, D, and Q, which have been my flights lately.  I had a passenger trying to get to Norfolk, via Richmond, from Charlotte.  He was planning on getting to Richmond and going from there.  Unless he goes back to Charlotte, or goes to Dulles or DCA from Richmond, the guy's out of luck.  I have friends that are stuck in LaGuardia, that were supposed to be back the day after Christmas.  They ran out of hotel money, and have now been living in the airport for a few days.  Welcome to my world.  Now the plan is to go from LGA to Charlotte, via Nashville.

What a boring, humorless, and dry post.  Sorry.

The Perpetual Head Cold

Today was an easy one.  I started out with reserve from 5AM to 2PM.  I lucked out, since usually it's 5AM to 5PM.  During the drive to work, my normal hour and a half drive was over two hours, due to heavy snowfall during the night.  It snowed during my entire drive.  The reason it took me so long is because South Carolina doesn't prepare for snow.  The roads were not salted ahead of time, nor were they plowed, so I had to take the interstate.  It adds about 30 miles to my drive, but those roads weren't any better.  If I tried to go over about 45 MPH most of the way, my tires would just spin out of control under the thick compacted snow.  I only managed to slide around three times, and slide off the road once, but that wasn't until I got to Charlotte.  During my drive to Charlotte, crew tracking called and changed my reserve to ready reserve, starting at 6:45AM, and being done at 2.  By the time I got to the crew room, and watched a couple episodes of Beavis and Butthead via NetFlix (I know, I'm 12,) and finally fell asleep for a nice long nap, crew tracking called again, and gave me a Kansas City turn.  The flight out got my hopes up, because the flight was very empty.  Empty long flights are the easiest thing in the world.  The flight coming back on the other hand, completely full.  Boo.

This morning I woke up with a scratchy throat.  Despite my denial, and begging to be acid reflux, I now have a full fledged head cold.  Also, despite my teaching public school (band) for the past four years, both high school and middle school, I haven't built up the immunity towards getting sick like I thought I should have.  I stay sick, and I don't know why.  It's the exact same strain of cold too.  Very scratchy throat, roof of mouth yuckiness (the best way to put it, if you've ever had the sensation,) stopped up nose, and lots of snot.  I felt really run down today too, probably because I am.  The cold lasts for about a week every time I get it.  I manage to get this cold every two weeks, but actually, the throat scratchiness never really goes away.  I've chalked that up to acid reflux, but even that I doubt.  This is quite odd to me, since I'm so careful about taking care of myself, as far as cold prevention goes, but obviously, since it's the same cold every time, I'm getting it from myself.  I get a new toothbrush every time, sterilize the PA receiver before every flight with alcohol, clean my Blackberry with alcohol pads often, drink EmergenC™ and Airborne™ on every flight, take zinc daily, and use Zicam™ every time I feel a cold coming on.  There's got to be something I'm forgetting.  I live out of the same suitcase, and wear the same uniform on a daily basis.  There's got to be something I'm forgetting that's making me perpetually sick.  Maybe it's the laptop?  Any ideas are welcome.

The Crew Room

I have a love-hate relationship with the crew room.  I love it the .001% of the time when I’m the only one in there.  I hate it most other times.  The crew room is loud, bright, small, hot in the summer, and cold in the winter.  It’s just as active as the rest of the airport, so if I’m sitting reserve and want peace and quiet; a place to gather my thoughts, I’m s.o.l.  I commute an hour and a half from the airport via car, so if I have a late night followed by an early morning, I’ll get a hotel in town for the night.  There have been times I’ve slept in the crew room if I’m the only one in it, which I don’t like to do.  Pilots are far more respectful than flight attendants when it comes to peace in quiet in there.  If there are three people asleep on the couch, the first flight attendant to walk in at 5AM will walk in, turn on all the lights without a second thought, just to use the computer; something which requires no light other than the monitor.  During the busy times of the day, there can be up to 20 people in a confined space; all on the phone, or having loud conversations with each other—something that they can go in the terminal to do.  95% of the conversations in the crew room are bitching about schedules on the flight attendant side, which is why I’m usually conversing with the pilots.  Far more to talk about with them.  I’m one of the few that believes that the crew room should be a place in the airport where one could go and relax and gather one’s thoughts.  One of the few things I enjoyed about being based in Washington-Dulles, was that most people respected the crew room as a quiet place, and there were always places in the airport that one could escape to any time during the day for some peace and quiet.  I’ve found myself having to pause my NetFlix on numerous occasions, while sitting reserve, because the loudness was drowning it out, even with my noise canceling headphones.  So for the love of sanity people, we understand that you’re super senior in the company, and love the social hour between flights in there, but some of us who don’t have lines yet and actually have to be in there during ready reserve daily from 5AM to 1PM generally, would like to maybe watch a movie, or perhaps even take a nap.  Shut your mouth or take it outside.

Oh, and I'm in here at 4:40AM on Christmas morning.  Not cool.

Non-Revenue Flights

As usual, forgive the rambling and grammar.  I'm in the crew room, and the guy next to me has been on the phone for well over an hour.  Go in the hall.  A big pet peeve of mine is noise in the crew room, especially those who are stuck in it with ready reserve.  Anyway.  Non-reving, as it’s called, is the best part of this job by far.  It’s also called jumpseating, although we don’t sit in the jumpseat in the flight deck (PC term for “cockpit,” I guess because the word “cock” is in it, which doesn’t offend University of South Carolina graduates, like me,) unless the flight is full.  Most airlines let us sit in the jumpseat if the flight is full as well.  Our jumpseat agreement means that we can fly for free, anywhere in the US, and anywhere else in the world, for a small fee, which is usually the international taxes.  We just have to display our badge to the gate agent, and if there’s an empty seat, we’re on it.  No prior listing, nothing.  Listing is another story, with the large carriers my regional airline flies for, we either call and list, or list online.  Listing tells us how many seats are available, and how many other non revenue crew members are already listed.  This is how I usually book my travel, if I don’t want to risk being stuck somewhere due to a full flight.  I occasionally jumpseat.  For instance, on my first 2 days off when I first started, I listed on some empty flights to go visit my parents overnight.  The first time I went on a little jumpseat excursion, was when I had three days off.  I was based in Washington-Dulles at the time, and had no idea where I wanted to go.  As far as hotels go, many hotels offer a very cheap fare, as well as rental cars.  Another great benefit.  Having three days off, I hopped on a Delta flight to Atlanta.  I didn’t have checked bags to worry about, so I could basically fly wherever I wanted.  I walked around the Atlanta airport, looking for flights that were ready to board and had open seats.  San Francisco and Los Angeles were all oversold, so I hopped on a flight to Seattle, on a whim.  In Seattle, I hopped on an Alaska Airlines flight to Los Angeles, where I already had a hotel by the airport booked.  The next day, I rented a car, and explored the city.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles

That night, I took the red-eye to Minneapolis-St. Paul, stayed the night, then hopped on the flight home to Washington-Reagan, and took the train/bus back to Dulles.

Minneapolis

I had four days off a few days ago, so I flew out to San Francisco, ate lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf, walked around the city for a while, and took an evening flight to Las Vegas.

From the SFO airtrain

Alcatraz

Daly City from BART

My view of Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate whilst eating lunch

Sup?

I killed some time in the Vegas airport before hopping on the redeye back to Charlotte.  All this in a day.

Took the Nevada A310 from San Francisco to Vegas.

It’s exhausting, but if I have these benefits, I’m going to use them.  I spent my last days off meeting the parents of a lovely young lady.  I have Christmas Eve and the 23^rd off, but I’ll use them for shopping rather than traveling.  As for my next days off, I have no clue where I’ll be, but I hope to spend at least some of it with that lovely young lady again who is monopolizing my non-rev travel, but I don’t mind.  You know who you are.

TSA

5 day trip.

Day 1:  Charlotte - Savannah.

Day 2:  Savannah - Charlotte - Norfolk - Charlotte - Pittsburgh - Charlotte - Myrtle Beach.

Day 3:  Myrtle Beach - Charlotte - Austin.

Day 4:  Austin - Phoenix - Memphis - Charlotte - Harrisburg.

Day 5:  Harrisburg - Charlotte. 

I’m typing this 37,000 feet up, deadheading on a flight from Phoenix to Memphis.  Forgive the grammar, spelling, punctuation, rambling, and randomness.  This morning I worked a flight from Austin to Phoenix, and had a 3AM wake-up call.  I’ve been having a lot of 2AM and 3AM wake-up calls lately, which I’m not a fan of, especially when I have to commute an hour and a half to Charlotte, to work a 5AM reserve shift.  After this deadhead, I work a flight from Memphis to Charlotte, and finally Charlotte to Harrisburg, PA, where I’m staying for the night.  I’ve actually never been to Harrisburg, or Memphis for that matter, so it’s good to mark another place off of the map.  I’m just ready to head home for the holidays.  I’m on day 4 of a 5 day trip.  Spending Christmas Eve with the family will be great, and the 23^rd will by my only day to Christmas shop (and do laundry for that matter,) but working at 5AM on Christmas morning isn’t the ideal situation.  Oh well, at least the pay is better that day.

With all of the recent news that is coming out of the new TSA procedures, I should at the least throw in my two cents.  This post is a little late, and the issue has died down for the most part, but as a crew member, it’s still worth mentioning.  Now as a crew member, I’m still subject to all of the rules any airline passenger has when it comes to TSA restrictions.  There are a few differences, however.  At most places, crew members can go to the front of the line.  This isn’t to cut in front of passengers or be rude, but simply so that the planes go out on time.  Air crews do this on a daily basis, and have to be at the aircraft to pre-flight earlier than passengers have to be there, just to board.  Also, flight crews don’t check baggage, due to the fact that we sometimes have to change aircraft several times a day.  We can be on trips for up to six days at a time.  Because of this, we have to pack six days worth of clothes, toiletries, and food onto our carry-on luggage.  Sometimes, like yesterday, we can do up to seven flights in a day, starting before most places open for breakfast, and going through the evening, without having an opportunity to stop for lunch.  We aren’t subject to the three ounce rule as most people are, however, we must be in uniform, and displaying our crew badges.

Now, all that being said, we still have to go through the lines, still have to take off our shoes, still have to take off our jackets, and place our laptops in a separate bin, empty our pockets, and go through the metal detector.  It’s still a pain in the ass.  Until recently, we had to go through the new backscatter body scanners.  I’m not a fan of these, but I do think they are effective.  I had to go through one once, and still had to get the pat down, which was very invasive and unpleasant, in front of everyone, because of an “anomaly” in my front pocket (my chapstick.)  So yeah, they do catch everything.  I’m a big supporter of crew pass because of this.  Flight crews have undergone extensive background checks, and shouldn’t be subject to TSA checkpoints.  I’ve seen pilot lines at a few airports, that bypass TSA, but this needs to be expanded to flight attendants as well.  This is rather insulting in my opinion, as we’re subject to the same background checks as pilots.

Now, whether or not you agree with these regulations, or whether or not you feel they are a violation on your 4^th amendment rights (it isn’t, you’re a customer of the airline, and don’t have a “right” per-say in the constitution to fly, it’s a business,) it doesn’t give you the right to be a dick to TSA employees “just doing their job.”  That is in quotations because I’ve heard the argument that Hitler’s henchmen were “just doing their jobs” as well, when it comes to the TSA.  Please don’t Godwin this argument.  I’ve been on the employee bus with TSA agents plenty of times and have overheard conversations.  They have supervisors breathing down their neck constantly, and even they think it’s ridiculous to make you throw away your toothpaste too.  The point is, TSA doesn’t let stuff slide--they can't.  Every TSA agent knows that’s water in grandma’s water bottle, not a deadly neurotoxin, but if an agent just lets it through, and grandma turns out to be a homeland security undercover agent, or even a supervisor undercover, that TSA agent could be fired or fined.  Even with all of the complaining, the second something happens, TSA will be the first to blame, and you can forget bringing a laptop on board ever again.  Now still, do I think some of it is just security theater?  Yes.  Having my employee crew badge checked with infrared light, or looking at my I.D. with a magnifying glass at some stations is just that, but oh well.

There’s a video of a guy in San Diego, the “if you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested” guy.  Here,  He has self important douche-nozzle written all over him.  Look, TSA agents don’t like being called perverts and pedophiles on a daily basis.  TSA agents don’t wake up in the morning and think to themselves, “ooh, I get to feel up grandma today,” or little kids, etc.  Whether or not you agree with the policies, just don’t be a dick to the agents.  If you’re going to complain, complain to the ones who make the policies, not the TSA agents simply doing their jobs.  Are there TSA agents who are jerks and cross the line?  Yes, but the vast majority of them simply want to do their jobs to the best of their ability and get on with their day.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures from the past week's trip.

Southwest 737 de-icing in Pittsburgh

Tail de-icing action

View of Austin, Texas from our hotel

Austin skyline, 3 second exposure

I was lucky enough to have the back row open during the flight to Phoenix, so I could sit back, relax, and watch the sun rise over Mexico

That line you see in the middle of the picture is the US-Mexico border fence, El Paso, TX

Sunrise over Arizona

Morning view over Airzona

A.M. colors over Arizona

Approaching Phoenix

Airbus-A320 model at Sky Harbor

FedEx plane taxis in Phoenix

Holding pattern over MAJIC.  That's the morning fog below

My view from the lunch table this afternoon

Panthers A319

Santa at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport

Venus, from the air, over an exposure while moving