Jetway Jesus

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, then things got a bit hectic. Oops. Major apologies to my devoted followers. (Followers=1 person who googled something and somehow ended up at this blog)

So, my most recent "reserve" days made me appreciate the little "miracles" that we flight attendants perform each and every day (and don't even know it!). Ha!

Every day flight attendants board and unboard planes with hundreds of people over and over again. Among some of these very special people are our friends who need a little extra help getting down the jetway and to their seat on the plane. They are boarded with a WHEELCHAIR. They request one, get to board early, have someone carry their baggage, and also have one waiting at their destination right there at the boarding door ready to wheel them directly to their next flight or transportation. It's a pretty sweet deal.

On one of my recent flights to RSW (Ft. Myers) we had TWELVE wheelchairs. Yes people, I said TWELVE!! (This is a very high number of wheelchairs people!) Most flights which start with 3 or 4 wheelchair boardies, usually end with maybe 1 or 2 wheelchairs needed at the end of the flight. How does this happen you ask? Some call it the "miracle" but most refer to it as "Jetway Jesus"! I perform miracles throughout the flight, dontcha know?


Typical sequence of events:
-Arrive at plane
-Board wheelchairs/extra assistance pax
-take off, inflight, regular stuff that takes too long to type
Prior to landing:
-notify pilots of # of wheelchairs needed at destination
-pilots tell the airport # of wheelchairs needed
-wheelchairs dispatched (hopefully correct #)
-look up, find, and chat with each wheelchair pax to tell them that we have a wheelchair for them, wait for everyone to deplane, we will get them when the chair arrives in the jetway
-land
-pax deplane
-look around the plane and realize the plane is empty, AKA we performed miracles inflight and our wheelchair pax can now walk hence the "Jetway Jesus" miracle.

Case in point: People order wheelchairs so they can board first and get people to carry their bags. Really annoying to the people who roll those wheelchairs up and down the jetways each day, and really annoying to the people who actually NEED the wheelchairs and dont get one bc they are being dispatched to people who dont need them. Ugh.

I really think it must be all that special fresh air we recycle in the plane at 30,000 ft. :-)


"Hallelujah! Jetway Jesus has performed his miracle again!"

Ultimate Glamour

The life of a flight attendant is pretty glamorous. I'm not going to lie, I LOVE the special treatment:
-I get to skip passengers in line to get through security
-I get to skip passengers in line to go through customs (most places)
-I get to stay in fabulous rooms, in fabulous hotels, with fabulous BEDS!
-I usually get major discounts in bars, restaurants, and stores by just showing my Crew ID
-I get to visit friends I haven't seen in years!
-I never have to worry about getting to/from the airport on layovers because a car service picks me up and drops me off
-I get to lay out at the pool all day if I want to in a sunny city and get PAID for doing it :-)


There's lots of other fun things as well. But then you have times that are NOT so fabulous, such as last night.
I sat in the JFK flight attendant lounge for 4 hours on International Standby, packed and ready to go, primped and in my uniform, and didn't get called for a trip :( . Then I had to take the bus back at 11pm and drag my suitcase back to my pad.
Yuck.
3 Standbys were called while I was there: 1 sent to Madrid (jealous!), 1 sent to San Francisco (not as jealous), and 1 sent to London (I will flying there on the 8th!). The rest of us were released :( boo.

Luckily, my good friend from my training class was sitting standby too and we got to hang out and catch up. :-) Hanging out with friends on standby (and making new ones!) makes my raise the rating level of last night closer to FABULOUS.

I am sitting on International Standby tonight again too, so hopefully I get to go somewhere highly Glamorous! :-) (Please let someone call in sick on the four-day Madrid trip!!!)

*B

ps: one of the great things of living with a bunch of flight attendants: the random things you find around the apartment. Exhibit A: A pen from a hotel in Kuwait. REALLY?! haha!