My first flight ever!!

My first flight ever... yah. Something I'll never forget!! It's like getting your first kiss.. I was a load factor (load factor is normally on long flights that are very full, extra help in other words) to L.A.!!! Wahoo! LA?! I had never been ANYWHERE outside the SEC states, besides Michigan but that doesn't count... The flight was from JFK (New York) to LAX (L.A.). I go meet my crew and introduced myself in crew briefing. Of course I didn't tell them this was my very first flight ever? How embarrassing would that be? So I acted all cool and like I was a pro at this. I got it... right? We started boarding and the A-line (flight leader) was telling me to count the food to make sure we had enough for first class. I said all chipper "Okay!!"... But in my head I was thinking... "Where in the hell is the food?" So I go to the front galley and start opening all the carts. Finally I found it! I counted the trays and only found 12 when we needed 24. I reported back to the flight leader that we were short half the trays. She got upset and called catering and told them they only sent half the trays we needed. Catering showed up at the airplane with the person who brought the food on and their supervisor. They pulled the cart out and started counting the trays. 12..... on one side.... and 12... on the other side... I only counted ONE side of the cart because I had never worked on one... Yah.. My "pro" skills were starting to show.. So I thought it was time to confess this was my first flight ever to my flight leader. She was so thrilled and thought it was so funny! She told me not to worry and that she would teach me everything I needed to know! We take off.. I started "trying" to help her get everything set up for her first class service but I found myself getting more and more in her way. Finally she told to just stand back and watch her that I would probably learn better by watching. I was okay with that, either way I was still getting paid!! After service was done, the pilots called wanting to go to the bathroom. I will not explain the procedures of what happens when one of the pilots have to come out of the cockpit due to safety related issues. All I will say is that two people must be in the cockpit at all times. So the flight leader decided to let me go in the cockpit! I was super excited!!! I went in, even tho is was dark outside, it was the coolest thing I have ever seen! This is all that I feel comfortable mentioning in this blog about going into the cockpit for the first time! We land in L.A. and I find out I am the only Flight Attendant laying over. I had a slight moment of panic. "Where do I go? How do I check in at the hotel? What hotel am I even staying at? How do I get to the hotel?" As all these questions are going threw my little mind, one of the pilots walk up to me and pats me on the back. He chuckled and said "Don't worry, we layover with you. We'll make sure you make it to the hotel." Shewww wee.. What a relief. So the pilots and I made our way to the hotel! Although I did not leave the hotel while I was there expect to go to the lobby and buy postcards for my family and friends, I had a great time! The bus ride from the airport to the hotel was neat, purple-red-orange-green-blue lit up HUGE palm trees! I finally calm down from all the excitement and get into bed, I was deadheading (I sit in a passenger sit in or out of uniform but I still get paid for it, to bring me back to my base which was NYC) back early the next morning! I get up at FOUR o'clock to get ready.  At the time I did not understand all the rules about dead heading and wasn't sure if I could or couldn't be in my uniform so I decided to stay on the safe side and wear it. I get to the airport a little to early and found a cell phone charging station. I had forgotten to charge my phone in the hotel. I was sitting with these two other boys who looked younger than me. We made small talk about which flight we were all on and then we all went back to facebooking. This African American male walked over and sat down right beside me.  I did not think to look up to see who it was. When I noticed more and more people start crowding around us, I decided I would move to get some privacy. When I started gathering all my things I noticed I was sitting by none other than S-N-Double O-P Doggie Dog!! haha- That's right.. Snoop Dog.. (see picture below) Wow- what a way to start my day. Of course I wanted a picture with him! But I did not have the guts to ask to take one because I was in my uniform. I opened my phone and got a picture of him before I walked away. We started boarding my flight to New York.  I heard the gate agent make an announcement for volunteers to take a later flight due to a passenger with a family issue an needing to get to New York earlier. I hung around an let everyone board the plan before me. I saw this thin little girl with dark hair and BIG sunglasses power walking toward our gate, she was followed by a heavy set older male with gray hair.. She was to far away for me to make out who she was but in my mind I was thinking "Oh great, another wanna-be-famous with their dark sunglasses on in the airport because it just sooooo bright in here." As she got closer and closer to the point where she was finally standing right beside me I said "Oh, Hi Eva Longoria". As if my day couldn't get any better. We boarded the plan together and as we got on I asked to sneak a picture with her and she agreed. I could NOT pass up a picture with my favorite Desperate House Wife! (see picture below) I did not care if I was in uniform or not! Needless to say Eva was not as friendly as I expected, bragging to me and three other male passengers about her Louis Vuitton boots she had on out of the blue? After that very strange encounter with her I took my seat. I had a window seat, waho! I was sitting next to a very pretty, thin, young female! She kept looking out the window and after a few times she introduced herself as Jen. She explained how she is scared of flying and apologized ahead of time if she keeps looking out the window and asked if I would keep it open. I offered to give her my seat but she declined. Jen and I made small talk threw out the whole flight. She was in the filming industry and did things like documentaries and commercials.  She was going to New York to start filming a new project.  Wow. She was so pretty, young, and seemed to be very very successful! It was very nice to see that! As you are flying out of L.A. you go over the mountains. When you are going over mountains, the altitude changes. When altitude changes, there is normally some bumps in the ride. Jen got very scared as we hit some nice size "speed bumps" as I like to call them. She would ask things like "why is this happening" or "is this normal".  I started thinking, I wonder how many people there is on this airplane that are scared of flying and this is something I need to be prepared to encounter everyday. So to ease Jen's nerves I just kept the small talking going the whole flight. By the end of the flight, I felt like I made a new friend. We added each other on facebook and to this day we still keep in touch with each on there! Every now and then I'll get a "like" or comment on one of my photos/status from her and I always smile and think back to my very first flight and that day, from trying to act like a pro on the job to meeting my favorite actress and only finding out shes a weirdo to making a new friend! Each day is a journey like this!! You never know who your going to encounter on this job.. If it's the asshole sitting 2B or the sweetheart in 3A.. The good thing I like about this job is: if you don't like either who your working with (pilots or flight attendants) or the asshole sitting in 2B, after the flight your more than likely never going to see them again!!!

Here are pictures of Snoop and Eva: 
(I have blurred out my face and any uniform piece that represent the company I work for.)

It's raining on the outside and on in the inside!

Delays.. We all hate them.. And of course they are going to happen... Not only does it inconvenience the passengers but let me tell you how it effects our operations. I was supposed to be done with my trip yesterday at 1pm. My last trip was to go to Baltimore and then back to Atlanta and then home! We go to Baltimore and the pilots told me when we landed that the control tower sent them a reroute message in flight. Thank goodness it was only for the pilots! We (the flight attendants) did not get one!! We deplaned the passenger's and as I started getting my first cleaned and ready for the next set of passengers, a group of flight attendants come on with their luggage saying this plane was going to Florida not Atlanta. Confused I made a PA telling my other flights to get their luggage and meet me at the gate. I called our in-flight operations and apparently we were stuck in Baltimore for 6.15 hours.. Really? Out of all the places, Baltimore..? There's no crew lounge, no where to get good food, and nothing to do? So the airline I work sent us to a hotel near by so we could rest. This was my third hotel to stay in within two days. We go to our hotel and our report time to the airport was 5:55pm. Once we arrived back to the airport, our flight was delayed another two and half hours. At this point we had timed out of our duty day. FAA has rules were flight attendants can only work 14 hour duty day (yes... 14 hour duty days are very common for us). We started at 5:20am that day an it was now 9:45pm. In-flight operations called me since I was the lead flight attendant and asked if we wanted to exercise our right to not work the flight and layover or wavier our "work rules" and work the flight. They offered us four hours of extra pay if we worked the flight that night. If we decided to not work the flight they would have to fly flight attendants up which would delay the flight another two hours, they would have to pay for us a hotel, bump paying passengers off the morning flight just to get us back to our base because they are required to, and pay us extra for flying us into our "off day". At this point the flight was 90% non-revenue (airline employee's) and there was only 19 total passengers... The rest of my crew was 50-50, half did not want to work it and half wanted to work it. So I had to make the final decision... I decided to just work the flight. I did not want to stay in another hotel room, my OWN bed at home sounded great. I wavered our work rules. The gate agents made the announcement how we had timed out but decided to work the flight and asked the passengers to please be kind to us because we did not have to work this flight if we did not want to.  We started boarding and everyone was so kind to us. I decided to comp all drinks for everyone because most of them had been stuck in the airport since 11:40am. When we FINALLY arrived in ATL everyone thanked us so much and a few people even hugged me.  The kindness we got from everyone made this very very long day worth it. Some crew members were not happy with me because of my decision but I felt like I made the right decision: we got paying/non-rev passengers to their destination, we got the airplane back to ATL so it could work it's morning flight, and we saved our company a lot of money. So when your next flight is delayed please don't go up to the gate agent and bitch, it's not going to get you there ANY faster what-so-ever and be kind to your crew members (they cannot control the weather or mechanical issues), there is a lot of "behind the scenes" going on. Just sit back and relax, it will work itself out!!!

What a Flight Attendant REALLY thinks...

Passenger: "Where's my seat, I'm in 24B?"

Flight Attendant: "Well... the rows in numerical order, in ascending order. And then letters are in alphabetical order and the posted placard has a picture of a window by A... So.. I am assuming your seat is somewhere in between rows 23 and 25? And somewhere between A and C... Just Guessing....."

Flight Attendant: "Would you like something to drink sir?"

Passenger with headphones on: "Huh?"

Flight Attendant: "WOULD YOU LIKE A DRINK SIR?"

Passenger finally takes his headphone off: "What?"

Flight Attendant: "I'm selling car insurances, would you like to purchase a policy? What do you think I am asking you, I'm standing here with a beverage cart and I just served the person seated beside you a drink?"

Passenger: "There is no space in the over bin above my row for my bag"

Flight Attendant: "Oh, so instead of placing it in the overhead bin in front or behind your row, let me go get my magical wand out of my luggage and make the bin above your row magically grow bigger, free of charge!!!"

Flight Attendant: "Would you like ice in your drink sir?"

Passenger: "Are they cold?"

Flight Attendant: "No sir, they have been sitting on the airplane all day long."

Passenger: "Oh, just two cubes than."

*Flight Attendant counts out exactly two pieces of ice and puts it in your drink and hands it to you. 

*Two drinks later, the passenger who wanted JUST two ice cubes pushes his call button wanting more ice.

Flight Attendant: "So the two ice cubes I counted out of the ice bucket just for you didn't satisfy you like you asked...?"

Passenger chugs his whole glass of coke:

Passenger: "Can, I have another glass of coke and another bag of peanuts?"

Flight Attendant: "Can't you see the other 158 passenger's on this flight who would like to have their FIRST drink and FIRST bag of peanuts?"

Before landing in Atlanta, GA 5 minutes late:

Passenger: "Mam, I have a connecting flight in 20 minutes to New York, where's my next gate at?"

Flight Attendant: "Do you realize there are over 500+ flights a day that leave out of Atlanta? And you expect me know know where all the flights gates are at?"

Passenger: "Can you call my gate and tell them to wait for me?'
Flight Attendant: "You do realize we are still 10,000 feet in the air? What would you like for me to use, my cell phone? And do you really think we are going to delay a flight with over 150+ passengers on it just because you booked your flight to close together to make your connecting flight?"


Passenger texting on his iPhone before take off:
Flight Attendant: "Sir, that should have been turned off already."
Passenger closes the screen.
Flight Attendant: "I said OFF sir"
Passenger: "I turned it off?"
Flight Attendant: "Sir, I have the SAME PHONE... That is NOT turned off... You need to push to top button down till the red OFF button lights up on your screen. If you do not know how to do this, I will be more than glad to assist you."
Passenger: "Well, it's in airplane mode."
Flight Attendant: "Oh. Airplane mode..? hmm- I have a webster dictionary in my purse, let me go get it and we will look up the word "OFF" and lets see if it has airplane mode as the definition."


During Boarding:
Passenger: "We booked our flight together and we are not seated by each other"
Flight Attendant: "This is an hour an 15 minute flight, if you can not be separated for more than a hour an 15 minutes I suggest that you go see some kind of therapist."


Passenger: "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM???"
Flight Attendant: "Well Sir... If you don't know who you are, I sure don't know who you are... Your boarding pass should have your first and last name on it if you have forgotten."

Flight Attendant: "Your bag is way to big, we are going to have to check it"
Passenger: "Last time I checked my bag, you lost it. I will back it fit"
Flight Attendant: "First of all... *I* didn't lose shit... Second of all... If you weren't such a cheap o and try to cram everything you own into one small bag instead of checking it properly, we would NOT be having this conversation right now..."
Passenger: "Do I get a free drink because you checked my bag?"
Flight Attendant: "No... You do NOT get a free drink because you were dumb enough to bring a bag onboard that did not meet FAA regulations...."

"Ladies & Gentleman, We Have Now Reached Cruising Altitude."

Let's talk about airline uniforms for a minute.  Of course they look nice, what guy doesn't like a cute, thin lady bringing him a cocktail in a short skirt/dress while he is on his way to meet his friends at the beach? But what most people who are not airline professionals don't know about this uniform is this: it comes with a warning label. Yes. A warning label. This uniform has serious side effects. It will cause you and your family to believe that Christmas is no longer on December 25th. Sometimes it will make you miss family and church events, reunions, and most weekends.  Even the pilots uniforms. Some have even claimed that it has aphrodisiac like qualities. So I have been told. It will even make you miss your child's birth or daughter's prom. It will cause you to sleep with your cell phone on loud, waiting for the call saying "You have an hour to report to the airport". It will cause you to leave a suit case in your car at all times, packed for both hot and cold weather. For some odd reason, these uniforms will make you leave your home and drive in ice, snow, rain, wind, or even tornadoes all just to catch your flight that should have been canceled but wasn't. People will look at you like a crazy person as you are running barefoot in this uniform from gate to gate to make your next departure. Sometimes your spouse has to learn to become a single parent when raising children because you will be gone for days at a time. It will make you gain weight because you are confined to fast food restaurants in the airport. You can find yourself spending most of your nights in a empty hotel room with crumbs left in the bed from the flight attendant/pilot from the night before. Your feet. Yah, you can kiss those babies goodbye!! And your friends. Your friends will soon to think you have forgotten about them. They will stop calling and find that the only way to keep in touch is through facebook. They think that you are out at the beach having so much!! Little do they know... So. Think being a flight attendant/pilot is still all the glam it puts out to be? Before you put on this uniform, I suggest that you read the warning label fully because it is all true. It holds nothing back! And the next time you pass someone in the uniform, think twice before calling them "just a waitress in the sky"........

"Flight Attendants, Please Prepare for Take Off!!"

Hi and welcome to my blog! I am sure you already know by now but I am a flight attendant for a U.S. carrier! I have been flying a little over a year now and the people I have met and places I have gone have changed my life. After sharing bits and pieces of my adventures with friends and family through facebook and phone calls has inspired me to start a blog and share them with the world! First, I'll start  by telling you a little about myself.  I am from a very small country town in the southern part of the states. I went to college at a SEC University and becoming a flight attendant was the first job I got out of college. Being a flight attendant was always a dream of mine.  I had a close family friend that was one and getting to watch her life and hear her stories always intrigued me! I would always watch the company I currently work for website to see if they were hiring. One day while sitting in my college class I decided why not check out to see if they were hiring. To my surprise they were! If you were hired you MUST be willing to relocate to New York City! How much fun would that be!!? So I applied. A week later I received the "Thank but no thank you" email from them because I did not have my passport. My birthday was just a few weeks away so I asked my family to give me cash for my birthday so I could get my passport. After spending all my birthday money having my passport expedited, I reapplied. Several weeks went by without hearing anything about my application. One day while shoe shopping with my boyfriend, I received a email on my phone saying I needed to take a "personality test" which could take up to three and a half hours! My boyfriend and I left the store immediately and went home to take the test. It sure did take me the whole three and a half hours to take the test! After I was finished, I received a email saying I successfully passed the test! The email also said that the hiring process takes several months and to not contact them, that they would contact me. Two months went by without any contact from them.  By this time I had almost given up on getting the job.  As graduation from college was getting closer and closer, I decided to apply for my first credit card so I could build some credit. I started getting a lot of phone calls from unknown or blocked numbers trying to get me to sign up for all these credit cards. One morning, I got a call from "unknown" about 9:10am (in college, that was SUPER early for me!!). When I saw "unknown" on the ID of my phone I got so mad because these dumb credit card people had woken me up so I answered the phone in a very ugly "helllooo?". The response I got back was not the response I was expecting!!! "Hi, this is Josh with [airline carrier]" I quickly  jumped out of my bed, turned on my southern belle voice and begin to apologize! Fortunately for me, Josh was very understanding and started laughing. He told me he was calling to do my phone interview and asked me some very different questions.  Since I have never worked for an airline before I wasn't familiar with how things worked and all the questions were situational "what would you do if..." type of questions. After asking a couple of questions he put me hold. He came back about 5 minutes later and said he would like to fly me to the headquarters for a face to face interview and that he would be emailing me my itinerary! I was shocked! Could not believe it! Two days later I received my email with my flight information and interview packet! That day I went to Ann Taylor and spent almost all of my savings on a suite!! Yes.. an Ann Taylor suite! Boy, it was sharp! The night before my interview, I stayed with my best friend! I knew we would stay up all night giggling and being around her always makes the worries of the world disappear. We went to eat dinner that night and just split a order of loaded french fries. I love spicy food!! So we ordered a lot.. and I mean A LOT of jalapenos on them. We to her house after dinner and giggled all night over a glass of wine and talked about how much fun it would be to live in New York City! Morning came early. Got up and got ready. My best friend drove my car to the airport. As we were pulling into the airport we got stopped at a red light. We sat there talking about how nervous I was and all of a sudden my car started making a really loud "ROARRRRRR" sound an shaking. My best friend had one foot on the break and one foot on the gas!!! We sat at the light and laughed so hard!!! She dropped me off and off I went! I got to my interview and there was about 50+ other people their interviewing as well!! wow.. Almost ALL of them were employed by a different airline or had experience. I had nothing... Most of them were 30 years old or older... I was barely 22 years old... I stood along a wall by myself and watched as everyone else talked and mingled. I stood there for about 25 minutes by myself an no one had made a effort to come over to talk to me.  As other people were arriving, this tan, well dressed, handsome young man walked in and looked right at me.  He came straight up to me and introduced himself as "Kevin Lden".  Little did I know, Kevin was about to be one of my new life long best friends. Kevin and I stood there talking and telling each other about our lives and where we came from. Kevin had previous experience with a mid-eastern airline. I just knew he was going to be hired. As we were about to start the interview process, I felt my stomach burning. One word came to my mind. JALAPENOS... I don't think I need to go into details what happened next. Use your imagination-- The interview process took several hours and hours and hours! But by the end of the day, six other people (including Kevin) and I heard the words "Welcome to the [airline carrier] family!!!" Little did I know how my life was about to change with those five little words!!! I will try my best to share some of my favorite and worse experiences with you, stories that I have been told, food that I have tried and people that I get to met!..... As the captain says..."Flight Attendant's Prepare For Take Off!!" Or in this case.. "Reader's... Prepare For Take Off!!"