120 Hours of "On Call" Duty

This morning at 12:01AM I started 120 hours of "on call" duty. Sounds like a lot, huh?

One of the neat things that I found out at the Reserve Forum this past week was that I could call crew scheduling during my "on call" times and request an hour or so "off call" to do such things as...take a bath, go to the doctor, run to the grocery store, take a walk, etc. The possibilities are limitless!

I know it doesn't sound like much to you, but to me...it's amazing. Why, you ask? Let me tell you...

Let's say I am "on call" and I need to run to the north end of town to pick up something special that Greg has ordered (use your imagination here). Before I leave the house, I have to make sure that my suitcase is packed with enough clothes (and underwear) for the number of days that I am on call - then I have to put the suitcase in my car.

Then I have to look in my "on board bag" - I need to make sure I have my flight manuals, airport IDs, wallet, sunglasses, and camera in that bag along with my magazines, books and sudoku book. Oh yes...and don't forget my laptop and my latest Netflix movies! That bag then needs to go into my car.

Next, my lunchbox needs to be packed. Since I am currently doing "a lifestyle change," I need to make sure that I have all the meals I need for the number of days that I can be called. I have found that I can stow three days of meals in my lunchbox, so I have learned to put the meals for the additional days I'm on call in a soft cooler that I'll stash in the freezer in the crewroom if I get called to the airport. As I eat the meals in my lunchbox, I'll just run to the crewroom between flights and pick up another days' worth of food (providing no one has stolen it from the freezer). The only thing I keep forgetting is to bring an ice bag or blue ice block to keep my meals cold... even though I usually have plenty of ice available to me on the planes and in the hotels, I sometimes forget to bring something to put it in! Plastic bags from the airplane and dry cleaning bags from the hotel usually leak, and I end up with a dripping lunchbox. The lunchbox and cooler need to be put in my car.

Most importantly, I need to make sure that I have my full uniform with me - including my shoes. I now keep all my uniform pieces in a hanging bag near the back door - ready to grab as I run to my car. The hanging bag needs to be put into my car.

NOW I am ready to put myself in the car...oops! Wait...I forgot my water bottle. Let me fill it with ice and water, hook it onto my lunchbox, and close the trunk. Wait! If it's before noon and I haven't yet had my two allotted Diet Cokes, let me run into the garage refrigerator and grab a couple! (We no longer serve Coke products on our planes, much to my dismay...)

I can pretty much guarantee you that if I DIDN'T do all these steps, I'd get a call from crew scheduling that starts with the dreaded words "I have a two-hour call-out for you..."

It takes me 1 hour and 40 minutes (with no traffic and in good weather) to get from my driveway to the telephone in the crewroom. It takes 10 minutes to change into my uniform, which leaves me a 10 minute cushion for my drive to the airport. So, instead I've chosen to grab my stuff, rush to the airport and have a 20 minute cushion to allow for unforseen circumstances and changing into my uniform in the crewroom. I've done it twice now, and it's worked like a charm, compared to the several times that I had 10 minutes or less (as low as 3 minutes) to run to the phone and check in when I dressed at home.

Stress. I'd like to leave home without it.

Mental Health Day

What a day. I did not do the DCA turn. I couldn't. I was not fit to fly.

When I got to the airport this morning I checked my company mail and found three "hate letters" from other flight attendants. Two with names and one anonymous. A few days ago I received a hate email that was signed. Why am I such a target?

Because I took the Leadership Council's request seriously - they wanted the reserve flight attendants to come up with some ideas as to how to make their work rules better. I sent a copy of my suggestions (each item complete with pros and cons) to each Leadership Council member and to each of my classmates. Someone in one of those groups didn't like my ideas and started distributing my suggestions - there was a copy taped to the file cabinets in the crewroom and I don't know who else got a copy.

I guess I threaten some of the line-holders. I guess they're afraid that they'll have to start doing their jobs the way that the company wants them to.

So sad.

I was pretty torn up when I got the three hate letters today, so I went to the manager's office and ranted and raved for awhile. They took me off my DCA turn, and I have the day off to give my brain a rest.

We're having our reserve forum tomorrow. I'm wondering if anything is going to change. I thought Frontier was different.

So sad.

Oh No!

I am still in my hotel room, kicking around the idea of getting in the shower...and I looked at the schedule for today's turn to DCA.

I will be sitting "cheek-to-cheek" with a flight attendant with whom I had "issues" this past December. OMG. This is going to be a very interesting day...I hope that I survive it unscathed.

Please keep me in your prayers today. Seriously.

I Survived the Night

Birds...I'm hearing birds. I'm not quite sure where they are or if it's just the heater. But I hear birds!

I'll be heading back to the airport in a couple of hours to work my DCA flight, but after thinking about this last trip, I thought I'd add one final comment. The 'A' flight attendant from the 4-day had dropped the final turn to Phoenix, so we had a fresh face on the turn last night. And let me tell you...it was so nice. She was friendly! At the end of the trip as we're riding the crew bus to the parking lot, we actually had a conversation! Like I said in yesterday's post, the crew can make or break a trip.

Our Flight Attendant Leadership Council is having a special Forum tomorrow for flight attendants on reserve. In anticipation of that meeting, I put together a list of suggestions that could help our situation, and I included both pros and cons for each suggestion. I sent the email to the Leadership Council and assorted others in management, as well as to my classmates. Then I got a "not-so-nice" email from a senior flight attendant telling me that I had stirred up a hornet's nest...I knew when I committed my ideas to paper that it could be sent out to anyone, and I wasn't concerned, because I didn't feel there was anything inflammatory in it. Wrong. Evidently the seniors are worried that the company is going to take from them and give to us. Hmmm. She totally missed the boat. I'm wondering if that's why the 'A' flight attendant was so cool to me.

I wrote a calm, cool and collected response to the senior flight attendant, and forwarded her letter and my response to all the original people I had contacted. From what I hear, the seniors have calmed down, but several are still planning on crashing our meeting tomorrow. There are about 14 of us who will definitely be there, and another 35 who are "on-call" and hope to be able to come. I'm kind of disappointed that there won't be more reserves there.

I really enjoy my job when everything "clicks" on a flight - but I couldn't resist the challenge of making suggestions when management asked for assistance - I guess it's the manager in me. But the old signs of stress - neckache, backache and headache - are coming back...Bummer.

Odd Man Out...

I just finished my 4-day trip. I can't say that it was my favorite (even though the overnights were in awesome places)...and that's all due to the crew. For some reason, the 'A' flight attendant didn't like me from the start of the trip and I don't know why. So I pretty much kept to myself during the entire trip. But with that kind of environment, I found my stress level increasing... wondering what I had done, if anything. Oh well. Life goes on, and I hope that my next trip has a more easygoing crew.

When we left Dallas this afternoon, we were an hour late due to weather in Denver. Then once in Denver, we had a turn to Phoenix - we got back to Denver close to midnight. When I called crew scheduling to be released, they told me that I was assigned to a DCA turn tomorrow! So instead of driving to Colorado Springs, I decided to find a hotel room for the night!

But my big problem is, that I am SPOILED ROTTEN! I am at a Ramada, which used to be a nice hotel chain years ago, and the rug is worn, the wallpaper is peeling..kind of sad...but they have a killer airline employee rate. I went to the local Holiday Inn Express and asked for their best rate, but it was double what I ended up paying and they only had one smoking room left. Yuck.

I like luxury!

Sittin' on the dock of the Bay

Since I was too tired last night to do anything, I decided to go for a walk this morning along the San Francisco Bay. That's when I realized that Otis Redding's song refers to this body of water! Needless to say, I looked for a dock and took a picture of it.

There was a great paved trail along the bay...it was really nice. Later in the afternoon we had to take our van back to the airport. Everything was delayed because of snow in Denver, but we finally got back and then took off again...this time for Dallas!

Overcast San Fran

We got to San Francisco a couple hours ago, and I am EXHAUSTED! Our flight from New York City to Denver took over4 hours, and the flight from Denver to San Francisco took almost 3 hours! I am TIRED (or did I already say that?!?!).

This trip is sort of reaffirming my feeling that I don't do well with senior crews...it's sort of like being in high school again. Read into that any way that you want.

Fortunately, I am fine being on my own. If I wasn't so WIPED OUT (am I repeating myself?!?!), I'd be taking the BART to all the tourist attractions here in SF. But all I want to do is go to sleep! Maybe I'll get up early tomorrow and do a little sightseeing or walking - the hotel is on the San Francisco Bay. It's not helping any that it's overcast and in the 50's out here...

Seeing as how I'm so tired...I think I'm going to call it a night!

Awesome Trip

Yesterday, I got assigned to an awesome 4-day trip! It started this morning with a turn to Phoenix, and the day ended in New York City!

I am now in my hotel, but immediately after we landed, I changed my clothes, gave my bags to my co-workers to put into my hotel room, and I rushed off to Times Square and the theatre where Jen was working selling merchandise. And who should be at the show "In the Heights" tonight? None other than Jennifer Lopez! She stopped to buy a couple CDs of the show, and Jen asked if she could have a picture with her...and I was the photographer. JLo had her wedding ring on (the rock is huge), and she is absolutely gorgeous!

Afterwards, a starstruck Jen and I went out for a quick bite, and then it was time for me to go back to the hotel and GO TO BED!

Kodi...the King of the World

Kodi has decided that he loves sitting on the cedar chest, watching the world outside the picture window!

Miracles do happen...

The weirdest thing just happened to me on the stand-up that I just did to San Jose, CA. First of all, keep these things in mind - there are around 850 Frontier Flight Attendants, I am on reserve, and I am given assignments on a random basis. I was getting along great with my fellow crewmembers on our way to San Jose.

As we were deplaning, the "A" position flight attendant tells me about the cell phone she recently lost on a place at LGA - gone. Never to be seen again. We continued the conversation on the crew bus to the hotel, and then the "C" flight attendant joins the conversation as she told us that she is still heartsick over losing her antique diamond wedding ring...Well, here's where the story gets interesting.

I found that antique diamond wedding ring on December 14 as I was walking through the DIA Airside Employee Parking Lot. I could not believe what I had in my hand. I put an ad in the Lost & Found section of Craigslist for Denver, but felt terrible that I would probably never find the owner.

Back to the crew bus - I asked a few questions about the description of the ring, and when I knew for certain that it matched the ring that I had found, I told her that I had found the ring on December 14 and had it at my house! She burst out crying and was so excited! It turns out that the ring is a family heirloom that is 150 years old. She lost it sometime on December 13, and realized it on her birthday - December 14. She had been searching in the lost & found at the airport, had placed ads in the lost & found section of the newspaper, but for some reason had not looked at Craigslist.

I knew that this was a special ring to someone - I am overjoyed that I will soon be able to reunite it with its owner!

Put your trust in God, and he'll make things happen!!!

Oops! Be Careful What You Ask For...

Well, I wanted a trip, and they gave me one! I have a 2030 (8:30PM) showtime today for a flight to San Jose, CA. The thing that kind of stinks is that we will have 7 hours on the ground...that includes the time to drive to/from the hotel and back to the airport in the early morning. So it'll probably be less than 6 hours of sleep and NOTHING ELSE. No sightseeing, no reading, no surfing the web...

I flew the couch yesterday from 6AM until Noon, and then spent an hour or so driving around the neighborhoods near our HQ looking at properties for sale - I found an adorably cute 2 bedroom place - part of a townhouse complex, but none are available. You need to put $ down and then it'll be built and completed in about 9-12 months! I hope by then that I wouldn't need to even consider having a place near the airport!!!

Anyway, I looked at the outside of a few places in another neighborhood, and have decided that it might not be a good neighborhood for me to be going in/out at all hours of the day/night. Also, most of these properties were foreclosures, so when I peeked through the windows, all I saw was destruction. Not pretty. So, I'll keep on looking. If I'm meant to have a place (to be able to quit driving to/from Denver during duty days), I'm sure something will pop up!

I have spent the day watching the inauguration - history in the making. People are treating our new President like he's a rock star. I hope that four years from now, their hopes have been fulfilled and that they still feel the same way. We are living in exciting times...

Give me a Trip!

I just realized, that in the past two weeks, I have been away from home only one night (Seattle)! I have had two couch sits, a round-trip to Cancun, a round-trip to San Jose, CA, and yesterday I had a round-trip to Dallas. Now the problem with all these individual trips/sits, is that they are on individual days, thus requiring me to go barreling up/down I-25 at 1000 miles per hour. My poor car...There is one available trip on the board, and I'll find out if I get it in a couple hours. The first night will be spent in Milwaukee and the second night in Los Angeles. Stay tuned.

But I do have to say that I had a blast on yesterday's round-trip to Dallas! I flew with one of my classmates, Steph G., and a girl from the previous class, Carrie. Everything went like clockwork. It just goes to show (listen up, all you senior mamas who are stuck in your ways) that if you do the job correctly, it is so easy!!! The time went by so fast...I hope I get to fly with both those ladies again.

When I got back to DEN, I called and begged crew scheduling to send me out on an overnight! But they had nothing to offer me. Then a nice four-day popped up on the screen that was leaving tonight, but they said they had to give it to a classmate who had less hours than me. So I bid on a day off without pay and on the A shift for the couch for this morning...and they sent me home with the day off. No worries about having to answer the phone at 4AM! Life is good.

All's Well

Silly me. After all these years of not listening to what other people thought, why did I all of a sudden start caring? Ha! I'm all better now.

I got a call from HR at Frontier today, wanting to set up a phone interview for the Manager's position that I applied for. We had a nice chat, but I asked her to withdraw my application...unless she thinks F9 would move their HQ to Colorado Springs. Needless to say, my application has officially been withdrawn. Can you imagine what everyone at Church would say when they found out that I was working a 9 to 5 job at the HQ Monday through Friday and living in an apartment?!?!? Scandalous!

Today was Greg's dental receptionist's last day on the job - she's been with us almost 10 years. The time has come for her to go, though - both for her sake and ours. I know that the patients will miss her. But hopefully, they'll warmly welcome our new receptionist, Lisa!

I've been running errands and doing miscellaneous stuff here at home today - I bid for a reserve day off, and I got it! That means that my guarantee pay of 75 hours gets reduced by 4 hours. I already had tomorrow off, and then I'll start back to work on Friday - with SIX DAYS IN A ROW of duty. Yikes! But I did it to myself so that I could be home with Jen. Such a good Mom am I.

A Major Dilemma

Yesterday was my day off, during which I had tons of errands to run, projects to work on, scheduled appointments to keep, and events to attend. I completed only a small portion of what I needed to do, but I am happy with what I accomplished. I had hoped to do more today, but crew scheduling called at 6:28AM to have me fly the couch at DIA from 8:30AM until Noon. I made it with 3 MINUTES TO SPARE. We won't talk about how fast I was driving, or how many "near-misses" I had...now on to my dilemma.

My dilemma is: Am I doing a disservice to my family by working this job? Last night I got cornered by a couple people from Church, and was told how unhappy my husband is. ("He looks so sad in the grocery store...) However, he assures me that he's okay with what I'm doing, that he's never stood in my way, etc. He would like my schedule to be a bit less unpredictable, but then so would I! I have devoted my life for over 20 years to my husband, his career, my daughter, her schools and my Church. Is it so wrong to be so happy having this job, and doing something for me?

I am bringing in a bit of money, I'm getting health insurance for our family at 1/3rd the cost of what we used to pay, we're getting free travel to VA, NY and IL to visit family, and in return, I am still on reserve after 15 months. I know things will be much better when I gain some additional seniority on the Reserve list...or when I get to hold a line! Life will be GOOD!

So...seeing as how I haven't been hammered enough by everyone else's opinions, go ahead and leave me yours, or just participate in the online poll...my life hasn't been my own for so long, I might as well see what the world wants me to do!

Three Days = Three Trips to Denver

I just finished three duty days...on the first day, I sat the couch at 6AM until Noon. On Saturday, I did a turn to Cancun that got back to Denver at 8PM. And yesterday, I did a turn to San Jose, CA. My poor car just got driven approximately 540 miles in three days...

My goal is to drive as few times to Denver as possible during a block of duty days, but I guess Crew Scheduling hasn't "received that memo." But I am making good use of the time...thanks to Jen, I now have a ton of CDs with the soundtracks of musicals - I listened to "The Boy from OZ" (with Hugh Jackman), "Avenue Q", "Annie", "The Sound of Music", and "Aida" in the past few days. One of these days I'll start listening to my Spanish Language Course CDs again.

I got to fly on the 320 to/from Cancun on Saturday - it has four flight attendants on board, and it's a bit different than the 319s and 318s that I usually fly. The crew was fantastic, though, and a long day went by pretty quickly! And one of the ladies was near the top of the seniority list! Just goes to show that most flight attendants DO follow procedure, no matter their ranking.

On yesterday's return flight from San Jose, CA I had a "celebrity" on board - Ted Christie, our Chief Financial Officer. That added a tiny bit of pressure - I was the C, so I had to swipe the TVs for our Classic and Classic Plus passengers. When I came to Ted and his family, I said something along the lines of "If I remember correctly, I am not supposed to comp your TVs, but I don't want to commit a faux pas and not comp them, when I'm actually supposed to because of your title." He laughed and said, "No, you are correct...but thank you for asking to make sure." He's a really nice guy.

I have today off to cram in all those things that I need to get done in one day - massage appointment (my right arm and knee have been giving me fits), grocery store, post office, and Church potluck dinner tonight - and of course, it's snowing today! Not to mention the tons and tons of paperwork that have accumulated on my desk. Argh. I go back on duty tomorrow for two days, and there are three two-day trips on the board...stay tuned.

The Holidays are Officially Over...

Jen left this morning and should be arriving soon in NYC. The house is so quiet and empty without her...

My recent Seattle trip was awesome - the crew was fun, even though we didn't do a thing in Seattle! But they were a good group of hard workers. When I got back to Denver on Tuesday morning, crew scheduling had me sit the couch at DIA until Noon, and then I was released to my two days off!

Then Jen & I spent most of Wednesday putting all the Christmas stuff away and then focusing on getting all her stuff packed up and ready to take on the plane. I ended up sending one package by UPS...her new tripod...it was too large to carry around an airport.

After taking her to the airport, the rest of my morning was taken up doing research. One of my flight attendant school classmates forwarded an email to the rest of the class encouraging us to send in a card to a union organizer indicating that we want to join a union. Yuck, yuck and double yuck. The kicker is, the "scare info" that was included in the email was false. I forwarded the email to a few friends in high places in the company and learned that it was blatantly false.

I know things are tough right now for us reserves, but what would a union be able to do to make it better?!?! If anything, having another layer of "management" could make things a lot worse. Also, unions have not been known to favor the lower seniority people... My hope is, that before anything becomes official, that all flight attendants take the time to do their research and make informed decisions. And I sure hope that Colorado is an "Open Shop" state, where union membership is not required...otherwise, I may be looking for a new job!

On a lighter note, I get to fly the couch tomorrow from 6:00AM until Noon! Woo hoo! Maybe I'll treat myself on the way home and roam around the Container Store in Denver or buy myself some new undies at the Jockey Outlet Store in Castle Rock! The possibilities are limitless!!!

Seattle Snow

Last night I got a call from crew scheduling at 10:15PM telling me that I had been assigned to an 8:25AM flight to Seattle - with an 18 hour layover! Unfortunately, my flight to SEA was full, since I had hoped to bring Jen with me, but I'll still have a couple days with her before she leaves for school on Thursday.

And...I am very happy to announce that my crew members on this flight are senior, AND they FOLLOW PROCEDURE! Whew! I was beginning to think that I was the only one who cared about these things.

Also, my First Officer on this flight is Kevin, the guy who looks like Greg Kinnear. I told him that his picture is posted on my blog alongside Greg's, and he was very flattered.

Unfortunately, it is kind of rainy, snowy, mushy and windy here, so I am settling in and am going to watch a movie or two. And maybe even finish the book that I am reading! And who knows? Maybe I'll even venture out to the hotel gym...

Breckenridge Fun!

My beautiful daughter posing on the deck of our chalet in Breckenridge.

Kikko trying to catch a bunch of snow in his mouth.

Kodi doesn't seem to like the snow very much...

Kikko is King of the Hill!

Kikko and Jen having a good time in the snowdrift off our deck.

Winter Wonderland

The service last night for Kris was beautiful...there were a lot of tears and a lot of laughs. It turns out that Kris had a brain aneurism in November, and then had a seizure on 12/24. At that time they did some tests and found out that she had lung cancer that had metastisized. She died four days later, probably not realizing how sick she was. The doctor doesn't know exactly what caused the blood clot - most likely it was the lung cancer. I did okay at the service until I viewed her body and realized that she was being buried in her uniform. OMG. That was a tough one.

After the service, I headed west out of Denver and drove to our cabin. Greg, Jen and the boys had already arrived there and were warm and cozy. This morning it started snowing for awhile - we ended up getting about 3 or 4 inches. Greg went skiing, and Jen & I have just been hanging out doing a lot of nothing. We are now both showered and dressed, and will probably take a run out to Target - Jen says she needs a new pillow.

Crew Scheduling called me twice yesterday and once today to "junior assign" me - that means if I answer the phone, I HAVE to work. So I haven't answered. I have let their call go to voice mail. The airline was severely short of flight attendants yesterday, and when they junior assign you, you get paid time and a half. But...I was in no shape to fly yesterday after the service. And this is the first time in a long time that all three of us are here at the cabin at the same time, so I'm staying here until tomorrow afternoon. I go back on duty on Monday for two days.

There is a lot of snow on the ground here, and it is very pretty. But it is chilly...

Rest in Peace, Kris...

A few days ago a co-worker, that I enjoyed very much, passed away. The details of what happened are sketchy at best at this time, and I'm sure I'll learn the truth at her viewing and service this afternoon. But what I've gotten confirmed so far is that when she attended a recent Leadership Council meeting for Frontier Flight Attendants, another of my co-workers noticed that Kris was slurring her words and acting disoriented. She drove Kris to the hospital, and evidently, that was the beginning of the end - a brain tumor.

This passing has hit me hard. Kris was a woman I admired. Around my age, liked by a lot of people. A flight attendant with Frontier for four years, she loved her job. A go-getter and involved in everything. I remember working a flight on which she was a non-rev, and I spent time talking with her about issues concerning reserve flight attendants, things that the Leadership Council were considering, and getting advice on how to handle situations. Another time, I was a non-rev on one of her flights to LaGuardia - and ended up giving her a hand during the boarding process - and she did not forget me - she wrote a letter to the company praising me for what I did on that flight!

I didn't know Kris well, but I'm sure there are very few people who didn't like her. She will be missed.

Happy New Year!

After leaving Nashville and returning to Denver we did a San Francisco turn...complete with tattooed, studded, big earhole thinged, three kinds of haircuts on one headed passengers...and got back to Denver by midnight. I called crew scheduling to check out, and was told that later that afternoon I had an overnight on New Year's Eve in Washington, DC! Yippee!

But it would have been 1000 times better IF the layover was longer than 10 hours! My poor, tired, but wonderful sister Diane, and my nephew Matthew, along with their dog Roxanne, met me in the lobby of our hotel as we arrived at around 10:15PM and then spent the next couple of hours with me in my room.

No food, no alcohol, just talk, Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve, and laughter (at Roxanne and Matthew's antics). It was a really nice night and is the beginning of a GREAT 2009!