It was time to commute to Denver since I had an early A.M. trip on Monday. Apparently, one of our flight attendants had gotten very sick and started throwing up after the passengers had boarded the plane. When I approached the customer service desk to get my boarding pass, the agent asked if I’d be willing to work a flight out of Salt Lake City. I told the agent that I was happy to help but wouldn’t be legal for it. After working six days in a row, the F.A.A. requires that we rest for 24 hours. Since I was about to work six days in a row, this wasn’t going to work. The only way this could be if my work scheduling department were to change my trip.
Wouldn’t you know it? As I was saying this to her, my phone rang. It was scheduling. I answered, and they asked if I would work that flight to Chicago, and they would adjust my trip so that everything was legal. I told them I would but didn’t have time to check my assignment before boarding the plane. After all, the passengers were already boarded and now late. I boarded the plane, stowed my bags, and we were off. I thought that my new assignment was to work to Chicago, and then they’d either work or deadhead me back to Denver to start my trip the following day. It wasn’t to be. When we landed at Midway, I checked my assignment. I was to work for another flight that night to Boston.
Usually, stuff like this only happens if I’m excited to get to a particular layover. Somehow the powers that be, scheduling, and even the weather, knows when I’m excited to be somewhere, and it seems that that’s when I get some kind of reroute. It’s just the way things go (sometimes).
I’m looking forward to my next trip day-after-tomorrow. Hoping for smooth flights, and if I am rerouted, I hope I get a great destination.
Today was an incredibly great day! Not only am I on a great trip with a fun crew, but we happened to have an overnight in Salt Lake City. Often when I end up here for work, I will drive home and sleep in my own bed- nothing like getting paid to relax at home. Today was different, however. Since it’s Christmas time, I felt the need to head down to Temple Square and walk around in the beautiful lights. I won’t be back home again until the new year unless I happen to trade into another SLC overnight. This is one Christmas tradition that I look forward to every year!
I had planned a quick trip up to Boise, Idaho to check a couple things off of my bucket list. It looked like all the nonstop flights from Salt Lake City to Boise were close to full, and I needed to get to the airport before others who were also flying non-revenue. I usually drive downtown and leave my truck at a hotel, but I was bound and determined to get to the airport sooner than that. I used one of those off-site airport parking facilities instead.
As the shuttle driver pulled up to the airport, I realized that I’d forgotten my phone in my truck! I had to ride the shuttle back, grab the phone, and wait for the next driver to take me back to the the terminal. So much for being the first one there! To add to my stress, the shuttle driver was driving way under the speed limit. I wanted to say something, but then decided I didn’t want to sound rude. Does he not realize that some of us have to catch a plane?
When I finally stepped off the shuttle at the airport, I rushed through security and over to one of the Delta gates. I asked the agent if there were any available seats on the Boise nonstop and she told me that all of the flights were actually overbooked. That made sense since it was a Friday. I decided to walk down and see what flights were offered on Southwest, knowing full well that Southwest has no nonstop flights.
As I made my way down to the Southwest gates, I wanted to see if there were any other airlines that could get me there on a nonstop. I knew that on Southwest, I’d have to connect either in Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Oakland and even though “beggars-can’t-be-choosers”, I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to check. I opened my Orbitz app and put in the information. The app told me that there was one nonstop left on American Airlines that left at 13:30. I may have freaked out a little and bought the ticket before even reading all the “fine print”. I really needed to get to Boise!
One of the items on my second bucket list (which I haven’t posted yet) is to attend a Little Big Town (official site) concert. This is a country group whose albums I have thoroughly enjoyed, with their song-selection and close harmonies. There is truly no artists out there like them. I’ve heard other bands on YouTube do some of the Little Big Town songs as covers and it’s just not the same. These guys and gals are incredible!
So- back to the the airport: I had just purchase the ticket on the flight and once I received the email confirmation, I noticed that it wasn’t a nonstop after all. The [insert desired cuss word here] flight was not only taking me through Phoenix, but I had a 6 HOUR layover! My arrival time into Boise wouldn’t be until about 23:30 that night, and this would never do! The concert started at 20:00!
I turned around and walked back through the airport, and out of security to the American Airlines ticket counter. I was hoping they’d take pity on me, and give me a refund. The agent was very nice but told me that since I booked the ticket through Orbitz, I’d have to give them a call and see if I was eligible for a refund. This wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I thanked her with all the professional courtesy I could muster at that particular moment and made my way back through airport security.
Once I was back in, I found the number for Orbitz and gave them a call. I explained how I bought the ticket, thinking it was a nonstop flight and that I really needed to get to Boise before about 18:00. The agent understood and canceled my ticket and told me that the funds would take 5 to 7 business days to be returned to my credit card. At least the situation was fixed. I made my way back to the Southwest customer service and my best option was to fly from Salt Lake City to Phoenix and then on to Boise *sigh*. But at least I didn’t have to hang out in Phoenix for 6 hours. Only just over an hour.
I finally landed in Boise just before 16:30 and headed over to the car rental counter. I had originally planned on renting the car and returning it to the airport the next morning and then flying back to Salt Lake City, but with the current stress I was feeling, I asked the Enterprise agent how much more it would cost to just return the car to Salt Lake City, instead of Boise. He pushed some buttons and told me that it would only cost me a few more dollars to do that. I changed my plans and was already looking forward to the 5-hour drive home the next day.
Now comes the part where I tell you about the other bucket list item that is now checked off. I am a member of couchsurfing.com, an online community of people who are looking to stay for free at someone’s house or offer up their own couch to other travelers. I have been a member of this site for years now, and totally like the idea, but I have never had the opportunity to actually use it. I had arranged to stay on a stranger’s couch in Boise. Don’t judge me!
Since learning about this site, this is something that I’d always wanted to experience. One of the reasons I often stay in hostels when I travel for vacations is to meet people from all over the world. To me, couch surfing is that same vibe. What better way to meet and learn about somebody than in their own home, in their own environment?
Guy is a very nice person who has offered up his living room couch and has given up his own bed to travelers over the years. He lives in a small apartment, just outside of what I would consider to be downtown Boise. More of a suburb, really. A very nice area! His only roommate is his dog. We sat and talked for a few minutes and then I asked him if he could suggest any good restaurants for dinner. We discussed food and ended up going to and Indian restaurant, not too far from his house.
After dinner, I told him I had an extra ticket to the concert that I’d be selling to someone outside the Taco Bell Arena, but that he was more than welcome to come to the concert with me instead. By this point, I was pretty sure that Guy isn’t a psycho killer type and I wouldn’t mind hanging out with him at the concert. He wasn’t sure he was up to attending the concert, but after dinner, when we got back to his house, I managed to talk him into it.
Guy and I at Little Big Town!
The concert was so stinkin’ awesome! I really can’t even explain it. When I attend a live concert and the singer (or ‘singers’ in this case) sound every bit as good as the studio album, or even better, that’s what does it for me! I LOVE music! It has such an all-encompassing power over me! Below is some of my favorite parts of the concert.
This was a great little trip! Even though getting there was a tad bit stressful, the ride home to sit and think was great! I’m so thankful to have heard this band live, and to have made a new friend!
When I lived in Logan, Utah, before my flight attendant career was underway, I got to know “Mom and Dad Johnson”. They are the parents of my good friend and former roommate, Joel Johnson. Joel, who seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, was one of the original members of the vocal group Voice Male and while we were roommates, we decided that we needed to get our own A Capella group going. After throwing around a few names, we came up with the group name “2by4″, since the group consisted of two girls and four boys.
Practices were often in the Johnson home, and this meant that Mom and Dad Johnson were forced to listen to endless hours of our singing. Over time, I really came to love Joel’s parents. There were times when they acted as if they actually were my parents and they even gave me some valuable help and advice that I sorely needed. My real parents were still living in southeastern Arizona at the time, so it was great to have this extra set to get advice from, on occasion.
This morning, during boarding of my work flight from Salt Lake City to Denver, I was welcoming passengers in the forward part of the aircraft and all of a sudden I heard a familiar voice call out, “Finally!!! After ten years of waiting- I finally have you as my flight attendant!” I was very surprised and extremely excited to see Mom Johnson boarding my flight! I can’t even explain how amazing this woman is, and how great it was to see her and hug her!
I wish we would have had more time to talk and catch up, but I had work to do. When we finished up in Denver, I had my ride waiting for me, and I believe she had another plane to catch. Still, It was amazing to visit with her, even if only for a few minutes. I hope I can visit Cache Valley sometime soon and have a proper visit with the Johnsons’.
I can’t sleep. My body woke up somewhere around 04:30 even though I was up until almost midnight getting things together- there is no sleep left in me. Megan isn’t going to come to pick me up for another six hours but I’m done sleeping. Maybe this is a good thing since my flight doesn’t leave Los Angeles until 23:45 tonight. Maybe that means I’ll actually sleep on the plane. I should drug myself.
<Los Angeles, California | 17:53>
Megan showed up right at 09:30 and I grabbed my two bags (one to check and one to carry-on) and threw them in the trunk of her car. We had to make a stop at Walmart so I could grab a few things. Arron commanded me to bring Hostess pies and butterscotch pudding for him. What I really mean is that he asked me if I’d bring some for him- I knew that if I did, they would get smashed in my checked bag, and he’d need to eat his treats with a fork or a spoon. I guess these are some things that they just don’t have in Australia. I ran into Walmart and found a little plastic box to put them in. I hope this keeps the treats uncrushed until I see Arron in about twenty-two hours.
My Happy ChauffeurFlying Over Las Vegas
Since I still had about 10 hours until I could check in for my flight, I walked down to get some lunch at In-N-Out Burger, near LAX.
Always A Good Decision
After ordering my #1, animal style, a gal who was also waiting for her order started chatting with me. Her name is Roxie and she just so happens to be one of my coworkers, based in Baltimore. After being an operations agent in Raleigh for I-don’t-remember-how-many years (close to thirty years, if I recall) she finally decided a couple years ago that she was going to transfer to inflight and start to see the country. We had a great chat!
We talked about our experiences in flight attendant training and the fact that her 30-year-old son is going through the exact same training in Dallas at this very moment. We remembered all the stress and head games that we had to live through to earn our wings. Those memories came flooding back! I think I had tried to block most of them out. It was quite common in training for you to get close to someone, thinking they’d become a life-long friend and coworker, only to find out the next day that they’d been sent home for failing a test or for one of a million other reasons. I remember that our training class started with 136, and I think only 84 made it to graduation. Roxie told me that from one test alone (passing of the P.A.s) they lost about 11. Mind games. Stress. Tears. Sleepless nights, pacing the hotel hallways studying because you really, really wanted to be a flight attendant.
I remembered there was a boy named Edwin in my training class. The day before our graduation, Edwin went out to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. The next morning, we all showed up to the shuttle and were very excited because this was our big day. We were getting our class picture taken and going over some last-minute career training and then we were going to “get pinned” (receive our wings) in a ceremony later in the afternoon. Edwin never showed up that day because he partied too hard and slept through his alarm or wakeup call. Instead of allowing him to join us later in the day (he had already passed all of his exams), they put him on a flight home. They told us from our very first day in training that we always had to be on-time to class, because they had to trust us to show up to the plane when we were supposed to be there. Edwin would have made a great flight attendant. I wonder what he’s doing now.
After a quick visit to the CVS so that I could pick up some generic Zzzquil and some generic Gas-x, just in case, we walked back together until it came time for me to turn right, heading to the terminal and Roxie turned left, heading back to her layover hotel. She’s a very cool gal and we exchanged our info so that we will hopefully keep in touch.
I grabbed my bags and lugged them all the way to the L.A.X. international terminal. Up to this point, I’ve only experienced terminal 1 because this is the only terminal that we fly out of for work. The international terminal or terminal 4 is a long hike, especially carrying a bag the size of the one I packed for this trip. Next time I’ll fork out the $5 to rent one of those easy cart thingies. I felt like I was going to pass out, lugging it the whole way.
<18:39>
I stepped up to the Qantas ticket counter, wondering if it was too early for me to check in for a plane that wasn’t supposed to leave for hours. The agent told me that it was indeed possible and that many other passengers had already checked in. She took my passport and told me that she wouldn’t even need my confirmation number. She scanned it through the groove on her keyboard, checked the screen and asked me if I had any bags to check to Charlotte this evening. “Okay, first of all, I didn’t even know that Qantas flew to Charlotte. Secondly,” I told her, “I am actually going the opposite direction and flying to Brisbane tonight.” She scratched her head and I pulled my confirmation number out of my bag. She scanned my passport again and this time it had me going to Brisbane. Much better! Although Charlotte, North Carolina is lovely!
Once I was through the security line (which was basically nonexistent for me since I happened to be in a flight attendant uniform- awesome benefit!) and a pitstop to the men’s room, I set out to find some chocolate. It is a well-known fact that you should always bring chocolate for the flight crew. Now that you know this, never fly without bringing some! Please don’t get the cheap, waxy kind of chocolate either. I was glad to find a See’s Candies shop in the terminal and grabbed a couple boxes of truffles. I hope the crew is grateful for the gesture.
DavTravels 