My First Trip

My last trip, which was my first trip back after being gone for 3 months was great. I had probably the best crew for a 5 day trip. Everyone was soo respectful of one another and very supportive. None of us had any disagreements. It was amazing!

The flight attendant that I was flying with actually being a Lead Flight Attendant which can be seen as a lower part of management. I wasn't aware of this until the second or day third. You wouldn't have known it though. She didn't act like a lead, didn't even wear her wing attatchment. Even our captain was an Air Line Checkman. He checks out the pilots for line checks and so forth.

He was wuite different as well. We ended up having a maintenance issue with our emergency lights on day 3 leaving MSP. Maintanence commented and pressured us that we were fine to go and that the a/c had been left on so the battery that our emergency exit lights operate off of were drained but the longer the a/c was on they would charge back up. They said that by the time we got to our destination that they would be operative. Ummm HELLO!!! My concern was that if we had to, for some crazy reason, abort our take-off and eveacuate our a/c that we wouldn't have lights! Yes of course this is a hypothetical situation but I don't want to be the next one one the news being blamed for injuries or much worse, a death of a passenger. Like Josh said, it's better to be the known heros. Our captain was amazing and supportive of both myself and the other f/a. Niether of us felt that it was safe or comfortable. So we didn't go until they were charged. Once they were charged there were still a few that wouldn't come on so we switched out the battery that those ran off of and then waited for those to charge before we chose to board and get on our way. Soo many captains wouldn't have done that. He actually ended up giving us a carry-on tag.

It's a new program that the airline is trying. We get little carry-on tags for following our guiding principles. He gave us one for not compromising safety. They look like this:

One side has an ID # we cant enter on our website to be put into drawings for different prizes. The current one is for a SkyWest model a/c. I ended up getting 4 by the end of the trip. The lead I was flying with gave me two. Then on our last flight home we were getting an audit and she gave me one as well. I think I'm going to hold on to the other 3 or at least two to see what the next drawing is for.

So it was a good trip. I felt like I did a good job. I was pleased with myself. I just wish management had seen it or knew that I really am not a bad person. Oh well. At least I had a great first trip back. I have another 5 day trip starting on the 8th.