#readyreserve

This current block of reserve time started on Wednesday. To be honest, I had to look up what day it was today, because I had no idea.

Wednesday morning, around midnight, I was called by crew scheduling to sit couch at 1pm. Couch is where you sit ready reserve at the airport in case you are needed in a bind or in a situation where they need a flight attendant stat. I’m not exactly sure where my head was at, because I missed the exit where I needed to park, which was the first sign of the day I had coming my way. Then, I had to park about a mile away and run to the airport shuttle because I didn’t have time to sit and wait for the bus to pick me up. By the time I got to the crew room, exhausted didn’t even begin to explain my life. I called crew scheduling to let them know I had arrived and the fun began. From 1-6, I read my book, played some word searches, went and got food, putzed around on the crew computers and found myself waiting for 7pm, which was when I could call crew scheduling to see if I was released. I was sitting couch with one other lady, who is in her early 50′s from a couple of classes before mine. We occasionally talked but both were too into whatever else we were doing. 

It was 6:45 and we were both getting ready to pack it up and hopefully go home. My couch partner gets a call from crew scheduling. As I saw her face while she was talking with them, I could tell some trip was coming her way. She hangs up the phone to let me know she is getting a four day trip. I felt terrible for her, as she wanted to go home so badly. My feeling terrible didn’t last long, because I received the same phone call from crew scheduling. I was going on the same trip as my couch friend. Another classmate of mine was in the room with us who also got the call. We were relieving a crew who timed out due to legal purposes. Their plane was delayed for over three hours due to severe weather and they were at their maximum of hours able to work in a day. We were still waiting on one other person from reserves to join us before we were able to board the plane again. He finally joins us. I learn I am working in the back of the plane, which I had been avoiding for the last month. This particular position came with a lot of responsibility as far as setting up service carts went, which I still feel completely lost about. Thank god for my new friend who also worked in the back who helped me out a lot. Long story short, our plane was delayed around six hours total. We had some crabby people, but most were understanding. 

We finally headed to Raleigh, NC. I wouldn’t call it a pleasant flight, as the turbulence was a struggle, but we all made it in one piece. 2am came around pretty quick, and as soon as my head hit the pillow, it was all over from there.

I woke up the next morning and felt like I didn’t get any sleep at all, but it was time to get the party started. We were heading to Denver. Our flight was delayed from the previous nights delay. We mosyed on over to the airport, got our Starbucks and went on our way. Thanks to an arrogant pilot trying to stick it to the airline, we ended up being an additional 30 minutes delayed. The flight itself went as well as could’ve been expected for a 3.5 hour flight. We get to Denver, and we call crew scheduling. They let us know at that point where we’d be staying on our layover, which was the Quality Inn. We were all very familiar with the Quality Inn, because that’s where we stayed during training. It could be worse, we kept telling ourselves.

We waited about 30 minutes for the hotel shuttle to pick us up and take us back. We were talking about what food we were going to eat and how we were going to spend our layover. We make it to the hotel for the front desk employees to tell us that we did not have reservations. My new friend who worked in the back with me was NOT having that. He called crew scheduling in a frenzy, demanding to have some answers. We were all a little pissed off, honestly. We were exhausted. Crew scheduling tells us that we were at a different hotel and we needed to find a way to the other hotel because they were not going to accommodate us. Imagine our fury. Luckily, our headquarters is down the street from this particular hotel and we were able to get a ride from someone there. Thank the Lord.

I spent my night with an old friend from training. He took me to a fun cafe in downtown Denver in the 16th Street Mall area. It was an area I always wanted to visit since being in Denver but never had the chance to. The food was good and the drinks were better. The rest of the night consisted of relaxing in my room watching one of my favorite movies, Anchorman. 

This morning, we deadheaded back to our base. It was nice to remember what being a passenger on a plane was like. Being allowed to sleep was a godsend, because I still haven’t caught up on sleep. We arrived back and we were all excited to go home. Although it was a short, easy three day trip, it was tiring with all of the setbacks we had. 

While you are on reserve, you are to call crew scheduling when you arrive back to be released to go home. Of course things were not that easy, my couch friend from Wednesday, myself, and another crew member were sent back to couch for another two hours. This was unfortunate, because of the MASSIVE cramps I was having (working with cramps really sucks, by the way, not sure if you were aware). There were some delayed flights, but luckily, we were released at the end of the two hours.