six long days

My plans to go to Chicago fell through so I had a choice, sit at home and babysit the kid or try and go back to work. I choose the later. On Tuesday I boarded the early flight back to base with my seat assignment in hand, I rang scheduling to pick up a trip. They have special days now that you can pick up on your day off if they need extra help. Luckily, this was one of those days. I had my choice of good trips, Stockholm, Geneva, etc except they checked in pretty early. My flight was scheduled to arrive at 1540 and god forbid something happened and I didn’t make it in time, I would then be in trouble. This gut instinct made me pick up a trip with a 2005 check-in. This trip was a six-day that meant I didn’t have to make it back to the NYC apartment for another week. The instinct I felt was correct as we had a mechanical delay in PDX.

The trip I picked up was new to our schedules. Since the merger is in its beginning stages some genius decided to start giving some of our trip to the other carrier (good trips mind you) and giving us one in return. So the trip goes like this: home base to Paris (28 hours) – Paris to Washington DC (24 hours) – DC to Paris (24 hours) – Paris to home.

Sounds like a great trip right? Depends on the crew.

The plane in question is a 757, which means there are 3 pilots and 6 flight attendants.

Here is a run down:

A nice guy, dry humor who looks like the guy from USA “Up all night” (the name is escaping me)

French girl, screams French in every way but not as in your face about it. She is nice, she is married to a doctor, drives a Lexus…we know all about her life…

Other speaker is a West African who used to play professional soccer and talks to me a lot about the power of a woman. He is my favorite on the trip.

The lady I have to work with directly: I knew it was going to be interesting when she told all of us that she fell down recently and hit her head. And that is a summary of how she acts. We have gotten into a couple tiffs about how to bang out the service and she thinks I am a sounding board for random thoughts. Even when I am reading the paper or my book…or typing this.

The purser…strange…He is who I have to sit in the jump seat with. He is Australian; his name is John yet he goes by some French word for fortune. He is never consistent on how he wants the service done, so we are guessing each time. Him and the back galley seem very displeased with each other and of course I am in the middle of it. He is the butt of everyone’s jokes and he just doesn’t seem to get it…or anything for that matter.

As far as the trip is concerned, it has been a great one. Our leg found me in a great mood, even though I was working in the back. We landed in Paris and made our way to a new hotel in the financial district. It was nice to see another side of the city, a non-touristy side. I went to the supermarket and purchased salads, yogurt and peppers for my meals. The extra four hours made the layover feel like forever but it was Bastille Day so extra time there was wonderful.
The next flight was into DC and let me tell you, the change in passengers was noticeable from the start. They are nasty…they have an expectation of bad service so they have their guard up. I want to scream at them that we like our job and we will be nice if you give us a chance. After the hellacious boarding I managed to smooze most the people, the back people were much better than the front. Same chaos and guessing game with the crew.

My layover in our nations capital was very nice indeed. Our hotel is right in Georgetown and if you told me I had to move there tomorrow, I would be packed and ready to go. Frenchy along with the pilots and I went out to a nice dinner after we arrived and the captain graciously purchased our meals. If I had known that I would have ordered more than a salad! : ) A nice rest followed. The next day I slept in, worked out, had lunch in DuPont Circle, went to Capital Building, had a delicious cupcake and then a nap.

This was harder flight to wrap your head around since it was day 3 going on 4 and we were headed back over the pond at a very late hour. So far, four hours into this flight and I am doing ok tired-wise. I did have to yell at a bunch of people at boarding about the exit row and how they can’t sit there if they didn’t pay for it. Yadda, yadda. I will say this… I miss our passengers.

Tomorrow in Paris we are back to the hotel in the middle of everything. There are sales going on in Paris for the month of July…they have such great things there, I might be tempted to go have a look see. A dress in lieu of eating next week? Very tempting! : ) as not eating will aid in the fabulousness of the dress!
Hoping for a balanced layover of sleep, good food, great sales/finds, weather, and getting some work done. That’s not too much to ask is it?