I just started another five duty days, and got a call from Crew Scheduling yesterday morning - they gave me a four-day trip. The good news is that I know where I'll be for the next four days! The bad news is that I won't be at home...but that's okay. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I will soon be more in control over my own destiny. Yay!
Yesterday we did a turn to San Francisco - that's always an adventure. Lots of interesting people on board...we had an "air traffic hold" as we were trying to leave and go back to Denver. It seems that the Blue Angels were practicing, and caused our flight to be delayed. Lovely. I love and adore the Blue Angels, but do they really have to practice near a busy airport, inconveniencing a planeful of people who are trying to make their connecting flights in Denver?
We had a delightful young couple on our SFO-DEN flight, who had a young lap child with them. Being young, money is tight, so they purchased an economy ticket (i.e. the cheapest ticket we sell), and accordingly, they could not pick out their seats until 24 hours before the flight. Well, I don't think they even did that. I think they waited until they got to the airport and checked in. They ended up with 3E and 4E. The guy was not the most pleasant guy to be around, and he gave the gate agent a really difficult time. The gate agent tried to get people to swap seats, but they were all Ascent and Summit members who wanted (and have earned) their aisle and window seats.
Here's a lesson...if you really want the good seats or to sit together with your friends/family, spend an extra few bucks to upgrade to a Classic or a Classic Plus ticket! You can pick your seats when you make your reservation, and this situation can be avoided.
When the family came on board, they weren't happy, but they sat in their assigned seats. During our ground delay, the guy talked with his seatmate and found out that he had not been asked to switch by the gate agent, and that he was willing to swap seats. The young guy was pissed! (Personally, I think the guy HAD been asked to switch, but didn't want the young guy to blow up at him.) By that time, we were getting ready to take off, so I told them that they could swap, but they had to wait until we were up in the air and the seatbelt sign was turned off. That's when the young guy let loose with his F-bombs.
I hate this effing airline. They can't do anything effing right. I'm never gonna fly this effing airline again. Etc, etc, etc.
I told him that that kind of language was unacceptable on the aircraft, and that if he didn't get his act under control that I would remove him from the aircraft. He was so nasty. Another flight attendant tried to calm him down by telling him that we had no control over the seating, so that it's unfair to take his frustrations out on us. I called the CPT to ask him to remove the idiot from the plane, and he seemed very hesitant. So I had another flight attendant talk with me and make some sense out of the situation, and we decided to let him stay on, provided that he behaved himself.
Lo and behold, as I was doing the food cart service, he came to the back and apologized to me! Wow. It took a lot of guts to do that. He explained that when his wife and kid are involved in an issue, he goes kind of crazy, and that he knows he needs to stop doing that...he shook my hand and appeared to be very sincere. I think some anger management courses are in his future. Interesting. The passengers around him praised me for sticking to my guns and not letting him get away with the language. And now he was apologizing. I am so glad that he did. One incident like that can put a damper on an entire trip.
Our flight to Houston was over an hour late leaving, so the CPT gave free TV. That kept everyone happy, and we got to Houston about 90 minutes late. Bummer. I had a good night's sleep, and now I'm waiting for my former flight attendant classmate, Janel (who's now an air traffic controller in Houston), to meet me at the hotel for lunch. It's a miserable, rainy, stormy, dreary day in Houston...too bad I can't just crawl back into bed!
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