Who's in Charge?

Crazy, crazy day. After sitting at home all day Thursday (no complaints from me!), I got to sit the C shift on the couch on Friday - 4PM until 10PM. We did a preboard on a flight to St. Louis, and the original crew was so happy and thankful that we were there and that they could leave as close to on time as possible! They and the flight deck crew all thanked us! :)

Then a couple hours later we got to preboard a flight to San Diego. What a mess. I asked the gate agent where the original crew was coming from, but she was too busy to be bothered to answer my question. She had been the only person at that gate for FIVE HOURS, and she was a bit overwhelmed. Boarding went smoothly, the flight deck crew arrived and asked crew scheduling if we were going to be their flight attendants. Nope. They were to wait for the original crew.

The plane is all boarded, the paperwork is printed, and the gate agent is trying to close the aircraft door. I told her no...that the original crew is on its way. She was shocked - I told her that I had tried to tell her earlier, but she wasn't listening. So she goes back to the podium to try and find four passengers who didn't make it, and give them an opportunity to board.

Finally, crew scheduling calls the flight attendants on the cell phones to tell us that we're taking that flight. But they didn't tell the captain! Normally, it's the other way around. So I called the gate agent to have her come down so we can close the door, and she said that the original crew just arrived. I told the captain, he said to tell them to leave, I called crew scheduling, they told me that they were staying and I was to leave. The captain told the original crew to leave, they left with smiles on their faces (cause they are pay protected and get to go home while being paid), and I called crew scheduling to let them know. They tried to call the other flight attendants, but they weren't answering their phones. So they finally told me that we were going. What a flippin' mess.

So we got about 10 hours in a nice hotel with excellent beds in San Diego - a good night's sleep, and we'll soon be back on our way to Denver with a new flight deck crew. I don't mind doing last minute stuff...but I'd like it better if everyone was on the same page. I'd love to know what the passengers were thinking during this entire mess...