And the answer is: OF COURSE!!!

For a flight attendant, seniority is everything! The longer you are with your company, the more seniority you hold. The more seniority you hold, the more options you have. When you are at the top of the seniority list, you have first choice of your schedule, 2nd in line has second choice, etc. As they hire new FAs, it bumps up my seniority, and I’m one happy lady!

When you first begin your flight attendant career, we are what’s called reserve status. This means we are “on call” in our base (city/airport hub which we are assigned), sort of like fire fighters hanging around their fire station until they get a call. Different airlines vary in how much notice you receive. For example, some give you 90 minutes to get to the airport, some give you a couple-few hours, and some give you notice a day in advance. Reserve is also ideal for those who live in their base – as they pretty much get paid to stay home! Me, I use my downtime to work on personal projects, i.e. Crew Chew blog, budget, study Spanish, and most importantly: play volleyball and tennis. 🙂

Due to all the hiring, I may be getting a line (a designated flight schedule for the entire month), we also use the term block, for the month of June! Each month, we bid on our schedules – whether it’s reserve (you bid for your off days only) or a line. Everything is so nice & flexible in this industry that I LOVE it!

In fact, Kristy and I are going to buddy bid, so we can fly our trips together. We should find out in a couple of days if we made it or not… Wish us luck!!!

Yesterday, I just finished a 4-day trip with a fantastic crew! A trip is anywhere from 1 – 4 days, and they comprise of our daily flight segments called legs and our overnights – the city we remain for the night. Kristy and I are classmates and wanted to fly together, so we chose a trip with 2 open positions. We also brought a lot of food to share in order to save money and provide a little more variety for us. I shared my roommate’s Chicken Gunk Casserole and my barbecue pork with fried okra. She shared her delicious Black Bean and Corn Salad and even made mouth-watering Banana Pudding!! I will have to ask them if I can post these recipes sometime. You’ll love it!! I’ll also later explain how to best store and pack these foods. For now, I wanted to reflect on the possible end of an era…

It seems, we are one of the last US major airlines to have our pilots run the same trips as the flight attendants (FAs). Because of our merger into the new American Airlines, change is happening – and quickly. The pilots are supposed to start running their own trips and sometimes staying at their own hotels – separate from the FAs. I thought this was supposed to happen earlier this year, but it hasn’t yet across the board. Many crew members are guilty of the “slam & click” – myself included when I’m too tired to socialize.

The last night of our trip, we got to the hotel around 2215 (that’s 10:15 pm – we use the military time clock) and all met downstairs in the restaurant after we checked into our rooms and changed clothes. Our captain mentioned he didn’t know the last time he had dinner with his entire crew and that this was very unusual – in a great way, of course! Kristy and I looked at each other and said, “Well, if you fly with us, we MAKE everybody get together whether you want to or not!” We all laughed and shared one of the best final moments with our entire crew!

This is my attempt at a blog! ha! I always thought “blogs” were “bleah” because many people just loooove to complain about anything and everything – not me. I want people to see why I love what I do! People like asking me about crazy pax (our term for passengers) as they make for interesting stories, and I also love looking for the funny, interesting, and heart-warming pax!

There are many, many reasons why I love being a flight attendant as you’ll discover through my posts. However, one big reason for me is the FOOD!! That’s right – I LOVE to eat; I LOVE trying foods from different places; and I LOVE discovering yummy restaurants and often choose my trips based on the FOOD!

This blog will be a predecessor to a book called CREW CHEW: Bon Appetit from 35,000 Feet! When I first became a flight attendant, I spent so much money on eating out. I’m sure if you’ve gone on vacations, business trips, etc. – you know what I mean. The food in airports and hotels are quite expensive. I’ve been looking for creative ways to save money on food and eat better, so please look out for these helpful tips along the way.

This is simply an introduction, and I hope you come back for more stories and adventures (as we continue to merge becoming the world’s largest airline) as well as creative ways to save money and eat better while traveling!

Bon appétit from 35,000 feet!