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!"