Ever Have One of Those Days?
Have you ever had one of those days? The kind that makes you question why you ever thought traveling was going to be the best part of the job?
Here’s a day in the life of a flight attendants, although fortunately this isn’t a typical one:
4:15 am - My alarm goes off, and I roll out of bed to get ready to leave for work. I’m getting up 15 minutes early in the interest of developing healthy habits — I’m going to try to have a small breakfast, instead of just half a pot of coffee.
5:30 am - I’m loading up the car and getting ready to roll out of the driveway. I have to leave a little earlier than usual because there is construction going on around the airport, making travel much slower than usual.
7:00 am - I check in for my flight, pick up some paperwork, and head out for the departure gate.
8:00 am - We’ve pushed back from the gate a few minutes early, and are headed out to the runway.
Inflight - All is good. Smooth flight, no problems. Flight Deck advises that we should be landing in our destination city about 20 minutes early — and that’s always good news, for both passengers and crew.
1:00 pm - Given the adjusted (and early) arrival time, this is about when all the descent preparations should be happening. We get things cleaned up, organized for the next crew to take over our aircraft, prepare paperwork, etc.
1:15 pm - We are definitely NOT on descent, and one passenger remarks that he thinks we are flying in circles. (And yes, indeed, that had been our conclusions as well.) We check in with the flight deck, and they advise that things have been slowed up into our destination city because of weather.
2:00 pm - We were scheduled to be on the ground by now, but we are still circling. Actually, we’re not really circling — we’ve been vectored out 100+ miles and are in a holding pattern along with a bunch of other aircraft. Concern comes up about how long we can circle before needing to divert to an alternate airport for fuel. Our destination airport closes due to severe thunderstorms (passengers say that they ca see them out the window), and we divert.
3:00 pm (time approximate) -We land at another airport, a couple hundred miles from our original destination. This is not an airport that we fly into, so we don’t have gate space, ground personnel, or any information about what is going to happen. We are temporarily parked on the tarmac awaiting availability of a gate.
4:00 pm - We block into a gate, get the doors opened, and start trying to solve passenger issues. For some passengers, this alternate airport was their final destination, so they’ll be getting off. Other people have connections that could possibly be made out of this alternate airport. Others head off to the bar, find food, stretch their legs, get some fresh air, etc. Flight Attendants must remain onboard, because some passengers remain.
5:00 pm (time approximate) - Passengers have been back on the plane, and we hear rumors (unconfirmed at this point) that we might be able to go soon. Sure enough - it looks like we have a window of opportunity, we get everyone on board, everything buttoned down, departure paperwork ready, and. . . . bad news — a tornado has just touched down in our destination city and the airport is closed again. We open the doors back up, and give passengers the options to get off or stay onboard. We get beverages out to everyone who stays on, and a couple passengers offer to go get food for the flight attendants. Everyone is frustrated, but it’s clear that Mother Nature is wreaking havoc on this corner of the world and there is nothing to be done about it.
6:00 pm - We’re still here. We play some games with passengers who remain, continue serving what we can, and get to know everyone on board just a little bit better. Everyone is very, very nice, and we are all managing to keep a sense of humor about us.
7:00 pm - Still here. We hear rumors that our destination airport may be open.
7:45 pm - Finally! We are underway to our original destination. Flight time should be just about 40 minutes.
8:45 pm - Still in the air. But we should be able to land soon.
9:45 pm - Still in the air. But we should be able to land soon — and this time they really mean it.
10:15 pm (time approximate) - Descent — yeah!!! Oh no — it’s very, very bumpy, and we are being thrown all around. Everyone is safely buckled up, flight attendants, too, but this is definitely NOT fun!
10:45 pm (time approximate) - On the ground and finally at the gate at our destination. Passengers are cheering. As the passengers get off, everyone is thanking us for taking such good care of them, and keeping them in the loop about what’s going on. What a great group of people!
12:10 am (time approximate) - I finally get to my hotel room, hungry, tired, but mostly just exhausted.
Fortunately, most travel days are not like this — whether you are a passenger or a crew member. But when things go sideways like this, it really helps to remember that we are all in this together.
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Tags: b5media, flight attendant, Flyaway Cafe, Travel, Vacation, air travel
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