Its the Monday after Thanksgiving 2010 and I'm on Ready Reserve at Chicago O'Hare. Sitting Ready reserve means that you are physically at the airport within 10 minutes of your airline's gates. Airlines will usually have at least one flight attendant at the airport at a time in case another FA gets sick at the last possible moment, or someone doesn't show and the pilot calls Crew Support to get a replacement just before take-off.
Let me back up...I spent last night in a hotel just around the corner from the airport and had my alarm set for 4:30 so I could get up and shower then arrive at the crew lounge just at 5:30 am, and Officially "Check-In" for my Ready Reserve duty. Yesterday evening I was so tired I fell asleep before 8 PM. I awoke at 2:30 AM and was aware that if I tried to go back to sleep I would oversleep my alarm and not make it to the airport, so I got up, showered, shaved, dressed and called for a shuttle to the airport at 3:00 AM.
Arriving at the crew lounge at 3:30 and completing some necessary paperwork, I decided to wait in the "Quiet Room" (a dark room with a dozen or so very comfortable reclining chairs). I plugged in my iPod and leaned back to relax and await a potential call from CS asking me to cover a plane flight.
I was more tired than I thought. I was jerked awake by the EXTREMELY loud ringing phone in my ears (don't ever plug your iPod ear-buds in when you know you could be called). Sure enough it was CS. The lady was talking so fast I didn't understand the first couple of sentences she spoke. When I was finally aware enough to communicate i informed her I had fallen asleep in the QR, she backed up and explained I was needed on a flight to Atlanta.
I asked her what time the flight was scheduled to leave, to which she responded 6:07 AM. I then asked what time it was, when she said 5:59 AM.
I was awake as I ever had been at that moment.
I told her I was out of the room and headed to the gate. She thanked me and said to have a great flight.
Rushing to the gate when you've been awake less than a minute gets your adrenal glands working at 190%, way too much juice for such a time as this.
I arrived at the gate and finding no gate agent I let myself through the security door, and rushed down the Jetway. Now remember the flight was supposed to leave the gate at 6:07 and I was called to cover at 5:59. taking less than 3 minutes to get to gate I expected to find the people inside the terminal and NOT on the plane. WRONG!
When I got to the end of the Jetway, looked into the plane, there were already 2 flight attendants on board. One I recognized as the one I was to work with. When I explained that CS had just called me, the second one explained that she could not "Check-In" due to system problems at the gate. She gave me her name and employee number, asking me to call CS and let them know she was on the plane. The agent then told me the captain was ready to push back and I needed to let them go.
I stepped back onto the Jetway and called CS. They said "okay, we'll put you back on standby till 1:00.
I think I deserve something else, like something to remove my stress, and adrenaline!
No comments:
Post a Comment