Can't fly with them,and you can't fly with out them. You love to hate them and hate to love them. They are only good for one thing, flying the airplane. Most have little to no personality. Only a door separates them from the rest of the world. If you haven't guessed what I am talking about, it's the pilots. Don't get me wrong, most of our pilots in our small base are great. But by day 3 or day 4 of a trip I can't stand them. It's all laughs and jokes on the first day but closer to the end of a trip I want to slap them. This one I am working with now. It's his last trip with my company so I wanted to be nice. On day one of our trip I made cupcakes as he requested. I didn't make ONE cupcake I made the entire batch. Like anyone else would. I bring them to him, I got a thanks but what am I suppose to do with these. What the heck dude, you asked for cupcakes so I brought them too you. I even called him the day before the trip to see if I could bring them by his apartment so he wouldnt have to carry them around. Well he doesnt think like I do so he said no just bring them when we start the trip. So I got to listen to him whine about carrying the cupcakes. He later smashed them into his lunch box. Your welcome and that's the last time I bring baked goods on a trip.
Earlier today the cabin smelled like pee and I couldn't stand the smell. After the passengers got off I sprayed some air freshener. My captain asked me if I had sprayed something and I told him yes and why. A few minutes later he said to never do that again because it's offensive. The cabin smelling like pee is offensive. I made it smell better so the passengers wouldn't complain. I know I am not the only flight attendant who keeps air freshener in their bag.
On our way to canada tonight the first officer began to bug me again. I'm good about giving the flight deck crew the paper work for customs. However I was busy doing my FAA related duties and the fo just couldn't wait any longer for the paper work. So he tries to go thru my stuff and I told him not too. Just be patient and I will give it too you when i have a chance. Being the adult baby he is bugged me until he got his way. Yes this is the same fo who I made cupcakes for! Not to mention all day the crew never had a chance to get off the plane and eat. Before our flight to Canada he ran off the plane to get himself dinner, did he offer to get anyone else dinner? No because he always thinks about him and no one else. Again this guy is leaving our company to go fly else where. Which is probably a good thing because he slept or attempted to sleep with most of the flight attendants in base. And when there is only 43 flight attendants in base, word gets around fast. So good for him for running away!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Something smells
And it's not the lav! It's a smell of burning rubber. I was working in the back galley and it happened on the ground (thank god) in Sarasota FL right before boarding to go back to Washington DC. Clearly it's not a normal smell so I informed the other flight attendant, who agreed the smell wasn't normal. We informed the captain who wanted to get it checked out right away. 5 hours later the flight cancels and the company sent our own mechanics down on another flight since the contract mechanic couldn't find where the smell was coming from. After wasting away on a airplane for 5 hours and being hassled by the ground crew we were all tired. A well deserved cold brew by the pool was a must! I am so thankful of this wonderful crew. I always wonder who I will be working with when I pick up trips out of base. Oh yeah I forgot to mention this entire four day trip was open time (flying on my days off). As all airlines we have a few bad apples and no one wants to fly with them. But this crew is awesome! So this morning we repositioned the plane back to DC (revenue flight with no passengers-"repo"). Repo flights are always fun, it's nice to see the pilots fly the plane and we get to relax or sleep in my case. We lost a bunch of flying because of this but this is all extra flying for me so I don't mind!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Grow up
Grow up!!
I never liked this gate agent from the moment I met her but since she works in my home base I deal with it and only talk to her when I have too. Until last Monday, she was working my flight and everything was going smoothy. One of the last passengers to board came on with a picture frame in a box. The box was too wide for the overhead bin and since he was in the bulkhead, I needed to find a place for it. He told me his mother had passed away and this picture was very important. Say no more, I completely understand. There was another agent in the jet bridge checking bigger bags since we had no more space in the overhead. I asked him to gate check this item so the passenger could have it back and not have to go to baggage claim. The agent in the jet bridge was new and so he asked the agent boarding the flight at the gate if he could do that. She said no we can't but clearly on the valet tag it says oversized pictures/frames. However she still said no, which wasn't nice. I ended up moving the passenger so the frame could fit underneath the seat in front of him. I had to the agent in the jet bridge that we can gate check frames. After that we closed the door and left.
Yesterday I got a phone call from my base manager. She said she had gotten a complaint from a gate agent about how unprofessional I was. Her letter said I had called her a bitch in front of passengers and stowed the picture frame in the bathroom. First of all, how does she know what I said she was at the gate the entire time and never came down to the plane. She turned me in base on what the other agent that was in the jet bridge had told her. I am not sure why this guy would twist the story around but he is a new agent and with this attitude he won't last long. So now the station manager and my supervisor think the agent and I should have a meeting to work our feelings out. Here's the deal, I don't like this agent and I never will. But I will work with her as I am suppose to do. She is a big mouth tattle tale as far as I am concerned. If she wanted the truth she should have come to me and ask me if this was true. Grow up, if you have a problem with someone work it out with that person, don't be a tattle tale! I have to remind myself sometimes that I am not in grade school anymore, even though it feels like it!
I never liked this gate agent from the moment I met her but since she works in my home base I deal with it and only talk to her when I have too. Until last Monday, she was working my flight and everything was going smoothy. One of the last passengers to board came on with a picture frame in a box. The box was too wide for the overhead bin and since he was in the bulkhead, I needed to find a place for it. He told me his mother had passed away and this picture was very important. Say no more, I completely understand. There was another agent in the jet bridge checking bigger bags since we had no more space in the overhead. I asked him to gate check this item so the passenger could have it back and not have to go to baggage claim. The agent in the jet bridge was new and so he asked the agent boarding the flight at the gate if he could do that. She said no we can't but clearly on the valet tag it says oversized pictures/frames. However she still said no, which wasn't nice. I ended up moving the passenger so the frame could fit underneath the seat in front of him. I had to the agent in the jet bridge that we can gate check frames. After that we closed the door and left.
Yesterday I got a phone call from my base manager. She said she had gotten a complaint from a gate agent about how unprofessional I was. Her letter said I had called her a bitch in front of passengers and stowed the picture frame in the bathroom. First of all, how does she know what I said she was at the gate the entire time and never came down to the plane. She turned me in base on what the other agent that was in the jet bridge had told her. I am not sure why this guy would twist the story around but he is a new agent and with this attitude he won't last long. So now the station manager and my supervisor think the agent and I should have a meeting to work our feelings out. Here's the deal, I don't like this agent and I never will. But I will work with her as I am suppose to do. She is a big mouth tattle tale as far as I am concerned. If she wanted the truth she should have come to me and ask me if this was true. Grow up, if you have a problem with someone work it out with that person, don't be a tattle tale! I have to remind myself sometimes that I am not in grade school anymore, even though it feels like it!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Random acts of kindness
Random acts of kindness, loves it!! Today I had picked up sone flying out of my base so I had to get up super early to start my day of flying. I arrive about 2 hours early so I decided to help myself to some coffee. I hand the cashier a $20 bill and she demanded I give her something small or a credit card. She was very rude about it and now I am holding up the line looking for my debit card. The girl behind me told the cashier that she would pay for the coffee. I asked her about 4 times are you sure? She said it's really no big deal, flight attendants do so much and no one ever does anything for them. I thanked her and was on my way. I just couldn't get over how someone didn't mind buying my coffee. Kudos to you girl, you rock! If you follow me on twitter then you may have seen me venting about this today. I got a message from dunkin donuts customer care asking for my phone number to do a follow up. I received a phone call today, the lady i spoke with is sending me a thank you gift for my feedback. Sweeeet!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Dirty old man
The title says it all. We have all had that dirty, old man on the plane. While boarding a flight back to Philadelphia from Atlanta a old man walked to the back galley. I saw him coming and assumed he was looking for the lav. He looked at me and I opened the lav door. People seem to be thrown off by 3 doors in the back. 2 of the doors that say EXIT on them so you would think finding the bathroom would be simple. Anyway, he looks at me and says thank you, your such a nice young beautiful lady. Why thank you! Then he caught me off guard as he grabed my hand and kissed it. Umm ok. Later on durning the beverage service, lucky me I get to ask him if he would like a drink. So I asked him if he wanted a drink. He said well how about a kiss. I told him I'm sorry but I can't do that. So he pulls on my arm and told me the guy next to him was gay and if he wasn't he would ask me out. But since his seat mate was gay and he wasn't he tried to kiss me! Ughhh sick!! I pulled back from his grip on my arm and said NO!! I showed him my one karat dimond engagement ring and said sorry I am taken, do you want something to drink? He kept blowing kisses at me and said I'll take water. I gave him his water and he kept blowing me kisses. Then he started to hit on the other flight attendant I was working with. While she was collecting trash he grabbed her too! She later told me that the man smelled like booze. That's great he was a weird drunk old man.
As if my trip this week hasn't been drama filled we take another delay going to Toronto last night. And it was due to crew availability. If you read my post from yesterday then you know we had to switch my captain. The captain that went to key west was coming back up to Philadelphia to meet up with us and go to Toronto. Turns out his flight from charlotte to Philadelphia was delayed due to a broken airplane (go figure). My first officer didn't receive word our captain would be late until after we had finished boarding. It was 8:30 and the captain would arrive until 9:45. We decided to deplane so the passengers wouldn't be trapped on the plane. The gate agent made a announcement that all passengers must get off the plane, and to bring their boarding pass and passport with them. That's when all hell broke loose. People started yelling at us and demanding free drinks. You would have thought you were at a sporting event. I don't mind comping a drink for customer service but not if your demanding I do it. Doesn't work that way! My head is spinning from this blog post! About a hour later we are on our way.
Today is go home day and I want it to be drama free
As if my trip this week hasn't been drama filled we take another delay going to Toronto last night. And it was due to crew availability. If you read my post from yesterday then you know we had to switch my captain. The captain that went to key west was coming back up to Philadelphia to meet up with us and go to Toronto. Turns out his flight from charlotte to Philadelphia was delayed due to a broken airplane (go figure). My first officer didn't receive word our captain would be late until after we had finished boarding. It was 8:30 and the captain would arrive until 9:45. We decided to deplane so the passengers wouldn't be trapped on the plane. The gate agent made a announcement that all passengers must get off the plane, and to bring their boarding pass and passport with them. That's when all hell broke loose. People started yelling at us and demanding free drinks. You would have thought you were at a sporting event. I don't mind comping a drink for customer service but not if your demanding I do it. Doesn't work that way! My head is spinning from this blog post! About a hour later we are on our way.
Today is go home day and I want it to be drama free
Monday, April 4, 2011
Catching up
Catching up
Hello blog world, I've had a lot going on these past few weeks including a death in the family so I haven't been flying much. The airline news has been a huge buzz the past couple of weeks. Last week in my home town a private jet went down due to wind and poor visibility. It crashed into a home killing 2 people on board. Luckily no one was home when it happened. The big story is southwest and their hole-ly planes if you will. While watching some coverage on the news it was said that a few passengers past out including a flight attendant. Did she forget to secure her own mask before assisting others? And for the few passengers who did pass out, I am sure the next time they fly they will actually listen and pay attention to the safety demo. I have noticed more passengers watching and listening to the safety demo this week. Yeah it's good stuff! It is truly unfortunate to see southwest cancel so many flights for aircraft inspection. Maybe the FAA has been cutting them too much slack? They have been fined in the past for failing inspections. We may never know!
Tonight was very interesting. Our flight was scheduled for Canada. The captain with us was just off IOE and new to the aircraft. To make a long story short when a captain first starts out on a new aircraft there are some things he/she isn't allowed to do. Our situation was bad weather. My company had to get another captain to swap with ours. We call that reassigning. They replaced our captain with a guy who was suppose to go to Key West. So as you can imagine this guy was pissed! He was throwing his bags around cussing and yelling in front of the passengers. Wow dude chill out! I was worried that he was so mad he wouldn't perform his job safely. Stuff like that just crosses my mind. After he got settled in off to Canada we go. It's time to land so we did our thing and took a seat. It was bad weather here with lots of rain and low clouds. So what happens next? Missed approach! We climbed back up and starting circling. After about 15 minutes of waiting for conditions to improve we landed safely. Another successful landing! As my grandfather always told me, take offs are optional and landings are required. I must say the passengers were very kind patient and understanding, which made tonight so much easier.
Hello blog world, I've had a lot going on these past few weeks including a death in the family so I haven't been flying much. The airline news has been a huge buzz the past couple of weeks. Last week in my home town a private jet went down due to wind and poor visibility. It crashed into a home killing 2 people on board. Luckily no one was home when it happened. The big story is southwest and their hole-ly planes if you will. While watching some coverage on the news it was said that a few passengers past out including a flight attendant. Did she forget to secure her own mask before assisting others? And for the few passengers who did pass out, I am sure the next time they fly they will actually listen and pay attention to the safety demo. I have noticed more passengers watching and listening to the safety demo this week. Yeah it's good stuff! It is truly unfortunate to see southwest cancel so many flights for aircraft inspection. Maybe the FAA has been cutting them too much slack? They have been fined in the past for failing inspections. We may never know!
Tonight was very interesting. Our flight was scheduled for Canada. The captain with us was just off IOE and new to the aircraft. To make a long story short when a captain first starts out on a new aircraft there are some things he/she isn't allowed to do. Our situation was bad weather. My company had to get another captain to swap with ours. We call that reassigning. They replaced our captain with a guy who was suppose to go to Key West. So as you can imagine this guy was pissed! He was throwing his bags around cussing and yelling in front of the passengers. Wow dude chill out! I was worried that he was so mad he wouldn't perform his job safely. Stuff like that just crosses my mind. After he got settled in off to Canada we go. It's time to land so we did our thing and took a seat. It was bad weather here with lots of rain and low clouds. So what happens next? Missed approach! We climbed back up and starting circling. After about 15 minutes of waiting for conditions to improve we landed safely. Another successful landing! As my grandfather always told me, take offs are optional and landings are required. I must say the passengers were very kind patient and understanding, which made tonight so much easier.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)